THE WORLD'S TRILLIONAIRE COULD HAVE BEEN BILL GATES IF HE DIDN'T DO THIS

For the longest time, Bill Gates was the richest man in the world. At the time of this post, Bill is the 4th richest person in the world with a net worth of $134 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

As great an achievement that is, Bill could have done a lot better. In fact, he would have been the world’s first trillionaire had he not done this.

Divesting His Microsoft Stocks

At the time of Microsoft’s IPO on March 13, 1986, Bill owned 11,142,000 shares, or 44.8% of the company.

Since leaving MS, Bill has divested his Microsoft holdings from 44.8% down to just 1.3%. He used the proceeds to diversify his portfolio and became the largest private farmland owner in the United States. All together, this portfolio of investments equals $134 billion. But what would have happened had Bill just kept his MS stocks?

He Would Be The World’s First Trillionaire

In the 35 years since Microsoft became a public company, its stock has split nine times. If you have one MS share at the IPO, you would have 288 share today. That means Bill’s 11.142 million shares of Microsoft would become more than 3.2 billion shares todays.

Shares of Microsoft are right now trading at $309.25. Multiply that by 3.2 billion shares and you have $993 billion. Add in the $7.958 billion that MS would pay Bill in annual dividends and you have the world’s first trillionaire.

All this what if is a pretty moot point, and I’m sure Bill isn’t losing sleep over it. After all, what you can buy with a trillion dollar that you can’t buy with $134 billion?

If You Had Invested $5000 At MS IPO

The trillion dollar figure is Bill’s number, but here’s a cool little take away. If you had invested just $5000 during the Microsoft IPO, you would have got 238 shares at the IPO price of $21. After the nine stock splits, you would own 68,544 shares today, which would be worth over $21 million. You would also be receiving almost $170K a year in dividends. Try not to lose sleep over that.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR STORY: SHOW GRATITUDE

Emotional capacity measures your ability to overcome limiting beliefs, your ease in adapting to challenging situations, and the quality of your relationships. No matter how talented, driven, or energized you are, you cannot achieve your goals if your emotional capacity is low.

A common mistake people make is assuming emotional characteristics are a fixed part of their personality. Just as we can grow intellectually by learning or improve physically by exercising, we can get better at managing our emotional reactions and keeping ourselves steady when inevitable adversity strikes.

It can be difficult to accept that we are actually in control of most of what happens to us. For whatever reason, that reality provides more discomfort than confidence to many.

Try this: Take control of the way you see the world with simple acts of gratitude. Next time you stay in a hotel, leave a thank you note for the person who cleans your room and a monetary tip. Practicing gratitude has numerous benefits for our health and state of mind. The tip is often insignificant to you but meaningful to them.

 

THE FIRE MOVEMENT AND ITS BIGGEST FLAW

Let me start by saying that the FIRE movement has a lot going for it. Sure, the lifestyle choices — like cutting your expenses down to the point where you might be saving upwards of 90 percent of income — may not be for everyone, but who doesn’t want to be financially independent? Who doesn’t want to retire early?

However, as this COVID-19 pandemic continues to roll on, we’re starting to see some far-reaching ramifications including the impact on people who’ve been able to sustain the FIRE life these past few years.

The Collapse of the FIRE Lifestyle

It’s obvious enough that not everyone can achieve the FIRE lifestyle. If you’re barely scraping by to pay your monthly bills, you’re not going to save up the amount of money needed to get to this level. By many accounts, the minimum threshold is to achieve a net worth of at least $1 million. 

If we subscribe to the 4 percent rule, where you only take out 4 percent of your savings each year, that works out to $40,000 per year on $1 million in savings. The idea is that if you only withdraw 4 percent, the nest egg can get continually replenished through investment earnings. But then something like this coronavirus pandemic hits and you watch your investments plummet.

In fact, several FIRE people watched as their net worth plummeted six figures overnight when the stock market crashed. And they retired before they were 40. There are all sorts of reasons why the stock market can crash like that, and they can be wildly unpredictable. The FIRE lifestyle relies heavily on relatively reliable passive income from investments. When that goes sideways, so do your FIRE plans.

Location Arbitrage Falls Apart?

But, it’s not just about investment earnings. That’s a big part of the FIRE movement, but another big part of it something that some people call “location arbitrage.” The idea is because your job is no longer necessarily bound to any single location, you don’t have to live in a high cost-of-living city like New York or Seattle. You can live somewhere much cheaper.

Several of the bigger proponents of this idea may move to places like the Philippines. However, during these times of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus, just about everyone is being advised to come back to their home country. Canadians are being told to return to Canada. Americans are being advised to return to America. Suddenly, location arbitrage falls apart… or does it?

While perhaps not offering quite as extreme a difference in day-to-day costs, you can still take advantage of this idea via low cost of living cities in the US. Bakersfield, California is certainly much cheaper than Irvine, California in Orange County. You can live well in Dallas or Phoenix too.

The idea of location arbitrage is certainly not reserved only to the FIRE movement either. Indeed, it’s one of the most valuable aspects of the dot com lifestyle, alongside time freedom and money freedom. 

Passive Income vs. Leveraged Income

A large net worth, a modest lifestyle, and self-sustaining passive income are the cornerstones of the FIRE movement. But, when you rely too much on stock market returns, you’re at the mercy of powers well beyond your control. They may work out in the long run, but you need them to work in the short-term too, and you need them to work for you continuously.

To this end, passive income on its own may not be enough. And yes, while I completely understand that blogging is not passive income, it can be a source of continuous income doing something you already love (if you love blogging, of course). The same can apply, in varying degrees, if you enjoy podcasting, YouTubing, or anything else that can be completely digital and totally remote. 

Obviously, it can be a slippery slope leading to another full-time job (even if you’re your own boss). And that’s why leveraged income can be one of the best accompaniments to your other passive income. Diversify your income sources!

Focus on What You Can Control

Not everyone wants to reduce their regular expenses down to the bare minimum, never eating out and never indulging in nice things. The FIRE movement isn’t for everyone. That’s clear enough. And relying on investment returns that can evaporate in the face of a crisis can be remarkably precarious too, as this current pandemic has illustrated.

Your investment returns are, for the most part, out of your hands. So, focus instead on what is in your hands. Do what you can and control what you can. And remember, the dot com lifestyle isn’t about not working; it’s about having control over the work you do and how you choose to do it. That’s the freedom you’re after and it is attainable. 

GRATITUDE IS A KEY TO HAPPINESS: 4 REASONS WHY

Happiness can seem illusive sometimes, especially during hard times. But there’s a surprisingly accessible pathway to contentment, joy and positivity: gratitude. Studies demonstrate gratitude is associated with all kinds of goodies like life satisfaction, health, wellbeing and happiness.

It’s logical there should be so much data on happiness. After all, almost every society across the globe values it as a fundamental part of the human experience and in the U.S., we even identify happiness in our constitution as an inalienable right. Scientists have also investigated gratitude because of the strong connections to mental health and physical wellbeing. But the real magic is that the two are also positively related to each other. Both gratitude and happiness also have genetic components. Your choices matter, and interestingly, they may also be in your DNA. 

Ironically, seeking happiness itself can actually make you less happy. This is likely because running after happiness focuses you on what you don’t have—always pursuing something that reminds you it’s not already in your possession. On the other hand, when you cultivate gratitude, it tends to result in greater happiness. Here’s why:

#1 Relationships

Studies at the University of Montana found when people expressed more gratitude they tended to also report greater levels of happiness. This was significantly based on the way gratitude affected human relationships. People tend to feel more positively about themselves and others when they express gratitude and hear expressions of gratitude. This has to do with the positive social meanings we ascribe to gratitude. In fact, the University of New South Whales found when people heard someone express gratitude, they were more likely to conclude they could form a meaningful relationship with the person.

#2 Experiences And Materialism

Gratitude and happiness are also related in terms of how we spend our time and money. Researchers at Cornell University looked at 1,200 examples of online feedback and found when people completed positive reviews about experiences, they were more likely to express happiness—more so than when they completed reviews about purchases. Appreciating experiences requires deeper processing to reflect on and relive the event, and when events are positive this can in turn cement happiness. In addition, we typically enjoy experiences with others, and the time together, investment in the relationship and dynamics of sharing all contribute toward happiness.

Gratitude and happiness were also related to each other in terms of materialism. In particular, a study at Baylor University found when people were more focused on owning and acquiring more things, they were less happy. This was likely because of the inherent focus on what they didn’t already have. Whereas those who were less materialistic were more grateful and more happy because they felt they had enough and were more satisfied overall.

The ancients also saw the relevance of gratitude in terms of possessions. As the philosopher Epicurus said, "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

#3 Giving Back And Giving Voice

Interestingly the Cornell University study also found when people considered their positive experiences, they were more likely to be inspired to take future altruistic action—contributing toward others’ happiness. Gratitude inspires happiness, but it also inspires the intention to contribute to happiness in the community.

The expression of gratitude—giving voice to it—also tends to predict greater happiness. A study at Kent State found when the more people expressed their gratitude—consciously thinking about and writing down what they appreciated—the more likely they were to also report feelings of happiness.

#4 A Genetic Component

Perhaps most interesting is the recent research proving a genetic component of both gratitude and happiness. Author Jonathan Haidt reports that happiness is partially the result of a genetic predisposition—in addition to situations and choices. New research from the University of Arkansas also finds a marker for gratitude, and when people have the “gratitude gene”, they report being more grateful for their marriage partner. They also say they trust their partner more, are more forgiving and more satisfied with their marriages. While marriage was the evidence of the gene in this study, of course it applies to multiple relationships. Your choices matter to your gratitude and happiness, but there’s also a gene for that.

Cultivating Gratitude

But in addition to your genes, your choices and actions also matter to your happiness and wellbeing. You can cultivate gratitude and happiness by consciously focusing on being appreciative for what you have. In addition, the more you express gratitude—through reminding yourself of all you can appreciate, by writing down what you’re grateful for or by sharing your thanks with someone else—the more happiness you’ll feel. Gratitude contributes to more gratitude as well as greater happiness.

In Sum

Chasing happiness is unlikely to bring you joy, but focusing on others, contributing to the community and connecting with loved ones during memorable experiences all create significant positive feelings. Being happy doesn’t mean you have to be happy all the time. Happiness ebbs and flows. But being as consciously and continuously grateful as possible gives you a pathway toward more positivity and contentment.

*This article was originally published on Forbes.com April 25, 2021.

 - Tracy Brower, PhD, author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work

NO EYE CONTACT, BUT STILL PAY MORE ATTENTION

One of the smartest people I know -- we'll call her Michelle -- sucks at maintaining eye contact. Even though eye contact ranks high on the average list of tips for how to make a good first impression. Even though eye contact nonverbally indicates attention. Interest. Engagement.

Even though, if nothing else, maintaining eye contact is polite.

None of that seems to matter to Michelle. She rarely makes eye contact. Occasionally, sure, but most of the time she looks away. 

And she refuses -- refuses -- to take part in one-on-one Zoom meetings unless video is turned off. 

Odd? Maybe. Rude? Seemingly.

But then there's this: Research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (h/t to Adam Grant) shows that during the most engaging conversations, eye contact ebbs and flows.

As the researchers write:

... when two people converse, their pupils periodically synchronize, marking moments of shared attention. As synchrony peaks, eye contact occurs and synchrony declines, only to recover as eye contact breaks.

These findings suggest that eye contact may be a key mechanism for enabling the coordination of shared and independent modes of thought, allowing conversation to both cohere and evolve.

Or in simple terms, if what you say makes me think, processing it may naturally cause me to look away. To think "independently." To sift through your information or idea, match it to my own perspectives or mental models, and then re-engage. 

When we agree, we tend to lock eyes. When we don't agree -- or, more likely, when we're presented with something we haven't considered -- we tend to look away.

Not because we're rude, but because we're thinking. Which, first impression tips aside, is actually the sign of a great conversation.

Because great conversations make us think.

More from the researchers:

We find that eye contact is positively correlated with synchrony (Jeff: a fancy word for "I'm with you") as well as ratings of engagement by conversation partners.

However, rather than elicit synchrony, eye contact commences as synchrony peaks and predicts its immediate and subsequent decline until eye contact breaks. This relationship suggests that eye contact signals when shared attention is high.

Furthermore, we speculate that eye contact may play a corrective role in disrupting shared attention (reducing synchrony) as needed to facilitate independent contributions to conversation.

Or in non research-speak, eye contact is the result of shared understanding, not the driver. Eye contact may make a good impression, but eye contact won't create synchrony.

For that, we need to listen. We need to ask questions. Seek to understand. Challenge our own assumptions. Even though we are having a conversation, we also need to think independently.

That's what Michelle does. She listens. She processes. She weighs and measures and considers. Looking away is actually a sign she's giving the conversation her full attention.

Forcing her to do one-on-one Zoom meetings makes that difficult, because Zoom calls can feel performative. (Which is why smart bosses let their employees turn off their cameras during Zoom or MS Teams meetings.)

As the researchers write, "Eye contact may be a key mechanism for enabling the coordination of shared and independent modes of thought, allowing conversation to both cohere and evolve."

So don't be offended if someone doesn't maintain constant eye contact. It may just be a sign you've given them food for thought.

Just like you hope they give you.

Because if a conversation doesn't make you think, all the eye contact in the world may not make it worth having.

YOUR PHYSICAL NEEDS YOUR MENTAL WELLNESS

Physical capacity is the ability to improve our health, well-being, and physical performance. This goes beyond the obvious things like what you eat and how much you exercise. Building this capacity requires us to focus on things we take for granted like sleep, stress, and our energy.

Physical capacity is simultaneously crucial and easy to overlook. While we all know health is important, so many of us ignore our physical well-being until we get bad news from our doctors. Often by that point, things are never the same, and we wish we could turn back the clock and make changes.

The fact is that while our brains drive personal and professional success, it’s our bodies that do the heavy lifting to carry us to those goals.

Try this: What are some ways that neglecting your physical  wellness has gotten in the way of your performance? Identify these problems and attempt to address one this week. Try going to bed an hour earlier, make a note to stretch your legs during work, or try a new exercise routine.

 

LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS: THE BIGGEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY

There has never been a better time for lead generation online, especially when done right, using LinkedIn for businesses.

Before the internet and before being able to affordably access millions of people at your fingertips, companies really had to get creative. At a recent Traffic and Conversion Conference, Richard Branson reflected on how easy it is now with social media. When he was starting his businesses, he had to be creative in very different ways in order to get any traction. 

Today, if you want to stand out and cut through that noise, you have the resources you need at your fingertips. However, knowing where to start - and where to focus your efforts - is key.

For most businesses, “Operation Be Everywhere” may not be feasible. Being everywhere takes a lot of resources. While you might not be in a position to be everywhere at once, you can focus your efforts on the most relevant platforms.

There are three places we recommend you dominate before you move on to other channels:

1. Ads (LinkedIn / Facebook / etc.)
2. Email
3. SDR

These three channels are the backbones of our multi-channel outbound sales development strategy. However, in this blog post, we’ll be focusing on LinkedIn specifically - and why it represents one of the biggest missed opportunities for businesses today.

Why Use LinkedIn For Business

You can find pretty much any business on LinkedIn, and what’s better, you can connect with pretty much anybody. That opportunity alone is enormous. If experience working with hundreds of businesses tells us anything, we’re seeing that most companies aren’t taking advantage of LinkedIn as they could be.

LinkedIn can be used as an excellent lead generation and sales development tool, but we’ve found that most businesses aren’t using it as well as they could be. One part of our multi-channel approach to lead generation is using LinkedIn to individually target hand-picked prospects and build real business relationships with them using LinkedIn messaging, groups, and sharing content. We have that down to a science.

However, there is another way to use LinkedIn to generate leads and get them to book appointments with your sales team, one that is entirely underused, especially by businesses with a reported revenue of $2MM and above. 

When we saw how underutilized this was, we were literally blown away because it represents a HUGE opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.

Check this out…

According to insights from LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool, ONLY 1% of companies on LinkedIn doing significant revenue ($2mm+) are utilizing LinkedIn ads to generate leads.

Insane!!

There are 120,000 companies on LinkedIn doing $2MM+ in revenue, and just over 1200 are running ads; which means only 1% of these companies are taking advantage of paid media on LinkedIn right now.

Right now competition is LOW.

TIPS TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS FROM YOUTUBE

With over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos watched daily, YouTube is a must for any business looking to grow its customer base.

Today, people rather watch videos instead of reading long paragraphs of text. So, if you want to reach a wider audience, you need to focus less on writing long-form text content and more on producing helpful value-driven YouTube videos.

In this post, I’ll cover 6 tips on how to optimize your videos and get more customers from YouTube. But first, let’s get clear on why you should use YouTube to grow your business.

Why Use YouTube to Grow Your Business?

YouTube is the most popular online platform, with 73% of US adults using the platform. Imagine how many potential customers that is!

With YouTube video marketing, you can get a lot of eyes on your products or services, engage with customers and provide value. All of which will help you boost sales and revenue for your business.

For instance, you can create video tutorials on using your products, publish new product demos, vlogs, testimonials, or reviews, host live Q&As, podcasts, and more.

Now that you know why YouTube is great for growing your business, let’s look at 6 tips on how to best leverage this platform.

1. Create a Business YouTube Account

If you’re serious about using YouTube to get more customers for your business, your best option is to create a brand account on Google.

For starters, a personal account only gives you access to manage the account. It’s connected to your name and email, which you’d want to keep private. But with a brand account, multiple users can log in and make updates to the channel.

In addition, a brand account also lets you manage multiple YouTube channels. Adding more channels may be necessary as your video marketing efforts grow and you want to segment them based on topics.

2. Research Your Target Audience

Before producing videos, you need to find out what your target audience is and what content they like to watch. Start by getting to know your YouTube viewers and how they consume their content.

For instance, more than 70% of all YouTube video consumption is via smartphones, according to YouTube. And Broadbandsearch revealed that users spend an average of 40 minutes per day watching YouTube on mobile devices.

That means that you need to avoid using small text overlays and make your video content easily digestible on smaller screens. More specifically, you need to tailor your content to your buyer persona to capture viewers’ attention and convert them into customers.

The best way to see whether your content aligns with what customers want to watch is by checking your YouTube analytics. Use the analytics tab to learn as much as you can about your YouTube audience and their behaviour.

Also, if your viewers leave you comments, read them carefully to pick up on their interests and preferences. Don’t forget to respond and engage with your audience to help grow your channel as quickly as possible.

3. Optimize Your Videos for More Views

Did you know that YouTube videos show up in 70% of the top 100 Google search results? YouTube is a video search engine, but YouTube videos rank high even in Google’s search results since Google owns it.

And because YouTube marketing is all about presentation, writing captivating, must-see titles is what can make or break your video performance. So, you need to optimize your videos to stand the best chance to show up in search results and get more eyes on your content.

You can find relevant keywords to include in your title by using YouTube’s autosuggest. All you need to do is entering the subject of your video, and it’ll give you suggestions of searches.

Here’s, for example, what comes up when typing in “how to write a book”:

These are all excellent keyword ideas you can include in your title.

Overall, you need to consider the following when optimizing your YouTube videos:

Create an enticing title, including your target keyword. Write an informational video description based on your keywords. Remember to also add links to your website and social media networks. Create an eye-catching video thumbnail. Add CTA cards, end screens, bumper ads, and watermarks. Use tags and categories to optimize your video content. Encourage users to like, share, and subscribe to your channel.

 

4. Develop a Consistent Publishing Schedule

Your followers will expect videos to be available on a reliable and consistent schedule. You can check your analytics to figure out the day and time with the highest engagement and views.

And once you’ve pinpointed the best day and time, you should aim to publish consistently within this window.

Fortunately, there are scheduling tools that can help you publish video content on auto-pilot. For instance, you can use Creator Studio or Hootsuite to help you schedule videos in advance and maximize views and engagement.

5. Attract New Followers to Your Channel

A crucial step in getting more customers from YouTube is to optimize your channel to attract new followers.

The first thing you need to do is create a keyword-rich description of your channel. Include an overview of what users can expect when subscribing to your channel and link to your website and social profiles.

For example, the YouTube channel MuscleNMind includes keywords like “personal trainer,” “bodybuilding,” and ”fitness tips” to their description.

Next, create a compelling YouTube banner to visually welcome users to your channel and upload a high-resolution logo as a profile picture.

In addition, to get users intrigued and want to watch more videos from your YouTube channel, you can create a channel trailer. The trailer should introduce your brand and what type of content you’ll publish.

Try to make it compelling so that users want to come back for more and browse your video playlist. Give them a good reason to subscribe.

6. Utilize YouTube Advertising

YouTube advertising is an effective way to expand your reach beyond your channel. It allows you to target an audience that you think might be interested in your video content.

The good news is that people are three times more likely to click on video ads versus TV ads, so if you want to grow your channel or promote your business, YouTube ads are great options.

There are four different categories for YouTube ads, including:

Video discovery ads (also known as in-display ads) Skippable in-stream ads Non-skippable in-stream ads, including bumper ads Non-video ads in the form of overlays and banners

 
Lastly, you can also promote your channel for free by posting it on your social media channels and embed your YouTube videos on your website. For instance, with a YouTube feeds plugin like Smash Balloon, you can quickly embed and display a standard feed of your videos, specific playlists, or live streaming videos.

Over to You

And there you have 6 actionable tips to get more customers from YouTube. With these tips, you can use YouTube video marketing to boost customer engagement, generate new leads, and get more sales for your business.

INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY

If spiritual capacity dictates the big-picture characteristics that guide your life decisions, intellectual capacity establishes the day-to-day actions that advance you toward your purpose. Intellectual capacity relates to how you think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline.

 It sounds simple, but the first step of building intellectual capacity is believing you can. A consistent quality of most high performers is intellectual curiosity— they’ve expanded their capabilities by always wanting to learn more and seeking out new information.

Try this: Make a list of all your personal and professional responsibilities. For each responsibility, write down what it would take to fulfil that task with 100% effort. What parts of this plan are feasible? What would each responsibility look like?

 

START YOUR DAY WITH THE BEST 5-MINUTE NEWSLETTER

Life is all about conflicting priorities. You want to have that perfect beach body in time for the summer, but you also love the cheesy goodness of poutine a little too much. You want to live life in the present, but you also want to remember the past and prepare for the future. What you do for work, particularly if you’re an online solopreneur, falls into the same kind of conundrum.

It is in your best interest to stay informed and to keep on top of the latest developments in your industry, but it is humanly impossible to consume every piece of news, information and advice as it comes pouring down on you from the Internet. Time is limited. And time is money. So, how can you stay informed without spending too much time? 

Here are three excellent daily newsletters that you can read in five minutes or less. Stay in the loop without spending hours playing catch-up.

The Hustle

Put simply, The Hustle promises to deliver “business and tech news in 5 minutes or less.” I know there are some really huge tech sites and YouTube channels out there, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the stories and rumors and reviews that come out each and every day. If you just need the most important bits, delivering in a format that’s both informative and entertaining, The Hustle is one of the best.

Reader consensus indicates that the newsletter finds “the perfect intersection of informative, witty, and timely.” It’s always free and arrives in your email inbox by 9 a.m. Pacific. You’ll get the latest stories on start-ups, tech and business, carefully curated for professionals. 

Check out the archives to get a sense of what to expect. 

Morning Brew

Want to stay on top of the world of business with a particular emphasis on money and finance. Grab your favorite mug and start your day with the Morning Brew. Enjoyed by over 2 million people, Morning Brew features “the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.” 

Each issue is organized in a series of quick-hitting, easy-to-digest chunks so you can skim right through in five minutes or less. There’s a summary of market movements, so you’ll know how GOLD and NASDAQ are doing, along with a couple of the most important stories in that space. You’ll also find sections on world news, stories from the retail world, tales from big corporations like Ford and GE Healthcare and more.

Of particular interest to readers of this blog, they also cover business from a media perspective, like how the coronavirus pandemic “sent pageviews and subscriptions soaring” but “advertisers are pulling spots because of the uncertainty.” 

Browse through past issues in the archive to see what you can get out of Morning Brew.

Stacked Marketer

Speaking of media, publishing and advertising, another terrific daily newsletter is Stacked Marketer. This newsletter focuses on providing “carefully curated digital marketing news, tech, and actionable advice.” It’ll be “delivered fresh every weekday at 1pm CET” and it can be “consumed in 5 minutes or less.” Intrigued? 

Readers say that Stacked Marketer does a good job at making these stories “palatable.” Information here can be dry and technical, but it’s presented in a way here that’s “actually interesting” with a fresh perspective. It’s relevant to affiliates and anyone else working in the performance marketing industry, like SEO and content people too.

Rather than bombarding you with a large number of headlines, the newsletter strikes a good balance between breadth and depth. There are a handful of stories with enough “meat” to them so you don’t have to read a longer article to understand the context and significance.

As with the other two newsletters on this list, the Stacked Marketer newsletter archive is a great place to see what you can expect here. 

What’s your favorite email newsletter? Do you read it every day?

THE 5 MARKETING SKILLS EMPLOYERS NEED RIGHT NOW

Marketing jobs are trending in a big way, according to LinkedIn. 

The business network platform recently released a report and this handy infographic showcasing the trends in marketing jobs that arose between the start of stay-at-home orders (March 30, 2020) and the six-month period immediately following. As the pandemic spurred the shift toward virtual jobs, these five marketing roles were ones most posted by employers: 

1. Digital Marketing Specialist

2. Digital Account Executive

3. Social Media Manager 

4. Digital Marketing Manager 

5. Copywriter

And these were the five most in-demand skills:

1. Instagram 

2. Content Marketing 

3. Creative Problem Solving 

4. Brand Awareness 

5. Branding 

As the managing partner of a full-service content marketing company, I was fascinated (and thrilled) to see social media, paid search strategy, SEO, and content marketing among the top skills that employers want. 

While many brands have been expanding their e-commerce presence for a while, the overnight shift in our lifestyles wrought by Covid-19 drove customers online in a bigger surge than anyone had predicted. Pre-pandemic, Google search traffic hovered around 3.6 billion searches per day. But since March 2020, it's averaged around 6 billion per day. People are online, and that's where marketers need to be too.

If you're an employer trying to hire marketers for your team right now, the competition for talent is fierce. You may be asking, how can we compete with all of the other job listings in order to attract the best marketers with those in-demand skills?

Two ways. You can work with a company like mine to supplement your team while you're scaling up. And you can make these important shifts to stand out among the competition. 

Create an Employee-Centered Work Culture

Happy employees are more engaged, more productive, less likely to leave, and highly likely to recommend your company. In the age of social media, especially in professional platforms like LinkedIn that are built for networking, it's easy for potential employees to reach out and ask your current employees how they like their job. Applicants can also easily see employee reviews--both positive and negative--on sites like Glassdoor.

What are your current employees going to tell them? That the work-life balance is atrocious? Or will they list off all the great perks you offer and mention how happy they are working at your company?

Make Your Company's Mission and Values Clear (and Stand by Them)

You're looking for talented employees. But remember, those potential employees are also scrutinizing your company to gauge whether or not they feel like they'll fit in. This is where your mission and values can make or break a deal if you want to win them over.

Nurture Growth and Education Opportunities

If you're going to attract and maintain talented, dedicated employees, your company goals need to work in tandem with your employees' personal career goals. New employees are 30 times more likely to join your team if they see opportunities to accelerate their career with your company. At Masthead, we not only encourage our employees to sign up for courses that enable them to grow professionally, we pay for them, too. In recent years, we've also created our own coursework that's available to our employees and anyone who collaborates with our company (freelancers, colleagues, and clients) at no charge. 

BY AMANDA PRESSNER KREUSER, CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, MASTHEAD MEDIA@MASTHEADMEDIA

SPIRITUAL CAPACITY

Capacity building starts with this area. If you don’t know what you want most, you may waste a lot of time and energy running in the wrong direction.

Spiritual capacity is about who we are and what we want most in life. While the term spiritual is often put in a religious context, it means something different in the context of capacity building. Building spiritual capacity requires us to deeply evaluate what is most important to us, including defining our core values and delving into our purpose. This is, of course, easier said than done. Growing this capacity requires dedicated reflection and deep self-awareness. Self-awareness is the foundation of personal and professional leadership. We cannot inspire, motivate, and guide others until we understand what is important to us and are consistent in our thoughts and actions.

Try This: Ask yourself the following questions and journal the answers, “Where are you avoiding clarity because you fear the pressure of what you want most?”

 

TIPS TO CONDUCT AN EFFECTIVE ONLINE PRESENTATION

In this age of technology, one of the most common and effective ways to speak to your audience is virtually. There are many methods for hosting an online presentation whether it is through a Facebook Live, a YouTube video, a webinar, or even in video lessons.

However, how well you can reach your audience depends on how you manage your virtual sessions.

It is one thing to get your audience to tune in but another to keep their attention.

Before you start your virtual sessions, make sure you use these tips to not only keep them entertained but also keep them coming back for more.

1. Know Where To Focus Your Camera

If your audience cannot see you, they may not stay long.

You want to make sure that you not only have the camera facing you and keeping your center (unless you have a prop you want to use to one side) but also that you have a light facing your face.

Test out a few options before you actually create the video or go live so you can make sure they can see you and that you and/or your prop are kept as the main focus.

Additionally, you want to make sure you have a good background. A messy room can be distracting to your viewers.

2. Take Specific Questions Private

There are some questions that are great for answering in real-time through the video but there are others that really should be answered privately.

You do not want to take away from your video by taking a question that is very specific to one person or a small group of people.

If you do want to answer questions live on the video, make sure they are relevant to most people who would be watching or you run the risk of losing the attention of a lot of your virtual audience in the process.

3. Practice

If there is nothing else that you do before you create your video or go live, at least you make sure you practice.

While it may seem like it will be easier because you are not speaking in front of a live audience, it can be just as intimidating. If you do not practice, you could easily trip over your words and mess up in your video.

Another reason that you want to practice is that you do not really know how it will go until you practice it.

You may think you have a 5 minute video to record but the first time you practice, it would be a lot shorter or a lot longer. It is best to test it out first before you hit record.

4. Smile

You want to be approachable to your audience and the easiest way to do this is by smiling in a natural way.

Remember that this is something that people will be watching and even though no one is there with you physically, you still need to smile towards them.

This not only makes you more familiar and warm on screen but it makes you seem like a real person that people will want to listen to.

5. Check Your Sound And Internet Connection

The last thing you want is to start your live video or recording and only to find out later that people could not hear you well or that the recording is glitchy because your internet connection was not strong.

You will want to test both of these out before you start recording and maybe even do a test video ahead of time so you do not run into these issues.

If this does happen, people will stop listening and watching and move on to the next thing so this is very important as a baseline for your videos.

Other Tips To Keep Your Audience Engaged

With so much around to take the attention of your audience, you want to make sure that you keep their attention for as long as you can.

One way you can keep your audience engaged is by encouraging interaction of some sort throughout the video. You do not want to talk at them but to them and bring them into the conversation.

Another way is to stick with simplicity but also use some visual cues if you can.

Try to break up all of the talking by including some visual cues or slides throughout the video but also make sure that these are simple so they can look at it but still pay attention to what you are saying.