Podcasts about hit the mic

While the New England Patriots have already begun the process of reconstructing their fractured coaching staff, the team is also taking an intricate look at their performance at each position, in hopes of devising an effective offseason strategy. Host Mike D'Abate provides his final 2022 grade report for the Patriots, as well as offering his thoughts on Tom Brady inviting Bill Belichick as the feature attraction on his podcast. Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQ Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots  And follow host Mike D'Abate on Twitter, where he'll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans. On Twitter: @mdabateNFL Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! BlueNile At Blue Nile, you can find the perfect piece of jewelry for life's special moments—or even create the custom engagement ring of her dreams! Right now, you can save up to fifty percent at BlueNile.com. BetterHelp This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self.  LinkedIn LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. PrizePicks First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDON Ultimate Football GM To download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store. TurboTax Come to TurboTax and don't do your taxes. Visit TurboTax.com to learn more. FanDuel Make Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get started FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG(CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat(CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While the New England Patriots have already begun the process of reconstructing their fractured coaching staff, the team is also taking an intricate look at their performance at each position, in hopes of devising an effective offseason strategy. Host Mike D'Abate provides his final 2022 grade report for the Patriots, as well as offering his thoughts on Tom Brady inviting Bill Belichick as the feature attraction on his podcast.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D'Abate on Twitter, where he'll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BlueNileAt Blue Nile, you can find the perfect piece of jewelry for life's special moments—or even create the custom engagement ring of her dreams! Right now, you can save up to fifty percent at BlueNile.com.BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self. LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONUltimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.TurboTaxCome to TurboTax and don't do your taxes. Visit TurboTax.com to learn more.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG(CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat(CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In podcasting, successfully hitting the mic is all about getting the right amount of audience engagement mixed with the right personality. In this episode, Stacey Harris, a social media strategist and trainer working with frustrated entrepreneurs, teaches us how to get the audience we deserve using the right strategies. Stacy's method in producing her podcast called Hit The Mic revolves around some ancient marketing techniques. She talks about how to build an audience through a people-focused strategy and also shares some of the best ways to increase listeners and book great guests. Producing an episode is definitely not enough to scale up, so know more about how you can produce your own podcast that you can monetize with Stacy's great tips. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here's How » Join the Binge Factor community today:thebingefactor.comFacebookInstagramLinkedInPinterestYoutube

Complete show notes and video at https://thestaceyharris.com/episode400 In this episode, Stacey breaks down lessons learned, most popular episodes, and gives away prizes!    

First timers and drug reform activists Stacia Cosner, Lauren Padgett, Darrell Rogers, and Jake Berg join host Kris Krane to talk about the challenges of implementing adult use marijuana at the local level and to take a deep dive into the history of the One Hitters, the drug reform softball team that's been competing in Washington, DC's Congressional Softball League for well over a decade now. This story is deeper than just a tale about a recreational softball team. Produced by Shea Gunther.

Welcome to Episode 347 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. It's a new month and that's means today we're talking about three things you need to know right now. Often these are network updates and things like that. But, this month I actually want to talk about some more strategy stuff, because there are a lot of questions coming up in some one-on-one calls I've had and in Backstage about when to do these things or if an idea is crazy. I want to just dispel all of that right up front, all right? Running Ads to Content Three things you must know right now in May. First things first, the idea of running ads to content. This is a really great brand awareness goal, because again, you can lead with value by leading with your content. Often times, we think an ad can only be run if it's immediately going to pay off in an opt-in or immediately going to pay off in a purchase. That's not the case. In fact, I often run ads that really have no larger goal in the immediate future than getting my page, my content, my face in front of my target audience. That's often the only immediate goal I have, so sometimes that will mean driving traffic to a video that's around Facebook. I'm not even driving traffic away from Facebook. I'm just driving them to value or driving them to a text only post or an image post. Again, right on Facebook that I want them to engage with. Or run an ad to a piece of content like this episode. It really is just about putting the content and the value in front of my target audience, so that when I follow that up with a pitch for a webinar or an opt-in of some kind of a membership trial or just straight up Backstage or whatever it is the next step is for that person. It's not the first time they've seen me. It really is that simple guys. So, your immediate goal to not have to be, "I'm going to get an opt-in. I'm going to make a sale." Your immediate goal can simply be brand awareness and the best, best, best way to establish brand awareness. The best way to build credibility and get those good feels from the people who are seeing your content. Give them value. We talk about value a lot. We talk about content and focusing on giving. But, this is a prime example of where that may cost you a little. That's okay. Honestly, I love running small budget ads to a look-a-like audience for content. I'll run an ad for an episode of Hit the Mike TV. We do weekly Facebook lives and we call it into my TV and I'll actually boost that post and target that to a look-a-like audience. Especially with the new custom audiences. Based on the people who watched a certain percentage of the video originally. Yeah. You can do that. It's a really, really powerful way for me to get the exact same people who are already enjoying content ... More people like them. So, I can actually drive views to a video. Often my videos will have some kind of call to action, so that may net me an opt-in to something or a purchase or something. But, more often than not. You know what it does definitely net me? A like on the page, a comment I can engage with, and touch point. Those touch points are valuable. We've talked a lot about touch points and the process of sales and it takes seven touches for somebody to really respond to something. In the land of the two second attention spans that touch point has increased, so find ways you can interact with people. You could have those touch points that are filled with value and ads to content, ads to value, ads for the sake of brand recognition are a powerful first step. Okay. Maintaining Your Organic Content Number two, don't forget to support any ads you're running, that are for something that's got an immediate goal of an opt-in or a purchase. Be sure you're supporting that with really good solid organic content. Now, when I say organic content I mean content you are not paying to get in front of somebody. I don't mean, "Oh, I need to have six pieces of my blog content go out today, because I'm running an ad for this challenge." That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying a good mixture ... Yeah, some of it's also going to be promo for that challenge, especially if you're running those ads as dark posts. Well, double especially if you're just boosting post. If you're running an ad campaign, I'm hoping some of them are dark posts, but promo posts, content posts,  your content strategy that you usually have for your Facebook page needs to still be executing. Don't say, "Oh, I'm running this ad campaign, so I either need to do one of two things." These are the two major mistakes I see people make. They go to one way, which is, "I'm not going to post anything on page, because I'm spending time creating my ads and I forget about it," in most cases. Or they go the other way and it's, "Oh, I need to sale, sale, sale, sale, sale to support the ad campaign." No, keep it business as usual with a little extra. Meaning a little extra may be some of that promo stuff. A little extra maybe an extra push to content, because your content has an opt-in on it for that same challenge, because remember these pieces of our digital marketing plan they all work together, so our content is supporting whatever ad campaign we're running. Make sure those things are all supporting each other. Now, some of you are going, "Well, obviously because I run ads all the time. I couldn't just turn my page off." But, there's some of you who only run ads from time to time and what I'm seeing a lot and what I'm having in conversations with some of these people are they're forgetting the organic side of things. So, do not leave that real estate abandoned. Keep it business as usual. You got to be providing the content. You got to be sharing the other people's content. You got to be doing the promo. You got to, got to, got to support that foundation. Because here's the thing, if you're running an ad to a cold audience they may take a step before they click the link and go over to your landing page. What they may do is actually click on your name or your page name and go check out who you are on Facebook. They may want to see some credibility factor right there on Facebook before they click this link into lala land. How many times have you done that? I do a lot when I get an ad to a company I've never heard of before, because I want to know what their vibe it. Is this legit? Make sure you're taking some time to reassure that that credibility is going to be there. Okay? Short-Term Social Media Number three, this month inside of Hit the Mike Backstage if you haven't yet checked this out we've got the short-term social media strategy training. This is all about adding to your strategy or building your strategy for those short-term pieces of social now. We've got Facebook stories. We've got Instagram stories. We've got Snapchat stories. It means looking at how those fit into your social. One of things I really like about this and we talk about this in the Backstage training, so again, check that out because it's really cool. This is your chance to connect as a person. By as a person, I don't mean you have to be a personal brand for this to be well executed. In fact, I really encourage you to look at some of the massive brand stories that happen on Snapchat and happen on Instagram because they're executing at a really high level telling some really cool stories in a way that allows us to actually ... Ready for this? Connect with them. There's a personality even if it's not a person. Back to my rant here. This short-term stuff really allows us to connect with that personality. See those behind the scenes, invest in the experience that's happening in this business and in this company. It allows us to really get connected with the message, with the brand, with the soul of what's going on in a really tactical connected, shifting into that community mindset kind of way. That's why I love this short-term social stuff. Now, if you are somebody who's a personal brand. I know a lot of you are. Maybe you're an info entrepreneur where you're talking about health coaching or business coaching or life coaching or relationship coaching or career coaching and it's your name on the letterhead in the sense that you are a personal brand. A lot like I am here at The Stacey Harris. Those stories become exponentially more valuable, because guess what? Your community they don't want your brand personality. They straight up want you. They want to see what you're doing, how you're running your business, how you're executing that new health routine. They want to see what's going on. You know? Recently, there's a really great example of this happening in a long-term strategy way, but also in a short-term strategy. There's a personal trainer named Michael Canty who is on YouTube. He has a brand called On the Regimen. He's fantastic at executing this kind of thing. He, right now, is working on a cut situation meaning he's cutting calories. He's at a deficit. He's trimming up further for summer, because he wanted to. Not only did he make a YouTube video about this he's been sharing it on his YouTube channel. If you follow him on Snapchat you'll actually see kind of like what's he's eating, what he's doing. He is showing that he's living this. He's showing the good, the bad, and the ugly. He's showing the, "I'm hungry and being on a deficit sucks." He's showing the, "This is fantastic I cut and I feel good." Whatever. He's actually making his community a part of that experience, which not only connects you with him as a person. Not only reminds you, "Hey, he knows what he's doing, because he's telling me all of these things. He's establishing his expertise." But, he's also connecting with you. "He gets what I'm trying to do. He gets what I want to do. He gets how this feels. He get when this sucks. I'm going to be able to say, "This sucks," and I'll know that he understands that." That is valuable. Stories allow you to do that in a really cool way. Don't forget your voice. Stories, whether it's Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram, they allow you to connect in a way we're not seeing in a whole lot of other places. So, that's a fit for your brand and I'm guessing it is. It's just might be a way bit about changing how you execute it. Make sure you're looking at is as make sure you go over and watch that training inside of Hit the Mike Backstage. That's it. That's our three things for this month. If you have any questions, any time at all, head over to the website, TheStaceyHarris.com. Ask them there. Even better, come check out the private community inside of Hit the Mike Backstage. Because of course, you can ask questions there anytime. All right. I will see you very soon. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to Episode 346 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. So Facebook launched stories much like we've seen on Snapchat for a longer time now and Instagram for quite a while now. We now have the option to share stories on Facebook and so today I wanted to have a little bit of a conversation around this idea of short-term content and its value in our overall marketing plans. Where does this content fit in our big-picture strategy? Does it really hold any value for us from a marketing perspective if it disappears? Goes away so quickly. 24 hours is not that long of a time obviously. So let's talk about that. And I encourage you to come into the private community on Backstage and share your thoughts, especially as we go into next week. while on May 1st you guys will get access to the full training on how to use this stuff and how to make this stuff work for you. We'll do a quick Snapchat review on there, quick Instagram review on there. Facebook stories review and we'll have some training on how to create content once and share it to the multiple channels in a way that makes sense. If that's something you want to do so check that out. I wanted to talk about this kind of theoretically today, kind of strategically how does this fit? So, first of all it's got to be more than marketing messages. Just like with any other channel the same rules apply when it comes to not being all sales, all promo, all the time. And I think that's one of the big mistakes we're seeing people make right now is there is a ton of actual promo content coming through those channels because the promo does disappear. So every day your posting on Instagram stories or Snapchat or Facebook stories or wherever it is that is your medium of choice and saying, "Don't forget to join this program. Don't forget to join ... " XYZ and that's kind of all you're showing. And so, we need to make sure that we're mixing that in with personality. Behind the scenes, those kind of pieces that really prop up the promo so that when the promo does come I'm going, "Oh yes, totally. I want in. Because I see the way he runs his business. I see the opportunity she has because of the things she's done. I see how he works with his team ... " Whatever it is for that business. So look at how you can make it, again, more than marketing, more than promo and more than sales messages, so that you're really connecting with the community. Obviously, that's what we want to do with our social media overall but this becomes a little easier to forget when we talk about short-term content. On the flip-side of that, you've got to choose the right space. You don't need to be on all three. Use the one that makes sense for your community. For example, a lot of you might be looking at Facebook stories and thinking, "Great, yes here's another option for me to show this content." However, I know that I'm not supposed to promote my business on my profile. I'm supposed to do it on my page. And so, I don't have a lot of business community connections there. I've got my colleagues who are not an ideal fit for my customers or I've got just friends and family and obviously they are not my customers. So why would I post content there? The answer to that is ... don't. If it doesn't make sense to you to use that tool because your audience is not there, don't use it. Don't freak out about having to use these tools because they're there. Use the ones that make sense. I'm seeing this a lot, a lot with Snapchat/Instagram. A lot of you said, "Why am I trying to build this audience on Snapchat? Why am I trying to move the needle there when my audience is already on Instagram, loves Instagram, it's their first open ... I'm going to use Instagram." And you guys are seeing a lot of success with Instagram stories and that's powerful. And that is a really good example of using the network where your audience is. Not to say your audience isn't also on Snapchat, not to say that Instagram stories has replaced Snapchat ... I use both. I drive engagement with my community and growth to my business with both but that's because that works for me. Doesn't mean it's going to work for everybody. So look at where your audience is when you're making these decisions. So we know our network and we know we want us do stuff besides promo but what is that stuff besides promo? What is that other content? I mentioned really briefly earlier behind-the-scenes stuff. That I think is the most popular stuff I do. I get a lot of engagement when I show behind-the-scenes of recording podcasts like this or recording trainings for the Backstage community or when we're doing office hours and also highlight something and say, "Hey, don't forget we're doing office hours." Or working away on projects or planning. I did some strategic planning at the beginning of April, end of March and I shared that on Snapchat and I shared them on Instagram stories and it allowed people to kind of connect. What I'm actually finding is I'm using Facebook stories a lot more as my same sort of ... "It disappears, oh how fun," short-term stuff but that's more casual. It's more friends and family because I can. The people who I'm connected with on Facebook are friends. Granted they're business friends mostly but they are the relationships I've built in Masterminds and coaching opportunities and with clients etc. So again, I'm sharing behind-the-scenes of my life there. So looking at behind-the-scenes content. I also really like sharing those actual tips that maybe don't make sense anywhere else. I don't want to record a podcast that day because maybe it's not enough content for a whole episode and it just came in up in a coaching call and I just really sort of want to share it with you guys. I love Snapchat and Instagram stories for that. Absolutely love it. It's such a quick way for me to say "Hey, you guys need to know this. This is coming up all day on client calls, coaching clients this question came up all over again and in Backstage," whatever it is, "You guys need to hear this. Here it is." And that's been really powerful for me. So look at ways you can do exactly that. Share quick tips, share behind-the-scenes. I think especially for those of us who have home offices, there is a whole lot of desire to see other people's home offices. It's a thing. It's a nerdy thing guys, for real, but it's a thing. I love on Instagram seeing people's desks and their workspaces and the way they do the hustle, the way they do their work. And so, I have a lot of fun with that. So I'll share that behind-the-scenes kind of stuff too and like I say, that stuff always gets me watching when I watch it from other people too. 'Cause it kind of lets you into their world in a way we don't normally, we don't normally see it. So look at ways you can share content. The last thing I want to talk about from a content perspective is the importance of call-to-action though. Remember, this content does expire in 24 hours. As much as we don't want to be all promo all the time, we still need to occasionally be promo. We do occasionally need to tell people exactly what we want them to do next. Maybe that's to send you a message, maybe that's to click a link, maybe that's to check out a program, listen to a piece of content, take action on something you shared in a tip. Whatever that is, when the content expires, when the content moves so quickly, when the content very quickly jumps from you right to the next person and you're totally out of my mind, it's more critical, it's more important, it's more valuable than ever to have that call-to-action, be clear, be concise and be strong. No sort of, "Yes and if you want to know more there's I guess a link in my ... like my bio may- ... " No. "Your next step is to check the link in the bio, that's where the ... " XYZ is. It's got to be clear, concise and strong. And it's got to be there with some consistency. Because again, this stuff disappears. So make sure you are balancing in, this is a marketing tool and this is how you want to share this stuff. For some of you, this may be just a support piece to the content you share on Instagram and so, in your actual sort of gallery-style posts on Instagram, that's where you have your strong sales calls action messages and your stories are just behind the scenes fun stuff. That's cool. That doesn't mean you can't also use that space to say, "Here's the deal, come check this out, this is what we're doing." Utilize those calls to action. Make sure you're ... again, you're telling people exactly what you want them to do, exactly where they need to go to do it and I'm really excited because Instagram is going to start making this easier. Verified users can do it already, they can actually have a link in the story. I'm really excited to see that roll out more widely. I would love to see Snapchat integrate something like that, I don't know if it's going to happen. Snapchat is honestly going to have to do something soon to snap back, no pun intended. I think that's going to come very quickly and we'll see what it is but I'm hoping that this linked content idea is how it looks. So definitely make sure that you have your calls to action because the networks are making it easier for us to execute those in a really, really simple way. All right? So we talked about content, we talked about networks, we talked a little more about calls to action in our content. Remember on May 1st the new training inside of Backstage would be available. You'll find it in the most recent area that morning and of course you'll get an email in your inbox saying that it's ready. And you can come ask questions anytime inside of Hit the Mic Backstage in the private community, just hit that community button. If you're not yet a member, what are you waiting for? HittheMicBackstage.com is the place to be. It is the next step to take action on all the cool stuff we talk about in this show and learn like way, way more too 'cause it's got all the things right when it happens. All right? I will see you backstage and of course right here next Tuesday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 327 of Hit The Mic with the Stacey Harris. Today, I want to talk about three things you need to know about your business. As we sort of refresh for the new year, and as we close up this year, there are a few things that sometimes in the course of running our business we forget, we don't give stock to. Today, I want to cover those three things. It's going to be a short, quick one, because I want you to take action on this stuff. Again, I want you to make sure you're sitting down and evaluating these pieces, because they will feed into all of the stuff we talk about in literally every other episode. Certainly going into some of the episodes we're going to have in January, I want you guys to have these foundations in place of knowing this stuff. It's easy to say, "I'm in year two, three, seven, ten. Of course I know this stuff." Are these choices the same as they were the day you made them the first time? Are you in the same place? Are you aligned with the people who you're talking to now? All of those things. Let's jump in. Okay, so the first thing I want you to know about your business is what are your goals? What are you doing? What are you building? Why are you building it? I don't just mean this from a, "Oh, I want to make a million dollars," or, "Oh, I want a six-figure business," or whatever variation of that you're hearing all over the place right now. What I'm talking about is your lifestyle goals, the impact you want to have on the world, those goals. The time you want to spend with your friends and family, those goals. The time off you want to take, the trips you want to take, where you want to live, what you want your life and your business to look like, those goals. Because what you are doing right now may not serve them. This is something that I came face to face with really early in my business. It was the cause of a lot of change. I've ran into it a couple times. When I first opened my first business, which was a virtual assistant practice. About a year into that I realized that the business I had created wasn't at all aligned with my goals. Then, I evolved and I started Hit The Mic Marketing, which is of course now The Stacey Harris. Again, I ran into a situation where doing what I was doing was not aligned with the goals I had for my life. I was never going to hit my income goals in that business model. I evolved further into The Stacey Harris, and now I've got Hit The Mic Backstage, and we do consulting on a much more limited basis, because it allows me to take the time. We're putting staff in place for next year, so that again, Charles and I can both take the time to be fully unplugged and still supporting our community and still generating revenue and still doing what we need to do to keep the train a-moving, if you will. Look at your goals. What are your goals and does your business model serve it? Does your pricing serve it? Because you might find a disconnect. You may have had a really successful year on paper when you talk money, but were you happy with your business? Is it aligned with the goals for what you want? Pay attention to that. Number two, clients. Yes, this one's a really important one. Unfortunately, it's one of those ones that sometimes we skip over. In the interest of hitting those financial goals, we will set aside, we will lower the priority of some of the more focused projects on our goals and who we want to work with, and how we want to serve them in the interest of it being a really great payday, it being a really big spike in our revenue. I want you to make sure that you are still serving the people you want to serve. For me, this meant shifting ... This was a big reason behind the push of Hit The Mic Backstage. I had certain revenue goals, but I also had a very specific group I wanted to serve. I want to be able to serve the people who couldn't afford to bring on a strategist, who couldn't afford to have a strategy custom-built for them, who couldn't afford to be losing hours every month trying to figure out, on their own, what they needed to be doing and what they needed to be paying attention to. I created Backstage so I could save people time, so I could save people money, and so I could serve the people who needed it most, and often have the hardest time affording it, which is those people who are in the first one to five years of their business. Make sure that what you're doing is serving the people who you want to serve. Now again, those aren't my only clients. We have clients who are much further along in their businesses, and that's who we do consulting for, and we've done some consulting for start-ups and things like that. I love those projects. They're so much fun, but I also like being able to serve that first group. We have different sets of offerings, and we have different parts of our business that serves those different communities. Again, we're able to serve the people we want to serve in the way that they need us, and we're also able to hit those revenue goals. You're seeing how these are kind of tying in together. Look at who your clients are. Again, not just, and I talk about this all the time, not just the name, rank, serial number stuff, but who are they? What do they need from you? Why are they looking to you? Where else are they looking? What are they not getting when they're looking at those other places? What are the things that you know about them that they don't know about themselves? By that I mean the stuff that you solve, that missing piece that they just can't find. What's that thing? Because that's what they need, and that's what they need you to talk to them about. Pay attention to those clients. Wrap up this three things episode, I want you to revisit your what. What exactly is it you do? I was actually asked this recently, and I was like, "I don't know how to talk about it anymore." I always say I'm a social media strategist and trainer, which is what I am, but that's not what I do. What I do is I help people build communities that build their business. That's what I do. Look at what it is you do, and is it clear? Does anybody but you know what you do? Do you know what you do? Look at that what. That what is also going to bleed into those offerings. Like I talked about the reason we launched and structured Hit The Mic Backstage. That came ... That was a big look at our goals and our clients, and then figuring out what it is we needed to do to serve them, and what it was we needed to create to serve them. Your what is very much so going to be you offerings. What are you launching next year? What are you selling? How are you serving those people that need you, those clients that we talked about in the second piece. How does that set you up to reach those goals when we talked about the first piece, because again, we want to make sure that those offerings, that what serves not just our financial goals, but our lifestyle goals, our overall business development goals. Make sure that checks all the boxes previously mentioned. Take some time and look at your what. What problems are you solving? What it is you do. It's so important. All right? All right, that's it. Just to recap quickly, look at your goals, look at your clients, and look at your what. It's going to be really, really helpful going into 2017, especially if right now you're hearing a lot of people talk about their plans, and what they're going to do, and they're going to roll this out and [fa-da-la-la-la 00:08:48]. You're like, "I don't know." Take a step back and look at these things. If you get disconnected over the course of 2017, or 2018, or whenever it is that you're listening to this, make sure that you step back to these things and get clear. Come back to center and go, "Oh, yeah, this is it. This is my goals. This is who I serve. This is how I serve them. This is what I do." It's always really helpful when you start to feel like you're getting too far left, okay? All right, if you want to go even further, you want to connect with me, you want to connect with the community, the logical next step to upgrading your podcast experience is joining us backstage. Check out HittheMicBackstage.com for all the details on what's inside of there, and of course to get connected to the community. I will see you backstage.   Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 326 of Hit The Mic with the Stacey Harris. All right guys, today we're going to talk about when free advice is bad for business. Now, I want to preface this by saying I am all about giving it away. I'm all about providing free value. That's why we've done 326 episodes of this show. That's why I do guest posts, and I appear on podcasts, and I do all sorts of stuff. I do free challenges, and webinars, and speak, and do workshops and things like that, because I'm all about making this simple, making this easy, and giving you exactly, exactly what you need. However, there is a time, there is a situations were free advice is detrimental to your business, and where asking for free advice can be detrimental for your business. That's in these situations. When someone with an expertise has hired you to provide a service, do not then ask them for advice. If you're a business coach, and your hairstylist is asking for business advice, or you are a graphic designer, and your landscaper wants logo advice, or if you are a copy-righter, and your masseuse wants copy advice, that's not okay. It's okay for you to say, "No." This is the situation I'm running into more and more and more frequently, where in person, I'll meet someone, I will be using their services, they'll ask me what I do, I will tell them what I do. Then, they proceed to ask for social media advice. Or, I will have hired someone to do something in the business, and we will be working together, and they will ask me to, "Just real quick, did you hear about whatever? What should I do about that?" Here is the deal, the person paying is the person receiving the service, not the person getting paid. Make sure when you're providing a service that you're providing the service, nothing more, nothing less. You're certainly not asking the person, the customer, for free advice. Make sure if you're the customer in this situation, that you are setting the boundaries and standing up for your value. Just because you happen to be sitting in their chair, or in their office, or wherever, or on the phone with them, doesn't mean that you have to answer whatever's being asked. Now, don't just ignore it. That's pretty awkward, but be really clear that that's not okay. This has happened to me a lot recently. We moved to Southern California recently. I've been going to a lot of like consults to keep the hair pink, and getting a new trainer, and a new massage therapist, and a new nail tech, and new lash person, and all of the things I need to look like me. I've been re-finding those service providers. Inevitably we have the conversation of what do I do? Then, inevitably the conversation rolls into, "Did you hear about this? What do I do about that? How could I? What do you suggest?" It becomes very quickly, if the boundaries are not laid out, and I have learned this from this going badly once or twice, and not setting the boundaries, into me giving them a consult for however long the rest of my appointment is, which is sometimes line an hour. Which, if you know me, to book a one-on-one hour with me is $297 at the time of this recording. For me to be paying you X amount of dollars to do this for you is a bit counter-productive to my business plan. I learned that I really have to set the boundary. To do that I don't have to be like, "I'm not answering your question, screw off." Although, I have had to do that too. I give them a resource. Somebody texts me and says, "Hey, how do I XYZ?" I go, "You know, this is the exact kind of questions I answer inside of Hit The Mic Backstage. You should check that out." That's the end of the conversation, I don't say anything else. In some situations, I can point them to a piece of content. "Hey we talked about it on the podcast, here's a link." This is happening not just to me, and that's why I wanted to talk about this. This is happening to all kinds of people whose value, whose offering is information, is their expertise. Sometimes it's easy to forget that our information, our knowledge, our expertise has value, has dollar and cents value. We can forget that, because if you're anything like me, sometimes you think that just because you know it, that means everybody knows it, because heck, I'm not that smart, so everybody probably knows this stuff. Well, guess what? Everybody doesn't. Not because they're stupid, and not because you're extra smart, but because we all have different expertises. Don't let that allow you to stop making money in your business. Because guess what? When we don't establish these boundaries, when we don't say, "Here's how you can get that information," we undervalue our product, because we are our product. We undervalue the investment that our paying customers are making in us. We're also filling up our world with a whole lot of people who are never going to pay us and who are going to keep asking questions, so set the boundaries. Give them a resource. You have a ton of content on your website. You have a ton of content on your social. You have some place in your mind you have resources you send people that aren't yours that may answer that question. Use those. Use those to establish the boundaries of you not going down that rabbit hole and answering those questions right then. You are the one that's responsible for this. Recently, I had a situation where somebody texted me who ... Somebody who provides me a service texted me and asked me a question. I texted him back and I said, "The best way to get to the answer to that is to check out Hit The Mic Backstage." In thinking about it, I realized that this is partially my fault, because in the course of our conversations, yes, I had said initially that this was something that drove me crazy, but I had also here and there given business advice, given content marketing advice, given social media advice. I had lured this person into believing that they could utilize me as a free resource. They could use me as Google. I take full responsibility for that, but it's a prime example and a great reminder that we're responsible for our boundaries. We are responsible for establishing them, and we are responsible for enforcing them, not the person trying to test them, us. I had to back up and solidify why this was inappropriate and make sure it doesn't happen again. We'll see if it happens again. If it happens again, it's on them and not me. You have to decide where your boundaries are, and you have to decide how you're going to enforce them. Again, knowing in your mind, "Hey, this is a piece of content, this is, you know. I've done X amount of blog posts, podcasts, interviews, whatever. Check those out." It's going to depend on what the question is, but you need to be ready to say, "No, I'm not answering that." "Hey, yeah, I would love to discuss your content marketing plan. Here's how you book a session with me and we can absolutely do that." "I would love to help you review your website design. Here's how you book a consult session with me." "I would love to help you figure out the sales copy for your sales page. This is how my clients work with me." "I would love to help you figure out your sales funnel. Here is some content I wrote over at this great website talking all about sales funnels." Your knowledge, your expertise, that's your value. That's the investment your paying clients are making. Protect it, okay? That, that is where free advice is bad for business. Now, I'm not saying stop doing blog posts, and content, and stop answering questions, and stop doing Q and A's, and stop answering questions on social, or on Facebook groups, or wherever. That's great. It helps lots of people. It's a great way to showcase your value. It's a great way to showcase your knowledge. It's absolutely okay to give everything away for free, but when it does the most good and where it has the biggest impacts. Not in a one to one text conversation, or a quick Facebook message, or an email, or in an appointment sitting in somebody else's chair where you're paying them. That is when it's okay to just say, "I'm not answering that." Okay? That's where it's okay to set your boundary. That is, again, your responsibility. Now, I know this one was a little ranty, but it's been happening a lot to me since I got to California, in finding all my new people, because my old people didn't do this, because they knew me and they respected me. This may not be something that happens to you all the time. It may be something that happens to you from time to time. Or, you may be sitting there going, "Thank you, Stacey. Let me send this to everyone I know." Either way, I wanted to put out this reminder. I wanted to make sure people knew this wasn't okay, and that it's okay for you to not think it's okay. If you are somebody who has done this, take this as a lesson. Don't do it again, for the love of Pete. All right? If you want a place where you can connect with other people who may be feeling the same way, if you want a resource to ask social media questions, to use someone like Google, check out HittheMicBackstage. That's what it's there for. I will see you backstage. Bye.   Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 317 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. Let's talk podcasting. I get a lot of questions about podcasting, especially now that we're 300, now 317 episodes into the show which apparently means I know stuff. One of the most common hurdles for podcasters, or wannabe podcasters rather, is what to talk about. That's what we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about the 3 things you must know about choosing a podcast topic because A, it is not as difficult as you think it is and B, I want you to stop using this as an excuse to no hit record on a podcast because that's what some of you guys are doing. I know things. Let's talk about choosing a podcast topic and let's jump right in. I want to keep this episode pretty brief because I want you guys to be taking action on it, so we're going to jump right in today. Number 1, what problem do you want to solve for your audience? What problem do they have that they are looking to you for? That could be inspiration, that could be understanding, that could be education, that could be training, that could be permission to take things less seriously. It could be a lot of things and I'm talking in sort of a grand scale. In the abstract at a really, really bird's eye level, what problem are you trying to solve? This might be the problem your trying to solve in your business in a lot of other ways, but now this podcast is how you manifest. For example, I have a podcast because a problem I want to solve is I want you guys to stop telling me you're dumb. I get a lot of I'm dumb when it comes to Twitter. I don't know anything about podcasting. I'm dumb when it comes to technology. I'm dumb when it comes to Facebook, and I hate it. Honestly. It drives me crazy because you're not dumb just because you don't know something. It just means you haven't learned it yet, and some stuff you don't have to know. That doesn't make you dumb, it just makes you focused, okay? That's the sort of grandiose problem I want to solve with this show. That leads to me doing 2 episodes a week answering questions in a way that's very driven by making you not feel dumb. Making you understand that you can figure this stuff out, that you don't have to know everything, and that it's okay to just learn it as you go or say forget it, I don't need to know it, because that's cool too. There are things in this world I have learned I do not need to know. I do not need to know a lot of things. I can't think of anything right now off the top of my head that isn't insane, but I don't need to know a lot of things. I don't need to know how my car works. I don't. I just want it to work. It's the joy of marrying a mechanic, I guess, because he can deal with those kind of things but I genuinely don't have any interest in knowing it, I don't have any need to know it, okay? There are things in my business I don't need to know. I don't need to know how the SEO on my site works. I know some, but I don't need to know it all. I A, have a plugin that gets me a lot of the way there, that helps with my limited knowledge. If I really, really want to amp up the SEO, I will hire someone who does know, because it's just not something I need to know. I do not need to know how to custom code my website because A, I have WordPress and B, I have developers. They know that stuff, okay? Social media, podcasting, that may be stuff you don't need to know a whole lot about, but that's the point of me doing this show is so that you don't feel dumb. You can get the minimum viable knowledge that you need, you can dive deeper if you want more than that minimum viable knowledge, or you can say, you know what? I can hire Stacey. I can hire somebody else who can take care of that for me, and that's okay. Number 1, what problem are you trying to solve? What are you trying to give your listeners. Number 2, who are your listeners? Who do you want listening to the show? Now for 9 and half out of 10 of you, it's going to be who you ultimately want to buy something in your business, but the important distinction to make is what section of you customer base do you want listening to your show? As an example, I don't tend to get a lot of consulting clients where I do large scale launch strategies and things like that through the podcast. Most of those people don't listen to this show. However, this is a primary way that people find out about and jump into Backstage. It's kind of your next logical step after listening to the podcast because it's the podcast plus, so to speak. It's the podcast where we dive deeper on all the things we talk about here and you get one-on-one attention from me in the Facebook group. You put profile in there, I do a profile review just for you. You ask for feedback, I give you feedback. It doesn't have to be that all of your clients will come from your podcast, but what section of your business do you want really to be fueled by your podcast? In a lot of ways, it's going to make the best sense if it's sort of your passive income or your one-to-many income kind of base. For a lot of podcasters, it's how they fuel their one-on-one business, their one-on-one coaching or one-on-one consulting. I know a few really successful health coaches and fitness coaches who have built, personal trainers, who have built their businesses through podcasting, through sharing their information because they're able to really showcase their expertise, but also give people an insight into their personality and who they are and how they talk and how they work and all of that through their show. People can feel really connected to them and then it's a logical next step to hire them. Get really clear on who you want listening. Not just age, rank, and serial number kind of stuff, not just like, "Oh well she's a 25 year old female and she's a stay-at-home mom." That is not an ideal listener profile anymore than it's an ideal client profile. I spoke at an event in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago now, a month ago now, 6 weeks ago now, something like that, in October. It's November now. In October. Somebody asked about their ideal clients and where they should be spending time on social and I said ... Where they should be spending time on social to connect with their clients and I asked who their ideal clients were. They said shallow middle-aged women who don't want to get old. I was like, "Well let me just raise my hand, dear." Then I asked her what middle-aged was. She said, I don't know, like 30 to 65. I was like, "First of all, not middle aged. That's all adult women." Almost all adult women. That's super general. That's really hard targets, impossible to figure out what kind of content to create, who to speak to, how often to do your show, sponsors, all of that stuff when you talk about a range that large. Get really specific. Who are they? What else are they listening to? What magazines do they subscribe to? What websites do they check out? What email lists are they on? What experts are they paying attention to in your space and in spaces around yours? Get really, really ridiculously clear on who do you want listening to the show? Number 3, what we're going to wrap it up with is where does this podcast fit in your overall business model? Again, that's going to tell you a lot about what you should be talking about when you think about, okay, where does this fit? Again, I don't talk about a ton of really, super, high-level big business kind of tactics and tools here because although my consulting clients are going to be interested in that stuff, they're not listening to this show. For most of the people listening to this show, they're trying to figure it out. They're trying to DIY it. They're trying to work with their new social media manager. They're trying to grow their business. They're trying to really support their micro-business in social media, on social media, and use it as a tool for that so what I talk about is different because I'm feeding into the Backstage part of my business model, not the high-level consulting. Not even, honestly, our social media management arm of the business. Those clients don't come through the podcast. They come through referral, they come through networking events, they come through social, but they don't come through the podcast. I know where this fits into my overall marketing funnel and into my overall business model. As sort of heartless as that sounds, It's critical because it's impossible to serve everyone all the time with your content. When you get clear on who you're talking to, what problem you solve for them, and where you're trying to move them to in your business, where in your business you can help them even more, it gets really easy to pick your topic, it's really easy to build your editorial calendar. Start with those 3 things and it's going to make all the difference as you move forward in really understanding what it is you talk about on your podcast week after week, month after month, year after year, all right? All right, if you want to learn more about launching your podcast, if you're ready to shift from idea to actual podcast, I've got 2 things to tell you. We've got a brand new podcast training that we just launched this month. It's totally free. You can find it over at TheStaceyHarris.com/Podcast. Also there is a gear list inside of there, as in I'm talking about all the gear you need to start and run your show. It's not as much as you think it is. Also, we've got inside of Hit the Mic Backstage, the 5 module Rock Star Guide to Podcasting program where I actually teach you from start to finish how to record, edit, and launch your podcast, whether you're a PC user or a Mac user. Also check that out. That's all inside of Backstage, so $40 a month. You can join us for as long as you need it. If you do check out the free training, though, there might be a 7 day, $1 trial for Backstage, and by might I mean there definitely is. Check that out if you want to give it a try, if you want to see if it's a fit for you. If you love, you stay in, fantastic. It's not a fit, you cancel, no hard feelings, we're all good, okay? All right. I will see you backstage and I will see you on Tuesday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Free Launch Your Podcast Training Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to episode 308 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. All right guys. It's 308 and today we're going to talk about online summits. Humblebrag here. I get asked to do a lot of these online summits, virtual summits where an organizer brings together 5, 10, 15, 50, it just depends on the summit, experts in their industries and does video interviews, audio interviews, and then offers them sometimes for free, sometimes paid, but usually the ones I get asked to be a part of are a free short term thing and then there's a paid upgrade, so you can get the recordings or extended trainings or something like that. Here's the deal. They're really common. I notice they're making a resurgence now. They had gone down a little bit in frequency, I noticed, for a while, and they seem to be coming back. They can be really valuable, both from a listener participant perspective as well as a host perspective, as well as a guest expert perspective. They can be, in some situations, so today I want to talk about if they're worth it or if they're a waste of time. I really want to talk about that in three ways. We're going to start with from a participant perspective, then we're going to talk about from a host perspective and then we're going to talk about it from a guest expert perspective because it really does have different checklists for each one on whether it's worth it for you or not. I want you to realize that all of the things that I mention here, all of the things that I talk about in this space, these are my opinions and it's not the case of every summit, good or bad. Be cautious whenever you go into these situations where you're going to be partnering with someone, or where you're going to be learning from someone, or where you're going to be bringing people in because that is a representation of your brand. Remember to evaluate these situations on a case by case basis, but let's dive in. Cool? Okay, so first we'll talk about as a participant, online summits, worth it or a waste of time? It depends. Yes, that's going to be the answer for all of them, but it depends. They can be worth it if, big if, you have the time and there's something specific you're trying to learn. I think in your first, I don't know, definitely in your first year, maybe in your first two or three years, depending on how you're moving through your business and what space you're in, it can be really easy to fall into a habit of literally saying "yes" to everything when it comes to learning. Every free program, every free opt-in, every free eBook, and maybe even a lot of paid programs and paid summits and paid downloads and things like that. It can get really easy to be like, "I need to do all the things so that I can be successful because so and so is doing this and they're teaching so they must have it all figured out. I've got to do it. It's the only answer." I want you to really pullback on that because there legit is such a thing as too much information. There is absolutely such a thing as too much info and here's the deal. A lot of that information is useless not because it's bad information, not because the people who are teaching it are trying to pull one over on you, but because you spend so much time in this cycle of consumption that you're not taking action. Make sure that you are consuming information that's actually going to move you forward because you can take action on it. Before you sign up for another online summit, make sure that there are people who you respect participating and there is content you actually need to learn and implement right now and if there's not, but maybe there's this one training and you were like, "I just know at some point that information's going to be valuable," here's the deal. That information, it's going to roll back around. When you need it, it'll show up and if not, then make a note of the person and when you're ready, search them out, but yeah, you don't have to consume all of it. It really does depend. Now, on the flip side, maybe you open up this online summit email from either the host or one of the participants who's promoting it and you're like, "This is absolutely exactly what I've been looking for. I am so glad I got this email. Thank you universe for this showing up in front of me this week." Sign up, add the times to your calendar, treat it with the respect you would give an in person event, show up, engage, and then take action on it. Schedule a time to actually implement the things you learn, identify the sessions that you actually need to go to, schedule that. Schedule all of it and treat it like you would an event of any other kind because that's where these things are actually valuable. That's where these things actually move the needle, make a difference in your business, is when you use it, when you take action on it, and so as a participant, online summits, worth it or a waste of time? It mostly depends on you. I know, it sucks, but the ball's in your court on this one. Take it on a case by case basis and make sure there's something that you actually need to use and then make sure you use it, okay? Number two, online summit, worth it or a waste of time to host? Here's the thing. I've never hosted an online summit for one very important reason. They are a tonne of work. Like, a tonne of work when you do them right. Meaning, you research and get the best of the best experts that you can, when you have a clear idea of who you're serving and what you're doing, when you have a really solid marketing plan that you have the money to execute and the time to execute. They're a tonne of work. They're like launching any other kind of event. They're like launching any other kind of product, really, and so make sure that you are ready for that. Yes, they can do amazing things to grow your list. Yes, they can do amazing things to grow your revenue, depending on the structure of it, but they're also a big investment on your part. Time and money wise. Be ready for that because it's something that I think not enough hosts go into online summits being aware of and I have participated in some where the host was totally ready for that and full on knocked it out of the ballpark. They did a fantastic job and I've been a part of some online summits where both as a participant and as a guest expert, ball was majorly dropped because they just weren't ready for what it was going to take to put something like that together. Be ready. It can absolutely be worth it as long as you give it the time, energy, and money you would the launch of anything else. That's key. Again, it depends. I know it's frustrating to hear that but it does. If you're thinking about hosting it, have a really clear reason why you want to host it, what you want to get out of it, what you want to deliver, and then, map it out like any other launch. Get the help you need, get the resources together you need, start inviting people. I always suggest starting with your network. I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever ... Yeah, I've never participated in a summit and I don't participate in many, but I've never even given half a thought to participating in one where I didn't have some relationship with the host, whether I'd been on their podcast or we know each other through a networking event or whatever it was, they were a client, I was a client, something like that. Tap your network first, get the best of the best, lay out your plan, do it right. Give it the attention it needs. Number three, and our final spot, and what I suspect most of you want to hear. Online summits worth it or a waste of time, to be a guest expert? Guess what, guys? It depends. I know. I know. You now want to chuck whatever it is you're listening to this podcast on right out the window but it really does depend. For me, the deciding factor always comes down to three things. Is it the right audience? Do I have some sort of relationship and respect for the host? Is there space on my promotional calendar? I get asked to do a lot of these where it just runs into something else I'm doing, either a big push for either my Backstage, or I'm already promoting something else through an affiliate setup or I am chilling in my audience because I have just launched something or I'm gearing up to launch something on the another side. A lot of them just run into scheduling conflicts. That's why flashing back to if you're going to host one, start asking people early because they need to know. I get a lot of these emails where people are going to do it next month, like they're throwing together this summit and it's like, "No. My promo calendar for next month is already figured out." Be aware of that as a host, but if you're seeing these invites and you're like, "I don't know where that would go but I really want to do it because of the exposure," because it's always about the exposure, then no, the answer is it's not going to be worth it because you're not going to be able to give it the energy to promote it, you're not going to be able to give it the space to promote it and you will always feel rushed and crowded by it. That's just not a good place to lead from from a sales perspective. However, if you're saying, "Yeah, this fits perfectly in this window where I didn't know what I was going to do and this is going to be great exposure, I totally respect the host, it's dead on as my audience," then absolutely. Then do it. It can be a great way to grow your list, it can be a great way to share value, it can be a great way to maybe make some affiliate revenue, again, depending on what the model is, and it can be a really great way for you to practice. Not so much practice, so much execute the presenting of your materials, especially if you want to be a speaker or you want to get into podcasting, or you want to get into doing webinars. This can be a great way to get comfortable doing exactly that, trying material, trying on timing, things like that. Be aware of that because it might be a no brainer yes, it might be totally worth it. Again, for me, it comes down to having a relationship with a host, having the room on my promo calendar and knowing without a doubt that it's my audience. I think that that third one is the most important. Is this audience going to be filled with the people who you want to be talking to? On the flip side of that, because you're probably going to be asked to promote it to your list, are the people on your list a fit for this summit? Because if they're not, you might have a hard time. I do have a segment of my list that I sometimes share this stuff with instead of my entire list because maybe I'll have something else going on for the entirety of my list so that can be something that can be really valuable to do from a list segmentation perspective. Again, you have to be able to answer those three questions to find out whether it's going to be worth it or a waste of time for you. I've absolutely found there were summits that I hoped would be really fruitful and were a total waste of my time and then there have been summits that I've been a part of that were just awesome, they were fantastic. There was great value, there was a perfect audience, and it did great things for some targeted list growth and funneling to some specific offers I had. Again, with all three of these things, whether it's worth it or a waste of time is really up to you deciding on a case by case basis what your business needs are, what your business availability is, and what your schedule looks like. Okay? All right. I hope this was helpful. I would love to hear from you, so come on over to the Facebook page and let me know if you've been a part of a summit, if it was worth it, what your experience was, and I'd especially love to hear from those of you who have hosted them and the impact that that had on your business because again, I've never done one, because I just genuinely have zero desire to put that time commitment into one. Honesty, guys, that's what you get on this show. Also, if you haven't joined us yet, Hit The Mic Backstage, next Tuesday I'm doing a live training all around growing your list with free challenges. This is going to be a really killer training. I get this question so often, not just in the Backstage community, but from podcast listeners, talking about free challenges, how to run them, if they can be evergreen, if you have to run them live, how to market them, how long they should be, and we're going to cover all of that live, so you can get your questions answered as well next Tuesday. HitTheMicBackstage.com. Make sure you are there. It's going to be awesome, and full disclosure, you can literally cancel anytime. If you just want to check out this one training, come, join us, check out the training, see what else is in, enjoy 30 days in there, and then cancel. There is a button on the side in the menu that says "Manage Your Membership." You send us a note let us know that you want to cancel and it gets cancelled. It's really that easy. There's zero risk in being a part of it and you can get in for this really cool training. I'm so excited for this training. Okay, guys. I will see you on Friday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

Welcome to Episode 302 of Hit The Mic with the Stacey Harris. Hello, hello, Episode 302, and today we are talking about email marketing. There are a ton of email marketing tools to choose from, everything from MailChimp to ActiveCampaign to Infusionsoft and Ontraport and Mad Mimi and Constant Contact and all sorts of options. It can be a little overwhelming, how do you choose a tool and how do you know when it's time to change tools. That's what we're going to talk about today. Changing email marketing tools is something I have done a few times, more than I would like. If I had to do it all over again, I would have probably done it a tiny bit differently. That's the lessons I'm sharing with you today, so aren't we glad that I made those mistakes, right? Oh, they weren't really mistakes. They were just not the right tool for me long-term. Let's talk about what you need to consider when you are choosing an email marketing tool. Yes, budget's a factor, a small factor, but I want you to remember that cost alone should not make this decision. You also want to consider some other things. With that said, you need to get the best tool you can afford. I do not encourage you, in fact I actively discourage you from day 1 thinking Infusionsoft is the best option. Infusionsoft is not a bad option but it's not the best option ever. There are a lot of businesses, mine included, that function perfectly well without a tool like Infusionsoft or Ontraport where you have this whole collection of tools because for example, for me, I would use probably 5% of Infusionsoft because my business model doesn't need the other 95%. It's just the way it is. However, I know a lot of people who use and love and are obsessed with Infusionsoft and what it can do for their business. Here's the thing is there's not one right tool for everybody, but factor in your budget and then factor in a few other things we're going to talk about. The first thing besides budget and this is something that I really, really encourage you to look at is, what are your long-term goals? What do you want to be able to do with your email list? Meaning, do you want to have things like multiple lists and be able to send them different follow-up emails depending on which list they signed up to? By the way, the correct answer to that is "yes." Not all tools can do that. For example, Constant Contact only gives you 1 welcome email option, meaning when someone new signs up for your list, they get the same welcome email no matter what list they sign up for. That's a problem. If you want to have multiple welcome emails or multiple followup sequences, for example, depending on what you sign up for when you sign up for the VIP list which is my email list, you get a different follow-up sequence. If you sign up for the social media challenge, I'm delivering you something that if you sign up for a webinar or the Facebook ads campaign, you get something different in each of those cases. It doesn't make sense for there to be 1 follow-up option. If you want to have things like that down the road, you need to consider that. Do you prefer lists or tags? If you don't know what that means, then this might be worth having this conversation with somebody who does, whether that's a email marketing expert or a business coach or an email marketing virtual assistant or an online business manager, whatever, whoever the person is in your life. Honestly, maybe it's about talking to your accountability buddies or your mastermind and figuring out what tools they're using and why they love them. You got to think about what your goals are long-term. For me, I had always worked in lists. Okay, so I started with ... The first thing I ever used in any of my businesses was Constant Contact 5 years ago. I don't recommend Constant Contact for most people. I do have a client who still uses it, but I'm working on that, guys. Then I moved to AWeber which I enjoyed a lot until it wasn't doing what I needed it to do. Then I moved to Simplero which is a more robust system. It's got affiliates in it and things like that. Then I realized I could do what I needed to do in my business without a lot of those pieces. I didn't need the extra stuff. Like Infusionsoft, I just didn't need the extra pieces. Also, there is incredible automation and follow-up stuff in the tool I use now, which is ActiveCampaign. That automation and that follow-up sequence stuff really exceeded what Simplero could do at the time. I know Simplero has done a lot to update their ability with tags and automation sequences and things like that, so that's maybe not the case now. For me, ActiveCampaign is still where I call home. I've talked to the guys over at Infusionsoft a couple of times about whether I needed to move and everyone I've talked to there has been like, "You're not going to use 95% of our tool. Do you really want to go through changing?" The answer to that is, "No. No, I don't." ActiveCampaign is where I call home and will continue to call home for some time, I suspect. Again, those are based off my goals. Back in my Constant Contact and my AWeber days, I functioned very much so in lists, but because I do a lot more automation now and follow-up sequence and things like that, I like having a tool like ActiveCampaign where I do have some lists, for example, Hit The Mic Backstage members are not on the same list as my regular email list. Within my regular email list, everybody is tagged based on how they've engaged with my list and also how they got on my list. That's right. I can actually look at any person on my email list and tell you exactly how they got there. That's a really awesome part of tags. Again, you need to know how you're going to function best for the goals of your business. Again, automation, I come back to this. Are you going to need something like if-then situations and follow-up sequences? I've got automation sequences that go out to new Hit The Mic Backstage members, when you sign up that you get 4 emails over the course of your first 4 weeks in the membership talking about the different parts of the membership and where you could get the help that you need and where you can find the different tools that you're looking for and the opportunity to book one-on-one time with me if that's what you need. All of that's automated. I don't have to send an email to each new member. Whenever I'm looking for a tool, I know that that's got to be there. On the flip side, a lot of my sales happen via automation, so when you sign up for the VIP list, whether that's through the social media challenge or through the Facebook ads checklist, you get an opportunity to do a $1 7-day trial inside of Hit The Mic Backstage. There's now a follow-up sequence based on which response you choose. If you choose "yes," then you go down 1 path, and if you choose "no," then you go down another path. That automation piece is really important and really valuable from a sales perspective because if you don't say "Yes" when you initially get that offer, you sometimes say, "Yes" in the follow-up email or in a subsequent follow-up email because now I'm using automation to nurture that lead, grow trust, give you more value and really build that relationship. Again, that's possible because I have an automation set up. When you're talking about picking an email marketing tool, you want to make sure you're able to do things like that. You're also going to want to make sure that your deliverability is going to be solid. You want to make sure that you're using a tool that is well-respected, that is doing what it can to make sure that there's not any sort of foul play or black hat tricks that people are using. Sometimes it's frustrating to go through some of the hoops we have to go through as far as confirming our addresses and maybe getting another confirmation for emails we upload, depending on the tool you're using. A lot of that is because they want to protect the integrity of their system. They want to protect the integrity of the emails going out by their users. You want to make sure that you're using a tool that's really protecting that integrity and making sure that their deliverability is on par and really going to work for you because no email tool is going to be valuable if you're not getting in anybody's inbox. From there, you want to make sure that you're continuing to use that tool really well. The thing that I want to wrap up on in choosing an email marketing tool because I get a question, I get the question a lot from people about, "Oh, I think it's time I'm upgrading tools." Sometimes, it's not about changing tools. Sometimes, it's a lot more about making sure you're using the tool. Are you sending regular emails out? Are you nurturing those leads? Are you giving them value, and in that follow-up sequence? Are you getting your email opt-in out there? Are you sharing it via social? Are you funneling people into places where they can subscribe because if you're not, a new email marketing tool isn't going to change that. What's going to change that is a new email marketing strategy and then some new email marketing action. Don't jump on to the bandwagon of changing your tool first thing. Sometimes it's got to first be about making sure you're using the tool. Then the last thing I want to say is, if you're somebody who has listened to this whole episode and you're sitting there and you're thinking, "I will just keep sending emails through Gmail and I'll just put them all in Send or the BCC" or whatever, don't do that. Just stop. If you never, ever listen to another episode of this show, please listen to this next 5 seconds. You have to, I repeat, you have to be using an email marketing tool like AWeber or ActiveCampaign or MailChimp or whatever it is you want to use to be sending those emails. There's just no other choice, okay. Otherwise, it's unprofessional, it's spammy and it's not building credibility, okay. Use an email marketing tool. You can start with MailChimp for free. You can start with ActiveCampaign for as little as $9 and it will grow with you in the long-term. My recommendation for most business owners, not everybody because I don't think there's one tool that fits everybody, I would highly recommend skipping free at MailChimp and going right to the $9 level at ActiveCampaign. It's absolutely worth the value and it's absolutely going to grow with you over time. You're going to have an ability to do a lot more with automation, with follow-up sequences, and that's going to be incredibly valuable to you as you grow. Just start there because trust me, moving your list, not fun. Not fun the first time, not fun the second time, less fun the third time. Make sure that you're using a tool that's really going to serve your business and serve your growth in the long-term. Again, for me, that's ActiveCampaign. I highly recommend you check it out. ActiveCampaign let you have a free trial so it allows you to go in and see the interface and get used to it. Then, if you need some help, if you need help figuring out this tool or whatever tool you're using, reach out to your community. Reach out in your Facebook groups. I guarantee there's somebody who has used the tool or who's an expert in the tool, somebody that can help you get clear on the buttons to click and the best way to set it up. I know there's a lot of VAs who have an expertise in email marketing and all of these tools. Find somebody to help you. Outsource it. It doesn't have to be forever, but you can hire a little bit of consulting time to help get you there. We have a active campaign training, for example, inside of Hit The Mic Backstage. We also have some list building trainings inside of Hit The Mic Backstage in case it's not so much a tool issue, but a "getting people into the funnel" issue. Check those out at hitthemicbackstage.com, the place to be, and I will see you on Friday. Resources Join us inside Hit the Mic Backstage ActiveCampaign Connect with Me Connect with me on Facebook Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show  

Welcome to Episode 294 of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris. Hello, hello, and today we're going to talk about social media. I know, I know, it's crazy, but I want to talk about something really, really important. It's actually something I kind of touched on in Episode 293 when we talked about Instagram stories, but I feel like it's not getting enough conversation right now. So guess what? We're going to have the conversation. This really is the one thing that makes your social media efforts, your time on Facebook, your groups, your SnapChats, your stories on Instagram, your tweets. All of it, totally useless. A complete and utter waste of time, and yes, it is in fact possible for your social media to be a EPIC waste of your time. When it happens, and it happens a lot, it's because of this thing. It's because of this one thing. Are you ready?   You don't know why. And what I mean by that is not some sort of grandiose why in your business or some major movement you're making in the world. Those things are critical too I think from a larger business planning perspective, and it definitely trickles down into your marketing and into your social media. If you don't know those things it gets harder to make any steps I think in your business. But what I mean by this is really, really specific. Really, really tactical. Really, really brass tacks here. You don't know why you're posting it. It comes from posting for the sake of posting. Feeding the machine. I think we get so caught up in this urge to be doing something that makes us seem busy. To be doing something that someone told us we had to do to be successful. To be doing something period, maybe, because so, so often we get caught up in keeping the wheels on in our business. Keeping the wheels on in our marketing. Keeping the wheels on in our social media. That we forget that there's a reason for each and every post. These posts have lots of reasons and we're going to go through some examples of what I mean by this and how to get there. Posting has lots of reasons, but if you don't know why you're posting each and every post, each and every tweet, each and every story, each and every video, each and every update that you're posting? Then don't post it. It's just noise and there's enough of that. That noise is probably going to do a lot more damage than it's going to do good for your business. So let's talk about knowing some of these why's. Let's do some examples here. What I mean by "whys" are things like community growth, sales, driving traffic to a website, community engagement, driving traffic to some sort of third party thing, like maybe an interview or an affiliate or something like that. The most important ones are really about value. I think those come from content, driving traffic to content, driving content to information, value adds, actually engaging in value and information right there on the platform. And again, this isn't platform specific. This is going to look different on different channels. So on SnapChat for example or Instagram Stories it's going to be something a lot more digestible and consumable. It's going to be something like a quick tip or a quick takeaway, or a quick what not to do. I know for a lot of the people who watch my Snaps, I get a lot of feedback around when I kind of going go all randy, and I talk about one thing that someone is doing on social that's driving me a little crazy. But those are value adds. They're value adds very much still in line with my brain and my personality and my voice, but they are value adds. So that may look like a Facebook Live Video on Facebook, but the why of it is community building. So you're looking to grow your audience because you're giving your existing audience something very shareable, very engageable. You're looking to solidify people who are on the fence. Meaning maybe they just found out about you. Maybe someone shared something from you and they liked your page, and now you're building that trust. You're building that no like trust factory. You're building that relationship. You're doing the work, right? On the flip side for those people who are already obsessed with you? You are reaffirming the reason they love you. Reaffirming the reason you are their go-to resource. So those kind of posts are completely relevant but you have to know again why you're posting them. If you're posting a quick tip and a graphic on Facebook because somebody told you to post three times a day, that's not going to have the same impact as if you know that you are giving this tip because you want to build your audience around this message, so that later when you post a piece of content that's got an opt-in on it, that they're going to go to that content and they're going to take the next step to the opt-in. Then after the opt-in they're going to hit a trip wire which is going to lead them to an offer which blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. They go into the funnel, right? It all starts with knowing that first value add. I'm cultivating an audience around this message. I'm cultivating a need around this question. Another type of why, another thing that I'll post around, or why I'll post things, is because I want to know more about my audience. So I'll post something that's going to be a conversation starter. Or going to get them asking questions, or get them engaged, get them fired up about something that I need to know how they're talking about it. I need to know the words they're using. I need to know the expressions and the feeling and the frustration, and I need to get it right from them. So that's been really, really key for me and those kind of posts again, you have to know why you're posting them or you're not going to get actionable information out of them. Again they can be polls, they can be questions, they can be photos, they can be videos. I love doing these for Facebook Lives or through SnapChat when people can snap me back with a private message. Or Instagram Stories where people can direct message me in there. Because sometimes I'm able to get even more of their language. Even more clarity around the words they're using when they can use them privately with me. Versus when they have to publish them publicly like on a Facebook page or through a tweet. So again, that why is about getting the words they're using. I use these kind of posts not just to create sales pages but to make headlines, to make show titles for the podcast. What other videos I'm going to do on Facebook Live. What kind of stories I need to be doing on SnapChat. This is the biggest resource I have right now to help build my editorial calendar, is getting out there and using the words you guys are using, by engaging with you on social. But again, I don't get actionable information if I don't know why I'm posting it. If I'm posting something that says, "What's Your Biggest Social Media Frustration?" Because again I want to try to conjure up some engagement because I want more views, you know what I mean? That rabbit hole? I'm not going to get information that I can take action on. If I can't take action on it it's not going to be useful for either of us. The third kind of post and these are okay too, are straight up sales. Driving you to traffic. It's going to push you into an option, it's going to put you into an offer for my program or membership. Driving content direct to a webinar opt-in, direct to a sales page, direct to the private Hit The Mic Backstage community. Again though, you have to know why, because you have to remember you're talking to a whole group of people who are at different phases and different steps in their relationship with you. Some of them are still on - And I hate the sales cliché when everyone compares it to dating, but we're going to do it. Some of them are on their first date with you. Some of them have just, they haven't even been on a date with you yet. A friend told them about you and that's all they've got. For some people, you guys have been together a while and maybe they need to feel special. Whatever it is. I'm really going to far with this dating thing but the point is, you don't know where they are in the consumption of your content. The consumption of your brand and really in the relationship with your brand. So you have to realize that when I hop in and I talk about Hit The Mic Backstage on my Facebook page for example. Or I Snap about it or tweet about it or whatever, again the medium doesn't matter the message does. I have to make sure that I'm giving you guys - giving anybody who's looking - enough relevant information to click, to engage. And for the people who are brand new to me, that's saying, "Hey, this is a value that's there. This is why you want to pay attention to me. This is how epic this is." For people who have been around for a while and maybe haven't jumped in it's, "Hey remember how awesome this is? Why haven't you joined us yet?" And then from another perspective I've got to be talking to people who maybe are already members, and then it's about, "Hey, you remember how cool this is? Are you using it? Have you invited a friend?" When I know why I am posting whatever it is I'm posting, that's a straight promo. Again this is the relevant part of your social. You can build a community all day long but if you never try to do anything with them, if you never try to put them anywhere, if you never try to give them that next level of value with you, you're doing them an incredible disservice. So the promo is a critical part of your strategy but you have to know why, because you have to know how to speak to them. You have to know where are they? Are you posting this promo to get those people who are sort of new to you really to that next step of getting to know you by giving them some epic value in a webinar? Or are you taking people who've been around a while and just haven't taken action on your offer and saying, "Do you remember this? Have you heard about this? Why are you not a part of this yet?" Or are you trying to grow your audience through that promo by saying,"Hey, this is this epic thing that we have. Why are you keeping it to yourself? Are you using it? Why aren't you using it?" So again knowing that why, knowing the purpose of the post, the reason for the update. It goes a long way in knowing what your call to action is going to be, what your copy is going to be, what your graphics are going to be. And that's relevant in very piece of posting. In everything that you put up. Now yes, there are some numbers that I like to see my clients hitting. There are some, and I'm not going to say what they are because it varies by industry. It varies by community size. It varies by brand. However, if you're not consistently posting content with purpose, you need to take a step back and build a plan. You need to take a moment to really figure out why you're putting this stuff out there, and why you're using those tools. We talk about this a lot in Social Pro, which isn't open right now and you can't jump in on so this is not a promo but, it's such an important part of the social media marketing world. But no one talks about it. We all talk about Facebook made changes. Or Instagram Stories just launched. Or why aren't you using SnapChat? Before you decide any of those things, before you pay attention to any of those things, you have to know why you're using this. What purpose do these tools fill in your business. So that's why I want to challenge you to take a step back from your social for just a little while this week. Take thirty minutes where you would have just been mindlessly posting whatever to help feed the machine, and look at why am I posting here? Why do I choose this network? Why do I engage my community in this place? And then curate and create the content that speaks to them and you'll be amazed at how much easier it gets, how much faster it gets, and how much more effective it gets. All right? If you have any questions about any of this kind of stuff, these are the exact kind of conversations we're having in Hit The Mic Backstage. So join us over at hitthemicbackstage.com, get your membership access and let's have these conversations together, because you'd be amazed at the amount of support and feedback you can get from other people who are doing this the right way too. Instead of the hacks and the tricks and the trying to work the system, the system works better when you know why you're using it, okay? Those hacks work better when you're in the right networks. The whole things gets easier and more effective when you know why you're posting the content. Okay? So come on over to Hit The Mic Backstage, take that little bit of time to figure out why you're posting where you're posting, and I will see you on Friday.

Quick Episode Summary: Intro - Rob's not here! :13 Promo 1: Hablando De Tecnologia 2:45 On the Libsyn blog 3:15 Promo 2: Resurrection Revealed 5:16 How to get featured on The Feed and an introduction to Jessica Kupferman 5:45 Cory Huff from Creative Insurgents 9:00 Derrick Duplesy from Purpose Rockstar 9:20 Promo 3: Slumberland 10:11 Elsie and Jessica chat about podcast branding 10:41 Featured Podcast Promos + Audio Hablando De Tecnologia Resurrection Revealed Slumberland Cory Huff from Creative Insurgents Derrick Duplesy from Purpose Rockstar Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links Rockin' Libsyn Podcast: Dennis Has A Podcast Rockin' Libsyn Podcast: CybrCast The Rode SmartLav Podcast Branding Question Links and Mentions by Jessica and Elsie Our SpeakPipe Feedback page! Leave us feedback :) Lady Business Radio Podcasting School For Women @TheJParkinson says “@libsyn I have more of a statement. Make sure your website and social media URL's are reasonably short, memorable and consistent!” @TheMoneyPlanSOS asks whether you should use the word podcast in your title and whether you should use the image of a microphone in your artwork. DHAP would really love to have all the answers Tanya from Single Bliss asks: what are the top three things that a new podcast should focus on in regards to branding and is it better to do your own intro/outro or outsource? Kathleen Kelly from Special Mouse asks a question about the legalities of having a Disney podcast. Oh my. All you Disney podcasters you must chime in! Carmen Spagnola from The Numinous Podcast asks about Calls To Action in podcasts and which ones work and which ones don't. Stacy Harris from Hit The Mic asks about the importance if consistency not in the visual but in the sound like the music and outros and how the show is structured. Erik Johnson: The Podcast Coach - Episode 17 Create Your Podcast Brand Ariana Rabinovitch from Yoga & Beyond asks whether or not changing the name of her podcast is cool or not. Mel Avila from Raising Playful Tots asks about changing long standing show music. HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We'd love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe! Ways to subscribe to The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast Click here to subscribe via iTunes Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FEEDBACK + PROMOTION You can ask your questions, make comments and create a segment about podcasting for podcasters! Let your voice be heard. Download the FREE The Feed App for iOS and Android (you can send feedback straight from within the app) Call 412 573 1934 Email thefeed@libsyn.com Use our SpeakPipe Page!

Quick Episode Summary: Intro - Rob's not here! :13 Promo 1: Hablando De Tecnologia 2:45 On the Libsyn blog 3:15 Promo 2: Resurrection Revealed 5:16 How to get featured on The Feed and an introduction to Jessica Kupferman 5:45 Cory Huff from Creative Insurgents 9:00 Derrick Duplesy from Purpose Rockstar 9:20 Promo 3: Slumberland 10:11 Elsie and Jessica chat about podcast branding 10:41 Featured Podcast Promos + Audio Hablando De Tecnologia Resurrection Revealed Slumberland Cory Huff from Creative Insurgents Derrick Duplesy from Purpose Rockstar Newest Articles on the Libsyn Blog and Podcasting Links Rockin' Libsyn Podcast: Dennis Has A Podcast Rockin' Libsyn Podcast: CybrCast The Rode SmartLav Podcast Branding Question Links and Mentions by Jessica and Elsie Our SpeakPipe Feedback page! Leave us feedback :) Lady Business Radio Podcasting School For Women @TheJParkinson says “@libsyn I have more of a statement. Make sure your website and social media URL's are reasonably short, memorable and consistent!” @TheMoneyPlanSOS asks whether you should use the word podcast in your title and whether you should use the image of a microphone in your artwork. DHAP would really love to have all the answers Tanya from Single Bliss asks: what are the top three things that a new podcast should focus on in regards to branding and is it better to do your own intro/outro or outsource? Kathleen Kelly from Special Mouse asks a question about the legalities of having a Disney podcast. Oh my. All you Disney podcasters you must chime in! Carmen Spagnola from The Numinous Podcast asks about Calls To Action in podcasts and which ones work and which ones don't. Stacy Harris from Hit The Mic asks about the importance if consistency not in the visual but in the sound like the music and outros and how the show is structured. Erik Johnson: The Podcast Coach - Episode 17 Create Your Podcast Brand Ariana Rabinovitch from Yoga & Beyond asks whether or not changing the name of her podcast is cool or not. Mel Avila from Raising Playful Tots asks about changing long standing show music. HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! We'd love it if you could please share #TheFeed with your twitter followers. Click here to post a tweet! If you dug this episode head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe! Ways to subscribe to The Feed: The Official Libsyn Podcast Click here to subscribe via iTunes Click here to subscribe via RSS You can also subscribe via Stitcher FEEDBACK + PROMOTION You can ask your questions, make comments and create a segment about podcasting for podcasters! Let your voice be heard. Download the FREE The Feed App for iOS and Android (you can send feedback straight from within the app) Call 412 573 1934 Email thefeed@libsyn.com Use our SpeakPipe Page!

I had an amazing time doing the live show, be sure to let me know if you enjoyed at well, maybe we'll do another one, or even make it a more regular thing if you guys are into it. We covered everything from LinkedIn to Pinterst, and we talked A LOT about Google+ and the power of Hangouts on Air. Be sure to check it out because there is really something for everyone. Resources Check out the Rock Star Guide to Google+ to learn more about how to use Google+ to amplify your business. Connect with Me Get YOUR question on a future episode Email me at hello@thestaceyharris.com Tweet with me and include #HittheMic Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show

spend the night with your favorite ladies of LATE NITE WRITEZ ... Dap + Chyna Blue tonight. The call is free ...dial in and HIT THE MIC.. SPIT WHAT YOU LIKE... its the night after the holiday... so lets lay back.. open up our minds and enjoy this POETIC TRANSMISSION. 347 826 9842 is the # for the Mic... GOOD SCRIBES. GOOD MUSIC. GOOD VIBES. 10pm est. BE THERE!! 

time for another SOUL BATTLE on the Original Poetry after Dark. Tonight we got the the soul of the streets styles of Lyfe Jennings pitted against the heart of the soul style of John Legend.... AND OF COURSE THE MIC IS OPEN to ALL styles of POETRY so call in and HIT THE MIC or just relax with Dap and Chyna your FAVORITE ladies of late night WRITES.... right??? >> MIC # 347.826.9842