Hello,
Today I would like to show you some tips from Jeremy J Ulmer about cold calling. Please share your opinions. Some people believe in this and some are strongly opposed to it, now it is time to tell everybody why you feel that way.
I hope you like it!
Shane

1. Most people do not enjoy cold calling, but they need to realize it has to be done. It really is a mind-set. You have to set time daily to call, and make it part of your daily behavior/activities.
2. Not everyone will be a fit and that is ok! If they say “No” or “No Thanks!” that is totally fine. You are simply finding out who might be a fit or not. There will be less pressure on you if you keep that mind-set.
3. Celebrate the little sales. When you land a meeting or secure a conference call appointment, celebrate it on your own or with your team.
4. Get creative on the call and be yourself.
5. Recommend you attempt some calls prior to 8AM local time and after 5:00PM local time. Try some on Sat and Sun as well if needed!

Go to Sales Coaches Cold Calling Tips for another 5 strong tips.

For many years I have seen articles, blog posts, forum topics and even whole websites dedicated to discussing whether age matters for entrepreneurialism (including young website owners and designers). As it is my birthday at the time of writing this (8th June), I thought this would be a good topic to discuss, lets see if we can get all of you to give your opinions!

Firstly, we are going to need to figure out the Pros and Cons of age.

That should be enough ideas for us all to discuss. If you can think of any more Pros or Cons please let everybody know. Thank you for reading and I hope you participate in the discussion, and if there is no discussion then start one!

Shane

In this post, Frances Cole Jones from How to Wow and Cole Media Management shares her top 10 do’s and dont’s about interviews.

Do:

1. Remember that 7% of your impact comes from the words you say; 38% from how you say it (your tonal quality); and 55% from what your body is doing while you’re speaking. (UCLA study)
2. Know that “you” is the most persuasive word in the English language, so the more you can say, “As I’m sure you know,” or “As I’m sure you’ve heard,” (Yale Univ. Study) the more easily others will respond to you.
3. Sound happy when you say, “I’m happy to meet you.” (Not to mention, look your interviewer in the eye and shake their hand firmly.)
4. Keep your hands where we can see them—out of pockets when standing, on the table when sitting. We trust you when we can see your hands, we don’t trust you when we can’t.
5. Research the company/interviewer exhaustively. What’s their bestselling product/mission statement/biggest competitor? Why specifically do you want to work for them? How exactly are you going to contribute to their success?
6. Have the answers to ‘softball questions/inquiries’ (questions so big you don’t know what to swing at) such as, “What was your favorite thing about your last job?” or “Tell me about yourself.” These should be grounded in a story such as, “My favorite thing about my last job was the opportunities I had to work with my team. For example, we once had 24 hours to put together a presentation….”
7. Have the answer to, “What’s your greatest strength/weakness?” (FYI: Your greatest weakness is just a strength taken to an extreme, “I’m so interested in my subject, I tend to inundate people with detail about it. But I’m learning to pick and choose what information will be most effective,” etc. )
8. Record a professional voice mail greeting, as this is the first contact many potential employers will have with you. Stand while you record it, smile, inhale, hit record, speak on an exhalation.
9. Clean up your Facebook/MySpace/Twitter page. Any posts or photos that don’t say, “I can be trusted with $100,000” have to go.
10. Get a thank you note in the mail—either email, snail mail, or both—within 24 hours. In addition to acknowledging the time they gave you, this should reference a story you, or they, told. Give yourself bonus points if you can include a link to an article you mentioned, or hard copy of the same.

Don’t:

1. Use useless modifiers. (Great, amazing, incredible, etc.) Something is only one of these things if you tell me why.
2. Sit with a “too cool for school” attitude (leaning back, one leg crossed over the other, one arm thrown over the back of the chair.) Sit up and forward in your chair. Lean toward your interviewer. Smile.
3. Use ‘hope’ as a strategy—as in, “I hope nobody asks me that.” Prepare answers to the worst three questions you anticipate getting. Practice them out loud.
4. Forget you are interviewing from the time you arrive at the building—many employers can see you from the parking lot, or are in the elevator with you. This is not the time to brush your hair, remove your gum, finish your phone call about your date last night.
5. Arrive wearing MP3 headphones in your ears/sunglasses on your head/ carrying a bag that’s bulging with papers or old sandwiches, etc.
6. Leave your PDA on, or check your PDA during the meeting, at the elevator, or on your way from the restaurant table to the door. Nothing is more important than this interview.
7. Bad mouth your former employers. If you didn’t enjoy the experience, simply say you’re looking forward to still more challenges. Employers prize loyalty.
8. Think they won’t be examining your table manners as closely as your resume should you be asked to lunch. Be on time. Follow their lead with regard to ordering (Don’t get the whole, de-boned fish if they’re having salads.) Short of visible shards of glass or the possibility of anaphylactic shock, eat what you’re given.
9. Assume they will be helping you negotiate. Have a salary range in mind. While you should not bring up a number, if they ask, “What are you looking for?” you don’t want to choke.
10. Ask, “How did I do?” at the end of the meeting. Instead, you can inquire, “So, what’s my next step?”

Frances Cole Jones has profesional experience in the field of coaching, she has also written a book which can be found at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and many other online book stores.

Here is another interesting interview for you, this time it is with the entrepreneurial 15 year old Benjamin Lang. I hope you enjoy it!

Firstly, could you please tell us about yourself? (Who are you, where do you live, how old are you, what do you do for a living?)

I’m 15 years old. I live in New York currently. I’ve lived in a few different countries and speak 3 languages. I started an eBay selling business about 7 months ago, the real spark came when I was on Channel 12. From there business grew and I started working on web design. So now I sell stuff on eBay and I am starting to design people’s sites.

You have a variety of websites and skills, why did you start these and how did you go about it?

Well as I learnt more and more I became more curious… so I bought a few websites, started doing a few different things and learnt on the way.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

I don’t need motivation, I’m always motivated!

I know that you went to Israel, how did this help you and what did you learn there?

Well Israel was a turning point in my life not only in the business aspect. I did though start my ebay business there. I started by selling my grandfather’s camera equipment online. The cash started pouring in because it was quite expensive equipment. So I thought, maybe if I sold other people’s stuff I could make even more… which eventually lead to the creation of my business.

Have you ever had times where you thought yourself or your websites as a “failure”? If so how did you stop feeling like it? If not how do you keep yourself so optimistic?

The only site of mine that’s not going very well is www.teenbizstarter.com. I wanted to help out other teens start businesses but I can get the site how I want it so it’s not really going anywhere.

Do you believe that entrepreneurialism is in the blood or that it can be learned?

I think its both. My dad is an entrepreneur but I think that you can learn how to be one if you are very motivated.

What advice would you recommend to other young entrepreneurs?

I would say networking, perseverance and creativity is very crucial. I’ve been working on networking very hard. It takes a lot of effort but pays off. Perseverance I feel that I’ve mastered, I try very hard to be successful at everything I do. Creativity is very important and I’m still working on it.

What plans do you have the future?

I’d like to start bigger companies and work as an entrepreneur for my whole life. Hopefully by the time I’m 21 I’ll be competing with Google.

Thank you very much Ben. I am sure you can see why this is inspirational, everything he says shows that he has dedication and purpose. I wish him the best of luck, perhaps he might even stick around here and help give tips?

Hello,

I have not posted anything in almost 2 weeks, so I thought I should give you all a little update. As you know, I am 15 so I am currently going through a lot of exams. This means I have had to do a lot of revision and have not had time to do anything to Success Circuit. I will try my best to get posting more but cannot promise anything as I have exams until the 22nd of June.

However, I would like to run a little test of my own. As you may know, there are many websites similar to this one. So I have been searching for new approaches. Personally I believe that you can learn a lot from history, and other subjects, which can help you be successful. It is very similar to learning from interviews, as you are able to learn from others mistakes. So I would like to open a new section of Success Circuit, which will be called Knowledge for now, to help you by using these ways of learning. I may also be able to incorperate my revision into this so it helps everybody!

Please let me know if you ever think of anything that could help with improving Success Circuit. Also contact me if you want any advice or help about anything, I am always happy to help.

Thank you,

Shane Hudson

A man that needs no introduction… it’s Dean Hunt!!

Firstly, could you please talk about yourself? (Who are you, where do you live, what do you do etc.)

Sure thing, and thanks for having me. My name is Dean Hunt, I am 26 years old, from the UK, and am best known as the leader in the world of buzz marketing.

I got into the Internet as a form of income back in 2002, I had previously been training to play golf for a living, but a knee injury put an end to that. So I turned to the Internet instead. (note: my knee is fine now)

How, and why, did you start Buzz Marketing and blogging about it?

I got into it kinda by accident. I just wrote what amused, entertained or interested me, and other people seemed to also get excited by it.
I got into it just by trying to stand out from the crowd and getting noticed.

Who, or what, was your inspiration?

It sounds strange, but I don’t think I have one. I have always just done what has entertained me… so I suppose I am my own inspiration ;-)

How do you keep yourself motivated?

It has been tough, but for me, I try and outsource all the boring stuff. If you remove all the boring things, you are just left with the fun things. Sounds simplistic, but it can be done.

Also, be wary of working from home… it might sound good, but you are always at work, it is hard to differentiate between work and personal life.

You are a marketing genius – you have killer bunnies, 1 million dollar reviews and Adolf Hitler hates you! – How did you become so creative? Do you believe it is in your blood or can it be taught?

I am 100% confident that creativity is a skill. I see it like a muscle, the more you train it the better it becomes. I study creative thinking, and I know a few tricks and secrets to appear like a creative genius ;-) I teach them at www.buzzprofits.com.

On your sidebar there is a video, are they the rabbits from Rayman Raving Rabbits?

Initially they were… I found a video from Rayman Rabbits, and it made me laugh… at the time, I was editing my blog, and I put it on the blog as a joke. I intended to remove it the next day… however, people started emailing me and saying they loved “my video”.

So I stuck with it… I also had a designer create some new bunnies.

I, as well as I expect the majority of readers on here, am very interested in “spicing up” my online identity however I do not think Success Circuit would work so well if it had bright pink dragons with rainbow coloured chickens riding them. Do you believe any site can be marketed the way you teach on your blog and at Buzz Profits, if so how would one go about it?

It is not about killer bunnies… it is about being different from the norm. Most people use sports cars and dollar bills in their marketing sites, so I wanted to be different. If you do not stand out from the crowd, you will not get noticed.

Here is a quick secret to instantly appear like a creative genius:

Do the opposite of the norm.

So for example, if you are designing a website, you could write down all the things that would normally be true. e.g header is at the top, it is a certain shape, a certain size, it loads automatically, looks professional… etc… then, ask yourself, “what if I do the opposite?”

This is a great way to appear like a genius.

You say you have 6 billion RSS readers, would you be prepared to tell us how many you REALLY have?

Haha, I honestly don’t know. I messed up my feedburner feed, so I no longer track the details. My guess is that it is between 5,000-8,000

What were your goals when you started? Have you achieved them yet? If so, how did you manage this?

I don’t think I had any goals when I started.. I just tried to amuse myself and my friends and family. I have vastly exceeded anything I could have ever expected.

At any point have you thought yourself or blog as a “failure” or had any major problems? If so how did you manage to get through this and what did you learn?

I had issues with hackers, but managed to fix them. I have never seen it as a failure, mainly because it has opened so many doors for me. For example:   I was recently paid $1 million from the team behind www.ConstructZero.com to have my personal brand sponsored. Basically, I wear their website logo on my clothing at all public appearances, photos, videos etc… this shows the value of a powerful personal brand on a blog.

If you could tell yourself one thing when you started this unique career of yours, what would it be?

Outsource where possible, focus on the things that make money, find a mentor, be yourself, everyone else is already taken… oh, and, you have to value your time before anyone else will.

What plans do you have for the future?

I am writing a book later this year, I am in talks with a leading book publishers at the moment. Also, to continue to make www.buzzprofits.com the leading site for people who want to create buzz and escape the average.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I would like to thank you and your readers for reading this… I hope it was helpful. Feel free to grab my free tips at http://www.buzzprofits.com/maxtraffic/index.cfm

Thank you Dean.

I found that to be a very interesting interview, and I am sure you all did too. Please comment with any questions, I am sure Dean would be willing to answer!

Shane