Meron Bareket

Today, As I sat down to record the intro & outro for episode 14, which should’ve been my interview with John T. Meyer, I realized something.

The photo above is the view from the window of the room in which I am sitting. This breathtaking view of Salt Lake City, Utah, and a book I just finished reading, have helped me understand something. Something that I’ve known for a long while, but couldn’t quite explain.

I’ve always been lucky to have the most amazing, supportive, inspiring and generous friends. But – does luck really have anything to do with it? And how come I have more support from my friends today, than ever before? Is it just a lucky strike, or did I unknowingly learned the ancient secret to surrounding myself with the best people I could think of?

As I was drinking coffee and preparing my notes, I thought of Jack, Mary and Camille, who let Julie and me into their breathtakingly beautiful home after spending just 3 days together in a conference 9 months ago. I thought of Phil, who driven from L.A. at 6am in order so spend breakfast with us. I thought of amazing friends that weren’t part of my life less than a year ago – Ralph, Farnoosh, Andy (x2), Benny, John (x3), David (x4), Dennis, Lisa, Stef, Gary, Kamal, Pete, Jared, Cahill, Bernd, Rob, Chris (x2), Dino, Jaime, Gabi, Leah, Nick, Sean, Jeff, Kobi, Nati, Krista, Amy, and many others (if your name isn’t in this list, it just means I don’t want to bore my readers. If you are my friend, you have as you already know, my eternal appreciation). I realized there’s a common thread between all of these people.

Many people told me over the last few months that I’m a great networker, and asked me to share my secret with them. I’ve turned them down because I felt there is no secret. There is no system to the madness. But seeing the whole picture, I realize I do have some things to share.

Inspiring Innovation Podcast episode 014 Get it on iTunes

So I am both excited and slightly terrified to publish today’s episode; What you’ll hear today is more of a freestyle conversation than a structured interview. I hope this one-time change of format will be both refreshing and beneficial in helping you make new friendships and relationships that will inspire you, pick you up when you’re down, and be your safety net. Your home away from home. Because this is what these people are for me. And please, let me know what you think.

Next week we’ll be back no normal programming, with John T. Meyer – CEO and co-founder of Lemon.ly.

In this episode you will learn:

The one little habit that will make your life (networking, business, clients, personal life) a lot easier.
Why win-win is not a friendly proposition.
My secret of making new friends.
How to get an interview with Amy Porterfield!

Items mentioned in this episode include:

The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea. By Bob Burg and John David Mann
DPP 07 : How To Master Networking And Create Friendships With Market Leaders

Sharing the love – gratitude for awesomeness!

My deepest appreciation goes this week to Steve, who made the effort to come and meet me when I was in Salt Lake City. Steve, it was a great pleasure to meet you, and I can’t wait to see your first product take form!

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Thank you all for checking out this episode of the Inspiring Innovation podcast!

If you haven’t already, I would love if you could be awesome and take a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It’s the most amazing way to help the show grow and reach more people!

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Thank you again for your ongoing support.

Stay awesome,
Meron

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links. There is no additional cost to you, and I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.

Transcript

Continue reading IIP 014: How To Make Meaningful Friendships In Any Industry

What would you ask Tony Robbins, one of the world’s top motivational speakers of all time, if you could spend 15 minutes with him in person?

Our guest today not only spent 6 years working alongside with Tony, but also was in charge of launching and managing his social media platforms. And wait till you hear how she got the job!

Amy Porterfield – Webinars, Social Media, Growing Your Business

On today’s conversation with Amy you will find a rare combination of an inspiring entrepreneurial story with actionable (and clear!) how-to and up-to-date tips on; how to use social media to grow your business, behind-the-scenes of Amy Porterfield’s webinars, how to build a brand with social media, and more.

Over the last few years, Amy became the go-to Facebook strategist for small and large businesses alike. In 2012 she was included in The Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers. She’s the co-author of ‘Facebook Marketing All-In-One For Dummies’ and a published author on Forbes, Social Media Examiner, ProBlogger, Mashable, The Huffington Post, Business Insider and more.

Now, let me put everything on the table: I really love Amy. She’s one of the sharpest people on the scene. The amount of knowledge she accumulated since she launched her business is staggering. She’s an amazingly good teacher and on every interview of hers, she shares an amazing amount of useful, actionable, and new information. I guarantee today is no different. To be honest, today’s interview is one of my all-time favorite, and I’m so excited to share it with you. I know it will have some serious impact!

From Humble Beginnings To World-Class Entrepreneur

Amy’s story starts with one of the most important people in her life: her father. A firefighter for 30 years who never missed a day at work. Growing up in a “full-on blue-collar household”, as she defined it, Amy learned two lessons that guided her for the rest of her life:

You need to find a work that you love and makes you happy to go to every day.
You need to be your own boss so you can work on your own terms and call the shots.

One extra lesson was; Harley-Davidson motorcycles are super-cool. And thus, Amy earned her motorcycle license quite early in life (although after riding the Harley Fatboy several times, she decided to move on to cars!). Nonetheless, after graduating and having a few short-term jobs, she ended up working for Harley. She was working at dealerships level in the marketing department.

This experience gave her access to Harley’s top marketing materials and taught her storytelling, content marketing and event marketing — which later became the pillars upon she built her career.

Working For Tony Robbins

While working at Harley, Amy had an ugly breakup with her boyfriend at the time. She couldn’t sleep at night, and ended up in front of the TV – watching the late-night infomercials. One of them was of Tony Robbins. Enchanted, she went the next day to the local library and picked up some of his old CDs.

Amy was getting tired of her job, and wanted to move forward. She was very unhappy, but didn’t have any idea where to go next. So every day she was driving to work with Tony Robbins in her car stereo. At lunch time, she’d excuse herself and go to eat in the car – and listen to more of those CDs. She ordered the newer CDs and finally decided – her next job will be working for Tony Robbins!

She contacted the marketing department, went through the interviewing process and got a job offer: Travel the world and work 1-on-1 with Tony himself!

There were only two problems – she’d always be on the road, and salary was 40% less than what she was making. Amy had to choose between the dream of working for Tony, and the lesson she learned from his own CDs, “You have to go for what you want!”.

She turned the offer down.

Six months later she was offered a managerial position; creating and leading Tony’s social media platforms; and with what was “a dream salary”, according to her.

“Little did Tony know that he had to pay me more because he himself encouraged me to go for it!” —Amy Porterfield, on working for Tony Robbins

Amy worked for Tony for 6 and a half years. She built his brand online and perfected her online marketing skills. But corporate life wasn’t easy for her. When she got married, she realized that the stress and the traveling reached a tipping point. Work was overwhelming and no longer fun.

One day, during a shoutfest with Tony, something clicked in her mind and she knew: It was time to go. Building upon Tony’s lessons and her father’s tips that she took to heart, she made up her mind to start her own business.

How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business

Inspired by Marie Forleo, whom Amy met while working for Tony and had become her mentor, she started taking baby steps towards having her own business. She was excited and wanted to burn her ships at shore – but Marie told her to wait. She learned that:

“You have to burn the boats so you can’t go back, but you don’t have to burn them instantly, at the moment you make your decision.” —Amy Porterfield

She kept wanting to quit and make the switch, and Marie kept telling her she’s not ready. So Amy spend a 6 months transition period, educating herself and building up her name by doing various consulting and social media management jobs. Many of those she done for free — in order to build her portfolio and experience.

Working early mornings and late nights building her business while working her full-time job, Amy was excited. She was working way too much, and took many projects she didn’t enjoy, but her motto was:

“You gotta say yes to more stuff than you say no to in your first year. You need to figure out what you like and what you don’t like… and you need to make money!” —Amy Porterfield

This motto guided her through her first year in business, but she slowly started to pull back. She stopped working for big clients and corporates,stopped doing social media for other people, and set to create her own online marketing program.

She KNEW she loved teaching, and she finally found a way to mix all of her interests into a single profession – a job she loved doing, a field that was interesting, and being her own boss. Amy has arrived!

How To Get 10,000 People On Your Next Webinar

Amy’s main programs today focus on generating leads and business from Facebook, in the most engaging, cost-effective and brand-building ways. She attributes her webinars to growing her business and brand in such a quick way, and on today’s interview we dig in and break down the behind the scenes of her webinars – how to choose a subject? how to get over 10,000 people to attend your webinars? how to handle competition? and more. We discuss the most up-to-date Facebook ads techniques, conspiracies and common mistakes.

What are you waiting for? Hit the play button right now!!

In this episode you will learn (A LOT!):

How Amy’s childhood shaped the type of career she ended up creating.
How Tony’s tips built the foundation of Amy’s business.
Why Amy turned down an offer to work close to Tony Robbins and travel the world with him.
Why Amy left her position as manager of social media for Tony Robbins?
When is the time to burn your ships at shore and launch your new career?
How to build the foundation of your next business before you launch.
How, when, and why should you take customers for free?
What’s Amy’s key tip for your first year in business?
How to use webinars to build your business, and Amy’s best tips for creating amazing webinars that over 10,000 people attend.
What words should you use in your Facebook communications.
How to define Facebook ads to maximize your conversion rates – including a step-by-step guidance on how Amy sets up her own ads – Today!
How to use free, valuable, content to build your business.
How to get more traffic to your blog.
How to handle competition.
How much does Amy Porterfield REALLY spend on ads.
What parameters should you monitor on your Facebook ads campaigns?
How to get engagement on Facebook, and what to do if you have no engagement yet?
How to improve your FB page, based on your competitors pages? <<< This is soooo slick!
Why, and when, should you pay Facebook to reach your existing Fans?
What’s the one thing that Amy would’ve done differently?
What’s the best tip Amy took from Tony Robbins? (It’s Not what you expect!)

Items Mentioned In This Episode Include:

Amy Porterfield; AmyPorterfield.com, Twitter, Facebook, Google+
Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast (Amy’s Podcast)
Tony Robbins; TonyRobbins.com, Twitter, Amazon Author Page (books, audio CDs and more)
Harley Davidson
Marie Forleo
Mari Smith
Stealth Seminar – Automated Webinar and Teleseminar Replay Service
Evergreen Business System – Automated Webinars Platform
Social Media Examiner
FBInfluence – Your all inclusive guide to Facebook Marketing
Marveo – Facebook advertising service for other businesses.
Andrea Vahl
Facebook Ads Power Editor (how to install the Power Editor)
InfusionSoft (the email marketing tool that Amy uses)
CuratedCool