Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 22/11/2022 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 22/11/2022

Portugal and Spain - November 2022

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 01/01/2022 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 01/01/2022

My 3 Words for 2022

What is My 3 Words About?

The My Three Words idea is simple. Choose 3 words (not 1, not 4) that will help guide your choices and actions day to day. Think of them as lighthouses. "Should I say yes to this project?" "Well, does this align with my three words?"

How to Choose Three Words

I started this process back in 2006. Back then, my 3 words were "Ask. Do. Share." I picked these very simple words and they served me very well. One of my best years ever. When I asked questions, I learned. When I took action based on what I learned from asking, I made more ground and took over more of the universe. When I shared what I learned with everyone, I made connections and some friends.

Choose any three words you feel will guide you forward. I can tell you a few things about this:

Don't make it a phrase. "Publish the book" is a terrible choice. "The" is wasted.
Try to make the words actionable. "Expand" is better than "bigger."
The more utilitarian the word can be, the better. These words have to be your compass.
Stick with the 3 words all year. Every time I've changed one a month or two later, the year mucks up. I can't explain it. But I can report it.
Years where I've tried "fancy" words with layers of meaning, I lost the thread. Use plain words, maybe.
BUT the words don't have to mean anything to anyone but you. Don't worry about explaining them.

Review Them Daily

The more you review your 3 words, the better. I have mine built into my daily planning guides and action stacks. I try using them for a mantra when I can. Sometimes on walks, I just repeat them over and over. I like to reflect on them and meditate a little with those words in mind.

Past Iterations of My 3 Words

2006 - Ask. Do. Share
2007 - Seek. Frame. Build. Bridge (yes, that was 4. It also was a less successful year.)
2008 - Believe. Loops.Farm
2009 - Equip. Armies. Needles
2010 - Ecosystems. Owners. Kings
2011 - Reinvest. Package. Flow
2012 - Temple. Untangle. Practice
2013 - Walt. Ender. Monchu
2014 - Lifestyle. Monchu. Black.
2015 - Plan. Leverage. Fabric.
2016 - Home. Shine. Win.
2017 - Move.Voice.Game
2018 - Ritual. Execute. Value
2019 - Station. Stacks. Movement.
2020 - Push. Structurequence. Package
2021 - Showrunner, Monk Options

And now, let's look at 2022

My 3 Words for 2022

Scout - I don't often choose nouns, but I do when I want to pack some pointers into words that will guide me through an intention within an identity. A scout fits my role as Chief of Staff at Appfire, because my job is to move ahead of the main troops, to survey the landscape, to recommend paths of action, and to communicate a cohesive plan based on what I bring back. In my profession, that makes sense. The most famous scouts in the real world were also very physically capable, so I'm tucking my obligations to get my health back into this word. It has to carry a lot. (And yes, "scout" is also a verb - thanks, Samantha!)

Co-Create - This idea is a lot more simple than scout: what do I intend to co-create with other people in any given situation? When I work with the Executive Leadership Team at Appfire, I tell myself certain things before going into my meetings. When I talk to owners with Rob Hatch, I set out to co-create a very different type of experience. Sometimes, with my kids, I get a bit lost in the actual intentions of the moment, so this relates to me there as well. My job is to co-create situations where my kids can grow and thrive, as best as I can.

Pluses - This one's the hardest for me to explain to you because I'm still working on it. I'm practicing a concept that's between "manifestation" and also intentional living, and as part of that, I'm learning how to spin up and maintain a flywheel of positive energy. The enemies to that kind of energy are many: people having a rough day, negative people, situations where you have to wait on others to catch up to a checkpoint, and on and on.

This idea, roughly, is to seek out the pluses (+) in every day's opportunities. If I hit a wall or a roadblock, waste NO time, but instead go around, switch tasks, move to the next state of being. If something bad happens, shrug it off and find the next plus.

This one will be the hardest of all 3, but if I pull it off, all will go rather interestingly for me in 2022.

What Are YOUR Words for 2022?

It's your turn: either type up a blog post, or share it wherever you like to share. Use the hashtag #my3words to find other people's shared experiences, and if you're a last minute person, don't worry. Start when you're ready.

See you in 2022.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 02/05/2021 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 02/05/2021

Chris Brogan and Kerry O'Shea Gorgone Release the $BKPK Cryptocurrency to Support the Backpack Show

BKPK Rally Coin Chris Brogan Kerry Gorgone

The other day, Kerry O'Shea Gorgone and I launched a new cryptocurrency called the Backpack Show Coin (or just $BKPK, if you want to be like the cool kids). It's built by a company called Rally and was part of a project they launched called Creator Coins. The idea is that if you nurture a community like we do around the Backpack Show, then you could build your own micro-economy and invite participants and members of that community to buy, sell, hold, and trade a special currency.

What does ANY of that mean?

At the highest level, "Hey, if you buy $BKPK coins, it supports the Backpack Show, but also, you get the benefit of possibly earning even further rewards than you would if you just sent in typical money. WE get a reward for you buying the coin, but you ALSO get a reward for holding it. Kind of like two people benefiting instead of one.

A little more "in the weeds:" cryptocurrency, you've maybe already heard about. Coins like Bitcoin or Etherium or the currently popular "Doge coin" are other types of cryptocurrency. So, the $BKPK coin is basically a small decentralized (meaning everyone has control of it, not just one person) tool to pass value (in this case, money) back and forth between people who accept that type of currency.

What can we do with the coins?

You can buy sponsorship spots on the show, backstage passes, special heavily discounted private coaching, and more. We're working up more and more offerings and ways to have fun with the coins as we speak.

What do you want me to do?

We can approach this two ways. I shot a little video for you, but I'll explain it right after the video, too.

https://youtu.be/WEPPB4voTh4

Watch this quick video, if you'd like.

There are just a few steps to the process:

Set up a free account at Rally.io
Find the Backpack Show coin page.
Buy some coins if you want to just hold onto them. (Click BUY) OR
Click one of the offerings like "Buy a Power Hour of Coaching" to buy a specific reward
Once you have the amount of coins needed for that offering, click SEND, and send those coins to "TheBackpackShow"
And if you get stuck, just email chris@chrisbrogan.com

And you don't HAVE to send us the coins you buy. That's only if you want to buy something like a backstage pass or sponsorship or whatever. You can just hold onto them and see what happens with the market.

VERY IMPORTANT: Cryptocurrency is a very volatile environment. The value of any crypto coin can go up and down drastically and we have no control over that. If you put in $10, you might find $100 the next time you log in, or you might find $5. It's a bit like the stock market. If you're unsure of whether you want to try this out, it's okay if you don't want to, and that's quite understandable.

The Cool Part (So Far)

Just by HOLDING onto the coins (meaning, you buy $10 worth or something like that and do nothing else), you add to the value of the Backpack Show community. And because of that, there are even rewards.

Each coin has a rewards pool that can be earned weekly (and I still don't really understand how this all works). So for instance, on my personal "chrisbrogan" account, I have coins from seven or eight different creators. I bought some of my friends' coins to show support. Each one of those coins has the chance to earn some rewards, and when they do, coin holders get some of that money sent to their account, too.

Meaning, you have the opportunity for the coin's value to go up and down AND you have the opportunity to earn even more rewards just because you're holding onto coins.

(Disclaimer: I know only a tiny bit more about crypto than most of you. Learn more if you feel antsy.)

Going Forward

While we continue to experiment with this, there are lots of new opportunities to try things out. I'm working with some friends and partners to come up with ways to offer rewards to people simply for holding the coins, plus ways that I can tack on value for OTHER people, if you choose to pay them with our $BKPK coins.

For instance, let's say a friend is throwing a concert. You can pay at the door using their coin, or you can pay at the door using the $BKPK coin. If you pay with BKPK and show us the receipt, we'll give you additional rewards just for choosing our currency as your payment method.

Another instance is if we hold a virtual event, the cost might be as inexpensive as buying a small amount of every speaker's Creator coin to get in.

And so on.

Want to Join an Economy Experiment?

It's all a grand experiment. It's wayyyyy too early to know what to make of all this. But if you want to have fun *and* support Kerry and I and The Backpack Show, consider picking up some $BKPK coins today.

Go to Rally.io and make an account
Go to the $BKPK page and click BUY (or buy the reward you want directly)
EITHER hold the coins and feel good about it OR click SEND if you're sending coins to buy a reward

It's that easy! :)

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 05/07/2020 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 05/07/2020

Personal Branding is Vital Now

Personal branding is something I've thought a lot about for years. Branding is about a business, product, or service. Personal branding is about helping the person behind the product to stand out. It's a way to drive a strong perception of the type of person you are and by extension, to earn a little credibility in the process. The goal is for people to see themselves and see you in the product or service you're selling.

Brand Yourself But With Your Buyer In Mind

The weird yo yo trick of personal branding is that the best people in the world at personal branding are the ones who make YOU feel like the star. This work isn't about saying how great you are. It's talking about how wonderful the people you serve are, but in such a way that people think about you.

In brand positioning terms, you're a service brand or a community brand or a lifestyle brand (or all 3). Katie Robbert and Kerry O'Shea Gorgone created Punch Out as that place you go to learn about the rest of the lives of your favorite marketers. Their personal brand thusly becomes about being generous, lifting up others, enriching the brand promise of other people. They act as a community brand.

Tone of Voice is Critical

I built my own strong brand identity around a few bedrock details. These translate into the "tone of voice" of my brand. See if this sounds like me:

My personal visual brand is casual, cartoonish, and almost a bit sloppy
My core values are service, honesty, and inclusiveness
The branding concept of me is "anyone could do this - YOU could do this"
An emotional connection is core to all the material I share with people
The only "consistent brand experience" you'll find with me is that I'm always experimenting

To shape your brand is to demonstrate what you stand for and for it to be a recurring part of your expressions. If you're frugal, don't show off your matching Teslas. If you're trying to say you're down to earth and spontaneous, don't be buttoned up all the time.

Think through this:

What does your word choice say about your brand? Are you using big words when your brand is supposed to be down to earth?
Even if you're shy, you need to show yourself. Can you dress in a way that matches what you believe and how you want to be perceived?
Beyond selling (but also during selling) what do you talk about? What do you share? Does it match what you want people to think about you?

"Influencers" are the Devil

Before we had people trying to be "influencers," we had people trying to be "authentic." (After I typed that, I took my hands off the keys to accentuate air quotes - two pumps of my fingers each - because that word is Satan.)

The ways that people try to walk around and represent your brand are almost always about positioning and telling a story that isn't true. If you normally eat hot dogs, you're not a foodie. If you're ever trying to be something you're not, and it's part of a business pursuit, I'll save you time: it rarely ends well.

Communicate Your Brand

Ze Frank once said "a brand is an emotional aftertaste" that comes from experiences. You know "show, don't tell." That's the point. The more you talk about what you are, the less likely you are that thing. So show it.

Establish brand experiences by talking about the kinds of people you serve in terms that echo your intended brand voice. "We're moms who love to help teachers get time back in their day. We know you're busy! Let us help you get better results with your students. Your students are our kids. Let's be on the same team!"

"You have smarts that someone else needs. Sell your brains."

The best personal branding revolves around "you" stories (the kind that enrich your buyer) but that reflect your part of that equation.

How to Build Your Personal Brand

For your brand to thrive, you need the following:

Clear and unique voice and perspective as it relates to the people you serve
Consistent publication of media that reflects that voice
A recurring delivery of value from the media you create and share

Think about that before your next Instagram post. "Am I saying something in my own way or am I someone else's echo?" If someone else reads this, is there a chance they'll take something from it?

"But can I build a brand and stay anonymous?"

I mean, you can build *a* brand, but it's not a personal brand. The word personal and the word anonymous really don't mean the same thing whatsoever.

What people want from you as it applies to personal branding is the following:

Are you like me?
Do you share my values?
Can I trust you?
Will you help me win?
What happens when something goes wrong?

Think about your own experiences. When your car needs engine work, do you wonder about those five questions? The last three are definite. The first two might depend on what you're buying for some people. I want someone to be honest like me, obviously. I want them to be understanding.

The last and maybe most important step about personal branding is perhaps the hardest.

Can You Be "Sticky?"

The most powerful part of branding is whether what you create is memorable. Advertising is a powerful tool when it comes to this. Think of all the ads you remember to this day:

Who is the "quicker picker upper?"
Plop plop. Fizz Fizz. _______
The best part of waking up is _____

Advertising works through a combination of something being memorable to begin with and then being repeated enough that you can't forget it. That's an element of personal branding that gets lost often.

The key to being sticky, then, is a formula. An equation maybe. Luckily, Julien Smith and I wrote The Impact Equation for just this purpose. I'll give you the quick rundown here:

Impact = Contrast x Reach + Exposure + Articulation + Trust + Echo.

Contrast - Does what you say or do stand out
Reach - How far does your message carry
Exposure - How often do people see it
Articulation - Can you say it succinctly
Trust - Are you believable
Echo - Can people see themselves in you

That's the impact equation and it really means a lot for the personal branding effort. More than most anything else I've written thus far. If you master that little gauge: CREATE, you will see the value of putting your marketing and outreach efforts through that lens before publishing.

Beyond saying something useful, you have to say it in a memorable way. That's the gold.

Brand Management for Personal Brands

I don't know if this is "management" per se, but what I mean is that it's upon you to create information frequently and share it often, information that serves their pursuits. "They" being the people you serve, naturally. The management aspect of personal branding is that it's so easy to fall out of being top of mind. What stops that from happening?

Reach + Exposure from the Impact Equation help. Take your Articulate and sticky phrases and share them often and far and wide, especially if they help others. Do this often. Do this in new ways with new words. Don't let anything get too old, but say things repeatably enough that others can sing along. Write the hits. Play the hits.

And now you're well on your way to mastering personal branding. It takes work, practice, and all the luck of saying something that catches the attention and imagination of others. I hope this was useful. If it was, share it?

Finally, I'm always available to help you with this through coaching. Just use my contact form or drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 10/06/2019 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 10/06/2019

What I learned at the Boston Pride March 2019

The other day, I went with my Jacqueline and her mother to the 2019 Boston Pride Parade. We marched on behalf of the Upham's Corner Health Center, who delivers community health care services in Boston. I marched because my son, Vince, is trans and gay(the parade marked his 17th birthday), and because I feel that it's important to promote the rights of people around the topics of their gender and who they choose to love (between consenting adults, obviously).

I thought my mindset at the event was "Hey, good job, gay and trans and bi and other people! I'm marching to say I'm an ally." And while that's true, there was so much more. So much. I came away changed.

What I Learned on the Boston Pride March

First, I realized quickly that one of the core elements of this march is just for people to see each other and be seen. I know that sounds stupid. It's a parade. But I mean seen and acknowledged. Some people are fortunate to have loving families and coworkers who fully support them. But so many more feel alone, feel invisible, feel like they have to hide. So here comes an event like Pride that says, "Let's keep marching. You deserve to feel seen and understood."

That "being seen" realization went so much deeper. All along the route there were people wearing "Mom Hugs" and "Dad Hugs" shirts, because sometimes parents can't handle the reality of their children and that child (no matter their age) suddenly finds themselves without parental affection. I realized just how little affection people of any sexuality and gender get these days. I went for some of those hugs, and I get plenty of affection.

We Have to Better Understand This

When my oldest said "I'm gay," I said that's great. Your partner (no matter the gender) has to love you and treat you well. About a year later, he tells me he's trans and gay. Okay, that one takes a bit more work because there are legal and biological ramifications to be considered, but I was just as supportive because whatever gender someone says they are, wouldn't my roles be the same? Aren't I supposed to love and support my children, no matter their gender? Of course I am.

Now think about work and school and life. My son goes to a tiny little hippie school so when he came out as trans, it wasn't that big a deal. Go a half mile in any direction and you'll see all kinds of people who don't understand what it means, what it means to them, how they should respond, and so on.

What I've learned for me is that someone's gender identity and gender expression has little or nothing to do with me. I find both binary genders play no role in whether or not someone can do their job or be good or bad people. I find that gender and sexual preference is really your own business and not mine.

Representation and Acknowledgement is VITAL

But that said, and this is so important, everyone alive wants to be respected and represented as who they are without compromise or shame. If someone says they're gay, bi, poly, trans, or any of the many other ways people can now express their sexual and gender expressions, they want you to know and acknowledge and understand how they want to be identified.

THAT PART IS THE HARDEST PART FOR THE "STRAIGHT" PEOPLE.

It's somehow difficult for us to make the change from "looks like a guy so must be a guy" to "I'm Chris. My pronouns are he/him. How about you?"

This upsets people. It feels like "too much" to some people. It feels somehow offensive to some others. But that's what needs to change. That's where a lot of us need to grow. That's where "the way we used to do it" no longer covers it.

I Marched So Even More Can March

It's "easy" for me to march. I'm straight, white, and privileged. I marched because I want to bolster the ranks of those who don't always feel safe, those who don't always feel seen, and those who don't often enough feel loved and accepted. I marched because the LGBTQ+ community is part of our community.

And like you and everyone else, I might get some of this wrong, say something that doesn't line up the way everyone wishes I'd talk about it. I'm always open to learn. But I'll tell you why I'm out here. It's because there's so much value in all these people who get pushed to the corners and I want them at the picnic. If you met some of the great people I met at the march, you'd want them at the picnic, too!

I work with executives and leadership teams to deliver the results you say you value in your corporate culture statements. Let's improve collaboration and creativity and bring some of that value to your company. REACH OUT.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/01/2019 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/01/2019

If I Were Selling Real Estate Today

The world of real estate has become a lot more software driven in recent years. Sure, ultimately, a buyer interacts with a person, but with the number of real estate apps out there, a lot of up front work happens before a real estate professional is contacted. That's not necessarily bad, but for a lot of Realtors (and other professionals in other industries for that matter), a personable connection with a buyer matters immensely as well.

If I Were Selling Real Estate Today

For years, I've had the pleasure of keynoting various real estate events and speaking at industry conferences. In every interaction, I found a warm, smart, driven person looking for new tools to reach and serve their buyer. My book with Julien Smith, Trust Agents, seemed to resonate with the primary challenge of "how do you build business remotely on the web?" Since that book (over 9 years have passed), I can say that the use of digital tools to evaluate real estate has only grown.

If I were selling real estate today, I'd embrace these apps and I would have a website/blog where I could add some content that my buyers might want. What would I put on that site? Oh, I'm glad you asked.

A Real Estate Professional's Content Marketing Checklist

Sure, you want to post pictures and videos about the properties. That's a given.
Take the camera on your phone and shoot a "neighborhood walk through" video.
Record an audio file where you talk people through how to evaluate a home. Tell them to keep this playing in the car when they're out hunting around.
Record another video where you list out what people need to bring to closing.
Find community points of interest and interview people to show off the neighbors.
Shoot an autobiographical video talking about your passions for serving people and your career so far.
If you have other skills/talents, like interior design, give people a video of tips for how to spruce up their place. OR, make a video to show homeowners how to prep their house for sale.

Naturally, there are plenty more pieces of content I could recommend. This is a great starter set that will keep you busy for a few weeks.

How to Go About Making All This Content

I'm sure you might have seized up a little upon seeing that list of seven ideas. The thing is, you already have the tools to make this. You have a smart phone. This comes with a video recorder and a voice recorder built in. If you feel like you have to edit the videos a little, you can record lots of little clips and dump them all into either Windows Media Maker (PC) or iMovie (Mac) and trim off the edges a bit. I promise that none of it is rocket surgery. If you know how to cut/paste words in a document, it's almost the same thing.

Practice. That's what I most want to share with you. Just practice.

As for scheduling, pick a weekly schedule of creating and posting that will let you take a little time to make your content, edit it, and post it. It's that simple (but not easy).

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Try me!

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 30/11/2018 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 30/11/2018

Customers Want You to Understand Their World

I want to tell you the tale of two companies both trying to reach part of the community they serve and how one failed and the other nailed it. Why this is important is because it ties closely to the way customers choose to spend their money these days. They want companies who understand their world, and they want to feel like they're with a company that cares about what they like.

This isn't really a story about Fortnite, but it is

If you have a kid between 8 years old and 50, you might have already heard about Fortnite. The video game which launched in 2017 has already raced to 200 million active users (75 million in just the last six months). They passed a billion dollars in revenue last July, and will quite likely make a big year end revenue goal announcement.

For this story, the game's not important. What's important is that it's the hottest game in the world right now. And as such, companies are trying to relate. Now, I want to show you two examples in these graphics:

Walmart

This is Walmart on Twitter. Whoever's representing the brand on the keyboard at this moment has clearly heard of the game, but knows nothing at all about it. Summarily, they come off looking like out of touch doofuses. It's not a good look.By contrast, look at this:Without knowing anything about the game, it's clear that Wendy's not only knows Fortnite but talks like they play it five hours a day every day. This garners a lot of social interactions, lots of more positive touchpoints and reactions, and ultimately, revenue.

Understand The Customer's World

The way Wendy's treated an interaction online around Fortnite showed that the company (and remember, technically it's just a person or team representing the company) knew what was current, knew the lingo, and could interact well. You don't have to know everything but it might be helpful to know a lot about the world of the person you want to serve.No matter what you sell, there's a buyer who has their own world outside of that product. The more you can talk to that, know about that, and can align with that, the better your chances to deliver value will be.The easiest takeaway: stay current. It takes 10-20 minutes a day to read what's hot in the marketplace. Need extra eyes on all this? Follow me on Twitter. I love sharing trends and interesting business stories.Avoid looking like the fuddy duddy and figure out where your customer is dropping. It'll help immensely!

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/04/2018 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/04/2018

Bring the Edge to the Center and the Center to the Edge

If you've known me for a while, maybe you're wondering, "What's Chris up to right now? Why is he talking about stuff like AI, blockchain, chatbots, and the IoT?" I know. It feels weird, because maybe you have me categorized wrong like lots of people do. Maybe you thought I was supposed to talk about tweets and emails forever, as if they were ever the goal and not just the delivery mechanism.

Not going to happen.

What's Exciting is The Marketplace

I love the reality that's upon us right now. The marketplace of old, that physical crossroads where merchants and the community intersected to exchange goods, has long since vanished. Sure, a few bazaars happen out in the world, but mostly for show. They make good tourist pictures.

The marketplace now is at the edge. It's where we are. And so is the community. So are the opportunities. Everything is at the edge. It's nowhere. You don't have to BE somewhere any more, if you don't want. Or, if the somewhere part is important, you can bring what you need to the edge.

Bring the Edge to the Center and the Center to the Edge

I can be face down in writing this and say aloud, "Alexa, order me some more AA batteries," and they'll arrive two days from now without me having to think anything more about it. I'm at the center of the marketplace wherever I am. Amazon's Echo platform is an Internet of Things (IoT) play that hints ever so vaguely at what we'll all be doing naturally in the next few years.

My cultural intentions are easier to facilitate. My community of shared interest is easier to thread together. With blockchain, I'll very soon be able to order the KIND of electrical power I want to pay for (water, wind, solar) and thus be able to vote for my beliefs with my dollars. ( This is what I mean.)

The same way web tools like blogs and YouTube and Twitter and so on have allowed more and more people to be media stars, the NEXT layer of all this will be driven by blockchain and IoT and chatbots and AI and we'll have a lot more control of our data, a lot more options for extracting and sharing value, and many ways to curate and create the kind of interactions we want to have.

Social Networks for the Edge

Just as all the big social networks are feeling fatter and less about "us," all the little dating apps and simpler social networks are picking up steam because they're allowing like minded communities to form and bring all these people around all these various edges to a joined center.

It starts with dating apps (Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, etc) and moves into whatever other interests people want to gather around. I googled "Cannabis social network" and there were a dozen or more. I googled "LGBT social network" and found plenty. Vegan? Yep. Whatever you want to search for, there are now smaller and simpler social networks hiding in the shadows of the "big guys."

Data as Fuel and as Center-Makers

What comes soon (it's here already, but just not evenly distributed) are all the innovations in data being more available, faster, and able to be tailored to our interests. Right now we use Cortana and Google Home to initiate requests. Soon, our virtual assistants will sift massive stacks of information to pick what we teach them we care about. Oh, there's a Babymetal concert tomorrow in Boston AND tickets are only $50 AND two other people I know and like who like Babymetal have already said yes? Sure. Buy it. Done.

Right now, there's either no data, too much data, or no way to do something useful quickly with data for many of us. That will change. And as it does, the tools we use to work with that information will adapt and grow and learn to anticipate our needs and bring what matters to us to the center.

The Story Continues

The stories I'm telling through my Podcast and my Amazon Flash Briefing and via my newsletter (and my forthcoming book) are all building towards helping us figure this all out. The same way I showed you (and continue to show you) how blogs and podcasts and video are neato, I want to help you find your way through all the new stuff.What's the best way to build a chatbot that won't upset your customers?How can you thread together a few simple blockchain apps and suddenly get more business from the big guys?What will AI look like when it's just a service you rent the way you pay for web hosting?That's what I'm working on with you.I'll bring all those weird edges to our mutual center. Are you with me? It's going to get even more crazy (but in only the best of ways)!

If this has been interesting

Consider grabbing my newsletter. It's only going up from here.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 21/11/2017 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 21/11/2017

Will Blockchain Change Real Estate? EA Listens to the Community - The Brief for 11.21.17

Here are the notes from the Chris Brogan Media broadcast for 11/21/17. (You can watch this on my Facebook account).The goal of these posts is that there are trends and ideas here that might impact your business now or soon. Think on the stories here and look for ways to adjust your business accordingly. If ever you’re stuck, get in touch with me and I can help.This live video was all shot using Ecamm Live (client), the best way to do Facebook Live for Mac.Please note that all links may be affiliate links. If someone is a client, I'll call that out specifically.

Stories Shared

Real Estate as an interaction is still fairly old fashioned and arcane. Blockchain might very well change a lot of how it's done.We are working fewer hours than our parents and grandparents. So why do we feel busy all the time?What do the most customer-focused businesses in the world do to fix their customers' issues? They think about latte.Many people have been in the position of having had a few too many to drink. Would you trust a chatbot to keep you safe?Every want to know about the state of mobile and online users in South Africa? Here's your chance.In plant-based news, threatened industries are fighting back against plant-based companies using representations of animals and dairy products.Buddy John Ackley shares a cool short documentary about the origins of your food staring Zooey Deschanel.Related (and also shared by John), food is being grown in shipping containers in Brooklyn.Old McDonald had a droid. Robots are coming to hydroponic farms.Star Wars Battlefront II launched recently, and immediately started taking fire from angry fans. But unlike many companies, they listened and took actions to fix the issues.Let's check out some of the cosplay from Anime NYC 2017, shall we?Hey, if this has been interesting, consider picking up my weekly newsletter. It's all unique ideas by me about how to improve buyer interactions and grow your business. Give it a peek

What ELSE is News?

You want to get featured on the Chris Brogan Media show? Drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com and let me know what's news!

Please Get My Newsletter

My newsletter is the best work I do every week. You can get yours here.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 14/11/2017 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 14/11/2017

Barbie in a Hijab. Your First AI Friend. Some other Brogan and Hyperloop. - The Brief for 11.14.17

Here are the notes from the Chris Brogan Media broadcast for 11/14/17. (You can watch this on my Facebook account).The goal of these posts is that there are trends and ideas here that might impact your business now or soon. Think on the stories here and look for ways to adjust your business accordingly. If ever you’re stuck, get in touch with me and I can help.This live video was all shot using Ecamm Live (client), the best way to do Facebook Live for Mac.Please note that all links may be affiliate links. If someone is a client, I'll call that out specifically.

Stories Shared

What do the Chinese think are the big marketing trends of 2018? Here are 18 of them worth checking out.I shared Chinese marketing trends. Here are SEO trends for 2018 that you need to know about.One trend is a rise in loyalty behavior. You heard about the Keurig stuff, right? That's just the start.After receiving the most negative votes on a community comment reply in the history of Reddit, EA is going to change the pricing on the downloadable content for Star Wars Battlefront 2.Hey, your face might not be all that unique, it turns out. A $150 mask can crack your password on the new iPhones, according to this report.Need a friend who'll love you no matter what? What about an AI friend?So you've heard about these hyperloop things? Super fast subways, kinda? This guy named Brogan BamBrogan (Not kidding!) has one slated for Colorado soon.A big warning from the world's scientists says that our planet is in jeopardy. 15,000 of them from 184 countries signed this manifesto.But if we all die it's okay. Headless robot dogs will still be able to roam the planet.In more fun news, Mattel is rolling out its first Barbie in a hijab to celebrat Ibtihaj Muhammad, US Olympic medal winner.And want to see India's "King of Cosplay?" This Reinhardt is pretty dope.Hey, if this has been interesting, consider picking up my weekly newsletter. It's all unique ideas by me about how to improve buyer interactions and grow your business. Give it a peek

What ELSE is News?

You want to get featured on the Chris Brogan Media show? Drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com and let me know what's news!

Please Get My Newsletter

My newsletter is the best work I do every week. You can get yours here.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 31/08/2017 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 31/08/2017

CBM083117

Here are the notes from the Chris Brogan Media broadcast for 08/31/17. (You can watch this on my Facebook account).This live video was all shot using Ecamm Live (client), the best way to do Facebook Live for Mac.Please note that all links may be affiliate links. If someone is a client, I'll call that out specifically.

Stories Shared

Everyone can help in some amazing way. Look at how this woman helped 5 million people in the favelas of Brazil.I love when places reach out to try and build a hub in the real world. Here's a story about moving 100 founders to Argentina to grow their startup community even more.Google Assistant is about to break free from its singular form. Watch for washing machines and vacuums and plenty of other form factors.Also in the smart speaker assistant world, here's a piece about how Amazon will fight Google on all fronts.Look behind the scenes at what makes a great culture AND a great business at this magazine.Kids overhear some horrendous conversations. This article helps kids stick up for their peers.Hatsune Miku turns 10. Know who "she" is? Oh, you're about to enter quite the world.Are you throwing away that trash? You could be DRINKING it!Uh oh. Doritos are about to get a bit more healthy.Hey, if this has been interesting, consider picking up my weekly newsletter. It's all unique ideas by me about how to improve buyer interactions and grow your business. Give it a peek

What ELSE is News?

You want to get featured on the Chris Brogan Media show? Drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com and let me know what's news!

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 01/03/2017 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 01/03/2017

Start Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way for publishers like you and me to promote products and services that we like and use to the people we serve through our platform. It's my favorite kind of marketing arrangement because when used appropriately, it's the perfect match of a person (me) promoting a product they like (made by someone else) to the people that have chosen to give me their attention (you). I want to talk about what it takes to start affiliate marketing.

Start Affiliate Marketing

Let me state two details at the beginning: there will be affiliate links in this post as there are in lots of my posts. (I disclose that fact on my about page, which is good to do and also the law in the US - more on that later.) Second, these are my simple methods for affiliate marketing. There are far more intelligent and complex ways to do this executed by the really smart people I've met at events like Affiliate Summit. Start with me, but if you get really involved in this space, go to that conference.

The purpose of this article will be to walk you through what it takes to build a media site (or sites) and promote products and services that you use and like. There are other methods to make and deploy affiliate marketing. I'm sharing just mine. My intention isn't to create some exhaustive tome. I want to get you started and get you on the path to making business happen. Oh, and if you want a handy checklist to go along with this, I'll trade you. Sign up to my newsletter and get the Start Affiliate Marketing Checklist. Good?

START

Before You Begin: What's Required

Like most any online business idea, people go a little crazy. They think, "This is super easy and I'll just set up a website and someone will drop bags of money off at my house." It never EVER happens that way. You will always have to work and people will only ever give you money if you're delivering some kind of value to them.

The method I recommend for affiliate marketing is to build a content media "property" around a topic of interest (YOUR interest) after determining whether there's some related affiliate marketing programs. That means you're going to do some blogging, maybe some podcasts, some video. You'll be in the media making and promoting business.

It's a hard time for this. There is a GLUT of content out there. Author Mark Schaefer wrote about content shock as far back as 2014. There's just gobs of people creating "content" for the world out there.

So why start? Why am I telling you about this in the first place?

Two reasons. 1.) If you're just going to phone it in, stop reading this article. It's obvious when you do this and no one will pay attention to you. 2.) If you feel strongly about some particular topic or topic area, it will require your effort to make something of value for people.

Requirements for Being a Successful Affiliate Marketer

To be successful in my method, you must do the following:

Treat affiliate marketing like a business - Serve people something of value or they'll go elsewhere. Put in the time. Work to make your product (good content) worth it.
Create new content at least once a week - And again, "content" means a blog post or a podcast episode or a video. Some kind of media that serves your potential buyer.
Make the content valuable - Anyone can make a few bucks delivering junk content, but that's not serving anyone. People will quickly realize your goals and abandon you. And Google will punish your search ranking badly if they suspect you're not working to help the people who show up on your site.
Always know the product you're promoting - This is important. Some affiliate marketing programs are lucrative but are in areas where you have no domain knowledge. Never promote something you can't vouch for. Either be an active user of the product and service or be closely connected with the company who sells it. YOUR relationship with the community you serve is at stake. Affiliate marketing is a 100% trust-based game.
Seek out ways to serve the people who give you their attention - Your relationship is never about selling the product. It's about equipping the people you serve with tools they might find valuable. That requires you to go looking for products and services that might enhance the experiences of those people who give you their attention.
Learn at least the basics of the technology you use to create this material - The very basic affiliate marketing that I do requires that you know how to copy and that you know how to paste. Beyond this, I'm going to recommend a few tools that might make the whole thing a little better. Learn how to post a blog post. Learn how to record and edit a podcast. Learn how to shoot and post a video on something like YouTube. You'll need these skills.

All right. Let's say you're down for this still. Let's dig in.

Step 1: Pick a Topic Area

This is likely the hardest part, but it doesn't have to be. Here at [chrisbrogan.com], my tagline is "Use media and community to earn more customers." That means I talk about business stuff around marketing and communications for the most part. Right? Pretty wide-stretching topic. The negative to this is that I don't rank highly on Google for many useful things. The plus is that I can pick lots more things to promote, where it makes sense.For you, I want you to consider Step 1 and Step 2 in the same time frame. As you start looking for a topic area, it has to match up with you well.

Is this an area you know well?
Can you list ten articles to write about?
Is there something people buy to improve their experience in this space?
Can you find products for the space? (See Step 2)

That's how I evaluate NEW projects. If I were going to start a brand new website from scratch right now around a space, I would go through that checklist.But listen. Very important. You MIGHT find ways to build affiliate programs into it indirectly. Let's say you like geocaching. Remember that? It's when you go out in the woods and cities with a GPS and find little treasure boxes that other people have left for you? Maybe that's your thing. You use it to exercise a bit and unwind.You might think: well, then I'll sell GPS products. Okay, but you can also sell backpacks, hiking boots, toys to stick in the boxes, snacks, thermoses, raincoats, umbrellas, and sunglasses. Bingo. Sunglasses are a HUGE internet product. Just check your spam if you don't believe me. See?Some people also like to bounce topic ideas of the Google Keyword Planner tool. Sometimes that's great, but if you are REALLY sure of your topic, don't fret if that tool doesn't back you up. I've made a career around creating my own keywords.You've got a topic, but you MUST determine of there are some affiliate programs that make it worth your time to build this out. (Again, provided your goal is to be an affiliate marketer and earn money promoting products and services that you vouch for to the people you have the pleasure to serve.)

Step 2: Research Affiliate Programs

There are many affiliate platforms and programs out there. You want to seek out companies that have some level of longevity. You want to evaluate whether they have good reporting tools. You'll probably want to Google any company you're evaluating to make sure there aren't too many scary stories about them, too.I'll tell you off the bat that I am a very big fan of Share-a-Sale, because I know and trust their founder, Brian Littleton, and because a lot of the companies I've worked with have chosen Share-a-Sale for their platform.This isn't a pure affiliate project, but IZEA is a company I appreciate and vouch for. I'm friends with founder Ted Murphy, and I've worked with this company since...2009, I think?There are sites like Commission Junction, Rakuten (formerly LinkShare), and tons more. There's also Clickbank and even platforms like Amazon Associates.You can pick who you want to work with, but do your homework.When you've decided on a company or companies to work with (many people have multiple affiliate accounts), it's time to research your topic to see if there are some potential products and services in the area you're hoping to develop.You can search by product name. You can search by company name. You can even just start typing stuff in and see what you find. Again, my big point (I've made it three or four times so far) is that you should only promote products and services that you've used or you can vouch for. Let that guide your searches, too.One little detail: sometimes, a company has a standalone affiliate program and for whatever reason, they opt to run the program themselves. That's fine. It means you have to go to their site, apply for their program, and hope that they are as diligent and professional as the programs I've mentioned above. I'm not saying not to do it, but I tend to stick to platforms that I know will actually pay me for my efforts. At the TOP of that list for me is Share-A-Sale, so sign up there.Then, it's time to apply for some programs.

Step 3: Apply for Affiliate Programs

Every affiliate manager (the person working with the companies selling the products and services) does their job differently. There are various ways they evaluate their affiliates, different ways they handle their relationships, etc. Some programs are open to anyone. You sign up and you're in. Other programs require an application and verification.In those application-and-verification moments, the manager is looking for the following:

What website will these links and banners be used?
What else do you promote there?
Are you legit or some evil spammer?
Do you have any kind of an audience?
Does your site even look nice?

I can tell you from my own experience that I've been denied from programs because the manager felt I wasn't the right fit. Fine by me. I've also been denied from programs because I wanted to use the links and banners on a site that wasn't yet developed and the affiliate manager probably wanted to see me launch before giving me an account with their company. Never take the denials personally. Realize that you can reapply and just move forward.

Focus on finding companies whose products and services you want to represent and work on getting approved for those.

Sometimes, I know a product, but the company vending the product is unknown to me. For instance, I am an affiliate marketer for a vitamin supplement company that I know very little about, but I use them because they sell products that I can vouch for. So before I put a single link up from this company, I ordered products from them myself like a customer. I evaluated the delivery. I contacted their customer service to ask a question or two. I made sure I could trust these people with someone if I sent someone there to get a vitamin. (I recommend you do the same.)

Okay, let's say you've applied. You've been accepted. You're ready to make a site.

Step 4: Build a Site

If you don't already have a domain (URL) for your website, swing by Namecheap or whoever you prefer and buy one. With all the new domain options like .club and .media and so on, you're likely going to be able to pick a decent name without much hassle.Some people prefer a name that matches a Google search like, "how-to-buy-a-car.com" or something. (Don't search that because I didn't.)My name choice is to create something memorable that you can own. When I dabbled with a nerdy site idea, I settled on NerdFront because I liked how bold it was. (Note: the project's on hold AND it isn't on StudioPress because I built it before that was an option.)Quick Disclosure: I have a strong bias for Brian Clark, Rainmaker Digital, and the StudioPress and Rainmaker platforms. My business runs on it and has for years. I will always recommend them because they've served me well for years now.

That said, it's important to build a site where you can do your affiliate stuff. You can build something simple, something mega complex, or you can build a media platform that handles blogging, podcasting,etc. I'll give you three to choose from:

Weebly - not a ton of features, but inexpensive and very fast/easy to throw together.
Rainmaker - the exact opposite. This is a massive and amazing platform. It does many things, has its own merchant tools, membership tools, a podcast network system, a learning management system and much more. I run my flagship site, Owner.Media, on it.
StudioPress - This is a newer offering from Rainmaker Digital and I put my Mom's website on it right away. I've got a new site going there, too. This is what I would most recommend for a affiliate marketing project because it's affordable (under $300 USD a year), built on a bulletproof hosting solution, has strong SEO (search engine optimization) added to it, and with its new approved plug-in partners, it's pretty easy to configure and launch a decent site with minimal technological knowledge.

I mentioned podcasting and video. You have a lot of options. I'll tell you what I picked for various projects and you can choose your own adventure.For my last two podcast projects, I used and can highly recommend Libsyn (Liberated Syndication). They've been in business for years. I know the founders and many of the team there. A lot of the biggest podcasters in the world trust Libsyn.I've also dabbled with the podcasting tools inside Rainmaker. It works really well and I'm going to run my next podcast on it. The team at Rainmaker Digital all use it and have launched hundreds (thousands?) of episodes on it.For video? Oh boy. You could ask a million people. I have a few thoughts.I use YouTube and intend to use it more. I've started using Facebook and Facebook live. I believe there's some "there" there.I also like those platforms like Vimeo and the rest. Don't ask. Use what you want. But I think it's a bit crazy if you don't use the big mega platforms as well. You can argue with me. Pick for yourself.Do you HAVE to do video? No. Should you? I say yes. Do it!SUPER IMPORTANT STEP: On your About page on your website, create an area for disclosures. In the US, this is a legal requirement - see more HERE.If you want to steal and edit mine, here's what I wrote:Chris promotes and sells various 3rd party products and services via affiliate marketing links. These change frequently. Presume that most links here have an affiliate relationship attached, but also understand that if Chris promotes it, he uses and believes in the product or service.Now, let's make some content!

Step 5: Create and Launch Useful Content

Let's talk about making content. I mean blog posts. I mean newsletter articles (not just your blog posts sent in email). I mean podcast episodes. I mean videos. That's the "stuff" of this job the way I do it.What do you write about?You can do lots of things:

Reviews
Guides
How-to (oh! Like THIS post!)
And sometimes just off-the-cuff stories where you find yourself talking about a product that you recommend.

There are plenty of other ways to do affiliate marketing. These are content marketing plays, not the other stuff like coupon sites, etc.

Above all else, I want you to be organic. Create information that will serve the person you're hoping to help. Browse through what I've written at [chrisbrogan.com] and you'll see there's quite a mix there. My reader is a business person. My reader is someone looking for new ideas and perspectives. Thus, I can mention whatever makes sense in that context.But I also talk about products and services from my life where it makes sense. I love my Yeti mug. I love it. So when I talk about it, I link to where you can pick one up. Because if you get one, you'll love it like I do.That's how I do affiliate marketing content. It's organic because the absolute goal of my efforts is to connect you with something I think you'll find useful and/or will benefit you in some way. That's my biggest message to you in this whole piece.The actual mechanics of how I post for affiliate marketing go exactly like this:

I write my blog post.
I identify links I want to place that point you to the product I want to reference.
I find those links on ShareASale (or wherever you've chosen).
I add those links to my post. *
I publish the post.

*There's an extra step because I've chosen it. I use Bit.ly Pro as a link shortener. That means I take a link from somewhere like shareasale that looks like this: http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=518798&u=287419&m=46483&urllink=&afftrack= and turn it into this: http://cbrogan.me/namecheap. I recommend link shortening technology but it's not VITAL.I do it for three reasons. 1.) Prettier links. 2.) More stats. 3.) I can replace a vendor with another vendor without upsetting the links I built on my blog and elsewhere.Like I said early on, you must also treat this like a business. And to do that, we move to our next step.

Step 6: Adjust Based on Stats

If you're not measuring your efforts, there's no real reason to do affiliate marketing. The goal is to help others and to earn something for your efforts. To do this, you need stats.

At the bare minimum, install Google Analytics.Look also for other tools to help with your efforts, too. For instance, I use Bit.ly pro for my link shortener. It tells me that my links have been clicked by people in 67 countries. It tells me that more people click my link for Rainmaker than they do my link for the Yeti mug this month.Your goal is to help others. You might find more information from your stat-gathering. For instance, let's say Google Analytics says 100 people clicked a link on your page to a great set of art pens you like and promote. Your Bit.ly pro account confirms those 100 clicks, too. But your affiliate program says made zero sales.

First, know that it could happen. People click but don't buy all the time. 1% is a good number to aim for. 100 clicks, 1 sale. But if there's no sale?
The people who click might not like the product. - Should you find a new product?
The people who click might not like the seller's website. - Should you find a new vendor?
There might be a disconnect in the content and the promoted link. Maybe lose the link and try something in a new post.

But there's other things that can happen. Software fails all the time. You might see 100 clicks in Google Analytics and only 10 clicks in the link shortener. Is there something wrong there? Or maybe 100/100 and the vendor isn't seeing the traffic? You might have to reach out to an affiliate manager for some help.See? Stats. They're important. Use them.Okay, last in my list.

Step 7: Look for Expansion

If your goal is helping someone, it's great to realize that people have more than one need in the universe. The best salespeople I've EVER met are those who are looking out for the larger story around me instead of just selling me one single product or service.

A long time ago, I used to pester Brian Clark for a copy of his WordPress theme. When he started selling a premium theme based on his old one, I was one of his first customers. Then, he sold a premium theme framework. Then, another. Then, hosting. Then a powerful website platform. And now a simpler one too. I'm in line every time he comes up with something new. I love about 85% of the things he's created. Pretty good number, right?

As an affiliate marketer, your job is to help people in a certain space. Maybe you're helping aspiring nursing students. You help them get scrubs and school supplies and links to books and whatever else. Maybe you find an affiliate program for study guides or something. Why wouldn't you look to expand what you offer to help students get what they need to do their job better?

Let's say this goes another way. Maybe you've done so great with nursing students that you think, "Hey, I'm into vintage 1950s memorabilia- maybe there's an affiliate project THERE!" That's awesome.What comes next? All the same seven steps above. Starting at Step 1.Because there are two ways to expand:

Grow the product lines to the marketplace you serve.
Create a new marketplace.

What wouldn't be a great plan is mixing the two. Don't try to sell nursing students 1950s surfboards or whatever. Make sense?That's how to expand.

Last Words

The trust you develop with the people you reach with your media is your first and foremost priority. Never trade your relationship for a few bucks. It'll never ever EVER be worth it.Serve the people you write and create content for and deliver them products and services you've used and/or can vouch for. Be diligent in this.Keep it light. You're here so you're not likely going into this business in any hardcore kind of way. But do this stuff lightly. Look for it to buy you a dinner every month. Then a few dinners. Then get yourself to where it can pay your mortgage. And so on. It's more fun this way. You'll enjoy the experience more.And remember that selling isn't evil. Selling without the intention of helping the other party is evil. Most every link I've shared above is an affiliate link. Did you feel like I was some kind of jerk? No. Because I'm pointing you towards resources you might want to use to build your own money-making affiliate marketing business.THAT is your goal. Help others. Make money. Simple as that.Now, do you want the checklist I promised? START To share this, please point people to https://chrisbrogan.com/start-affiliate-marketing. This article was written by Chris Brogan, (c) 2017.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 30/11/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 30/11/2016

Any Path Gets You There

What's the best diet? The one you'll follow. What's the best exercise program? The one that gets you the results that YOU want. What's the best business strategy? The one you'll actually implement to get where you want to go.

I was wishing a happy birthday to Scott Sigler, and realized that he's a great example for my upcoming book, Make Your Own Game. Scott was an aspiring fiction author who couldn't really get the attention of anyone to publish his works. So he decided to do a podcast in serial form (yes, LONG before that serial showed up and acted like it was a novel idea).Scott was able to show just how active his fan base was around his books and he landed himself a modest book deal. BECAUSE he had cultivated a very strong community around his project, the book sold extremely well, and that got the attention of the mainstream. Suffice to say that Scott's a very successful and established author and creator now.

Any Path Gets You There

My story's living proof. I was just another employee, doing my job (kinda) and dreaming endlessly about the possibilities for the company. Nobody I worked with cared all that much for my endless ideas and rantings. They ignored me for the most part. So I blogged. I blogged and I made media and I podcasted and I started going to events that had nothing to do with work. And then I ran my own event with Christopher S Penn.

And then I became a New York Times bestselling author, an international keynote speaker, and a business advisor to some of the biggest brands in the world. In just a couple of engagements a year, I get paid more than my entire salary at the place that mostly ignored me or just wanted me to do my job. I took my own path (make media that informs and entertains and CONNECTS) and got where I wanted to go.

But You Have to Take It And Walk It

First, walking someone else's path probably won't ever feel as fun as finding your own way there. That's why the new book is "Make Your Own Game" and not "Hey, someone else has this game and it's cool and you should do that."

And the other warning? You have to walk ONE path for a while before deciding to try another. Don't get this twisted. You can get off a path. But you can't walk two or three at once (at least not for too long).

Also, you have to actually move forward. You can fall back sometimes. You can retrace your steps. By standing still on a path doesn't count for much.

Remember This

No one is waiting to give you permission. The permission fairy isn't coming. Pick a destination. Pick a path. And get walking. Don't let the ways other people did it get you messed up. Your way is the right way. Unless it's not. And then do something else.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 31/10/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 31/10/2016

Is Your Site About You Or Them?

Imagine you need to swap out the dishwasher in your kitchen (the device, not a person). If you didn't want to do the job yourself, you'd call a plumber, or go look for one online. Now, imagine the plumber spends her or his time telling you about their credentials, about why they charge what they do, about how they're the very best at what they do. Great, but will you help me swap out the dishwasher?

Is Your Site About You Or Them?

If you haven't visited chrisbrogan.com in person lately, click that link. What's the first thing you see after my handsome face? "Use media and community to earn customers." It says clearly what I'm offering you on this site.Now, swing by my redesigned Owner Media site. You scroll down half an inch and it'll say "Skills for the Modern Business." It's right there, what I sell.Your site is how you sell and it's an important salesperson. But for whatever reason, most people seem to build their websites as a way of explaining that they're worth it, that they're a really good person, etc. Yes, people want to know that stuff, but they mostly want to know how you'll help them solve their problem.

Steal from the Best

I swung by Tim Ferriss's site to see what he was saying these days (on his site - I listen to his podcast sometimes). There was a really straightforward question: "If you could 10x your per-hour output, how would your life and business change?" Ah, I guess I know what Tim's selling me that I might want.

My buddy John Jantsch has two doors you might go through on his site, meaning he sells to two different (but somewhat related) groups. See how he deals with that here. We use a similar three path approach at Owner Media Group. Scroll down to look at it.

My friend and sometimes co-author Julien Smith runs Breather. Look how he puts the whole purpose for why you'd choose breather as the dead center of his site.

Brian is an Owner Insider and runs Editorr. His explanation is dead center of the site and visually explains (in a smart way) why you'd use his service. (And do use that service.)

What About You?

Do people know why they've come to your site? Are you answering that for them right off the bat? Are you echoing what you do to help others first and foremost in your site design and your copy? If not, why not?

By the way: it's something we're working on with our Owner Insiders in the coming months, so if you want help, I'm your man.)

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 12/09/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 12/09/2016

Your Message and Your Voice

I'm writing this for my Owner Insiders but figured I'd share it with you, as well. The idea is one of those simple-but-potentially-profound ones. I'll be sharing it with the people at Owner Action Systems LIVE in Portland, Maine on 9.24.16.

Your Message and Your Voice

I believe that when you better understand what you stand for, what you believe in, what you bring to the picnic, and who you seek to help, everything flows better in your business. I've come to think about this as a "throughline." In writing, the throughline is a connecting theme or plot.

For instance, in the movie Suicide Squad, when Batman confronts Deadshot and his daughter in an alleyway, Batman says "Let's not do this in front of your kid." The scene immediately forces us to remember that Bruce Wayne lost his parents in an alley in front of his face.

This requires thought and work around two areas. Your message and your voice.

A Living Message

In the 1980s, Dr. Stephen R. Covey did a lot to show the world the corporate concept of a mission statement. He pointed out that we'd all benefit from having a personal mission statement. The idea was to create a phrase or sentence that guided our choices and actions.

A living message is something like that. The idea is that you need to work to sum up your beliefs, your approach, your capabilities, and who you serve into something tight and easy to say but that also guides some of your choices and actions.

Upon looking at that last sentence, it's a bit startling. There's a lot packed in there. But if you think about it, it's completely within reason to think you can create it. Even a marketing slogan can sometimes handle most of this.

The most overused example I immediately thought about was Nike's "Just Do It."

But think for a moment. The phrase says "take action." It says "be brave." It says "don't overthink it." And it calls to a very specific kind of person. It also hints that Nike is committed to equip people to do all that.

Three words. A marketing phrase. But a philosophy.

Joe DeSena's Spartan Race has the tagline: "You'll know at the finish line." This isn't his life philosophy or anything, but it shows the promise in the message of the race. The goal of the race is to transform the Spartans running it.

A Message Isn't A Marketing Slogan

I've just made the dangerous choice of giving you two marketing messages as examples of a Message for you to consider. Don't mistake the concept. Your goal is to think through and sum up what you believe, what you do for the world, and who you seek to help with this information.

The work of doing this takes some writing, some thinking, some summing up, maybe some questions asked to trusted advisors and friends. But once you best understand your message, you know the mission that the message puts you on, and you know who you serve, so that's what matters.

(This is one part of five that we'll cover in Portland on September 24th.)

A Connecting Voice

The voice is your ability to communicate your message to others, to seek others, to build community around the ideas that your message represents. As I stated in my Nike example, Nike wants the kinds of people who take action. When I communicate my ideas, I'm reaching the kinds of owners who don't accept "this is how it is" as an excuse. I'm looking for people who own their choices, own their lives, and own their future.

To develop a connecting voice is to work on creating the world you see in your message. We create everything twice: once in our minds/hearts and once in the world. That first part, of writing or speaking or drawing or in other ways expressing the kind of "world" our message evolves around is some of the hardest work you'll ever do, but it's also what will win your success ultimately.

I was having lunch at Whole Foods the other day up in Portland, Maine. I found myself looking around at the signage, at the community board, at the multiple ways the company states their intentions so that people shopping there will know that they're in alignment with at least some of what they see. It was rather well done. They went to a lot of effort to share their voice in a way that reached out to people, said to them, "Hey, we're one of you! Come join us!"

You can see "bad" marketers trying to replicate this and failing miserably. But people who simply want to serve the people that match the intentions of their message? This is your work. Or some of it. To create the story and bring that throughline of your themes and concepts into the way you speak, the way you sell, the way you serve the people who give you their time and attention.

(We'll cover this in Portland, too!)

I wanted to start here. There's much more to cover on these ideas. But let's start here. I hope they help you think differently about what you're doing to reach the people you hope to serve as customers and clients.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/09/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 09/09/2016

Advertising Hits a Hurdle

This guy is known as Pewdiepie. You can decide he's a weirdo (he is). You can think his videos aren't interesting because they're mostly "let's play" coverage of video games (currently one of the top watched video categories of YouTube). He also makes $12 million a year from YouTube. However, recently, YouTube implemented some changes to appease the complaints of their advertisers (the reason YouTube exists) and they "forgot" to tell their top creative people like Felix -er- Pewds that the changes were coming. Changes that cost YouTubers money. There's some news here to think about.

Advertising Hits a Hurdle

First, if you want, watch Pewdiepie's comments about the change (language not safe for work - which will become one of the points):Can't see the video? Click HERE

Basically, YouTube reserves the right to cherry pick where they place advertiser's stock and they are saying they can choose not to post ads on YouTube uploads that contain swearing, drug references, nudity (I didn't know nudity was even allowed on YouTube, but okay), excessive violence, and war (I listed these off the top of my head so might have missed a few).

Completely fair. Advertisers might not want to put their stock on a post that shows a booty shaking contest or a guy posting videos selling special "supplements" with a wink wink.

My Big Point

Advertisers are going to have to get involved with these choices to decide whether and where their brand match ups ARE appropriate. Let me break this down for a moment.

Using Pewdiepie as an example is a bit flawed. He's doing okay. If he loses a few ad bucks, he'll survive. But think about people barely scratching out a living but trying. You'd think that they should create with advertising in mind if they want advertising money, right?

Maybe not.

What advertisers are buying is ACCESS TO that creator's relationship with the community he or she nurtures. (Pretend I've put yellow highlighter on this part.)

Advertisers should spend their money by seeking the best potential brand synergy between their product and a content creator's shared experience with his or her community.

Why DON'T advertisers think this way? Because it takes time. Because it doesn't fit as neatly into a spreadsheet.

The fundamental hurdle of what will move advertising forward in the new world of content creation and content marketing is that DECISIONS WILL REQUIRE MORE THAN A SPREADSHEET. Understanding the relationship data will be every bit as important as learning the new marketing technology data.

Said another way, advertising is a lot more tricky than it ever has been because the blank faced "audience" of yore exercises its opinions a LOT more directly these days.

One Last Point

We have to get past our own internal knee-jerk feeling of "I can't understand why anyone would ever watch/read/listen to this guy." If you're not into it, that's cool. It's not made FOR you. You're not the target audience (using outdated advertising language). That's the HUGE point here. We can find where we belong now. We can choose. There's a nearly unlimited supply of options for what we spend our eyeball and earball time doing.

But that means reaching those people and connecting with them will take a LOT more work. It's time to dig into that learning and thinking and adding a few more success criteria to how advertisers choose where to spend their money.

Brofist that, Pewdie haters.

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 05/09/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 05/09/2016

Labor Day

I've never been one to celebrate Labor Day. It's a US holiday built to say, "Hey good job, workers. You did work!" Seems a bit patronizing to me. I prefer to celebrate work every day. But you can make a holiday what you want, and so I made mine my own.

Labor Day

Over the last handful of days, Jacq launched a new food blog, I launched a nerd blog, and I published a book. I released a new podcast episode, and I've created this blog post.

I also created more material for the various courses and webinars that I deliver at Owner Media Group and I worked on my upcoming event in Portland, Maine.

My point is this: labor is part of ownership. Work is part of ownership. To own our choices, lives, and future, we have to work for it. There's no holiday needed. Make every day Labor Day. Celebrate hard work every day, provided the hard work is in service of your larger goals and the community you work for.

Did I celebrate? Not today, on the official holiday. But in between all that work, Jacq and I climbed three or four different trails on a mountain. We hung out in little coastal Maine towns. We ate all kinds of food. We had lobsters from Young's Lobster Pound in Belfast, Maine, and we celebrated our future goals and plans as well.

Labor every day. Be grateful for the work. Feel blessed by the work you deliver. It's a much better way to tackle the world at large.

Check This Out

Food Voyeur - For the food curious. Nerdfront - Random geeky stuff for nerds. Find Your Writing Voice - a book to improve your writing skills. JUMPSTART offers - Four mini courses to help you work better all at half price for just two more days!Work with me! It'll be more fun that way!

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 11/07/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 11/07/2016

Pokemon Go is a Phenomenon - Get Into It

I never write about the bleeding edge of things. It doesn't benefit most people to run out and try something very new most times. But I really think you should give Pokemon Go a try and I'll explain why.

What is Pokemon Go?

If you've ever heard of the video game / card game / cartoon / multi billion dollar franchise that is Pokemon, it's about a bunch of trainers who catch and train wild creatures in little balls so that they can battle each other (not bloody, but more like sporting). Again, this has been a super popular video game, a card game, etc.

And now it's a mobile app available for both iPhone and Android.

In the mobile app, you play a trainer. You turn on your phone's location services and camera, and you walk around a map of the area around you. (This is all based on a previous Google game called Ingress and uses all their real world data.) When a pokemon appears (remember: these are cute little monsters), you click on the little avatar of the creature.

The game then switches to camera view and you see the monster in the real world around you. I caught a little rat creature on the foot of my bed. It was on knee watching me. You flick a little red and white pokeball at it and try to catch it.

The "point" of the game is to capture lots of these things (gotta catch em all), evolve the ones you've captured, and then battle it out with other trainers.

Why This is Interesting

Diverse Crowd of Pokemon Go Players

Before I say anything else, I should also tell you that Jacq downloaded it and started playing it. And likes it! This is rare in and of itself. She rarely likes the games I like. But that's just anecdotal. :)

What I've seen so far with my own eyes are lots and lots of people out walking and laughing and talking and working together to play this game. Diverse people (sure, you have to have a smartphone and a reasonable data plan, but still diverse). And because the various "pokestops" (like landmarks) are tied to places in the real world like actual memorial statues and the like, it's encouraging people to explore the world around them.

Parents are reporting that their previously-inside-only children are logging 3-5 miles without complaining or noticing because they're chasing pokemon around. Grown ups are enjoying the light hearted fun. People who grew up playing the games are reliving their childhood (I'm too old by decades but my daughter and I played the card game almost ten years ago).

Read this story from a military wife talking about how it changed their community. This woman is raising money for an animal shelter. This father and son set up a free lemonade stand.

When was the last time you heard anything like this about any other game?

Give It a Try

There are a few ways you might check this out, whether or not you have kids. (Lots of grown ups are playing this game.)

Download Pokemon Go for Android
Download Pokemon Go for iPhone
Turn on location services
Yes, allow the app to use your camera
Make sure your phone is charged (this eats battery)
Go for a walk and enjoy

Still Not Sure What This Is About?

Watch this guy play it a moment:Can't see the video? Click here

And then open your mind to potential ways this might be cool for business or otherwise. Here's a bakery in Toronto who gives price differences based on which of the three "teams" you're on in the game:

Go. Catch em all!

Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 12/05/2016 Chloe Forbes-Kindlen 12/05/2016

Influencer Marketing - Simple Rules to Make It Better

I've had the pleasure to work with many different companies on several influencer marketing projects over the years. Some were really well run and excellent and others felt like they weren't a great fit (my problem, more than theirs). As I've had the opportunity to work with a lot more companies on influencer marketing programs, it's been on my mind a lot. I wanted to write something from the perspective of the supposed "influencer," and in this case I mean me.

Influencer Marketing

Rule One: Honor the Community You ServeThe first and primary rule of influencer marketing, from my point of view, is that it should match the community the influencer serves. I work with owners which means either people who run their own business or who run their role at their midsized company. The people I have the most "influence" over (and I have to keep putting quotes around this because the term is a bit wonky at times) are those seeking to find ways to improve how they do business, who are trying to make it in this new largely entrepreneurial landscape, where the "rules" are a lot less defined and where the patterns have all been disrupted.

This means that when I work with a brand (almost always through their great agency) like Staples, it's 100% spot on because my owners need what Staples sells. It means when I promote something like the US Bank "This is My Edge" contest that highlights owners like the ones I serve, everyone gets a chance to see themselves as benefitting.

Oh, and it also means disclosing that you work with the brand. It's vital that you share your business relationships with the people you serve so that they understand your potential for bias.

Rule Two: Know the Brand and the Product/ServiceThis rule is for me, not the brand. I don't take projects that won't match the community I serve, or whose products or services I've no experience with in some capacity. I loved getting the chance to talk to then-CEO of General Motors Fritz Henderson because I'd been a GM customer my entire life. Though I admire several other car companies, it would be a lot less useful for me to promote their products, because I've nearly no experience with them.Rule Three: My Voice is My OwnA lot of the influencer projects I've worked on have involved sharing my first impressions of a product I've not yet used. That's a kind of fun project, but only if the brand and agency are ready for it to be talked about from my perspective, not their talking points sheet. If something isn't quite 100%, it's up to me to share that with the people I serve.

I once met the president of Panasonic US (I'm not sure if that's exactly his title, but that's the part of the company). We were looking at one of his cool video cameras, and we (I forget who, but I suspect it was Steve Garfield) showed him a Flip video camera, which was the coolest cheap video camera out at the time. He said very positive things about the camera, and said he hoped to bring some of that simplicity to his own line in the future. I found that VERY impressive. It had a strong impact on how I worked with brands from then on.

Rule Four: Make it FunAs best as I can, I try to make the influencer project experience fun for me, for the community I serve, and for the company I'm working with. If it's a slog, it's not going to be well produced nor will it be all that well received. My job is to find the fun and interesting way to talk about a product or service, and when I've got the running room to do it, that makes the project more fun. If you're seeking to be the one seen as the "influencer," pay close attention to this.Rule Five: It is a Business Relationship and Hopefully a PartnershipI've had two types of influencer program experiences. In one, it's business. I do work and I get a check. In the other, I feel like a committed partner to the brand (and their agency). Some times, the budget for a project is far below what I charge, and the project just won't work. Other times, and this happened recently, the budget wasn't right, but I really wanted the partnership. With Staples, I feel like I have a partnership. I've felt that way with all the work I did with Disney for their Social Media Moms project.Obviously, there's a vast difference between getting a check and building a partnership. You know which one I'd prefer. So that's a rule of mine. I seek the partnerships more than just a business interaction.

Influencer Marketing in the Larger Scheme of Things

We know word of mouth is king. It always will be. One of the biggest promises of social media was that it would be like word of mouth amplified.

Influencer marketing is in that weird "you know he got paid for this" part of marketing. Lots of marketing is, if you think about it. So to me, there's kind of a hierarchy in terms of perceived value to the recipientWord of MouthInfluencer MarketingContent MarketingAffiliate MarketingOther marketing stylesAgain, I mean this in order of how it's received by the end person, not where people spend and not it's technical effectiveness to ROI.With that in mind, that's why I like doing it. I like being able to promote products and services to the people I serve. It's a great opportunity to build relationships, and I'm always game for more chances to connect great people to a product they might benefit from using in pursuit of their own wins.If you're an agency representing an influencer campaign, you can always drop me a line: chris@owner.media .And if you're one of the people I serve, you now have the full view from my side of how and why I do what I do with regards to influencers. :)