Podcast Archives - Page 23 of 26 - Stop Riding the Pine

17 SociallyBuzz with Andre Kay

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00:44:30

17 SociallyBuzz with Andre Kay

Andre Kay – CEO and Founder of SociallyBuzz

Andre Kay is CEO and Founder of Sociallybuzz that was created to help businesses grow using social media. He bootstrapped Sociallybuzz from a small social media “do it for you” company to one of the top ten social media agency and software company in the U.S. He grew the company from $0 to over $2 million in less than 5 years with no investment or debt.

He was nominated for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 African-American Achievers Award, selected as a South Florida 2012 Mover and Shaker Honoree and was named one of the top ten black tech innovators blazing a trail in South Florida by the Miami Herald.

As an expert in social media, he is a sought-after speaker for franchise, restaurant and nightlife events and expos. His philanthropic efforts extend to giving back to families in need, donating his time teaching children the fundamentals of soccer as a coach and sponsoring a number of non-profit related events in the community.

Check out this great article on the Sociallybuzz Blog:

7 Tips to Create a Successful Social Media Plan for 2015

The Sociallybuzz Culture is Based on Customer Service to Provide the Following Services:

Social Media App: Easily manage Yelp, Google Places, Facebook and Urbanspoon in one place. Business owners and managers don’t have the time to log in to multiple social channels to see what customers are saying about their business. The Sociallybuzz App provides an easy and convenient way to manage and moderate all your channels from one mobile dashboard anytime, anywhere on the go!
Social Media Management: SOCIAL MEDIA AND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT – We believe in taking a hands on approach when it comes to managing social media, but more importantly building relationships with real people (fans, followers, consumers, etc.) who interact with brands online. Our social media management services consist of a “real live account manager” who manages social media in real time. We assign dedicated and experienced social media account managers responsible for moderating social media conversations, publishing comments, and monitoring questions across all relevant social media networks. The account manager also works closely with our client(s) so he/she will be educated on the appropriate brand, products, and policies. This real time effectiveness provides consistent customer service for fans, followers and consumers.
Social Media Services for Franchises: We help locally owned franchises connect to customers and communities that matter most for the growth of their businesses by harnessing the power of social media.

The Sociallybuzz Philosophy:

Our philosophy is simple. It’s not about how many fans, followers, or friends our clients have on their social networks. It’s about turning those people into customers, seat fillers, and brand lovers. It’s not about the tools, the CRM, SRM, social mark up language, or whatever fancy name they have for it. It’s about effectively utilizing the right social networks, geo location applications and/or consumer-to-business communication mediums to meaningfully connect customers to brands that they can feel great about.

Businesses or brands must reach their consumers at a level that connects them to something they value and we at Sociallybuzz get it! We don’t deliver one-time quick marketing fixes. We will consistently and effectively Build, Engage and Grow your business and brand.

Andre is an incredible entrepreneur. After getting a job working for a bank, it took him only five years to become the vice president. This experience was instrumental in his entrepreneurial career as he took what he learned in banking and finance and incorporated that into the Sociallybuzz business. This provided Andre with the necessary tools take his app business from ZERO to over $2 million in revenues in just over 5 years. As you read in the first paragraph, he did all this will no debt or investment… it’s worth saying again. Yes, you can say it… amazing!

One of the main reasons Andre has been so successful is due to his focus. He also understands that you can’t be everything to everyone and that it takes time to build a brand. This is critical in understanding business from an entrepreneurial point of view. Many people going into business for themselves tend to take on too much and that is one of the worst things a new business owner can do.

Andre built an app and grew the business slowly and over time. Once he started building his business and bringing on larger clients (see this link of some of his success stories and you will be amazed at the results he’s realized for his clients – Amazing Client Stories) he was able to actively dive back into building plans for his future. As you will hear in the interview, Andre has tons of great things coming out in 2015.

Sociallybuzz – Social Media Management and Marketing from Sociallybuzz on Vimeo.

Andre totally gets online marketing. It’s not about the numbers, tools, or crm… it’s about effective networks, location based applications and communication mediums to meaningfully connect customers to brands and businesses that they can feel great about. When you work with Sociallybuzz, the likes and followers you get, genuinely like or follow you because they are getting a value from your message.

It’s easy to find Sociallybuzz online, but here are the shortcut links to learn more about this awesome company:

Sociallybuzz Website
Sociallybuzz is on Facebook
Follow SociallyBuzz on Twitter – @Sociallybuzz
Connect with Andre on LinkedIn
Sociallybuzz on CrunchBase
Watch Sociallybuzz on YouTube

Here are some of the highlights we discussed during the interview (but, listen to the whole show and let us know what you thought about it by leaving reviews, ratings and comments):

Meet Andre Kay ([2:45] Mark)
How did Andre get into the marketing industry? ([4:15] Mark)
What is an influencer program? ([6:45] mark)
What problems does the Sociallybuzz App solve? ([11:10] mark)
Do you help companies set up their social media with the Sociallybuzz app? ([15:56] Mark)
What’s next for Sociallybuzz? ([17:45] Mark)
What cool features does the Sociallybuzz app have? ([24:00] Mark)
What does Sociallybuzz do on Yelp? ([28:39] Mark)
Andre’s Break Away Moment. ([30:52] Mark)
What is Sociallybuzz and Andre doing for startups? ([38:05] Mark) – Sociallybuzz Start-Ups Program

Get a FREE 30-Day Trial with Sociallybuzz by clicking on the image below:

Stop Riding the Pine is a lot of fun and we love sharing the shows we’ve done. We would greatly appreciate your assistance in helping us grow this show by not only downloading the episodes, but also sharing them. Leave comments and rate our show so we can make the show even better. Here are the links:

16 Big Frog – Custom T-Shirts and More

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00:50:40

16 Big Frog – Custom T-Shirts and More

The Big Frog Custom T-Shirt Franchise

Big Frog is a franchise headquartered in sunny Florida. At Big Frog, a customer can go into one of their 67 locations and sit down with a graphic designer/artist that will customize a t-shirt exactly how you want it. Whether you are looking for a single t-shirt or a large quantity, the direct-to-garment printing process can easily achieve the custom design anyone may looking for.

“Business is a science and science is a business”.
– The Big Frog, Leeward Bean.

The Big Frog experience is based on three things:

Choose: We have apparel and gifts for men, women, kids and infants. Pick what you want to print on, choose your colors and sizes and get ready to have some fun!
Create: This is where our creativity really shines through. Our talented artists will work with you at our in-store design station to create a custom message and/or full color graphic to your exact specifications. Experiment with colors, fonts and graphics to get just the look you want. With our advanced printing technology, the sky’s the limit on what you can do.
Celebrate: Most orders can be ready in just one day.* Now that’s cause for celebration.

After getting to know Leeward, Tina (even though she has her PhD, she asked me to call her Tina), and Ron, I understand why they have been so successful. Their philosophy in business is made up of a friendly culture based on experience, trust and fun. At first glance, one may think, hmmmm, T-shirts? Once you listen to the show, hear their story, and understand how the leadership team at Big Frog operates, no one will question the unique business in which Big Frog is based on.

Unlike many success stories you may have heard of in the past, the Big Frog story is quite unique. The founders all have a background in science. How can a group of successful science buffs turn to direct-to-garment printing after working in the field of fiber optic spectrophotometers? In their words… fun.

While Leeward was fishing one day he received a call from Ron and Tina asking him about a unique business opportunity. To get the details, you’ll have to listen to the show, but to make this story short, Leeward decided to come out of retirement after attending a trade show and the rest, as they say, is history.

Leeward, Tina and Ron have all worked together previously and so they new each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This allowed them to work together on this new venture and enjoy the fact they had a previous relationship. As they worked through the challenges of launching this business, they developed a franchise system that continues to grow. They’ve been asked to speak at various events on their success and want to continue growing the business of direct-to-garment t-shirt printing.

Meet the Big Frog Leadership Team

Leeward J. Bean: Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer

Leeward was a founder and Vice President, Sales and Marketing of Ocean Optics, Inc. located in Dunedin, Florida. Ocean Optics, Inc. is a world leader in fiber optic spectrophotometers; an analytical instrument used for measuring light. The Company was acquired by Halma Holdings Inc. in 2004 for $50 million. In 1990 Mr. Bean left Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts after 15 years, as Director Worldwide Business Imaging. Leeward started his business career in 1971 with Burroughs Corporation in St. Petersburg, Florida as a Systems Sales Engineer. Mr. Bean holds a BS degree in Computer Sciences from Jones College, Jacksonville, FL.

Dr. Christina P. Bacon/DeFrece: Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer

Tina was Director of Sensor Development at Ocean Optics, Inc., from 2000 to 2005. Additionally, she worked her Post-Doctorate at Constellation Technology in Largo, FL focusing on chemical agent detection. In both positions, Tina researched, developed and marketed the new technologies to the government, businesses and universities. Tina holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL with a specialty in particle characterization using light scattering.

Ronald E. DeFrece: Founder, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer

Ron joined Ocean Optics in 1997 and held numerous positions in manufacturing, sales, marketing and management until 2006. Prior to his involvement with Ocean Optics, Inc., from 1989 until 1997, Ron was an Electro-Optics Engineer specializing in prototyping military laser targeting and designation systems for Litton Laser Systems in Orlando, Florida. Mr. DeFrece attended Brevard Community College in Cocoa, FL and DeVry Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA.

It’s easy to find Big Frog on the world wide web, but I included the links to their website and social media below:

Big Frog Website
Big Frog Franchise Website
Big Frog Facebook
Send Big Frog a Tweet – @officialbigfrog
Connect with Big Frog on LinkedIn
Big Frog on Pinterest
Watch Big Frog on YouTube

Watch the story of Leeward’s break away moment for Big Frog here:

This was a great interview and I encourage you to listen to the show in its entirety; however, I’ve made it easy for you to listen to a couple of the highlights of the show below:

Meet Ron Degrace. ([4:20] Mark)
Meet Leeward Bean. ([6:31] Mark)
Meet Dr. Tina Degrace. ([8:50] mark)
What is Dream Nitch and the story behind Big Frog? ([11:10] mark)
What is “Being Awarded” a franchise? ([21:55] Mark)
Why would someone buy a franchise instead of start their own business? ([25:44] Mark)
Tina, how do you market Big Frog? ([30:46] Mark)
Leeward’s Break Away Moment. ([39:06] Mark)
Ron’s Break Away Moment. ([41:17] Mark)
Tina’s “Break Away” moment? ([42:12] Mark)

15 Ryan Armstrong

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00:38:18

15 Ryan Armstrong

Ryan Armstrong better known to me and others as “Coach Armstrong”, joined the Ice Bears coaching staff in August 2013 as Assistant Coach with the Division II team. Growing up, the Chesterfield, Missouri native, played youth hockey with the Chesterfield Falcons and the Affton Americans. In 2006 Armstrong won the Midget U-18 National Championship with the CSDHL Affton Americans (under Coach Bob Bucher). Along with Coach Bucher and Coach Crenshaw, Ryan played his high school hockey at Christian Brothers College (CBC).

While wearing purple and gold, Armstrong won 3 state championships in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Ryan also played for the St. Louis Jr. Blues in the CSDHL (currently the NA3HL) Jr. A hockey league, from 2006-2008 winning a National Championship in 2007. After his junior career, Ryan committed to Missouri State University where he was a staple on the blueline from 2008-2013. During his time as a student athlete with MSU, Armstrong was voted team President two years in a row as well as serving as team Secretary in his senior year. As a member of the Bears defense corps, Ryan was named an assistant captain his sophomore season and wore the C during his junior and senior campaigns.

While not on the ice, he enjoys relaxing at the lake and the Springfield nightlife. Armstrong currently resides in Springfield and works in sales for Crown Packaging. After graduating from Missouri State University just over a year ago, Ryan utilizes his relationships he developed in school to help him grow his network in a professional capacity. While he is new the professional world, he sure has a great attitude and uses his motivation to pour eveything he has into his profession.

One take-away you can have from this podcast is to understand that anything you do, do it 100%. One of the many things that you have to understand is that you really should enjoy what you are doing, but you simply cannot love every single aspect of your life. That being said, it’s important to always perform at your best. Don’t make shortcuts, becuase it’s the small things, the details.

Ryan Armstrong would like to invite you to connect with him online:

Ryan Armstrong on Facebook
LinkedIn

Ryan Armstrong helping to raise funds for the MSU Ice Bears on their run to a National Hockey Championship in 2014:

14 Donna Serdula – LinkedIn Specialist

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00:49:46

14 Donna Serdula – LinkedIn Specialist

Donna Serdula is the founder of VisionBoardMedia.com and she loves helping people tell their story while building a powerful professional brand. Her mission is to help professionals take control of their internet presenct and present themselves in a way that inspires, impresses, and builds their abilities, products and services. I have been aching to do more shows focused around social media due to the importance and growth of these platforms. It was truly a pleasure to have Donna on the show and her knowledge within LinkedIn is truly amazing.

During this interview, I was able to learn quite a bit about LinkedIn and how important this particular platform is to my overall social signal. I asked several questions and would have loved more time, but we had enough time to learn about the most important aspect of LinkedIn and that was where to start. Whether you are new to LinkedIn or you have been on this site for a while, there are many changes going on that you should be aware of.

Donna has been on LinkedIn since 2005, and while she says she is not an early adopter of the site, she has positioned herself as a leader on LinkedIn with nearly 20,000 followers through consistently updating her profile nearly 15 times each day. While this may seem like a lot, this is necessary in today’s online market place in order to get your message out in a crowded space. Make sure that you take the time to complete your profile because when people want to learn more about you, you need to share a story about yourself in the best light.

For many people, writing is difficult to say the least. It’s hard to make sure you are adding the right things to your profile based on what goals you hope to acheive. Donna created LinkedIn-Makeover.com, which also happens to be the name of her book, LinkedIn Makeover – Professional Secrets to a POWERFUL LinkedIn Profile, where she and her staff will tell your story and build your professional brand by creating a profile that will help connect you with target prospects and companies that are looking for your expertise.

Whether you are looking for gainful employment or selling products and services, having a complete LinkedIn profile is sure to increase your exposure. Many of the people on LinkedIn are high-level executives and decision makers. This is a great platform for business of all kinds. The more you participate on this network, the more opportunity you will have to get your dream job or do business with people you like.

Donna Serdula is easy to find on the world wide web. Connect with Donna on all or any of the links below to learn more about her and her LinkedIn programs below:

Vision Board Media Website
LinkedIn Makeover Website
Donna’s Keynote Speaker Website
Donna Serdula’s LinkedIn Makeover Facebook
Send Donna a Tweet
LinkedIn Makeover on Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Donna Serdula’s Email

Donna Serdula is featured on an NBC story to help makeover your LinkedIn profile below:

Donna has been a guest on XM radio and a professional speaker. She is not shy when it comes to talking about her passion which is LinkedIn, so you will definitely be entertained by Donna’s positive attitude and exuberance in this episode. Below are just a couple highlights of the show, but as always, I recommend listening to the show in it’s entirety as it’s full of great content:

Who is Donna Serdula? ([3:00] Mark)
What is a digital introduction? ([7:12] Mark)
What is the first thing you should do on LinkedIn? ([11:50] mark)
How to set your goals on LinkedIn? ([16:11] mark)
Do you need a company site on LinkedIn? ([16:50] Mark)
Should you pay for a professional profile?([22:35] Mark)
Should I advertise on LinkedIn? ([27:40] Mark)
What’s the best way to interact on LinkedIn? ([30:06] Mark)
Learn about Donna’s great story behind the motivation of writing her book. ([32:20] Mark)
What is Donna’s “Break Away” moment? ([43:20] Mark)

Resource links to mentioned on the show:
Free LinkedIn Resources
LinkedIn Makeover Services

Don’t forget… Donna has personally invited you to connect or link up with her on LinkedIn!

13 Carey Green Email Marketing Success Story

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00:49:03

13 Carey Green Email Marketing Success Story

Carey Green is a retired Pastor who’s become a serial entrepreneur. As with most entrepreneurs he feels that he’s got way too many ideas, but loves putting his wildly diverse skill set to working making at least some of them become reality. But he insists it’s a blast and he wouldn’t trade it for anything. Though he’s open to all possibilities, he never wants to work a regular J-O-B again. Ever. The freedom and family time he gets by working for himself, from home, is something he never wants to give up.

He’s got two main financial goals at this point:

#1- Earn a living through his online efforts in a way that provides time for his real passion, marriage and family coaching through Christian Home and Family.

#2 – Make enough income to give away at least $10,000 in 2015. Thinking of being a blessing to people in tangible ways motivates Carey more than anything else. For him, it’s not about the money, it’s about the good he can do in the world with the money.

Carey is on the show because of some success he’s had in a recent email marketing campaign that he put together himself. He’s not a marketer, has no training in sales, and has never felt himself to be a salesman at all. In fact, he’s tried sales-based jobs twice and failed miserably both times. But his recent email campaign has gotten -him better results than he’s ever had in any kind of advertising or marketing.

His actual conversion rate for the mail campaign – not click-throughs, but actual “clients-who-gave-him-money” conversion rate is at 6.23%. How does that compare to averages? It depends on how you calculate it… and everyone seems to do it differently. But the most optimistic averages seem to be a click-through rate of 3.3% (http://goo.gl/u0xMsy). So Careys’ campaign outpaced the averages, especially when you consider that his numbers are on actual sales, not just click-throughs.

Today Carey is going to share everything he believes went in to his higher average and give tips about how to think differently about email marketing. We cover “The 7 Steps to Carey Green’s Email Marketing Success”. Here’s what Carey talks about:

Step 1: How he gets niche-specific leads
Step 2: Which would he rather use to contact potential clients, website contact form or email?
Step 3: What goes into his subject line?
Step 4: The main things to focus on when composing the email (the recipient is a PERSON, care for them, email tone, clearly defined benefits, keep it brief)
Step 5: The power of the first line in the email – make it personal and relevant.
Step 6: Giving the message the right “tone.”
Step 7: Call to action.

As a “bonus” to listeners of this episode Carey’s providing an exclusive link to a blog page that contains the exact email he sent to potential clients with explanations of what he did and why he did it. He also discusses the tweaks he made to the email as he went along and how he personalized it to each recipient. There’s a PDF download of the information as well, so feel free to grab your own copy.

Get your “BONUS” here: PodcastFastTrack.com/Pine

Some of the bootstrap business projects Carey’s got going on are:

Podcast Fast Track (www.PodcastFastTrack.com) – a podcast production company that sells two primary things: Time and Professional podcast audio. Beyond that he outsources other services for podcasters including show notes, voice-over, unique music, and video repurposing. He’s also in the process of working out a deal to provide a “Podcast Guest Search” service to help podcasters find those expert guests that can make their episodes sizzle even more.
Pass the Safe Exam (www.PassTheSafeExam.com) – after retiring from church work Carey studied and tested to become a Mortgage Loan Originator in the U.S. Within days of beginning his studies he realized that there was a huge demand for study help for the required S.A.F.E. test. So he created a video “study methods” course teaching wanna-be Loan Officers HOW to study for the test. It’s about mindset and test-taking skills and has been a huge success. Since creating the video study course he’s run it on a “Pay What You Want” model, beginning at $20. In just over a year he’s made almost $12,000 from this part-time, passive income business. Not bad, eh?
Free Audacity Tutorials (www.FreeAudacityTutorials.com) – using the power of a YouTube Channel Carey provides step by step screen capture tutorials on how to use the popular, free audio editing software “Audacity.” So far, the only monetization he’s been able to do is through Google Adwords on his site and YouTube advertising, which combined have provided right around $100 every three months. It’s small, but it’s income, and the figures are growing each month. But wait… there’s more! Carey’s in the process of creating an “Audacity for Podcaster’s” video course to cover not only the HOW of using the Audacity software, but also includes hacks and tricks to make workflow faster, more efficient, and higher quality. He hopes to release the course by the end of 2015 and offer it both through is tutorial website and his podcast production website.
Fantasy Fiction Author (www.DragonSlayerBook.com) – Carey’s been an author for a long time, but mainly in the realm of practical church and spiritual growth non-fiction works. But his kids encouraged him into the fiction world to write a series based on stories he told them when they were small. It’s a Christian-laced fantasy coming of age story about a kid who’s ripped from his home during a dragon attack and his journey to face his inner dragons and become a dragon slayer. His sales have been pretty meager, but the 23 reviews he’s gotten so far are at a 4 1/2 star average (http://goo.gl/HgfahH). Carey’s not worried. It’s been fun to write and he knows that making money as an author takes time. Small steps. That’s his focus.

Once you listen to the show, you will easily be able to tell how comfortable Carey is with speaking and talking about his business. His audio came out clean and crisp and so this can be used as a great pre-cursor for you to see how he can help you with your own podcasting show. Here are some links to learn more about Carey Green:

Podcast Fast Track Podcast Website
Christian Home and Family Website
Carey Green Author Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Carey Green’s Email

Here’s a video introduction about Carey Green’s podcastfasttrack.com business:

Carey does a great job of explaining the step-by-step process for launching a successful email campaign. Below are the key points to the show, but I highly recommend listening to the show in its entirety:

Who is Carey Green? ([2:48] Mark)
What are the average click-through rates and what are they? ([6:00] Mark)
How Carey found leads on iTunes (Step 1)? ([7:30] mark)
What is better, contact forms or emails to generate leads (Step 2)? ([11:25] mark)
How to write a good subject line (Step 3)? ([13:53] Mark)
What are the main focal points in drafting an email (Step 4)?([16:43] Mark)
Making the first line in the email powerful (Step 5). ([22:58] Mark)
How to use the right tone (Step 6)? ([24:29] Mark)
Don’t forget the Call-to-action (Step 7). ([26:38] Mark)
What is Carey’s “Break Away” moment? ([41:09] Mark)

Resource links to mentioned on the show:
Carey’s book Dragon Slayer
How to Pass the Mortgage Safe Exam Course
Free Tutorials How to Use Audacity

I love this show
by Saoirse Sky from Philippines
Stop Riding the Pine is a great show! Content is presented in a way that it isn't just informative but interesting as well. You won't get bored with the variety of information they will provide in every episode. Listening to this podcast means learning something new everyday. I love this show!
Amazing podcast for Entrepreneurs
by Greenbergb from United States
Jaime's podcast is a must listen for any business owner or aspiring entrepreneur. He is great at interviewing guests and getting them to divlulge their secrets.

16 Big Frog – Custom T-Shirts and More

The Big Frog Custom T-Shirt Franchise

Meet the Big Frog Leadership Team

15 Ryan Armstrong

14 Donna Serdula – LinkedIn Specialist

13 Carey Green Email Marketing Success Story

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