2019 The Year Of The Individual

2019 The Year Of The Individual

Light Speed!

Life is moving at light speed! Here we are at the end of 2018, it feels as though it has gone by so fast, we do not have enough time to reflect. There is something about 2018 that has specifically defined what the future holds for our social interaction with each other, business, families, and the like. That thing is individualism. More and more people are realizing their opportunities lie within themselves. The best way for me to describe this new phenomenon is, you can become an individual business at the fastest rate we have ever seen in the history of the world. This article will touch on how people are taking advantage of the technology and freedom it brings. It’s been a journey, so let’s figure out how we position ourselves to reap the benefits of this new state of work and life. Will you join me?

What’s Your Why?

What was it that got you to realize your reason for doing what you do? I realized I could no longer sit idle while watching and understanding what the new state of work has become. I have seen younger people make millions of dollars through self-expression on You Tube, and on other social platforms. I have, seen so many people with perspectives and advice on LinkedIn and Facebook. What does all this mean? Technology has given us an immediate platform to engage other individuals all around the world in real time. Think about that for a second. As I write this, have you contemplated the impact you potentially can have, just by having an opinion and articulating it in a way that people can understand it. Whether people agree with you or not, you have that power. This is an amazing time for entrepreneurs and just anyone in general that wants to express themselves.

Millennial!

The millennial affect. I am a millennial and I understand why we do not stay in a place that does not satisfy our passion or purpose. The idea around giving back and creating sustainable resources through self expression is the epitome of individualism. The more we look at where we want to go, we take those steps with out hesitation. In the past generations, people would stay somewhere that would make them physically ill, due to stress. That is not the way we view things, and surely is not the way the next generation will view them. How is this changing the way we live, work, and play?

Technology!

Now that we know all these great things are available to us via technology. How do we use them to potentially make money and provide for our families and others? I know just making videos is not a source of income, but making videos that can assist and inspire people will bring so many opportunities for you, and eventually those opportunities turn into not just money; but life long friends, business partnerships, and a wealth of knowledge. Let’s look at a few examples of key contributors on LinkedIn in 2018 who have used social platforms to create a network of connections and followers and inspired me along the way! Let’s Go!

Top Influencers On Linked In 2019 (My Unofficial List)

Gary Vaynerchuck

Gary is an inspiration to so many people on LinkedIn and the social world in general. He provides free tools via podcast, to those who want to achieve freedom through social advertising and just being a bad ass at what you do.

b.      What Gary taught me was to just jump off the cliff and learn to fly by taking the leap forward. I have always been an entrepreneur, but my efforts of entrepreneurship have been stagnant, to say the least. However, the experience is valuable. Gary taught me to use that as a source of power and just do it man, don’t wait, don’t think, just do it! Thanks @garyvanderchuck and keep killing it man!

Backstory: Gary Vaynerchuk is the chairman of VaynerX, a modern-day media and communications holding company and the active CEO of VaynerMedia, a full-service advertising agency servicing Fortune 100 clients across the company’s 4 locations. 

In addition to VaynerMedia, VaynerX also includes Gallery Media Group, which houses women’s lifestyle brand PureWow and men’s lifestyle brand ONE37pm. In addition to running VaynerMedia, Gary also serves as a partner in the athlete representation agency VaynerSports, cannabis-focused branding and marketing agency Green Street and restaurant reservations app Resy.

Gary is a board/advisory member of Ad Council and Pencils of Promise, and is a longtime Well Member of Charity:Water.

Gary is a highly sought after public speaker, a 5-time New York Times bestselling author, as well as a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo, and Uber.

Gary is currently the subject of DailyVee, an online documentary series highlighting what it’s like to be a CEO and public figure in today’s digital world, as well the host of The GaryVee Audio Experience, a top 100 global podcast, and host of #AskGaryVee, a business and advice Q&A show which can be found on both YouTube and Facebook.

Gary also appeared as judge in Apple’s first original series “Planet of the Apps” alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and Will.i.am.

Here are a few of his mainstays and podcasts links for any of you that are ready to take that next step in your professional career. https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/detail/treasury/summary/?entityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_treasuryMedia%3A(ACoAAACgAVMBb8w4dbaqCMriT5tTYE0H4M_oFKE%2C1502807617868)&section=summary&treasuryCount=1&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BZbSg4PmOQEydGd08%2B9eMWg%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base-treasury_thumbnail_cell


 Oleg Vishneposlky

Oleg is a true inspiration. He does not allow you to bypass integrity in everything you do. His quotes are always uplifting and centered around employees. He fights for the employee not the boss.

What Oleg has taught me is, do not underestimate humility in interaction with your staff. Always seek to improve the lives of others at all costs, especially with in an organization. We need more leaders like Oleg to take us to a place where being at work does not feel like being in a boot camp setting. We are humans not numbers! Keep it up Oleg!

Background: Mr. Oleg Vishnepolsky serves as Chief Technology Officer of 24/7 Real Media UK Ltd. Mr. Vishnepolsky serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Ology Media, Inc. Mr. Vishnepolsky served as Chief Technology Officer of 24/7 Real Media Inc. since January 2, 2007. From December 2005 to December 2006, Mr. Vishnepolsky served as Vice President of Publishing and Search at AOL Time Warner and was primarily responsible for its in-house publishing and search systems, as well as setting


Arianna Huffington

Arianna has a deep sense of engagement. Her content makes you think about where you are and how you feel about where you are in your life. She asks the tough questions. Like men not showing emotion in one of her most recent post. She is the epitome of take on the challenge and see how you fair. Also, not only challenge yourself, but your mental well being should be the center of your happiness, not the attainment of wealth.

b.      What Arianna has taught me about social media is we can be vulnerable enough to have conversations that we all think about in real time with others we do not know. Her platform has given me great joy in expressing myself to people who may need to hear the words I have to say. I am just 1 person, but this speaks to the new collaboration and communication technology has given us today. Way to go Arianna, keep it up!

Background: Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author, syndicated columnist, and politician who has an estimated net worth of $50 million dollars. Arianna Huffington was born in Athens, Greece in 1950, moved to England when she was 16, and then to the U.S. in 1980.

In 2011, AOL acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, and made Huffington the President and Editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which included The Huffington Post and then-existing AOL properties including AOL Music, Engadget, Patch Media, and StyleList.[8] On August 11, 2016, it was announced that she would step down from her role at The Huffington Post to devote her time to a new startup, Thrive Global, focused on health and wellness information.


Brigette Hyacinth

Brigette is 1 of the top 100 influencers on LinkedIn in 2018. Brigette is inspirational and truthful. She is always looking to help job seekers find their place in an ever changing landscape of work. She is a top selling author and a motivational speaker. Her will power of positive words will give you chills if you are really serious about your career.

b. What Brigette has taught me on social media is, do not let the small things get in the way of your future. You can always overcome failure if you put your mind to it. She always speaks to job seekers and people who need advice on how to get the job they really want. She is an inspiration to myself and thousands of others. Keep up the great work Brigette!

Background: Brigette Hyacinth is a Bestselling author, and an International Keynote Speaker on Leadership, Management, HR, Social Media Marketing & Influencing, Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. 

Brigette has been named:

🔹Top 100 Most Influential people of African Descent under 40.

🔹Top 20 EMEA-Based Tech Experts to inspire Digital Transformation Efforts.

🔹Top 100 HR Influencers (Leadership & Development) of 2018.

Booking Inquiries: Please contact admin@mbacaribbean.org


How to Monetize yourself in today’s Individual Expressive Branding!

1.      Affiliate marketing and branding- If you have a blog and you are increasing your viewer rate you can approach companies to market on your blog and get paid.

2.      Coaching- The introduction of coaching and mentor ship is moving at a fast pace. This is not new at all, but what is new, is the ability to acquire men-tees at a phenomenal rate due to technology. Some coaches charge a ton because of their experience, but you can start learning enough to charge a nominal fee or give your advice for free to build viewership and brand adoption.

3.      . “Monetizing your website is more than offering ad placement and joining Amazon as an affiliate. It’s a strategy that starts with your SEO and the time you invest in building your audience. The programs you choose that provide residuals, like Amazon and AdSense or even selling your products or services, won’t prove successful unless your website has traffic.” – Lindy Chaffin, www.unstoppablestart.com

4. “The #1 way I monetize my site is by working with brands through sponsored posts. I’m very selective and only work with brands I trust. To get the attention of big brands, my content and photography must be top notch. Social media also plays an important part in monetization. The more followers you have on social media, the more willing brands are to work with you. It does take time and patience to build a presence on social media, but it’s well worth it in the end.” – Alli Smith, www.anallievent.com

Conclusion

We all have potential at our fingertips. If you know what to do, then that is half the battle. Do not get discouraged and think you can’t achieve the financial freedom that is for you. I believe in you and sometimes that is all it takes. All of the above mentioned influencers have the same thing in common, they just started doing it. Go and take these steps and start kicking ass today! Just a rundown of what was discussed in bullet points

  • Create a social presence and build your audience
  • Find a niche you are passionate about
  • Engage your audience to see what they respond to (content is king)
  • Create a website
  • Brand yourself
  • Ask for the business once you have put in the work and accumulated the followers.
  • Learn! Learn! Learn! (Ask for help)
  • Create a video about you, it does not have to be perfect. ( I am creating my video today, it will be my first video on LinkedIn)
  • Believe you can achieve and you will

Lastly, this is also my plan. We can take this journey together. This is something I am very passionate about and I want to assist anyone else who may be thinking on the same line as myself. If you have questions you can reach me on LinkedIn at Carl Dunn. Good luck to you all!



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Customer Experience

Customer Experience

Customer Experience

Have you seen this sign UX before? What does it mean for the online marketers and web developers? It is the gold standard of which the developers of the world live by. They take pride in understanding every metric that enhances your experience on a site or on the web in general. I could go into all the analytics that include click through rates, conversion rates, A/B testing, psychological factors like color, and user friendliness, but that’s another article for another day. What this article will focus on, is the brick and mortar companies opportunity to take advantage of every customer contact possible(customer experience), just like developers do with their web development approach. Let’s take a look at how you can improve your user or customer experience in general, for your brick and mortar establishment.

The First 10 Secs…

First, it starts with you, your staff, and the overall look and feel of your business. You can compare this to the first 10 seconds on a web page. Think of this as the interlude of a great movie and you are watching a trailer. We all have media coming at us at light speed, but we all take time to look at a great movie every now and again. My wife and I will look at the trailers all the time, and determine if we will watch the movie. More times than not, we decide if we are going to watch the movie based on the trailer, before we give the movie a chance to develop. This instinct is a natural approach for all humans, we decide in the first 10-15 seconds if a particular business is a place we can see ourselves shopping at, eating at, getting medical services at, or patronizing in general. Your ability to prepare your staff and yourself to the highest level of the patrons expectations is key to their initial customer/user experience. The secret to this, is not really a secret at all. It sums up the quality of leadership of the business. The level of approach on how they pay their staff, how they support their staff, and how they acknowledge their staff’s effort with empathy, will determine the overall culture. You will notice the difference in the companies who do not do this well and those who do; think of Chik-Fil-A for example. Now that you know your first point of improving your customer experience starts with you your team and the overall look and feel of your business, you can begin to develop a strategy that improves your customer’s experience. Check this article out on how to improve company culture in 2019. “Improve Company Culture”

Customer Shopping Journey

Second, is understanding how customers feel when they patronize your brick and mortar establishment. How do you gauge this element of user/customer experience within the cycle of your customer’s shopping journey? The first question is, how do you feel when you visit similar establishments. There is no black and white approach here, but there are techniques that are referenced in the above article; as it applies to your customer’s journey. You have to be opened minded and perceptive to what it is your customers want to see and when they want to see it. Whether it is point of purchase marketing, in store feel good targeting, familiarity, comfort, or incentive based strategies, none of those give you an insight on how your customers feel shopping or patronizing at your establishment. Let’s look at how developers build their strategy of UX. First, they use analytical and historically proven data that dictates what the user will expect when they visit a site. Developers take into consideration speed of upload, mobile responsiveness, ease of use, simple call to actions, and valuable content; just to name a few critical metrics. You can do this as well, why try to re-create the wheel if you don’t have too.

Technology Updated?

Think of up load speed as how long it takes for you and your team to acknowledge the first customer that comes in the door or how well they can access your product without you if they wish, it just works(Amazon). What gets lost in our passive society is the fact that, people want to be noticed or not noticed depending on your product and business model, especially if they are thinking of spending their hard earned money at your place of business. Second, think of mobile responsiveness as current technology. Can your customers purchase your product online, or can they pre-purchase and pick up their orders without a lot of interaction with your team? Think of Starbucks or Amazon! Although, they may not want to talk to you or your team, when they do, it should be the best conversation possible(Culture) and customer service. Number two, is basically implementing the right technology that improves your patron’s experience, but also having a balanced amount of human interaction that can enhance that experience overtime. The next part of the developers approach in this article; which is valuable content, comes down to branding. What is your brand position for your product. Is it for the more affluent, the middle, or the lower level shopper? What do people think of when they think of your brand? How do you know your brand position and enhance that position overtime?

Call To Actions!

Next, is ease of use or in your case, how well do you on board your customers or bring them up to speed when it comes to your specials or new product lines. Sometimes businesses forget how to acknowledge the difficulty of a special. For example, you have to download 3 things or go to an outdated website to get a coupon that has expired when they get to your physical business. All of these negative interactions can play a huge role in a customer returning or becoming a negative billboard for your company. The last item, is call to actions. How clear is your messaging when you do have something you want the customer to see and act on? If you go to a place of business and see a special, how rewarding is it, if the special gives you more than what you bargained for. You feel like you got a great deal. Every business does not run specials of course, but every business has some form of call to actions. If your call to actions do not line up with the continuation of the physical act, you will lose the customer, and future customers do to this gap in communication. Be clear on what you want your customer to do, and honor things you said you would.

Start thinking in terms of “how do I feel when I visit a place like I own”, and you will start to understand what it is that make customers return and become life long customers. Another key is to have some form of qualitative research like surveys, that ask a few simple questions. This simple yet effective approach, gives you a measurable view of your customers perception of your business. Do not forget to give a gift of an incentive for the patron to complete the survey, otherwise it will go in the trash or they will not click the link. The survey also should not be more than 5 questions. Do you like filling out surveys that are longer? I didn’t think so. The analytical behavior triggers may be tougher to execute, because you do not have the database web developers have to analyze all the digital data(Google Analytics), but you do have tools that can enhance your ability to gauge your customer’s shopping journey that are mentioned in this article. You also may have a website that can benefit from using google analytics to drive customers to your physical location.

Target Market

Lastly, decide who your target market is and determine how they interact with your business when they are not physically there. In today’s marketing environment, your business will be discussed on over 20 different platforms each day. Your business reputation is key to getting more customers in the door. This aspect of customer/user experience is very important and has a direct correlation on how well brick and mortar companies can go over and beyond expectations or fail miserably at each point of interaction.


“In the U.S., more than 81% of shoppers conduct online research before making big purchase decisions. On top of that, nearly 50% of people who do local searches visit a store within one day.” Source: www.fundera.com

Walking Billboard!


One angry customer will tell 10 people, and those 10 people will discuss their negative interactions with your business on social media and to their friends. You want each customer to be a positive walking billboard for your company. Referrals from someone we trust are 4 times morel likely to be followed up on whether they are positive referrals or negative ones. The customer or client will act as your marketing team if their experience with your company is above average. This is what we call “word of mouth” and digital reputation transcendence. Your store has hours, but your store’s reputation is 24/7- 365 days a year.

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