I just got off the phone (well, Skype) with Peter Shankman, the founder of HelpaReporter.com. I recorded an interview with him to ask him about how he used Facebook to launch a service to connect experts with journalists. He provided some interesting statistics and I’m going to post the interview in the Fall.

The interview lasted 20 minutes and one thing became clear – Peter is so dang cool because he sprinkles all his answers with personal anecdotes. For every question I asked, Peter answered it with a story from his experience. I laughed, I didn’t cry, but I also became reflective based on the things Peter was telling me. And we were talking about social media.

Peter took me on an emotional roller coaster, but not in a bad-relationship-with-a-crazy-guy type of way. He was able to get me emotionally involved and I can see why he’s a sought after keynote speaker.

As I got off of Skype with him, I had to ask myself if I’m sprinkling stories about my experiences throughout my presentations. Sadly, I do so little of it. There is one where I talk about my 14 hour road trip to Boston when the drive should’ve taken only 9  hours. I recall that every time I tell that story, people either laugh in hysterics or crease their brow in shame wondering how I could make such a mistake.

This is what makes your marketing materials and keynotes speeches so interesting – when you can recount situations that are unique to you and use them as part of your brand. Peter is himself in so many ways. He’s quirky, he’s transparent and he reminds me of Philip Kaplan, but not as dirty.

And I had a great example very early in my life. My dad is the best storyteller in the world. He makes a drive to the supermarket seem like a 10-day journey around the world. My sisters and I love spending time with him because we laugh until our bellies hurt based on his stories. All we have to do is mention taxes, politics or David Miller (the mayor of Toronto) and that gets him started.

If I enjoyed my interview with Peter and enjoy spending time with my dad, then this is the experience I must create in my own business. Everyone who comes into contact with me must enjoy the experience whether they are my target market or not.

So, if you’re looking for a slight edge over the competition, don’t lower your prices or try to be faster or better. Instead, dig down deep, look into your past and figure out which experiences help shape your unique wisdom today. Then, sprinkle that throughout your presentations and speeches to create a memorable experience for your target market.

I’m listened to a video sales letter. The guy said that he was homeless, didn’t finish high school, then joined the army. Now, he has all the money in the world and can teach me how to put my sales on autopilot.

I didn’t believe him. Why? Because he rattled through his “story” so quickly, as if he read it on someone else’s page and decided it would work for him too.

I listened to the entire video sales letter more out of curiosity. Then, when I reached the end, I closed the page and went on with my work.

It seems like everyone who’s selling something online has been homeless or went bankrupt or failed in some way. I’ve been to too many marketing seminar where they say the very same thing.

Then, they talk about their successes and then, their discovery of “the secret.” In the copywriting world, this method is called a dip bio. You:

1. Tell people how successful you are today. Million dollar home, convertible in the driveway, trips around the world, all because of the successes in your business.
2. Then say that it wasn’t always like that and you list all your failures. An illness, divorce, bankruptcy, debt, etc. are the things that people want to hear because it helps you connect with your audience.
3. Then end with the secret or the formula that has helped you overcome your adversity and now you want to teach others how to do it as well.

The guy in the video sales letter did #1 really well. He told me about closing on a million dollar home. He did #2 really lousy. And, he did #3 really well since that part comprised about 70% of the video.

What did he do wrong? His dip bio lacked emotion. I didn’t connect with him at all. He showed his million dollar home at the beginning, quickly listed all of his “failures,” then moved on to talk about his product. The only emotion I felt from him was bragging.

A person who does the dip bio really well is Alexandria Brown, the Ezine Queen. She’s a million dollar marketing coach, but always refers to her miserable days when she first launched her business.

• She would wear her one good business suit to every meeting because she couldn’t afford anything else.
• She had to climb 5 set of stairs to her small apartment on the top floor in a dingy building because there was no elevator.
• She ate the same thing every night because she couldn’t afford food on her measly consulting salary.
• She was up at 7am and didn’t stop working until just after midnight.

Filled with emotion. Makes me want to buy anything she’s selling. She connects with me in an emotional way. And that’s what makes a dip bio so compelling.

Think about Oprah. Is the fact that she makes billions the reason why so many love her and eat up her advice?

No, it’s the fact that she was sexually abused when she was a child, struggled with her weight as an adult and told that she was too unattractive to work on television. All these experiences show that despite being a billionaire, she’s as human as you and I.

When people ask me how I got into podcasting, I could easily say “I stumbled upon it, liked it and started doing it,” but that’s so boring. Instead:

• I talk about my layoff in 2004 and stated at that point I would never have anything to do with technology again.
• I launched a coaching business and to promote it, I went to networking events, exhibited at trade shows and printed up really expensive, glossy business cards and brochures.
• After 8 months, I was $50,000 in debt and facing bankruptcy.
• Towards the end of 2005, I launched my first podcast called Cubicle Divas. It was a hobby until I started making thousands of dollars a month and getting lots of attention. Plus, people started asking me how to create one.
• In March 2006, I closed down my coaching business and launched my podcast consulting business. Since then, I’ve made my first six figure income, am one of the most sought after experts in my niche and enjoy my work.

That’s more compelling, huh? Take a look at yourself and write an emotional and compelling dip bio. Share a short version of your dip bio in the comments section below.

Facebook has now attracted those smarmy, get rich quick folks. It’s getting quite gross, but whenever something is hot, there will be some who will jump on the bandwagon to make a quick buck.

As I look at all these tall claims of making thousands on Facebook in just 6 hours, it seems too good to be true. Typically it is, however, the claim isn’t untrue.

In the 5 years that I’ve been writing my own sales copy and reading others, I now understand what these “claims” really mean. Here are some examples to illustrate my point.

Thousands of Dollars in Just a Few Hours

Here’s one that I see on Facebook:

“You can make 6 figures in 48 hours.”

This claim is probably true, however, the sales copy doesn’t tell you that it took 6 weeks to promote the product or event. And because humans tend to procrastinate, the majority of your sales will come in with the last 2 days before your deadline.

This happened to me during the Social Media Telesummit. About 80% of those who registered for the Telesummit did so in the 2 days before the start of the event.

So, if I stated on my sales page that you can use a virtual event to make 5 figures in 2 days, I wouldn’t be lying. However, I also need to tell you that you need 3 months to plan and promote in order to turn this type of money in just a few days.

Make Money on Facebook or Twitter

Here’s another that I see:

“You can make $1000 from Facebook and let me show you how.”

This too is probably true, however, what the person neglects to tell you is that he directed people to a sales page to buy something after promoting it on Facebook or Twitter. In essence, the person made money indirectly from Facebook through referrals.

You can make money from social media, but it’s indirect. Blogging and podcasting tends to be the exception as you can use ads and sponsorship to make money directly from these 2 online media.

In my book, Podcasting for Profit, I defined indirect monetization as:

making money by referring people to your products and services on your website

So, unless I’m selling text ads directly on my profile page on Facebook, I can only make money indirectly by pointing people to my website or shopping cart to buy from me.

Other Internet Hype 

Any other Internet hype you’d like to debunk? If so, leave it in the comments area below.

Shamus Brown (pictured left) over at The Shameless Sales Blog posted a strategy on how you can get customers to call you back.

I loved it and decided I would try it out on an event organizer. This event organizer has punked me off twice. He has a radio show and an organization where he holds monthly seminars.

Back in November, this event organizer double booked me on his Internet radio program. I’ll never forget it because it was a lousy day to drive as it was the first snowfall of the season in Toronto. People seem to lose their minds and all sense the Creator has given them when snow falls in Toronto for the first time in the winter season.

But, I digress…

So, I had to leave my home west of Toronto and drive 30 minutes into downtown Toronto just to find out that he “forgot” that he booked me as he climbed comfortably into his host chair with his guest, another author.

Fine, things happen.

Fast forward to April and I have a date booked to speak in Toronto for this same event organizer’s group. Now, before you say:

“But Leesa, I wouldn’t have done any more business with him if he double booked me.”

Hold your horses. He booked me in October 2007 to speak in April 2008. The radio interview was scheduled in November 2007. So, I asked my assistant to send an email to the event organizer to find out if we’re still on. She did so the week of March 21st.

No answer.

So, I called him yesterday. I need to know if we’re still on because I’ll have to ship some books in from my publisher. I got him on his cell phone and it seemed as if I was disturbing him. Doing as many teleclasses as I’ve done over the past 10 years has given me a great sixth sense when it comes to voice language (as opposed to body language, although I’m well versed in that as well).

When I asked him how much time I’ll have on April 22nd to speak, he bumbled through a rather inelegant answer, stating that he would need to move me to June. He asked if my assistant could resend the email and he would slot me into the speaking calendar.

As I hung up the phone, I didn’t feel good. I was actually pissed. A few hours later, I started kicking myself for not being bold enough to tell him that I was not happy about this.

I went to bed and forgot about it. Then, this morning, I read Shamus’ post in my feed reader. That’s when I knew I couldn’t let this go, so here’s the email I sent to the event organizer:

Subject: I’m not happy with you right now

Hi remove name, I thought about our conversation yesterday and I have to say that I’m not happy. I was double booked for your remove name radio show back in January and now, you’re asking me to yet again be accommodating and remove a date in my calendar that I booked off for remove name of organization.

I have really valuable information to offer to your audience. They NEED to know about podcasting. It’s a new and interesting way to market one’s business. You could position yourself as someone who provides timely and innovative information through remove name of organization. A topic on podcasting can help you do that.

So remove name, I have asked my assistant NOT to send you yet another email. When you can schedule me into the remove name of organization calendar and you can hold that date for me, contact me by email or by phone.

I now feel better. Thanks Shamus.

This is totally unbelievable. Watch this video to see how unprofessional the reporter and the anchor are on live TV.

Which brings me to my question – are you and your team on the same page? If a customer has an objection, do you fight with your contractor, vendor, supplier or colleague in front of the customer? Or, do you show a united front?

Hat tip to Lee Hopkins.

Although I don’t sell to big companies, I enjoy reading Jill Konrath’s blog called Selling to Big Companies. She recently posted a question on her blog about LinkedIn, a social networking tool. Jill’s question:

“As a seller, how do you use LinkedIn to increase your sales?”

One of the people she interviewed to answer this question is Scott Allen, co-author of The Virtual Handshake. I’ve known Scott for 4 years now and he’s a speaker at the Social Media Telesummit. He will lead a session at the Telesummit on how to price, promote and position your social media services.

While Scott said that LinkedIn is great for generating leads and finding partners, he said that LinkedIn is best used to accelerate sales. In fact, Scott says:

“Search for people in your prospect’s company who are not closely involved in your deal – preferably 2nd degree contacts, not 3rd degree. Ask for an informational interview. Ask your interview subject about the priorities that are going on at the company — what are the high-level factors that might be influencing the buying process. Be completely open/transparent.”

This is a great way to eliminate the cold call. Well, you are calling, but because you’re linked to a friend or colleague to that person in LinkedIn, he or she will more readily be open to speaking with you.

How are you using LinkedIn? If you’re not, why not? Share your comments below.

I’m organizing an event for February. Part of this is preparing the speakers’ bios for the sales page in bullet form.

There are 25 speakers and as I visit each page one by one to copy and paste their bio, each of the speakers are doing amazing things. I’m honoured to be associated with a smart bunch of people.

There’s only one problem. Some of the bios are so boring. Some just list what the expert has done and where they were featured. They’re president of this and have been featured in that magazine and teach at this university.

What these bios are missing are the results, the numbers that show what has been done and for whom. Bios should be results oriented where you quantify what you did while you were president of this or featured in that magazine or teach at this university.

So, I quickly looked at my own bio to see if it’s results oriented vs. skill oriented. Wow! It needs some work. For example, in one line, it says:

• President of Toronto based Caprica Interactive Marketing.

Well, isn’t that nice. I’m a president. Like 50-million other people. So, how can I make this results oriented? Okay, how about this:

• President of Toronto based Caprica Interactive Marketing, a company that helps Fortune 500 companies use social to generate millions of dollars in new business.

Much better. There are numbers that show what results I produce for my clients. Here’s a selection of some of the results from the speakers who will be appearing at my upcoming event.

1. Entrepreneurs Guide for About.com, one of the top ten websites in the world with over 37 million readers.
2. Founder of the International Podcasting Expo, an annual virtual event attracting hundreds of advanced and novice podcasters from around the globe.
3. His blog, Duct Tape Marketing, was chosen as “Best Small Business Marketing Blog” in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the readers of Marketing Sherpa.
4. Creator of the world’s first pole dancing company which boasts thousands of distributors and millions of dollars in annual revenue.
5. Creator of the Coaching Telesummit, a virtual event she pioneered in 2005 that attracted over 600 coaches and consultants from dozens of countries over a 3 year period.
6. Producer of many podcasts, including Weight Loss and the Mind Podcast which grew to over 21,000 subscribers in less than six months.
7. Author of Why Isn’t My Web Site Making Me Any Money? 10 Easy Steps To Make Your Web Site Go Ka-Ching, a special report which has helped individuals increase product sales by 300%.
8. Creator of How to Create a Podcast, a free online course that draws tens of thousands of visitors each month.
9. Producer of several top rated podcasts, including the first U.S. Treasury podcast and most notably, MommyCast, which was the 4th most widely listened to show on Apple’s iTunes in 2005.
10. Creator of the Online Media Success Workshop, a unique program that gives businesses a 90 day roadmap to six figure success.

I think these points really sell each speaker’s expertise. Remember – Skills tell you. Results sell you.

BTW, can any of you guess who the 10 speakers are above? First person to guess all 10 correctly get a special gift from me. List them in the comments section below.

I’m celebrating (again).

My 3 year cellphone contract with Hell Canada ended on December 4, 2007. And let’s just say I will never do business with Hell Canada ever again.

Three years ago when I became a Hell Mobility customer, I was in a different place. I got laid off from my job about 6 months earlier and was on employment insurance. So, I started to cut a lot of my household expenses.

One of them was my cellphone. At the time, I was on the Mike network through Telus. I was paying $72 a month. Too steep for someone on a fixed income.

So, while on the phone with Hell Canada cutting back on some of my landline services, the sales rep told me I could get a cellphone plan for just $30 a month.

She told me all the features, I asked all the right questions and that day, I agreed to the cellphone plan.

However, what ensued over the past 3 years was a nightmare. You see, Hell Canada didn’t just charge me $30 a month. They charged me whatever they felt like. Opening the bill each month was like an adventure through a dark jungle with nothing but the sound of jackals screaming to keep me company. Yes, it was **that** scary.

Every month was a mystery as to how much I had to pay. One month $30. Another month $55. Yet another month, $78. Then back down to $30.

I was on the phone with customer service at least once every two months to inquire about the random nature of my bill.

“Oh, Ms. Barnes, you went over your daytime minutes by 5 minutes. At $500 a minute for your overage, this explains why you owe more than $30.”

So, I upped my package so I could get more daytime minutes. Now, I was paying $45 a month.

But guess what? The chameleon called my cellphone bill kept changing its stripes. Again, I was paying one fee one month, then another fee another month.

Again, I was on the phone with customer service.

“Sorry Ms. Barnes. It appears that you don’t have a text messaging plan. At $10000 per text message sent and $1.5-million per every text message received, and because you texted Mumbai a total of 4 times in the past 30 days, this explains why your bill is higher this month.”

My bill had a disease called bill fluxuatitis and according to Hell Canada, the only remedy was to fork over more money. I endured this ongoing problem for 3 years.

By the time my contract ended, I was paying $70 a month, $2 less than what I was paying when I was with Telus. And what did I get for a $2 savings? Jackals, horrid surprises and bill fluxuatitis.

With Telus, my bill was always $72 a month. I set up my account on automatic payments and forgot all about it. I was happy with Telus because I paid what we agreed to in our contract.

I still don’t have a cellphone. I’m shopping around. I’m also waiting to see when Rogers will announce the launch of the iPhone in Canada. I’m also starting to enjoy not being available all the time now that I’m without a cellphone.

I learned a valuable lesson that going with the cheapest price brings more headaches than it’s worth. I will never, ever go with the cheapest option ever again.

I was reading an article in today’s Globe & Mail about Microsoft’s plans to become the #2 online advertiser (currently, Microsoft is #3).

This is truly fascinating.

In sales, we want to be #1, but here’s a company – a really big and profitable company – who’s aiming to be #2. Microsoft’s 5 year goal is to edge out Yahoo (who’s currently #2) and trail Google (who dominates #1) using its 10, 20, 30, 40 Plan.

In summary, Microsoft wants:

• 10% of all page views to be spent on MSN.com, Windows live email and other Microsoft branded websites. Right now, this stands at 6%.
• 20% of the time that a person spends online on its company websites. In other words, if you spend 10 hours on the Internet each day, Microsoft wants you to spend 2 hours on its family of websites. Currently, it’s about an hour and a half.
• 30% of searches online. In other words, when you do research using a search engine, for every 10 visits you make to a search engine, 3 of them should be to Microsoft. Currently, it’s only 1 visit out of every 10.
• 40% of all money spend on digital advertising to come through its network. So, for every $100 that’s spent on digital advertising (text ads, banner ads, etc), Microsoft wants you to spend $40 buying ads through its network. Currently, only $6 are spent with Microsoft.

This got me thinking about my own 10, 20, 30, 40 Plan. How can I shape my business so that I become the top choice for people looking for podcasting solutions? What could I use 10% more of or what would I like to see a 20% increase in?

Mull over these questions for your own business or career:

• If I could increase something in my business or career by 10%, what would that be?
• If I could take 20% of something away from my competitors, how would I do it?
• If I wanted 30% of something for my business, what can I do to achieve this?
• If I envisioned 40% more of something, why would I want this and how could I get it?

Quite vague, I know, but only you know your business or career better than I. So, how can you use the 10, 20, 30, 40 Plan to give your 2008 goal setting a twist?