Why I’m pivoting the “Startup Marketing Challenge” group

Why I'm pivoting

About 2-3 months ago I started a closed FB called “The Startup Marketing Challenge.”

For me, this was an experiment in mass mentoring – and this was this was the MVP.

I spend a lot of time helping early stage startups for free through mentoring, workshops, etc.

With the new agency starting to shape up (soon, I promise) I have less and less time to do the one on one’s.

So I’ve decided to test a new format.

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Why mastering feeling uncomfortable will set you free

Throughout life, we face hundreds of awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing situations.

Getting turned down by a girl you wanted to ask out. Failing at your first venture, Giving the wrong answer in front of a class filled with bad kids or simply falling flat on your nose on the street because you stepped on a wondering stone.

The fear of feeling uncomfortable is dangerous.

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I’ve been using Snapchat for 5 days and it changed my life

Follow me on snapchat

Yes, this is a dramatic headline, but I’m that excited. I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

Up until a few days ago I didn’t get Snapchat. At all.

I downloaded it a few times in the past, tried following some people I knew. But I just didn’t get it. I didn’t even get the interface (which sucks).

But something changed.

I saw Gary Vaynerchuk’s ‘SNAPPING MY WAY THROUGH VEGAS‘ episode and was partially brainwashed that Snapchat is the next big thing.

So I did what any old guy (Old in compare to a millennial) would do, and just looked through Snapchat support and looked up some Youtube videos explaining the product and concept.

Somewhere between watching Gary using it and thinking about my strategy and resolutions to 2016 the magic of Snapchat hit me.

Why it changed my life

If you’ve been following me / this blog for a while, you already know that I have issues with selfies and real time documentation. I just get awkward in the moment. Up until recently I haven’t taken and posted a selfie… every! I was always tagged, but never took the picture. That’s crazy right?

The second thing is that i’m too heavy with content. My professional blog posts take a lot of time to write and even on my Twitter account, I take everything too seriously and heavily. That doesn’t cope with the future of marketing. This is actually a part of why I started the writing challenge.

Snapchat changed that for me.

Why? Because this platform is hardcore all about real time, quick response, but most of all, if you’re not putting yourself out there – there’s nothing there for you.

But i’ve decided i’m giving Snapchat a try. So I’m all in. And it feels great.

Here are some of the things I’ve been doing in the last couple of days that i’ve never done before:

  1. I’ve created content on the fly: from giving tips to just sharing daily work stuff.
  2.  I’ve actually contacted more people
  3. I use video. All the time.
  4. Got the urge to do more real time things.
  5. Started actively asking my surroundings to be a part of my social efforts.
  6. I started multitasking better on my social efforts.

For me, that’s a huge change. Think of where I’ve started.

Business wise, I don’t know f Snapchat will actually have any results as getting new followers is super hard. But I will find out soon.

What I was really surprised though is to find out how many of my friends  are actually on Snapchat.

Which actually proves Gary’s point – that Snapchat is maturing and will probably become the next big thing, and this is the time for you to build your brand on it before others in your field will take over.

So.. I’m on Snapchat as ‘roypovar’.

You can also scan this code to follow me.

Add your profile code or nick name in the comments and I promise to follow you back!

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

Roy Povarchik Snapchat

Match your marketing channel to your energy levels

Match your marketing channel to your energy levels

If you’ve been a fan of Cesar Milan  (you might know him from his show ‘The Dog Whisperer‘) you know that understanding energy is crucial in our daily life.

While Milan talks about communicating with your dog, he makes a very important point about how we behave and choices we make as humans in general.

What does communicating with your dog has to do with content marketing you ask? I promise there’s a valid answer. Just hang in there with me.

In his many episodes, books, seminars (and in whatever other profitable channel he found I guess) the dog whisperer preaches about  the importance of energy in two crucial aspects:

  1. When choosing the right dog for you
  2. When communicating with your dog

I will focus on the first point in this post.

Also  you will understand what this has to do with marketing (including examples).

Choosing content format is a lot like choosing the right dog

We have two dogs, so I’ve read quite a lot Cesar’s content and watched his show.

One of the things that really made an impression on me was Cesar’s approach to choosing the dog that is right for you and your family.

Cesar categories dogs by level of energy: Low, Mid and High.

A Low energy dog is usually a little slower, more relaxed, while a high level energy dog is one that needs to run a round a lot, is over excited and over curious about things.

It’s important to understand that it’s not that one is good and one is bad, they’re just different.

Cesar suggests that when you adopt a dog don’t do the common mistake of choosing the first dog that runs straights towards you or just the one that seems the cutest. You’re choosing a long term partner, you have to be more serious about it than that.

Choosing the right dog means finding a dog that matches your energy levels. If you’re always tired, don’t like going out of the house or do walks – don’t pick the dog that is crazily wagging its tail and can’t wait to go out on a run. Your energies wouldn’t match and you will either be frustrated (a high energy level dog that doesn’t releases its energy outside is most likely to trash your place) or the dog will become depressed.

 

Same goes with content format.

Wait.. what?! Yup, you heard me.

Think about the different energy levels different content format requires.

For example – If you’re not a super high energy guy, Video and podcasts are probably not for you. If you are Video is a great channel for you.

Think about Gary Vaynerchuk (I’ve become a huge fan recently), he is the master of video. Why? Because he bring so much energy to his Ask Gary Vee show and the DailyVee. No wonder Wine Library TV was such a huge hit.

Gary has super high energy and video works for him. Text on the other hand, is not a forte’ of his. He writes blog posts, and they are good, but not as nearly exciting or inspiring as his video content.

Take Tim Ferriss on the other hand. His posts, books and podcast are amazing. They are super interesting and insightful. Tim is a mid-level energy guy. His is passionate, but he’s not crazy energized as Gary. So text and long-form audio work great for him. His TV show on the other hand, doesn’t work as well.

Now to you

Yes, i know, there are all kinds of marketing trends to follow – ‘2016 is the year of video’ bla  bla. But as someone once said – it’s not the tactic that gets you noticed, but your quality.

So when planning your 2016 marketing channels, budgets and where to place your efforts, don’t just follow the trends blindly.

Look deep inside you and ask yourself – What level of energy type am I? Will video work for me? Will I be able to keep up an Instagram account? Am I lower energy level kind of guy and writing text is the best way for me to go?

Match the formats you’ll use to your energy levels. If not, you will be putting double the effort and get half the results.

Trust me.

P.S Did you sign up for my special goal setting workshop this Sunday? If not, sign up here

Goal setting workshop

Goal setting workshop

 

Day 4: I want to invite you to a ‘Goal Setting Workshop’ (it’s free)

Goal setting workshop

Since January 1st,  i’ve been working on setting my goals for 2016.

You see, 2015 was great for me, but not as great as it could’ve been. Why? Because I didn’t plan my goals right.

Every year I do goal settings and I have a pretty solid record in keeping most of them. But last year, I just didn’t set them right and didn’t follow through .

That resulted in some progress, but not the progress I was hoping for. This year i’m doing it right.

The Goal Setting Workshop

At the beginning of the week, I posted to my Facebook and Twitter account an offering for people to join me for a goal setting workshop. The responses we’re quite amazing, so i’ve decided to follow through and do one.

You can register to the workshop here

I should warn you that i’m planning on limiting the workshop to up to 30 people max.

I want it to feel as intimate as an online workshop can feel – and try to stay away from that ‘webinar’ kind of feeling. So it will be limited to up 30 people.

In the workshop you will learn:

  1. Tips from top performers on setting up their years goals.
  2. How to choose goals that are right for you.
  3. How to define goals in a way you can actually achieve them.
  4. How to plan your goals to keep you on track.
  5. Why most people fail in reaching their goals, and why you’d be different.

Be quick to save your spot here.

Make a friend’s 2016 that much better

We all have that friend that is just isn’t happy about their position in life.

A friend that feels lost, isn’t happy or just need some good guidance to get them going and out of a slump.

We always want to help the people we care about, but don’t always get the time, or even know how to help.

I urge you to choose 1 friend, and send them this invitation (even if you’re not registered).

This is the link to the sign up page: https://goalsettingworkshop2016.splashthat.com.

Just send it to them, tell them it’s free and you think this can really help them win 2016.

Eventually, doing good and helping others, is what it is all about. 

Hope to see you in the workshop.

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2/3 Comfort Zone Challenges – Done!

I’m writing this update only seconds after completing my second ‘Out of my comfort zone challenge’ – Live streaming.

Originally the idea was to live-stream the launch of the Twitter email course, but I was not able to complete it on the due date, so I’ve decided to live-stream something else, and fail only 1 of my goals.

Instead, I turned to my Facebook and Twitter profiles and asked my followers to ask me growth questions they want me to answer on.

I got 12 questions in general. Out of those I picked 3: 

1. How would you promote a new podcast

2. How would you start with a new product

3. How to improve conversions from blog.

My main worries were:

1. Would people actually tune in to watch it?

2. Will I look good talking while in that ‘selfie” position.

3. Would it feel natural once I started.

Results: 

1. In overall, 37 people watched the 20 minutes broadcast 

2. No. Next time I need to find a stand for the iPhone or something like that

3. It actually did. Reminded me of the webinar experience. 

What’s the verdict:

I actually quite enjoyed it – and my team and I are thinking about turning it into a weekly thing.  

Would you ask questions and watch us every week?

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I Need To Step Out Of My Comfort Zone More Often  – This Is How I’m Going To Do It

Here’s a short list of things I KNOW I missed because I didn’t step out of my comfort zone in the last 3 years:

1. Growing my company faster

2. Building a stronger company at the present 

3. Giving talks to 3 of the biggest brands in the digital world

4. Over 100K$ (at least) in selling digital products and missing business opportunities 

5. Traveling abroad more

6. Stronger brand awareness 

7. Meeting some of my biggest heroes

This is only a real partial list. 

During the past month as I was on some kind of a ‘Paternity leave’ (more on that in another post) I had some time to think about my life, my business and how i’ve been living them so far.

Yes, I’ve achieved some very cool stuff  at my young age (both on a personal and business levels) but I know it’s only a friction. 

Why? Because I got carried away with worrying about the wrong themes and having self doubts (even Tim Ferriss has them, so it’s OK) and being too self-aware and self criticizing. 

How bad was it? Until last Friday, I never took a ‘selfie’ and posted it online! Thank you Gary Vaynerchuk for giving me the final push to do so

I HATE BEING CRIPPLED BY THESE THINGS!

So I’ve decided it’s time to handle it one step at the time. 

Here are some of the things I’ve done:

1. I talked with 3 friends that I feel are doing things I don’t have the guts to do.

2. I chose three programs / frameworks / challenges that to complete them I’ll have to step out of my comfort zone. 

Here are the 3 things I will be doing:

1. I never launched a digital product, or lets say, never really ‘sold’ something that aren’t my services. 

WHAT I’M GOING TO DO: 

I got an email from Gumroad telling me about an email course on ‘how to build a digital product’. 

Now, I’ve built tens (if not hundreds of them) for my clients, so I know how to do it successfully, but I’ve never done it for myself. So I’m going to follow through with Gumroad’s course just to give me structure .

In 14 days, I’m going to launch an email course to help startup marketers start and grow their company’s Twitter account. 

2. I’m not an ugly guy. I’m no Brad Pitt, but I’m definitely not the most ugly guy to take a selfie. So why is it so hard for me? I don’t know. 

Taking selfies with clients, thought leaders or generally in locations and event worth mentioning is a strong branding tool. It’s 2015, not using this, doesn’t make any sense. 

WHAT I’M GOING TO DO:

In the next 7 days I will take a selfie with 3 different people and post it to Twitter / Instagram. Just to get used to it. 

3. Tackle video / live streaming – I gave talks in front of hundreds of people. I don’t have stage fear of any kind, but video has always been hard for me. 

At the beginning I thought about making a short video and posting it online, but then I understood I will have too many excuses for not US it. So I found an alternative. 

WHAT I’M GOING TO DO:

I’m going to leverage the fact that i’ll be releasing the Twitter course, and i’m going to announce it using Meerkat (The live streaming for Twitter app). Why live streaming? Because it’s one take – one chance. No time to over complicate it.

This will happen in the next 12 days (Assuming the course will be ready in 14 days as planned). 

This isn’t ground breaking 

I know, these are simple stuff that people do everyday right? I could’ve been the worst teenager ever, right? 

There are so many things I need to tackle out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to start with 3 rather easy ones, so I could achieve my first small wins, meaning I will be more motivated to tackle bigger challenge later on. 

How To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone In 3 Steps

Here’s the framework I’m using right now to step out of my comfort zone – so you can use it too if you’d like.

1. Decide on 3 ‘issues’ you can easily do that are right now out of your comfort zone. Start with 3 simple things because getting those quick wins will get you motivated in tackling the bigger things that take more courage or willpower.

2. Define them in the most specific way: I didn’t just say “sell stuff online”, I actually looked for a very specific thing I can do in a very specific time frame. “3 selfies in 7 days”, “email course in 14 days”, “live streaming the product announcement using Meerkat”. The more specific I’ll get, the more I’m likely to actually do it.

3. Tell the world – If I’d only announce it to myself, I can easily back away from it, right? I’ll make up the same excuses I’ve always used and never do it. 

By announcing it I now have people watching me and expecting me to overcome my fears. Backing away right now will force me to “shame” myself or disappoint someone. 

Now, over to you 

When did you last leave your comfort zone? What would you like to do that you don’t have the guts to do now? Let me know in the comments.

You can also tell me on Twitter (@roypovar) lets do it together!