What to Understand About the CEO’s Business from Scott Smeester on Vimeo.

Note to Self: The Path to the Promise Land from Scott Smeester on Vimeo.

I get asked all the time – in fact I’ve been invited to speak at forums and presentations now – to discuss how I got so many followers.  The following video discusses this topic but asks some deeper questions about getting a huge Twitter following.

FYI – I also recommend visiting this post:  Twitter Best Practices for Social Media Marketers by Steve Latham

The first time I tried Chatroulette, the latest craze for young(er) people, I felt like a total idiot.  It was early morning and I was working through my blogs when I read ‘What to make of chatroulette?‘.  I hadn’t showered, my hair (what’s left) was a mess and I was in my ‘home gear’.  I was not presentable.  And therein is the beauty of it.  The people that saw me merely don’t know me.  They thought I was another crazy person like them.

Either way, Chatroulette will test you.  It will challenge your comfort zone.  And yes, you will see people being people.  Try it out.

Most sales experts say that you need three times more opportunities in your pipeline now than before 2009 to make up for the stagnant growth of this economy.  Well, being an ‘Engineer of Sales and Marketing Systems’, I’ve been able to create a system that leverages Twitter to a) create my own personal advertising channel with over 32,000 followers, and b) find new sales opportunities on a daily bases.  This article discusses the latter.  (New to Twitter? The fastest way to learn is to sign up and start ‘tweeting’!)

One of the systems I implement for clients is a sales hiring process that increases the odds of hiring a producer from an industry standard 20% to over 90% – what I’ve come to call the Sales Star Recruiting process.  I developed a recorded webcast called How to Hire Sales Stars Every Time that is loaded with useful information that can help the small and medium business who has had the experience of running a non-productive sales team and to view it the person needs to register – i.e. a new opportunity.

A popular (and free) program to watch Twitter streams is TweetDeck. One of the features I like is the ability to view streams based on a search phrase.  For instance, for the aforementioned service I provide for recruiting salespeople, I watch for tweets that mention key phrases that I target such as “hiring sales”, “hire sales”, etc.  Every few minutes a new tweet appears with those words in it, and very frequently it’s a small business owner or HR person mentioning that they are hiring for sales.  I simply do a reply to them mentioning that they may find my free webcast useful and include the link to the registration page, and more often than not, they go and and register and watch it.

I visited Chris Brogan’s site to see how one of the most successful blogger, social media guru, expert marketer, etc. writes and organizes his website.  One thing I noticed is that most of his site is written in a third person, like the About page.  It’s HIS site, yet he is referring to himself in the third person.  Perhaps he had somebody write it for him, but I doubt it. My site is written in first person because not long ago I was in a conversation with my friend – whom I very much respect as a consultant – and he told me how he thinks that we should write about ourselves in the first person.  He says it’s more personal and I agree.

What do you think?

Is there a certain level of professionalism maintained by referring to yourself in the third person?  I’d really like to hear your comments.

Do you sell financial planning? … No thank you.

Do you sell construction services? … So what?

What I really want is warm and open minded prospects for my sales team and I’m thinking an online marketing initiative – done right – could provide those kind of leads.

What I really want is peace of mind that my hard earned money is safe and is growing at an overall fair market rate.

What I really want is the assurance that my contractor will show up on time, communicate well and leave me with something that is not constructed, but crafted.

Most leaders of companies I’ve met don’t really know what their company is selling because they are mis-defining what their customers REALLY want, and so the offering becomes a commodity and it’s not helping the cause.  Web developers are a commodity.  Financial planners are a commodity.  Contractors are a commodity.  But if they would simply properly define what their company sells, it would attract sales easily.

PS:  if you REALLY know what I want, I’d love to know you.

PSS:  my wife Audrey Smeester helps the busy professional say thanks with unique and tasteful gifts that are painless to send.  Visit her site!

Not long ago, I met a guy who built, and subsequently lost, a billion dollar company.  When I heard about it I didn’t judge him or feel sorry for him like so many in our society would have done (mainstream media for instance).  I was actually quite impressed.  I mean… how many people have actually succeeded to that level and then fell all the way down?  What are the odds?  It’s almost like being hit by lightning – if it happens to you, you were CHOSEN!

In my mind’s eye, the ‘Success Club’ members are comprised of the first class passengers depicted in the movie Titanic. They are 2nd or 3rd generation wealth, born with the proverbial silver spoon, or they succeeded big on their first try, and to their demise, perhaps not really appreciating their accomplishments.  They’re all stodgy old men dressed in  tuxedos, holding their brandy snifters with cigars ablaze, scarves around their necks talking about their great accomplishments.  "William, do you remember when we denied the Union?"  "Why yes, Theo, that was spendid."

Then there is the ‘Holy Crap I Can’t Believe I Even Tried That’ club.  Most of the members of this club ended up as financially successful as the aforementioned members, but they’re warm and humble people.  The members of this club EARNED their success and they’re happy to help anybody else do the same.  They went all the way and looked over the edge, perhaps even tumbled over a couple of times, and have the badges of honor that put them in a truly unique society.

So on your road to success, what kind of roadblocks have you run into?  Have you played it safe?  My recommendation: if you’re gonna fail on the way to success, get out there and FAIL BIG!!!

… there is an elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”     
Mountain Climber Charles Murray

I am a co-founder of a startup company which is finally (wiping forehead ) gaining momentum after 3+ years of very hard work.  Many, many hours making phone calls, meetings, lunches, trips all over the country.  Many internal hurdles and differing personalities have had to be overcome.  A serious investment of time?  Yes, and of life.  Oh, and there is no pay.  Sorry.  And when you seriously doubt you can keep going?  Well, because you made the commitment and you’re sticking to it, a whole new circumstance happens that keeps you in the game, and why give up now?  And you get right back to putting big skin in the game.  And the cycle continues… until someday… you make it… or you don’t.