Dream BIG!

Follow your passion

The inventor of GoPro on how he developed the idea.

You can start around 1 minute mark if you want to skip the funny intro and get to the heart of the interview.  Follow your passion.  Be in tune with yourself and your energy.  Build your life around it.

Social Media: 3 Steps to Growth

If you're just getting started, you probably won't have "someone else" who can do the social media grunt-work for you.  What you can do is be sure you're on the most popular networks (a recent article by Buffer is a good way to get started knowing what will work best for you).  I especially like  KnowEm which can help you find the best username with the most flexibility based on what is available on various social media platforms.

1) I noticed that the first strike against a page that I look at is images.  I know, I know, you're an excellent writer and you have the best product/service ever and that's what is the most important.  Put it on a shelf.  Content is second to imagery.  Get some images for any article or blog post or anything that you are going to post on your social media.  Make sure it's decent, representative or catchy and relevant to your content.  This way, people will get past the opening wall of words that would otherwise have deterred them from further exploration.  This is the thing I found most prevalent in my own use of networks like Twitter and Facebook; if there aren't any pictures to grab my attention and solely text, even if the text is really great, I'll never get to the point of reading it and I definitely won't follow.  This is the sad truth of the way the global culture is evolving.  If you can't grab attention quickly, you're gonna' lose your audience.  I had to change my own strategy when I realized I was guilty of the same thing other pages were...to much text, not enough "Look at me!"

2) Second thing is content...and YES, this is the most important thing to YOU to have it reach your audience...so NOW it's your turn to pump up the charm and wow people with your brains, knowledge, know-how, connections, and spunk.  Give the people something worth sharing about.  Give them catch-words.  Hashtag the heck out of things.  Give them locations and names and anything that might grab the people you want to see this content.  Tell people why you're awesome!

3) Finally the fish-hook.  Remind people to "like" "share" and "follow" and remember the golden rule: do unto others as you would have done unto you.  This means:  like, share, and follow others, too!  Be a good friend so that others are good to you!  It's actually quite simple.  Give "shout-outs" say "thanks" to people who leave you positive feedback. Leave positive comments on things that make you happy or excited or interested in what they are sharing!  Thumper's words of wisdom are also very useful; "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  Nobody needs your negativity in their life.  Don't use your social media to bash others.  Keep the circle positive!

Social media is about forming and growing a community or audience.  

1) Catch them with the eye candy, 
2) Keep them with the content, and 
3) Bring 'em back for more with positive interactions!