Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Dear dumpitthere,

Free resources eh? Jeffrey Gitomer's stuff rocks, really it does. You might also want to look at the following:

www.blisteringsucces.com
www.internetlifestyle.com/blog/
https://mikehillsblog.com/
www.ezinearticles.com

Then, go to the main link for this forum, the one you're reading now. You'll find it here:www.369da.com/ea/

Got it?

Good. Now, do you see the column to the right? The one that's headed "Top 25 KHE Experts"? Know how those people got to be on that list? By working their asses off for years, and by answering thousands of questions over the last seven years or so.

Now, pick a name. Any name, then click on it. Then, read the opinions of that person. Then, click on another name and read the opinions of THAT person. And so on an do that for as many names as possible.

People like Randall, Wayde, Phil, the two Michaels, Jay, Chris B., Steve B., Carol, Carl, and the many others on that list?

They stun me.

Their knowledge, wisdom, support, opinions, experience and all
of their brilliance leaves me thinking I'm not worthy, it leaves me thinking I don't have the faintest idea what the hell I'm talking about.

I'm serious.

Compared to these people and the many, many others that contribute, day in, day out to this forum, I know jack, and in the nine months or so (or however long it is, I don't know, look it up) that I've been "contributing" (if you can call my pathetic rants a contribution), I've learned SO MUCH from the other people on this forum: question askers AND question answers.

Know what this forum is? It's a gold mine. Know what your job
is now?

To dig. Get busy. Why?

Because your success is your responsibility.

You want free resources? You're sitting on a pot of gold.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Great ideas and thanks to all of you. Hope to more suggestions come in.

Again I wish to thank all you for your replys but I do find it interesting how a couple of you have suggested Jeffrey Gitomer. His site is a great example of what I am complaining about. Some information is there but the real basis is the constant push to sell products and systems for several hundred dollars. I mean really how valuable is an online calculator when I have one sitting on my desk and on my desktop? And what good is getting chapter one of his book for free if I don't buy the entire book? I signed up and opted out in the same hour when I saw what is was. Been down this road before with other websites offering small amounts of free information but were really nothing more than pages and pages of "buy my stuff it is really great". If I had the money to buy stuff, I would become a member of ASI that is really a depth of resources specifically targeted to promotional product sales. I am not complaining about the people that posted this recommendation because you believe it has been helpful to you and that's great. Just not my cup of tea and had to post my thoughts.

Dear dumpitthere,

Your frustration is understandable. Really it is.

Gitomer's tactic of giving away a free chapter is all part of bringing people in to the fold, so to speak.

But when someone buys a product from him (or from any industry leader or knowledge expert), that person doing the buying is not just buying a product, they're buying a chunk of that person's years of sales and marketing knowledge and either the seeker of knowledge can either accept that fact and buy in, or the seeker can carry on stumbling around, cursing the darkness for the sake of lighting a candle.

但是事情是这样的,可悲的是,你可能不莱克阀门e what you're about to read but it's meant with the best of intention: the key here is to stop blaming your lack of resources for your lack of success and to begin focusing on becoming more resourceful.

I learned this from Tony Robbins.

You'll find a link to the presentation he did around this subject here, and yes, this presentation is free (and its content is priceless, if its applied):https://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/96

What I mean by being resourceful is helping yourself, educating you, and seeing the glass as more than half full. Seeing it as overflowing with possibilities.

You'll find lots of free videos on these and related subjects here:
www.ted.com, and herehttps://poptech.org/

Here's an example of what I mean.

Just fourteen months ago I had no contacts, no connections, no
"in roads", no "expert" status (whatever that means), no industry authority, no industry credibility, and no social proof.

At least, few of any of these to speak of.

Then I came across an interview in which the speaker said an important thing: as far as authority is concerned one is either appointed as such, or one claims authority status by dint of one's knowledge and by sharing that knowledge. Not to come across as a wise-ass know it all. No, to come across as a "go to" person, to come across as a "gets stuff done" person.

With me?

That was about a year ago.

I felt lost. Lonely. A voice in the wilderness.

But that one comment in that one interview changed my outlook.
I began thinking "Hey! I know stuff about marketing and design. Screw the nay sayers! I'm going to begin banging my own drum."

I learned the hard way that if I was to wait around to be appointed as an expert that I was going to have a very, VERY long wait.

I decided that it was up to me to act and to declare victory as I marched out onto the battlefield—EVEN THOUGH, I was sticking my neck out.

All the fears were there: what if no one likes my opinion; what if people complain; what if I really DON'T know anything. And so on.

But there comes a time in life when you really have to say "Screw it!" So I decided that if was going to be hanged, it might as well be for a sheep as for a lamb.

With me?

So I joined this forum and I began answering questions.

All the top names on that top 25 list scared the bejesus out of me. Really, intimidated the crap out of me and I thought "There's no way—NO WAY, I'll ever get on THAT list. It ain't gonna happen!"

But I answered questions anyway. Then I joined Twitter and Facebook, and I began to connect with people on each of those platforms. Then I joined my local chapter of GKIC. Maybe my timeline's off here, but these things happened because I MADE them happen.

Then, much to my surprise, in July of last year, I made it onto the top 100 list of this forum. Then I won my very first off line client. Then another. Then I was approached about a joint venture partnership with another contributor of this forum—someone in the top 25.

THEY came to ME.

Then, on Twitter, and again the time line's all screwed here, I simply cannot remember because SO MUCH has happened, then, I took another HUGE leap of faith and I contacted Tony Robbins via Twitter and reworded or followed up on one of his posts, which was a quote from Winston Churchill. I'm originally from the UK and the Churchill quote connected with me.

I sent Tony Robbins a follow up tweet that pushed the quote farther. He responded. To me! This was huge. At the time Tony Robbins was followed on Twitter by over 1.5 million people, but he's responding to me. Huh?

I stuck my neck out AGAIN and asked for his follow on Twitter.

Seventeen minutes later I got a response from him. He said "You got it!" As of today, Tony Robbins has 1,734,539 followers, yet he follows only 324 people, one of whom is me. You'll find me five people down on this page:
https://twitter.com/tonyrobbins/following?page=-1314254794473899229

When I became the top ranked "expert" on this forum for Social Media, Tony Robbins asked me to send him content, he asked me to send him my favorite links and resources.

I'm now being followed on Twitter by just over 1,800 people. I have just over 100 friends on Facebook, but I'm working on that. I now have a modest blog that's been favourably commented on by several of the world's top Internet marketers. And although my little blog is nothing to shout about design-wise, it's now read by people on FIVE continents and here on the Know-How Exchange, slowly but surely I've answered question after question and I've built up: credibility; social proof; content; a following; a small but growing file of testimonials, and the knowledge that my opinions on marketing and design have helped a one or two people.

If I can do this, then isn't there scope, and hope, and a possibility of being way beyond where you are now a few months from now for you?

Sometimes, the only way to move forward—the only way to progress—is to get the hell out of your own way and to MAKE things happen. Did all the things I've outlined above scare me?

Hell yes!

But I did them anyway, because no one else was going to do them for me. When we stop playing the "If I had ..." game, and begin instead playing the "I'm making this happen ..." game we suddenly see all kinds of possibilities opening up where previously, there were only blank walls.

The keys here are the right attitudes, the right intentions, the right desires, the right mindsets, the right responsibilities, and the right actions.

The rest? That's up to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me onwww.twitter.com@GaryBloomer