Hey Hey Hey… In yesterday’s post I highlighted the 5 Basic Skills To Creating A POWERFUL Personal Brand.  If you haven’t read it yet, swing by there and give it a peek and today’s post will make much more sense.

Let’s dig right in and start breaking these steps down in more detail…

Step 1:  ”Design Your Cash Flow Map”

I’ve already created a few great trainings on this topic.  Think of your ‘Cash Flow Map’ as your ‘back-end’… or your funnel as a lot of people like to call it.

• Have You Created Your ‘Cash Flow Map’ Yet:  In this video I talk about the importance of having a ‘back-end’ set up for your business.  The back-end is where the money is made from your Personal Brand.  Watch this video to hear my thoughts on this
• How To Design Your ‘Cash Flow Map’:  Here I created a quick PowerPoint presentation where I walk you through, in detail, setting up your ‘back-end’.  I share with you a common mistake that most marketers are making that could stop you from creating a solid brand.

Step 2:  Build Your Social Media Following

As we spoke about yesterday, you want to make sure that you are hangin’ out on the big boys.  Basically Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Now there are other niche social media sites that are excellent places to connect with people within your industry, but if you use the big boys consistently, you can create a laser targeted following.

Let me share with you a little bit of how I use all three of these sites…

• Twitter – This is such a POWERFUL marketing tool, and most people using it don’t even understand it’s true power.  You are able to target people who are tweeting/talking about a certain keyword or keyword phrase.  This is why I really LOVE Twitter.
  • Twitter Search – This is basically Twitter’s search engine of all the tweets that happen on Twitter.  This is where the real VALUE of twitter is.  You can type in a keyword or keyword phrase within you niche, and you will find people tweeting that keyword.  This is a great opportunity to jump into conversations that have to do with your industry.
  • Add Followers On Twitter – I like to use a software to automate things.  I’m not spamming tweets or anything, I’m just using it to target people within my niche and add them as followers.  The software that I’ve been using for a while now is Twitter FriendAdder.  There are not many automated following tools that still work today, but this one does as they are keeping up with Twitter’s rules and regulations.
• Facebook – One of my favorite places to hang out on the web.  Facebook now has over 500 million active user accounts and 50% of their active users log on to Facebook in any given day.  That’s a whole lotta people!
• YouTube – They have claimed the title ‘The 2nd Largest Search Engine’… that’s pretty awesome when they were designed as a search engine.  More and more people are searching directly on YouTube for what they want, instead of going to Google… and the beautiful part about it is the competition is so much LESS!

Step 3: Create Content

As we spoke about in yesterday’s post, you have a few different options to choose from when it comes to creating content on your blog. You have to find which one works for you.  I tend to like video, as I can get a lot more out in less time… and I feel I can build more rapport with my readers through my videos.  Let’s talk about each one.

• Video – Don’t go thinking that you need to get a ton of expensive filming equipment to get started with video marketing.  I’ve been using the same camera since I started with video, the Flip Camcorder.  It’s picture quality is awesome and it’s all you need.
• Audio – Audio is another great source of content.  The great thing about audio is you can upload them to podcasting sites like PodcastAlley.  Your readers can put the audio files onto their iPods and listen to them while at the gym, on the train, etc.
• Text – This is the most common of all the types of blog posts.  The biggest benefit that I see from text posts is it adds fresh new content to your blog… which Google loves!  There are a lot of video bloggers that just upload the video as a blog post, but I like to add some text as well to help with my Google rankings.

Step 4: Drive Traffic

This is where the rubber meets the road.  Without traffic, you have nothing.  If a store has nobody coming in, they are out of business… same goes for your blog if it’s a ghost town.  You can drive a great amount of traffic just from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

• Syndicate Your Content – Each time you publish a new blog post, head over to your Facebook page and put it in your status with a link to the post.  Do the same on Twitter… send out a tweet with a quick 140 character blurb and a link to your new post.  If you’re consistently connecting with the people on your social media sites, you’ll build the trust factor with them… causing them to click on your links.
• Tribe Syndication - If you want to step things up a bit and drive some quality targeted traffic, then Tribe Syndication is for you .  This one strategy has had a great impact on my business and my brand.  You’re basically connecting with others within your niche and joining forces… creating a blogging alliance where you each drive targeted traffic to each other.

This is quality traffic, as it’s others referring you… the credibility factor weights in very heavy here!

Step 5: Build Relationships

Now that you’ve done all of this work, you have to build and maintain your relationships.  Most marketers miss the boat BIG time on this one!  It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason…

• Reply to Blog Comments – When people comment on your blog posts, reply back… what a concept:)  You started the conversation, they answered/replied… and now it’s your turn to respond.  I get a decent amount of comments on my blog posts and I still manage to reply to 99% of them.  There may come a time when it gets too hectic, but I believe this is where the real relationship building happens.
• Reply To Facebook Comments – Same thing goes here.  If you post something on your Facebook wall, and people comment, comment back.  If I have time I reply to each and every person on the thread by typing the ‘@’ and then there name so they know that I’m talking to them.
• Reply To Twitter Direct Messages – If someone mentions your name out on Twitter, then reply back.  If they retweeted a piece of your content, reply back and thank them.

This might seem like basic communication skills, but you would be blown away by the amount of people that just aren’t doing these things.  The brand that CARE the most in the end, WIN!

I hope you enjoyed todays post.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the information that I shared with you.  What are you currently already doing?  What things can you add to what you are doing?  The community here gets so much value when you comment, so post a comment now.

Also, share this post with your Facebook and Twitter friends.  If they are out there using social media to build a personal brand, this post will help them a ton.  Thank you in advance!

I’ll catch you soon…

Yours In Success,

Eric Goldstein

Today’s information springs off of yesterdays post.  In that post we spoke about getting ‘Back To The Basics‘… and chilling out on the ‘Ninja Moves’.  If you haven’t read that post, head over and do that before reading this post.

So now that you understand how the ‘Law of Compounding‘ is just about doing a handful of simple things over and over,  I want to break down those simple steps.  These are the steps that you will do after you have defined your personal brand.

Here is a visual image of how this looks, and then I’ll go into describing each piece below the image…

Step 1: Design Your “Cash Flow Map”

This piece of  the puzzle is going to be a work in progress… well most of these steps will be.  It’s ideal to at least have a 1st phase of this in place before you start marketing (Blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc.).  Your ‘Cash Flow Map’ basically is the back-end of your Personal Brand.

Think of your marketing as your ‘front-end’… which funnels people to your ‘back-end’.  This is what you will be offering the people who subscribe to your list.  This is basically the stuff on the shelves of your store.  As people get to know you, like you and trust you… they will join your list and buy from you.

An important principle to remember here is you MUST offer them stuff that has to do with your niche, and the value that you’re offering must be way MORE than the dollars you are asking.

Let’s get something straight. It’s okay to sell stuff and make money from your Personal Brand!

It’s funny… people have this feeling like it’s not okay to sell stuff and make money from your blog and your brand.  Are you going to tell me that these people are not buying anything from anyone in their life?  It’s ridiculous… just make sure that what you are offering INCREASES your readers and followers life.

Step 2: Build Your Social Media Following

The first thing I want to say about this is DO NOT over complicate this.  I don’t know the exact total, but I think there are over 1000 Social Media/Networking sites on the internet today.  You DO NOT need to be on all of them.  This would be an overwhelming task.

For starters just make sure you’re hangin’ on the big boys… Facebook, Twitter & YouTube.  These three sites alone can help you to create a Rock Star Personal Brand.  You can drive more than enough traffic back to your blog from just being active on these three.

You want to focus on adding friends and followers within your niche.  Remember, you must know who your target audience is when defining your Personal Brand… this way you will know what type of people to build your following around.  If you don’t know who you want to connect with, how can you add friends and followers?  Make sense?

Step 3: Create Content

Now you need some content to share with your friends and followers.  I look at your content as the electrical, plumbing and mechanical pieces when you are building a house… it’s the stuff that makes everything run.  Without content, nothing happens!

Let me rephrase that… ‘Without Engaging Content, Nothing Happens”

This is where you will be sharing information with your following that adds value to them.  Once you know who your target audience is, then you can ask yourself “What problem can I solve for this audience?… How can I better

Building a brand or a business is all about creating solutions to other people’s problems/challenges.  A solution is something that ‘adds value’ to someone’s life… which basically means you’re answering unanswered questions that they have, or in so many words solving their problem.

Whatever type of content you are comfortable with, let that be your choice.  There are basically 3 types… video, audio and text.  I feel video is the most effective out of all the types.  I like to mix it up, mostly between video and text… and I will be getting to adding the audio in as well soon.

Step 4: Drive Traffic

Now it’s time to get some eyeballs on your stuff.  Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are going to be great sources of FREE quality traffic.  You’ve been building a targeted following of people within your niche on these sites to be able to share your solution driven content with them.

All you have to do at this point is post it as your Facebook status and send out a Tweet with the link to your blog post.  Instead of updating your Facebook status, you could create a Facebook ‘note’ to mix things up.  It will appear on your Facebook page as well, but the cool thing about notes is you can tag your friends and followers.

When you tag someone within the Facebook note, it will show up on their profile page and it will also show in the news feed of the people who are friends with them… gotta love the viral effect of social media!

If there was a video for the post, just upload it to your YouTube account.  Add some tags, which basically are keywords, and a short description.  Then embed the video on your blog.  It’s that simple…

A little tip for when creating the description of the video, add the URL of the blog post that you’re embedding the video on.  This is to drive the person back to your blog after watching the video.

Step 5: Build Relationships

Now this is where most people fall off.  After they’ve gone through all of the work to build their following and create their content, they don’t respond to people.  It’s very important to respond to Facebook comments, Twitter replies and retweets, YouTube comments and comments on your blog.

This is what it’s all about.  You are doing everything else to be able to do this.  It comes down to caring about your readers and your following.  The brands that CARE the most in the end… WIN!

It really can be that simple…

Once you’ve got the basics down and you’re doing them consistently… then go train to be a Ninja.  The cool part about this whole Personal Branding deal is, you can create a killer brand without all of the fancy moves and strategies.  The secret Ninja move that really counts… is CONSISTENCY!

It’s really not a Ninja move… it’s just that most people aren’t consistent so the principle of consistency seems like a secret.  It’s the one ingredient that cannot be left out when cookin’ up a successful Personal Brand!

**A Quick Little Tip**

If you go through the process of clarifying your personal brand, then all of these basic skills become that much more powerful.  When you know ‘what’ you are offering and ‘who’ you are offering it to, there is no stopping your success!

I’d love to hear your feedback…

Do you agree with me that it’s the basics that make the brand?  Share your thoughts at the bottom of this post by leaving a comment.  I always love the feedback that I get from the community here.  So much value comes from you when you leave comments.

Give this post a twirl and share it with your Facebook and Twitter buddies…

I’ve got some great news for you… I’ll be breaking down each of the 5 Basic Skills in more depth in tomorrow’s video blog post.  Definitely keep your eyes open tomorrow as you’re not going to want to miss it.

Keep it real… and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Yours In Success,

Eric Goldstein

Sorta of a BOLD title, wouldn’t you say?

While I was hangin’ out in nature the other day, the thought popped into my head ‘Why is everyone always looking for the super duper ninja marketing tricks?”

Some people are ALWAYS on the lookout for the next hottest marketing secret.  That’s fine if you are already movin’ and groovin’… but most of the new marketers really need to get back to the basics.

It’s all about creating a strong foundation… better known as ‘the basics’.  Once you have the basics down, and you’re doing them CONSISTENTLY… then, and only then, should you move off to the advanced stuff.  The advanced stuff will do you no good if you don’t have the basics down.  Most of the time you don’t even need the advanced stuff!

Coach John Wooden’s theory on the basics…

This message rang super clear when I heard an interview from Coach John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach. His ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period while at UCLA are unmatched by any other college basketball coach.

The man knows something about creating success.  On the first day of practice he would have his team practice putting on their socks and shoes the proper way.  The players would look at him like he was crazy, but Wooden knew that a lot of players were taken out of games, and unable to go back in, because of blisters.

He would tell his players that the easiest way to avoid getting blisters is to pay attention to the basics.  He would show them how to roll their socks correctly and how to tie their shoes the right way to prevent the blisters… and they wouldn’t move on to other drills until they got this correct.

As silly as that sounds, there is a very important lesson within Coach Wooden’s teachings…

When it came to teaching his players basketball he always said “I do not permit fancy stuff in the teaching of my players at all.”  He was a big believer in doing the basics… over and over.  He had them practice free throws, dribbling and all of the other basic skills there are in basketball.

This is as concept that most people don’t grasp…

If you take Coach Wooden’s advice, you will start to see so much more success in your business.  There are a lot of people out there that are going to try and sell you stuff by saying “If you don’t buy my program where I’m going to teach you this cutting edge Ninja move that nobody on the planet knows about, then you’ll be a complete failure”.

Well in so many words they’re saying that:)

I’m here  to tell you that it really comes down to doing some basic things everyday.  By doing this, all of your efforts will compound on each other… otherwise known as the ‘law of compounding.  This is one of the most POWERFUL laws within our Universe.

I will tell you this, in the building my personal brand I haven’t used any ‘Ninja Tricks’.  I’ve just been doing a lot of simple things over and over… and then doing them again… and then again… and again… i think you get my point

Here is a quick story really showing you the power of this principle…

Once upon a time a Mogul king wished to reward a local peasant for saving his daughter’s life. “You can have anything you want,” offered the king.  The peasant asked merely for one grain of rice to be placed on a chessboard.  Courtiers began to laugh at the meagerness of this request, but the suddenly audacious peasant held up his hand for silence.  “I ask for one more thing”, he said. “Each day the amount of grains will be doubled and placed in the next box, and so on, for all the places on the board.”  The king thought this trifle a bit ridiculous, but agreed. The story does not end well, for on the 64th place there was not enough rice in the entire kingdom to satisfy the request. The embarrassed king had the peasant hanged.

- Story read on Paul Lemberg’s website

This story shows you how exponential growth is created by doing something simple over and over.  I know I’m pounding this principle into your head right now, but I can’t stress enough how important this is.

There is so much HYPE out there on the internet.  I like to consider myself a ‘non-hypey’ marketer who will always shoot you straight… and keep it real with you!

Remember, you need to know how to do the basic karate kicks and punches before you can become a Ninja!  It’s my intention on this blog to share with you the basic strategies that you need to create a RockStar Personal Brand within your niche.

I’ve got a quick questions for you…

Are you doing the basics?  Are you doing them consistently?  The 2nd questions is the most important piece of this equation.  I’d love to hear your answers and feedback on this post.  Leave me a comment below.

Also, share this post with your Facebook and Twitter buddies… this is something that everyone can find value in.

Catch you real soon…

Yours In Success,

Eric Goldstein

So today we tail spin off of yesterdays post ‘Have You Created Your Cash Flow Map’.  In that video we spoke about the importance of having a ‘Cash Flow Map‘.  This is the plan that you have drawn our for your business on where the money is going to come from.

Sounds like a pretty important plan to have in place, right?  Well 95% of the Social Media marketers out there DO NOT have one.  It’s crazy!  People are teaching you to set up your blog, Facebook and Twitter pages before even having a plan in place to make money.

Would a store open up a location without anything on the shelves?

I don’t think I have to answer that for you… then why are you ‘open for biz‘ without anything on the shelves?  Check out today’s video as I show you a presentation of the 1st phase of setting up a ‘Cash Flow Map’.

This segment was pulled from my Personal Branding Blueprint that I just released:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what did you think?

Can you see the VALUE of having a plan like this in place?  Once you have a plan like this in place, then you can design your blog post, videos and marketing around it.

You’ll know what language to be talking 0ut there on the Social Networks when you have products and services in place that give your target audience solutions to their problems/challenges.

Leave me a comment at the bottom of this post and let me know your answers the few questions I wrote above.  I’m really excited to be sharing this information with you to help you Cash Flow Your Passion.

Pass this post along by Retweeting it or sharing it with your Facebook friends.  If they are building a Personal Brand for themselves, then they need to know how to design a cash flow map.

I appreciate you taking the time to hang with me here today… thank you!

Yours In Knowledge,

Eric Goldstein

The other day I asked you “Are You Branding YOU or Someone Else?” This is a very IMPORTANT question to ask yourself when creating a Personal Brand using social media, so if you haven’t already get over there and watch that video.

Today’s video follows right behind that.  Most marketers DO NOT have a plan to make money from their brand.  If you don’t, then WHY are you blogging and hangin’ out on social media?

You have to treat this like a business, not like a hobby.  Would you open up a store and have nothing on the shelves?  Hmmm… something to think about!

I’m going to let you off the hook because nobody has really taught you how to do this.  They’ve taught you how to blog and ‘do social media’… but you should be doing that stuff to build your business, hence make money!

Check out todays video as I dig deeper into this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are your thoughts?

Do you personally have a ‘Cash Flow Map’?  Do you know how to create one?  Leave me a comment below with your answers.  I’m here to help you put this into place, so that you have a plan to make money from your brand.

Also, share this post with your Facebook and Twitter buddies… they’ll love it!

I’ll catch you in a bit…

Yours In Success,

Eric Goldstein

This is an IMPORTANT question to ask yourself… Are you branding YOU or someone else?

What do I mean by that?  When people come to your blog and they subscribe to your email list, they are saying “I like you and I want to hear more from YOU”.

What most marketers are doing is passing them off to someone else right away.  They are offering them an affiliate product or service from someone in their same niche before they’ve even offered them something of their own.

Are you doing this?  It’s okay if you are…

Most likely this is what you’ve been taught to do.  There are a lot of big marketers that are telling you to do this.  I always want to shoot you straight and give you the real deal info… so check out this video as I dig a little bit deeper into this topic:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, let me ask you the question again… Are you branding YOU or someone else?  Share your reply by leaving a comment below.  I always love connecting with you.  Also, pass this post to your Facebook and Twitter buddies, they will appreciate it:)

I appreciate you for hangin’ with me here today… much love!

Yours In Abundance,

Eric Goldstein

Today’s post is a piggy back off of yesterdays video.  In the video I spoke about the importance of defining your personal brand.  I had mentioned that you need to know who your audience is and what you are delivering to them.

I see a lot of Social Media marketers not very clear on this, so I wanted to give you a few steps to help…

Step 1:  What Challenge Or Problem Are You Solving?

Your brand should deliver some kind of solution.  A solution is the answer to a problem or a challenge.  You need to figure out what is the problem that you are solving.  If you create the solution then you have a desirable brand.  Building a successful personal brand is about adding value to someones life.  Solving a problem they are having is the ultimate way to do this.

Step 2: Who Is Your Target Audience?

Now that you know the problem that you’re solving, you need to take a good hard look at the group of people who you are solving this problem for.  The more you can get to know who they are, the better you will get at giving solutions.  You can start by asking yourself a few of these questions:

• Who is my target audience?
• Is my target audience male or female… or both?
• What is the age range of my audience?
• What do they do for a living?
• Is there a specific lifestyle that they live?
• What interests do they have?

These are just a few questions that you can ask yourself to get some clarity on who you are marketing to.  Remember, the more you know them… the more stuff of value you can offer them.

Step 3: What Is The Mission Of Your Personal Brand?

What are you looking to do on a large scale?  What is the outcome you are looking for?  Who are you looking to help?  These are some questions that will help you discover your mission.  This mission should DRIVE you… it should be juicy!

Step 4: What Values Does Your Brand Hold At It’s Core?

This is where you define what you stand for.  What is important to you and what you will be delivering?  Your core values are at the foundation of your brand.  These values will determine how you interact with your audience and how you go about giving them what they are looking for.  They will govern how you make decisions and in what direction to steer your brand.

Step 5:  How Do You Want Your Audience To See You?

Take yourself out of your shoes for a minute and place yourself in the shoes of your target audience.  How do they see you?  What do they look to you for?  What value do you add to their life?  How do they feel when they interact with you?  Asking some of these questions will help you paint the picture of who you are to your audience.

Spend some time writing this stuff down.  If you do, you’ll start to narrow down your niche and your personal brand way more then you ever have.  There is a GREAT feeling when you know exactly who you’re marketing to and what you are marketing to them.

I’ve spent a lot of time asking myself questions like these.   Pull out a piece of paper and get crackin’… what are you waiting for?  The time is NOW to get this piece of your brand taken care of.  Will you do it?  Leave me a comment below and share your thoughts about this post… and if you’re going to write this stuff down.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog today.  Share this post with your Facebook and Twitter peeps, I’m sure they will find value in it

Yours In Clarity,

Eric Goldstein

Today’s video is SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT!

If you are building a personal brand online today, then you have to be VERY CLEAR on what your brand is.  What do I mean by this?  You need to know who your audience is.  You need to know what you are offering your audience.

Too many people are running around making noise on social media… and that’s it!  I believe it’s because they don’t know what they are trying to accomplish.  They don’t know what their brand’s core message is.  Without this comes confusion and no money.

I add more to this topic in this video, watch it now:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So… are you clear on your brand’s message?  Have you defined your personal brand?  Leave a comment below sharing your answers.  I’d love to hear from you… Also, pass this post along by sharing it on Facebook and Twitter

Thanks for hangin’ with me here today… clarity is power!

Yours In Support,

Eric Goldstein

The title of the post says it all… how you hold yourself when sharing about your business will determine your success.  Posture isn’t just when you are face to face with people.  It’s in effect whenever you’re sharing about your business.

If your writing a blog post, your posture comes through.  If you’re shooting a video, your posture comes through.  This matters 100% of the time.  Posture comes down to belief in what you are doing.

Check out this quick video I created about this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what did you think?  Do you believe that posture creates the decision to buy?  I’d love to hear your feedback on this.  Leave a comment below here in the community.  Also, pass this post along to your Social Media buddies… retweet it or share it on your Facebook.

Thanks in advance…

Yours In Empowerment,

Eric Goldstein

If you answered ‘NO’ to this question, then you’re going to want to pay close attention to this video.

We are in a time right now like NEVER before.  Because of the BIG shift that is happening in media right now, from  traditional media (TV, radio, print, etc.) over to Social Media… you’re able to build a business online doing what you LOVE.

In so many words, it’s time to cash in on your passion!  The masses of people are not aware that this change in media is even happening… and it’s the biggest change that we’ve seen since the industrial revolution.  It’s changing the way we do business and the way we are living our lives.  It’s BIG!

I created a quick video today sharing a bit more on this, check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Imagine for a moment, being able to create financial freedom for yourself talking about what you love.  There has never been a better time then NOW for you to do this for yourself.  Very soon there will be a ‘gold rush‘ of people running to do this… position yourself before it gets too competitive within your niche.

Most common mistake…

The most common mistakes that people are making is they’re not taking the time to get CLEAR on what their niche really is.  One of the most powerful steps you can take when cashing in on your passion is clarifying your personal brand.

The more targeted you are about ‘who’ your audience is, the more success you will achieve.  It’s much easier to create content that is talking to a specific group of people.

My Brand & WHY I do what I do…

I’ve always had a THIRST for helping other people to be more of who they truly are.  When I launched my blog I knew that I wanted to do just that.  That’s where my tagline ‘Empowering Ordinary People To Do Exrtaordinary Things’ came from.

When I realized that ANYONE could create a personal brand for themselves using Social Media and Blogging, based around their passion, I knew that I found my brand.  I set out on a mission to help as many people as possible build an online business doing what they LOVE!

I get immense joy working within the personal branding arena.  Watching someone grow into a full fledged entrepreneur is awesome.  The best part is… they’re being more of who they really are!

So what did you think?

Are you ready to turn your Cash Flow Your Passion?  Leave me a comment below and let me know if this is something that interests you.  I appreciate your shares here in the community.

Pass this post on to your buddies over at Twitter & Facebook.  There are too many people going to jobs that they hate on a daily basis… let’s change that!

Yours In Empowerment,

Eric Goldstein