As long as you have a web cam, you don’t need any special equipment.

This short video will walk you through everything you need.  Send me your webcam videos – PG only please  : )

Jim

Thank goodness for “unsubscribe”, although if you have an account with Constant Contact (or any other service), you’ll know that the owner can see exactly who unsubscribed. I hate showing my hand like this.

Sometimes, so I don’t “offend” the person, I just continue to receive the newsletter, but delete it immediately. I’ve also been known to just create a SPAM filter looking for specifics related to the newsletter.

NOW WHAT ABOUT THE REALLY RUDE? I not only was added to a persons “newsletter” list, but they don’t use a system that would allow me too “unsubscribe”. Creating a SPAM filter would be too easy (and kind). I think people that are this rude should have to deal with the same annoyance they’ve put on me.

Here’s what I’ve done – and you can watch the video for exactly how I did it. I created a special filter in my email program (I use gmail) that looks for email coming from the persons address. When I get anything from that address, it simply forwards the message right back to them (then deletes it). Wallah! I’ll never have to see an email from Agent Tracy [agenttracy@isnworks.com] again, and as long as she continues to bombard me with her marketing, she’s going to get a sling back. If she gets tired of being annoyed, all she’ll have to do is remove me from her list (which is how I would have liked it in the first place).

Jim Carrillo

The video below demonstrates each of them. Here’s a short synopsis:

1. Email Marketing Service (example: Constant Contact) – Great if you are sending over 100 emails a month – it gets around the spam filters. You get to see email addresses of signups (you own the list). You have to use their system to create emails. It’s not an easy system to learn, and if you’re not using it multiple times per month, it can get cumbersome
2. Simple Form – With this, you simply ask the people for information (like name and email), and that information gets sent to you in an email. This is nice because it’s EASY for everyone. You get to see the email addresses (you own the list), and you have to send the emails out of your own email program. Simple, but nothing is automated.
3. FollowSite Pluggin for Wordpress – A small tag is added after every page and post on your site. When a user enters their email and a password, the company called “FollowSite.com” will send them an email whenever you update your site (within a few hours of the update). Cool thing is that it’s completely automated, and you don’t have to do ANYTHING. The negative is that the company “FollowSite.com” owns the email address, and you never see it.

Watch video below.

On one side of the spectrum, I’ve heard to brand your name, because this is the only thing you can take with you. on the other side – creating a company name shows your committed to a product or service.

One of my companies, Logistics Modeling Center Inc., was named to relate to a very specific purpose – modeling logistics processes. I wish I can say that’s all we have done. What we’ve experienced is the same scenario that most small businesses that are bootstrapping their operations experience – we made money any way we could. Sure we started with the focus on Logistics, but then it strayed to Supply Chain, Computer Programming, Presentations, and even Marketing. Our name became a liability whenever we were going after non Logistics contracts. Today, we’ve decided to re-brand ourselves LMCI Consulting to circumvent this issue.

So why didn’t we name our company Carrillo and Uribes Engineering? (or Uribes and Carrillo Engineering if my partner is reading this)…. I had a good long discussion with a colleague about this, and we both came to the conclusion that it came down to insecurity. Here’s an example of what I might say to myself, “Nobody will take us seriously if they knew I was the Company Founder.” Seriously, that’s what I think (or thought at the time). Now that I look back, why would a person take LMCI any more seriously then Carrillo? Well, if I was insecure about myself, I might not value Carrillo as much as four obscure initials. So my first realization in figuring out how to name a company was that you have to get past the insecurities.

With that out of the way, I broke the problem down into workable pieces, and came up with these simple questions.

Does the product your selling depend on you? For Public Speakers for example, the content might be what the customer is buying, but they are only buying it because it’s being delivered by a specific person. If the product depends on the person delivering it – brand the company using your name. You can have multiple products, but name the company after the person. For example, “Jim Carrillo’s Practical Technology”, Jim Carrillo’s Social Networking 101″, etc. The company would simply be Jim Carrillo Presents.

If the product doesn’t depend on you, and can be sold without any ties to a person (like a consulting service, or physical product), then create a company name. A friend of mine has a company called Eat My Words. Her company names other companies. Alexandra may own the company, but she has a staff, and I can easily see her opening up multiple offices across the country. Alexandra named the company in a way that is independent of her as a person, and promotes a very specific service. So if the product doesn’t depend on you, choose a catchy name. I am an owner of LMCI consulting, and I only contribute to 10% of our overall income (it operates independent of me).

If you decide to choose a product/service focused name, and not your personal name, how do you figure out the best one to use? That’s a question for a naming company! Visit my friend’s company at http://www.eatmywords.com/

Jim

I found this by accident (can’t even remember how) on the internet.  It’s a product by a company called “The Web Around”.  You can see their website at http://www.thewebaround.com

Very simple to use.  Cost was just right ($29), but shipping killed me ($11).  Maybe when they get their product in stores it will be a viable option for all those of us that have dirty offices/homes.

Jim

I recently decided to deliver webinars to compliment my Professional Speaking, and let me tell you – it is nothing like Professional Speaking as I knew it.  When your speaking in front of an audience (at least for me), it’s all about improv.  I have my topic and a solid understanding of the material, but I feed off the audience.  I look for facial queues (like the audience falling asleep), or audio queues (snoring), and adjust accordingly.  It’s like dancing with the audience, and working real hard to count in my head while not stepping on toes.  Keep an eye on the toes, and no problem.

Webinars are a completely different beast, and I’d have to say that if I didn’t have all the Tech stuff in my background, I wouldn’t have been able to handle the speed!  I’d like to give recognition to Tom Drews from www.whatworks.biz for his advice and guidance.  Here are some of the challenges of speaking on a Webinar:

1.  Visuals – Power Point is 2nd nature to me.  As an officer in the military, you ate Power Point for breakfast, and were put through the most rigorous scrutiny.  When you’re on stage, power point is a compliment, you are the focus.  In Webinars, you don’t exist – you’re just a voice.  Power Point becomes the focus.  I had to break through my old paradigms on slides when it came to webinar presentations.  I look back at my power point slides I was going to use before Tom set me straight, and I know the audience would have fallen asleep.

2.  Technology – You’d think all you need to do is have a webinar account, and you’re good to go.  No way Jose.  I have three computers running on my desk during the webinar.  First computer controls the slides.  Second computer has the chat windows open so I can see questions (and it serves as a backup if the first computer dies).  Third computer is set up so I can see exactly what the audience sees.  When I first started giving webinars, I thought I could use one computer, and just open different windows while I was speaking… yeah right!  I’ve found that I can’t talk and chew gum at the same time, let alone open different windows.  The three computer system is necessary, but even then, I have a hard time focusing on any given screen when I’m trying to focus on content.  This is where I got the analogy of driving 100 mph – there’s so much going on, I never imagined it would be so strenuous.

3.  Speaking – No more reading the audience!  Not only is there nobody to look at, everyone is also on mute.  Try giving a joke to dead air.  There’s no cue on when to continue, or how long to allow laughter – if in fact there is anyone laughing.  You just have to press on and imagine people are enjoying the presentation.  Then try and keep your pace and tempo when the application freezes, and you need to go the backup computer.  YIKES…. my first webinar I almost considered stopping in the middle because of technical problems.  So far I’ve been able to overcome the issues, and present a smooth presentation.  One of the things that helped me is that I’m doing a team presentation with Ian Griffin.  While Ian is talking, I can recover most technical issues.  Talk about working against the clock.

There you go – speeding down the highway blindfolded, and yet every time, I’ve made it home safe.  The reality is – there’s not much risk here.  Other then looking dumb (which my wife has made sure I’m OK with), you can recover from anything.  If you ever considered giving webinars, my suggestion is to try it out.  It’s not the same as speaking to an audience live, but it’s definitely exhilarating.  Check out Tom Drews’ website www.whatworks.biz and register for one of his webinars on giving a webinar (as if that isn’t redundant).  Regarding which service to use, I tried many, and am extremely impressed with GoToWebinar.  I initially balked at paying $100 per month, but now that I’ve given a few webinars, I appreciate what it buys you.

Make sense of Social Networking, with practical tips you can implement today. Join Jim Carrillo and Ian Griffin as they outline a roadmap to the most useful Social Networking tools: Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and podcasting. Learn how an integrated approach can help grow your brand and your business. Don’t be intimidated. Learn practical strategies that maximize business results. Jim and Ian’s overview explains the basics about Social Networking tools, explains what you can do to get started, and shows you where you’ll get the quickest return on investment for your time.

• Understand differences between a Blog, Website, Social Network Profile.
• Set up your own LinkedIn and Facebook Profile.
• Prevent yourself from making the same mistake 90% of others always make.
• Learn what to post, and what to keep private.
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