Tag Archives for " Julia Neiman "

4 More Lessons Learned From Holding a Telesummit

In my last post I talked about learning that I should have been more focused – laser focused on my theme.  While all the interviews were top quality, some were a bit off topic.

The next lesson I learned was that for a first event, it was too big with too many speakers.  I chose to air three calls a week so with 18 speakers, the telesummit ran (is still running actually) for six weeks.  That’s a long time.  It’s is a real challenge to keep people coming back for that long.  On the other hand, it’s a selling point for them to purchase the recordings.

I chose to run three calls a week because I was doing most of the work alone.  With having to conduct the interviews, scheduling them to air, uploading the recordings after each interview, sending out the many emails involved in an event like this, including the daily emails with the replay number, and doing all the promotion, I felt like it was more work than I could do.  (Taking a deep breath here).  I do have other projects I’m working on simultaneously.  That’s why it stretched out to six weeks.

Perhaps for the next one I could either have less interviews or run more than one per day.  If I can afford to hire help to manage this part of it, I can run two interviews a day, five days a week for two or three weeks.  That would be ideal because the more interviews there are the better value for those who purchase the recordings.

At least now I know what is required to have an event like this one and I’ll be able to make better choices next time.

If you are interested in hearing some of the speakers from the telesummit, there are a few more days left and the replays will be available until until April 14^th.  We are also pre-selling the recordings with three options at discounted prices.  After April 14^th, the prices go up significantly.  The CD package would make a great unique gift for anyone parenting (Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are coming up), teaching or otherwise working with tweens, teens and young adults.  It would also be perfect for counselors, therapists and coaches who work with families.  You can find out more at http://TheYouthEmpowermentTelesummit.com.

In another note, I am offering a deep discount on my coaching program “The Monetize Your Passion Blueprint – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs” for anyone registered at the telesummit.  That discount is good through April 14^th as well.  Contact me via email at julia@julianeiman.com if you’re interested in more information.

8 Self Reflection on Lessons Learned

Today I want to talk about the things you need to think about when considering putting together a telesummit.  First of all, if you have done a telesummit before, you know, but if you have never done one, you may not have a realistic picture about how much work this involves.  I went into The Youth Empowerment Telesummit knowing that it would be a lot of work, but oh boy, was I surprised at just how much there was to do and how many things could go wrong.  Perhaps my experience can help you make a good choice in the future.

The First Step:  Finding clarity.

You must start with being clear about the following things before you do anything else: your purpose for the telesummit, your topic or theme and who your target audience is.  Everything else is built around these three questions.

I would have done things a bit differently for The Youth Empowerment Telesummit if I had known what I was doing.  My purpose, which I am happy with, was to bring current trends, strategies and action steps with regard to training life skills to teens and young adults.  That will remain my purpose for the second annual event next year (yes, I am going to do it again).

What I would do differently is to stick more closely to my theme – to be laser focused on it.  I ended up with too many parenting experts talking about parenting strategies rather than life skills strategies.  The guests were all fabulous and I love each and every one of them, however, I allowed the telesummit to get off track by adding the parenting topics.  Well, it was a good lesson learned.  I believe the outcome of that is that some of the content wasn’t that interesting to the life skills professionals in the audience and the life skills professionals are my main target audience for my business, at least for now.

Had I stuck to my topic like super glue, I would have brought in less parents and more life skills professionals and perhaps increased my list much more than I have or at least in a more advantageous way.  And while I have new names on my list, I am concerned that some of these people will never be my clients as they aren’t interested in teaching entrepreneurship to teens and young adults from a life skills perspective.

On the other hand, I did attract some fantastic life skills professionals and a few coaches, one of whom is interested in my coaching program and we have sold several recording packages because after all is said and done, the interviews were really good and had great content, even if they were somewhat off topic.

My advice, if can’t already guess, is be clear on why you are doing a telesummit, what you hope to accomplish and who you are doing this for, and what will it take to get them to come to the event.

More on lessons learned from the telesummit tomorrow.  Thank you for dropping in.

If you are interested in hearing some of the speakers from the telesummit, there are a few more days left and the replays will be available until until April 14^th.  We are also pre-selling the recordings with three options at discounted prices.  After April 14^th, the prices go up significantly.  The CD package would make a great unique gift for anyone parenting (Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are coming up), teaching or otherwise working with tweens, teens and young adults.  It would also be perfect for counselors, therapists and coaches who work with families.  You can find out more at http://TheYouthEmpowermentTelesummit.com.

In another note, I am offering a deep discount on my coaching program “The Monetize Your Passion Blueprint – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs” for anyone registered at the telesummit.  That discount is good through April 14^th as well.

2 Success is Relative

Day Two of the UBC.  No need to leave a comment today – that function is still being fixed.

Currently, I am hosting The Youth Empowerment Telesummit.  It’s a gathering of 18 parenting and life skills professionals who are talking about current trends and strategies in parenting and life skills training.  The interviews have been great and the information shared is fantastic.  In that aspect, it was a huge success.

However, success is relative – relative to what the goals are.  Obviously the overall mission was to get this information out to the people who need it – parents, teachers, coaches, mentors and anyone really who works with tweens, teens and young adults.   One of the business objectives was to add 1000 names to my list.  That didn’t happen.  There was a gain for certain, but not anywhere close to 1000.  Considering some of the speakers, that was an entirely obtainable number.

So what happened that we didn’t have a lot more registrations?  After all, the event was free and we offered replays.  Well, some of the speakers may not have promoted as much as they could have, I think that much is obvious.  Some simply clicked like every time I put something on the Facebook page.  I started posting on the speakers’ Facebook pages and that always got one or two more registrations.

Could it have been the copy?  Very possible.   I used to be a great writer, now not so much.  My coach and fellow classmates have been great about feedback and suggestions.  I sort of have to march to my drum because my business isn’t about helping others break through to seven figures or get more clients.  I am trying to attract the people I mentioned above.   Maybe I didn’t make it interesting enough.  Most days, it was all I could do to get those emails out with the call in information and replay links.

The event isn’t over yet and I’ll continue to analyze the numbers and figure out why there wasn’t more participation.  I can say I learned a lot of lessons so far and there are more to be learned before this over.   The feedback from those who listened to the talks was very positive and that makes me feel great.  The Youth Empowerment Telesummit website turned out great – the art work was from Fiverr, and the graphic for the CD package we’re selling looks great.   All the systems I need to do this again are in place so there will be a lot less work involved for the next time.  I’ve developed some great relationships from this project and added to my professional network and support system.  So all in all, I think this was a huge success and there will be a next time.

So what does this have to do with empowering young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset?  I’m sharing my experience so they can see what is involved and how to look at things that don’t work out the way you want them to.  There’s success even in things that don’t work out exactly the way you want them to and it’s all about attitude.

I will be blogging more about the event and may even turn this into a Kindle single entitled How To Have a Telesummit Without Exploding Your Head.

If you are interested in The Youth Empowerment Telesummit, you can find the link here – http://TheYouthEmpowermentTelesummit.com.  And you can also reach it from our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Youth-Empowerment-Telesummit/158566284296005.

If you’d like to purchase the recording of the event, you can find that information on either one of those pages and be eligible for our VIP discount through April 14^th when the price will increase by a lot.

0 Introducing Myself on Day One of the Blog Challenge

  So, here I sit on day one of the new blog challenge asking myself why I am doing this.  Why did I take on this challenge again and commit myself to write a post every day when I have too much to do already?  I’ll tell you what I told myself,

“You are about to launch your dream program Julia, you need to get the word out, you need to create activity on your site.  You need to raise awareness about the program, you need to be in massive action.  What better way than the blog challenge!”

Well, the blog challenge is only one way I am using to spread the word.  Some of you may not know me, maybe this is your first challenge or you didn’t see my posts the last time around.  So please let me tell you a bit about myself and my program.

I am a change agent, a youth empowerment coach whose mission it is to have a significantly positive impact on the global youth unemployment crisis.  With the permission of one of my coaches, Rich German of Epic Coach Academy, I adapted his program, Monetize Your Passion to create a youth version, The Monetize Your Passion Blueprint – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs.

The program is designed to help young people develop an entrepreneur mindset and empower them to start a business either on the internet or using internet marketing.  It’s a no brainer for our current economic and unemployment situation.   I am a life skills professional and this program contains many life skills that can be applied in many areas of a young person’s life.  With the proper guidance, they can actually start a business within the time frame of the program.

You can learn more about the program by visiting my home page for now.  I am in the process of creating a new page just for The Monetize Your Passion Blueprint – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs.  It is for life skills professionals, nonprofits that service teens and young adults, teachers and coaches who have youth clients, coach adults who work with youth, or who want to have a youth-centered business.

Included in the program materials are my two books, 31 Powerful Lessons Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop An Entrepreneur Mindet and Pick From the Passion Tree – Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Start a Business (the printed versions), a client workbook, a trainers guide and several interviews with business folks meant as inspiration and information.  Two of the interviews are from people you know – Michele Scism and Michelle Shaeffer, our lovely hosts for this challenge.

I wrote both of those books using the posts from two blog challenges.  That’s right, I did.  As of the July 2012 challenge I had no desire to write a book, I just wanted to create the program.  After fifteen days into the challenge, I realized a book was writing itself and within forty-five days of starting the challenge, the first book, 31 Powerful Lessons was published and being sold on my site and on Kindle.  We were a top seller on Kindle for a while with over 400 copies downloaded on the first day of the free download period.  I’ve since taken the book off of Kindle because I don’t like their policy that you can’t use the digital book for ninety days.

Aside from the new program, I am wrapping up The Youth Empowerment Telesummit that includes 18 speakers talking about current trends and strategies in parenting and life skills training.  The telesummit is available until April 14^th and we are offering deeply discounted prices on the pre-sale of the recordings from that event.  After April 14, the prices increase by quite a bit.  If you are interested in The Youth Empowerment Telesummit, you can learn more by clicking here.  If you request a Free Pass to the telesummit, you can download 31 Powerful Lessons (wink, wink) for free by clicking on the gift icon next to my name. By the way, all the speakers are offering a free gift so you can download those as well.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I am co-hosting the August 2013 Global Presence Humanitarian  Dinner Event in Los Angeles.  This is a global organization founded by Marlaine Cover of Parenting 2.0.  I am very proud to be a part of this amazing organization that changing the paradigm for teaching life skills.

So, now you know what I’m up to.  Busy, busy, busy.  Yet here I am, blogging for the blog challenge, committed to submitting a post a day for the month of April.  I may focus this month’s posts on how to have a telesummit.  How does 28 Steps to have a successful telesummit sound to you?

What have I done to myself???

0 How to Advertise Your Business with a Limited Budget

Today’s post is by guest blogger

Sara Dugan

As a teen in business you know that you need traffic to your website or shop in order to make a profit. You can get that traffic through word of mouth or direct advertising. For a start up business you need to find advertising that will reach a large audience and fit you budget.

One way you can reach a lot of people and save on your marketing budget is through your local media. You can contact news stations, local radio stations, newspapers and even magazines. For online media connections you can try podcasts and blogs that cater to your target market.

Before contacting anyone you want to be sure you have a media kit ready. A media kit is simply a little packet of information that makes it easier for reporters to write about you.

What should you include in your media kit?

Include your name and contact information as well as your company history, the product you sell, as well as news about current events of note that the media might want to highlight in their piece. Be sure to include a photo of you and your product, your company’s logo and any brochures or catalogs.

Justina of A Bent Piece of Wire shares her experience with contacting and speaking with media to further the reach of her blog.

1. Did you approach media or did media approach you? If you approached them, how did you do that? Phone them, email them, sent a press release etc..

It depends on the situation at hand. When I did a segment on my local news about teen holiday fashion, I contacted them, because I thought it might be something fun. I have been contacted at other times to do interviews and such, by reporters who came across my blog.

You would be surprised at how easy it is to contact local news stations! Most have contact emails or a contact box on their site, which makes it super simple to send them a message. I have also written a few press releases, but these are for when an event or something big is happening, like when I was featured in Teen Vogue. When you’re writing press releases, or even just the emails, it’s good to have someone double check it, just to put some fresh eyes on it.

2. Once media does contact you, how do you prepare for the interview?

I don’t actually do much in the way of preparation. I don’t memorize anything or practice answers, because I feel like that blocks you off from being natural, and turns you into a weirdly stiff automaton. As a teenager, my best bet is to be relaxed and relate-able, which are not the vibes coming off at all if you rehearse every word that comes out of your mouth.

I do consciously attempt to avoid using words like “um” and “and” a lot during interviews. If it’s over the phone or in person, it’s really annoying for the reporter, and if you are on television, it makes you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

3. Any advice you’d give teens wanting to spread the word about their business?

Join sties like Twitter, where you can network with anyone. I’ve made some huge connections in my industry through twitter, from editors, to stylists, to celebrities. Take advantage of the fact that we have the internet, which can take you anywhere, and introduce you to anyone, in seconds.

With a bit of research and work you can take your business further than you ever dreamed. Three things you can do right now are Google a simple press release template, email your local news anchor or call your radio station to add your event to their calendar. Be sure you have your media kit ready and good luck.

Justina is a 15 year old fashion blogger with a serious vintage addiction from the Land of the Palm Trees (California).

Justina’s URL is: http://www.abentpieceofwire.com

Sara writes about crochet, crafts, and family at http://www.saraduggan.blogspot.com and crochet business blogging at http://www.crochetbusiness.com

6 Inspiration Sunday Part 2

So I just realized that I posted Sunday’s article on Saturday.  Well, it was Sunday in other places in the world already.  Anyway, I decided to use this mistake to catch up as I was a post behind schedule in the blog challenge.

Rather than write a new article, I’m going to go with another Sunday inspiration and that will put me back on track.

This one highlights the differences between successful and unsuccessful people in a way that makes sense in a basic way.

I want to apologize to the creator of this graphic.  I found it on Facebook and didn’t realize that it didn’t have a credit on the graphic and now I can’t find it again to see who created it.  Sorry.  I’ll be happy to provide the credit when I find it.

6 Inspiration Sunday

I’m starting something new for my blog – Inspiration Sunday.  Posts will include quotes, or photos or stories or something meant to provide inspiration for entrepreneurs.

I hope you enjoy this picture and are inspired by it.

2 A 5 Step Blueprint to Change the World’s Economy

Yesterday I was explaining to someone that the global mission of my business not only has the potential to impact youth unemployment; through the ripple effect it has the potential to impact entire communities worldwide.

Whew, that’s a big picture.  It is possible though.  I like to dream big and I believe this can become reality.

Here’s my 5 step blueprint for changing economic reality around the globe:

1. Train and mentor young people to become entrepreneurs.

2. These young entrepreneurs will hire friends and family as their business starts earning money.

3. Friends and family will then be employed and have money to spend in the community.

4.The community will thrive due to this spending, small business will be able to create more jobs and people will have money to spend on the things they need.

5. The outcome is a thriving, healthy community that invests in newer and better resources.

Yes, I know this is a rather simplistic blueprint, but think about it for a few minutes.  Once we fill in the details of all these steps, and while it may not be possible in some areas of the world until their politics change, it is possible and with enough big dreamers taking action, it is doable.

Let me leave you with one such example.  There is a nonprofit called The Kind Fund.  They supply school desks to children in Malawi.  The desks are locally made and the Fund raises money, more and more desks are ordered, the local company that makes them has hired other members of the community to build the desks.  More desks means having to order more wood which creates more work for woodcutters.  Can you see that ripple effect at work here?

What is your world changing idea?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

6 Planning a Telesummit

Two days ago I decided to have a telesummit.  I’m preparing to launch my coaching certification program soon and thought this might be a great lead in to start the launch.

I made this declaration in Adam Urbanski’s Navigator course and Adam immediately said, “name it now, find someone to get an optin page up for you and start promoting this today.”

Okay.  I don’t move quite as fast as Adam does.  I am doing what he suggested except it isn’t happening that quickly.

I chose a title immediately though, The Youth Empowerment Telesummit.  And I have started contacting people to “enroll” them to participate as presenters.  So far I have some very solid commitments from others who work with youth in one capacity or another.  I am blown away by those who have accepted.

Tomorrow I will begin work on the optin page and get that up as quickly as possible.  And I will reach out to extend more invitations to participate.

Writing the copy for the page will be my biggest challenge so I’m going to have to spend some time researching other optin pages for other telesummits so I can see what they are including.  I have to collect bios on the presenters and their photos and a list of things they will consent to give away to listeners.  The freebies they provide will bring listeners to their website to sign up to their mail lists.  It’s a win-win situation.

The calls will be live via freeconferencecallhd.com.  There will be either one or two opportunities to listen to the replays, then the interviews go into the vault for safekeeping until such time as I repurpose them into a CD package.

It isn’t really that difficult to create a telesummit; it is time consuming.  And it’s a great way to practice your “enrollment skills” by having to talk to people about participating.  I find that people are eager to be involved in your projects if they feel your passion.  If you are genuine, it’s contagious.

I’m quite happy with how much has been accomplished in just two days and I’m fairly certain that these presenters and I will remain connected and be doing more things together in the future.

Have you ever had a telesummit?

What was your experience in putting it together?

Do you have any suggestions or advice that you think will be helpful?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

2 A Brown Bird Sang

I meant to have a post for day 9 on time, however, so many things happened today that required so much time that I never had a chance to think about what to write let alone write it.

That reminds me of a poem I learned in school a long time ago. The first verse reads,

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

The name of the poet escapes me right now, and there is another verse, that I do recall but it isn’t relevant to my day.  If only my afternoon was that lovely.

I started a new course today called Navigator with Adam Urbanski and our very own awesome Michelle Shaeffer.  There was so much packed into this one call that it felt like months worth of training.  I was so busy being in action after the call that the rest of the morning flew by as if I had found a time warp.

Then the outside world found it’s way in.  My elderly dad had a geriatric assessment today and I had to be interviewed to fill in the blanks.  He lives in a facility for dementia patients and I manage his life.  It isn’t that I mind having to pay his bills, confirm his appointments, provide stuff that he requires and so forth, however, I am still finding a way to not let it take so many hours out of the days that someone decides I need to handle things.

In spite of this rather lengthy interruption, I got a lot done and made a lot of phone calls to invite people to participate in a telesummit I’m putting together for people who work with teens and young adults, teaching them independent living skills.  The positive responses were gratifying and helped to keep my spirits up.

Hopefully I will be able to get back on track on Day 10 of the blog challenge. 

How do you cope with interruptions and distractions in your day that interfere with the work you need to do?

Do you have a clear picture of the areas of your life and business where change is required?  It might be time for a reality check so you can discover those areas where you are incomplete or could improve.  If you are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.