Business Brain Food

This week we have a great conversation about how you can use your business as a vehicle to educate and do good. Our guest is Patty Alper, author of the book “Teach To Work” and founder of the Alper Portfolio Group, the Alper Foundation and the NFTE Network. Through these organisations Patty has mentored thousands of young people, and has a great insight into just how beneficial mentoring can be for both the mentor and the pupil, and how mentoring is becoming increasingly important for the future of the world economy.

See below for some great mentoring insight:

**  Through mentoring you can give your business a human face. Building better links with your community in this way will have obvious benefits for marketing and sales.

** Mentoring can help with recruitment. Millennials want to work for companies that display a social conscience.

** Mentoring can be very inspiring. Your pitch is likely to be worth a lot more than anything a famous celebrity could ever say or do, because you are in the same room as receptive young people and on their level.

** Everybody in business who has the time should be a mentor. The education system has been proven to be inadequate for the current employment needs of the world.

** Schools and local organisations are normally very receptive to people who offer mentoring.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

 

** How your business can benefit by being a mentor

** How can you actually start to be a mentor?

** Business mentoring success stories

** Why is there a skills gap?

** How educators can prepare the youth of today

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Leave a review of BBF on the itunes store and gain access to some members-only training on user experience. This is a great, hour-long video called “The three secrets to making your website convert visitors into customers”. All you have to do is leave a review, copy the text and email it to ben@maxmyprofit.com.au and you will be given access to the training.

**  Ben’s Business Fast Track seminar: “5 stages of building a business that doesn’t rely on you”. Dates for September are still available. Go to http://www.businessfasttrack.com.au

**  Patty’s book “Teach To Work” can be bought here

**  Patty’s website: http://www.teachtowork.com

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

Mentoring is quite simply a win-win scenario for both parties, and from what Patty said is quite easy to get into. Think seriously about sharing your skills!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000


Every company needs a good website, but so many sites fail in the most basic areas. Help is at hand this week from Pete Kvist; a straight-talking and highly entertaining expert on the subject, and author of the book “Why Most Websites Suck”. He travels around the world giving speeches on the matter, but we’re lucky to have him on BBF for an hour to help you with your business.

Read on for some of his sage advice:

**  Think about the scare stories of when people get their car serviced but they’ve paid for something that hasn’t been done. Websites can be exactly the same. Do some basic research and watch out.

**  Don’t build your own website. If you have a leak in the house you call a plumber, so you should treat websites in the same way.

**  If you don’t have a website, people are still searching for you online, but the big question is: do you have control of the information that people will find about you? That’s why a good website is vital.

**  Your website is not simply an online brochure. Don’t go in with too hard a sell – you need to build people’s trust.

**  You only need to spend a small amount of time researching websites to protect yourself when working with web developers/designers. A book, one or two blog articles and a podcast like this one should be more than enough.

**  Think about the reasons why you’ve clicked away from a website in the past, and then see if your website does any of the same things.

**  Fully understand what people are most likely to look for on your site and make it as easy as possible for them to find it. Don’t automatically give each of your offerings an equal priority.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

 

** What you need to know to properly brief a web developer

**  The three things you must have on your homepage

**  What Google Analytics can do for your site

**  How to craft the right opt ins

**  How to use persuasive imagery

**  The theory of Google advertising

**  How to create a persuasive giveaway

**  The importance of a landline phone number

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Leave a review of BBF on the itunes store and gain access to some members-only training on user experience. This is a great, hour-long video called “The three secrets to making your website convert visitors into customers”. All you have to do is leave a review, copy the text and email it to ben@maxmyprofit.com.au and you will be given access to the training.

**  Pete’s website: http://www.petekvist.com

**  Pete’s book can be bought here

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

As Pete said when asked to give a tip on how people can be more efficient… “do something now”! There are so many small an achievable steps that you can follow from this conversation with Peter, so it would be rude not to!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

Direct download: BBF143_Why_most_websites_suck_with_Peter_Kvist.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

Being a podcast that’s 142 episodes old it really is about time we talk about podcasting! It’s done so much for Maxmyprofit so there’s no reason why it can’t transform your business. Our guest this week is the head of content at spreaker.com – a comprehensive podcasting platform that can enable literally anyone to get going as a podcaster.

Rob has been podcasting from pretty much the beginning of the podcast era in 2004, having started off as a live broadcaster on local radio in Seattle. He saw the opportunity that podcasting provided and began to syndicate the show around the world, selling advertising and generally monetizing the whole project. Since then his podcasting expertise has seen him work for the likes of Microsoft.

This guy sure knows his stuff – here are some of his top tips:

**  Look at yourself and look at how you’re trying to reach your base of possible customers… would a podcast work for this?

**  Consulting-style businesses where you’re basically selling yourself are ideal for podcasting.

**  Understand your measures of success. Your show doesn’t have to have 1 million listeners. It could be enough to have 500 avid listeners based locally.

**  Every year, podcasting listenership numbers increase.

**  Think of the potential longevity of your show before you start. Can you actually sustain it after a few shows? Will you run out of ideas?

**  Get going with it now! Don’t wait around and pre-record a load of them. Accept that you will get better on the job.

**  Audiences are built around consistency. You will probably be more successful with your podcast if it’s weekly rather than monthly.

**  Understand what production time you can dedicate. If you don’t have time for post-production, you can make up for that by slick pre-production that means you basically make the show ‘live’ and don’t need to do extensive editing.

**  Listen to other people’s shows and get some ideas. There is nothing wrong with this at all. Just take the best bits from the shows and find your voice!

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

 

**  Is a podcast for me?

**  The differences between radio and podcasting

**  The advertising potential of podcasting

**  The age/gender split in podcasting

**  The cost of hosting podcasts

**  How to start your own podcast

**  The right frequency for podcasts

**  How software can effectively work as a mixing desk

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

 

**  Leave a review of BBF on the itunes store and gain access to some members-only training on user experience. This is a great, hour-long video called “The three secrets to making your website convert visitors into customers”. All you have to do is leave a review, copy the text and email it to ben@maxmyprofit.com.au and you will be given access to the training.

**  Listen to Rob’s weekly Spreaker live show for more hints and tips on podcasting (broadcast on Wednesdays at 3pm PST)

**  Connect with Rob on twitter @robgreelnee and at http://www.robgreenlee.com

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

If listening to this podcast wasn’t enough to prove the value of podcasting to your business, then hearing just how easy it is thanks to the kind of services that Rob provides should be enough to persuade you to take the plunge. Just go for it and get podcasting!!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

Direct download: BBF142_Podcasting_as_a_Marketing_Strategy_with_Rob_Greenlee.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

Get your presentation skills right and you can totally transform your business, so listen up to our esteemed guest Jon Yeo. Jon is the licensing curator of TEDx Melbourne and has worked as a specialist consultant for numerous TEDx speakers, so he understands exactly what it takes for speakers to succeed at the highest level.

There were so many pearls of wisdom from Jon, which were delivered clearly and succinctly as you can imagine! Here are some of the highlights:

 

**  Speaking is becoming more relevant. In an era where words have been reduced down for mediums like Twitter, TED-style talks (18 minutes or less) are more relevant than ever.

**  On-demand education from talks is becoming more popular by the day, because of how fluid people’s careers are these days. People need to learn a lot of different things throughout their career but often can’t justify learning in the same academic depth as they used to.

**  Good communication is a balance of relevance and engagement. Think ‘content’, ‘context’ and ‘intent’.

**  When giving a talk, get over the fact you’re transferring knowledge. The emphasis should be on giving insight. Aspire to get your audience to say “tell me more about that”.

**  It takes and average of 25 times to fully ‘embody’ your content. The amount of practice you need to put in when speaking is to get you to the point where you are so ‘embodied’ in your content, your delivery sounds natural.

**  The greatest speakers have the ability to change the tone, pitch and positioning of information.

**  Always remember your audience. This sounds obvious, but you must think long and hard about what they might want to hear, and give them a message that’s digestible.

**  Be clear on your desired outcome at the end. That way you know what content to leave out.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

 

**  How long you should practice for a talk

**  How to market yourself to TEDx

**  How to cram your message in to 18 minutes

**  The 9 dimensions of communication

**  What is the right amount of content

**  The benefits of speaking coaching

**  The 5 levels of understanding

**  Do we still need subject matter experts?

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

 

**  Ben’s free business planning template: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

**  To connect with Tim on Linkedin, send him a request beginning with the sentence “Jon, I heard your interview”

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

As Jon said, think of the potential loss of opportunity if you stuff up your pitch/speech. This is a fundamental part of business that you need to master!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9811 5000

Direct download: BBF141_How_to_make_your_presentation_compelling_and_engaging_with_Jon_Yeo.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

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