Motivation is sometimes hard to come by, but it’s essential to keeping forward momentum in your career.
If anyone knows this, it’s online marketing strategist Tommy Walker, who went from being fired over pair of pants 3 years ago to writing a magnum-opus guest post “106 Excuses That Prevent You From Ever Being Great” on Chris Brogan’s web site. Brogan, known for almost never accepting guest posts, took a chance on Walker’s piece, and in the process threw any editorial guidelines he might have had out the window, posting all 7,000+ words of it.
The response the post received so far has been phenomenal, with 329 retweets and 1,260 likes on Facebook as this is being written. We’ll talk to Walker about his journey from fired cell phone salesman to successful online marketing strategist and guest blogger, and get tips for knocking down excuses and staying motivated.
This segment was pre-recorded, and will air Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. ET. To listen, follow this link or use the player in the right sidebar.
As I’ve been building my business over the last year, I’ve had to learn a lot about blogging, marketing and business. Some of what I have learned has been from free sources, some from a great network of higher education professionals, most notably those in the #sachat (Student Affairs Chat) community. But easily, the most practical and actionable business advice I have received has been from one place.It’s called the Third Tribe.
Third Tribe is a membership site, created through a partnership between some of the best minds in social media marketing, including Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Sonia Simone and Chris Garrett. They believe there is a “third way” between traditional hard-sell marketing and wishy-washy soft-sell marketing, which comes across as apologetic, or doesn’t seem like marketing at all. It’s built on efforts to create strong relationships with your customers based on authenticity and trust, coupled with a strong desire to offer products and services that they need.
It’s been a great place to study the tactics that these guys use to make marketing and business-building seem effortless, and to see the truth behind their businesses…hard work; dedication to the idea that building a business means selling your ideas, not selling your soul; and the ability to learn lessons from their mistakes and to teach others how to avoid them. There’s so much good stuff there, that my only real struggle has been choosing what to implement. If you like this blog, it’s because of Third Tribe. If you find it annoying or scattered, well…that’s all me. Which is why I joined Third Tribe, and why I stay a member. When it comes to non-annoying marketing, I am clearly a work in progress.
Joining a membership site is not for everyone, and if you know for a fact that you wouldn’t benefit from being a member of this kind of a place, then stop reading now! If you want to know what I’ve gotten out of it, read on, because I have some good news and some bad news for you, as well as some perspectives that might make it worth your while to consider joining Third Tribe.
What I’ve gotten out of it:
Early looks at upcoming sites, programs, products and services from Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Lewis Howes, Laura Roeder, and many more.
Connections with other, lesser known, but equally engaging members, like Mike Davenport of Stick Figure Simple (who drew the great stick drawing above for his guest post) Dennis Charles of Build Your Career with Passion, Dr. Susan Giurleo, fitness expert Lisa Johnson, Shane Ketterman of TCGeeks.Com (formerly ipaddaily.com) and Hashim Warren (Career Greenlight). All of these are people that have helped me, and that I have made personal connections with and given advice and perspectives. In short, I’ve become part of a closer network and support group of like-minded business people, who want to both make money and be decent, genuine people. I’ve been able to both hear and share successes, failures, stresses, and to ask for support and ideas.
Regular members-only seminars where great business minds of the social media era like Johnny B. Truant, Naomi Dunford, Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation), Dave Navarro (The Launch Coach), and Mark McGuinness (Lateral Action) share how they built their sites, their businesses and their credibility. Some of these seminars also come with great discounts for Third Tribe members on their programs.
Great guest bloggers and guests for my podcast, and invitations to guest post on other sites, including Darren Rowse’s FeelGooder.Com
Answers to my questions or concerns in the forums and on regular Q & A calls with the founders. I don’t know what Chris Brogan charges to answer client questions beyond this pay wall, but I’m sure it’s more than my entire investment in my membership. And he’s answered several of my individual questions, and countless I had but others asked first. When I ask a question of any of the founders, I get an answer.
I’d tell you that you can’t pay for access like that, but truthfully, you can. That’s the good news.
But…here it comes…
The Bad News
Third Tribe is closing its doors to new members on April 1st. The announcement that open enrollment was coming came as kind of a surprise to me, but with it, some other news that was probably a long time coming… a re-format and even better features are coming soon, and the price is going up. I’m still waiting for details, but have a few educated guesses that I will keep to myself for now. But since the site is run by CopyBlogger media and has great partners in Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and Chris Brogan, I know it’s going to be awesome.
So if you are entrepreneurial and struggle with marketing your business, or if you love social media and would like regular access to some of the best minds in that realm, it’s a great time to get in and get access.
All of the above Third Tribe Links are affiliate links, which means that I will earn a commission for each lead resulting in a sale.
There is also a great deal going on at DailySuccessDeals.Com where you can get a month of membership at Third Tribe, plus other good stuff worth almost $1000 extra from UnMarketing, Laura Roeder, Michael Port and others. Check it out by clicking the banner below. (I am also an affiliate of this program.)
This Friday on the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, Life and Career Coach Sean Cook will be joined by special guest Andrew Henck who is tweeting ideas & thoughts on leadership, nonprofits, higher ed, politics, social media from a Gen Y perspective as @MillennialTweet and blogs about them on http://themillennialjourney.wordpress.com We’ll be talking about a variety of college transition issues, his blog, and the importance of the “bookends” of the college experience…transitioning to college from high school, and out to the wider world upon graduation.
I’ll also be talking a little about mind-mapping and revisiting last week’s episode with Mark Dykeman of the ThoughtWrestling blog. Earlier this week, I announced a mind-map-your-job-search contest to get your ideas on how you could use mind-mapping to plan your job search or your long-term career plan. I’ve decided to extend the contest due to low participation so far. You can sketch out your plan on a napkin and scan it in, do a Prezi, do a document, or something else. Do it your way, and send me the document or a link to wherever you have it posted on the web. I’m looking forward to seeing what ideas people have out there, and giving away a copy of Mark’s excellent e-book: Unstuck, Focused and Organized (affiliate link.)
I also plan to do a little catch up. I had chosen people to honor in September and October for my “Who-Do” awards, to recognize them for doing great things for higher ed and student affairs. But I never got around to announcing the names of the people I had selected or tell you why. So I am going to do so on the show. I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats!
Lastly, I am going to discuss a little about where the blogs and coaching programs are heading in the next few months, and how I am hoping to tweak my business model so that I can offer better content, more services, and keep costs for paid services in line with demand. I have a few ideas that I think are pretty interesting, and I’d love to get your thoughts.
Please listen in from the episode page or click on the episode badge below. You can call in to ask questions or make comments to (347) 989-0055 or via Skype click-to-talk by pressing the Blue Skype “S” logo once the show is on the air.
Things have been really busy lately and so today we did not have a podcast. I will try to return next week and start getting on a more regular schedule again. I am looking for guests, but have a few tentative topics lined up. Here are a few quick updates on some things worth checking out in the meantime. Thanks for visiting!
I found a great new web service called paper.li that lets you enter your Twitter username or a hashtag or a Twitter list and it automagically makes an online “newspaper” out of the links shared on those streams. I set one up for my @hiedcareercoach account, and for the hashtags #sachat and #saplacement. Check them out.
I never announced that I did choose LeaderShape for recognition for the August Who-DO award. I am going to finally get my act together in the next week to post a “who-do” award page and to actually send out the awards to the recipients so far. I plan to announce the September Who-Do next week. There won’t be a poll this time, because I have already chosen who to recognize. Polls will continue in the near future.
I am planning another hybrid coaching program to begin soon, and go through the placement season. I’m collecting information on people who might be interested through a new list. If you are interested in learning more, sign up here.
Look for more information about webinars on resumes, networking and job interviewing soon.
This week, the Student Affairs Twitter Chat (#sachat) passed a milestone. Now one year into its existence, it has changed how many student affairs professionals engage in conversations and professional development. I’ve been a member of the community surrounding this chat and the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog during this formative year, so I’d like to share my thoughts on how being involved in this community changed my life.
What communities are you engaged in online?
Are you using social media to engage other professionals and to network? Is it making you a better professional?
Now that we are full-swing into September, it’s time to recognize another Who-Do of the Month. This is a simple recognition activity that began this summer. Jeff Jackson was recognized for his efforts to create free and low-cost-of-entry professional development programs for student affairs professionals through BreakDrink.com and his emerging podcast network. Ed Cabellon was recognized for his social media education efforts and his live uStream video interview series at On the Go with Ed Cabellon.
August was a strange month, as it always is, for those who work in Student Affairs. As usual, staff went into training and orientation mode, and social networking and blog traffic slowed to a trickle of what it could have been. At the end of July, both HigherEdCareerCoach and HigherEdLifeCoach hit their highest single days of traffic, only to have traffic flattened by August and training.
Amid this comparative silence, though, I kept finding tweets and blog posts about LeaderShape at different schools across the country. There are other great back-to-school leadership programs, not to mention staff training and new-student orientation programs that likely deserve recognition. Some of these happen in August and some later into the semester. But conversations about LeaderShape did stand out. So for this week’s advisory poll for Who-Do of the Month, I’d like to get input about Leadershape, and other programs that help students kick off the academic year.
As usual, I’m offering the opportunity to nominate other people and programs, and it’s possible that something else will emerge as the right answer.
What do you think?Please take the poll, reply with suggestions and leave some comments about the feelings and rationale behind your vote. The poll closes Friday and the honoree will be announced in a blog post next week.
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
This Friday on the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, Life and Career Coach Sean Cook will be joined by special guest Andrew Henck who is tweeting ideas & thoughts on 
