Social media experts are everywhere.

And, for the most part, they are people with failed sales careers trying to catch on in an industry that doesn’t really have accountability.

You might be the lone social media expert that is providing good and fiduciary service.  I doubt it.

I see people follow me “I’m a social media expert.”  Their twitter handle says…hopefully.  Really?

Mark Zuckerberg is a Social Media Expert – You Are Not.

Being a business oriented social media expert is more than setting up twitter and hooking up your autospam RSS feed to automatically propagate your pabulum to the masses.

It’s listening and connecting. It’s closing.

If you don’t have relationships that you can get business from, you don’t have business relationships.

It’s making actual sales to humans you met on the social channels.  People that have had their careers abandon them that have struck out to become a “Social Media Expert” are (largely) pandering smug idiots with nothing to good to give.

They are taking money from real businesses to defer the implosion of their careers.  The economy is different, we’re in a permanent recession. There aren’t cushy jobs that you can just show up at, have a bunch of meetings and win.  They are all toast now. Just blathgering on Social Media has no value.

I am a Telephone Expert

The best people – the experts – close stuff.  That’s the point of Social Media (and yes, you have to build relationships to do it.  But look, if you’re not CLOSING STUFF, you don’t HAVE RELATIONSHIPS.)

If I went around telling people I was a Telephone expert, and that I should be paid an assload of money, I’d be laughed off the face of the earth.

Social media is just that. It’s a way of talking.  It’s self explanatory. Yes, you might want to have a marcom person help you get congruent.

It’s going to be true for years to come. I am an expert at getting people on the phone and making a good deal.

I am good at listening to people on Twitter and pitching when it’s time.

I can close people because it’s in their best interests.

I can’t trick anyone or “get reach”  I can just pick my targets, call people up and close.  It seems that the actual act of selling is too vulgar for most social media experts.

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Are you minding your own business, or playing the role of self-appointed mother hen to the whole Internet?

Google Plus has been available for 4 weeks. In that time, Chris Brogan has spent a ton of time on it.  He has  ”won” other platforms, from Twitter to his Blog, to Facebook.

I’ve watched.  I’ve learned.  I’ve interacted Chris him a few times, and he’s always been gracious and cordial.

Chris put together one of the first “guides” to Google plus, based on his initial thoughts, enthusiasm, and time spent (he claims 200+ hours and I don’t doubt him). He did a webinar. And, he charged for it.

He charged $47 bucks. For two hours of his time.

And the social space got Plussed off at Brogan. It was an object lesson for me. I would guess five hundred hours were spent chatting about this – one quarter of a normal working year.  That time could have written a book.

I didn’t buy this webinar. I’ve bought from Chris a couple times. He does good work. I don’t view Plus as being a superior channel for Simplifilm to acquire customers.  So it wasn’t for me.

Sane reaction right? It wasn’t for me, I didn’t need it…so  move on.

But, people delude themselves. They believe that they mob up and tell Brogan what to do.

More than a couple lesser light bloggers were making scathing attacks on Chris- both veiled and unveiled.  Like it’s immoral to have opinions on Plus this early, or start being a sherpa.

Brogan’s noncustomers believed they have a right  tell Chris how he is and isn’t allowed to make money.  Armed with snark, they ripped into him without ever creating a damned bit of value.

As if some how, sales resistance hadn’t occurred to others. (This is the Resistance eating their businesses in a different and obvious form).

The fast eat the slow.  A lot of the top bloggers are the top bloggers because they had a first mover advantage.  When Google finally came up with a (possibly) viable social space, it’d be stupid to ignore first mover advantage – especially when it’s your living.

This is Google’s attempt at comeback in the social space. Brogan had distilled a ton of work into two hours.

But the two hours here were special.  Because they were from Chris Brogan.

See- the obvious point the dim-bulbs missed is this: It wasn’t just 2 hours from a dork like us, it was backed by 20,000 hours of success in the social space, and success translates across platforms.

Brogan may not be perfect. He’s no piker. Most people aren’t qualified to have opinions on Google Plus. But when you build a dominant blog, a dominant presence on Twitter and a dominant presence on Facebook (despite hating the platform), you get the benefit of the doubt.

I think that gives him a track record of spotting trends. It certainly gives him the right to attempt to sell a webinar. Finally–even if the “Chris Brogan Google Plus Webinar” was a crap product, it doesn’t matter.  It’s $47 bucks.  It’s not like he’s charging an arm and a leg. He’s not some trade school ripping people off.

If you can’t afford to gamble $47 bucks you’ve got grave problems no webinar can fix.

If someone doesn’t find value, Chris will either offer a refund or not-I didn’t check. Again, his choice, but $47 bucks isn’t gonna pay your light bill.

What The Sizzler Can Teach You About Focus:

All of the food at the Sizzler is disgusting.  I never eat there.  I rarely think about the Sizzler, and I don’t consume my time writing copy about how the Sizzler is ripping you off, shouldn’t be selling rubbery steaks at budget prices.

My uncle loves he Sizzler.  He looks forward to it for weeks at a time, and plans road trips around the Sizzler (there’s not one near where he lives).  Who am I to blow against the wind?

I have yet to earn dime one thinking about why the Sizzler is gross. I can’t think of how to build a business around Sizzler bashing.

I can make the odd joke about them, but time on Earth is precious, and so excepting this example, I won’t use any more of my time to ponder Sizzler.

Who am I to say something as arbitrary as a buying choice is a moral decision? Am I so self-important that I  presume to dictate what other businesses can and can’t offer?  Like my finger wagging is gonna make me dime one.

Finally, before we take shots at individuals, we should all spend 3 minutes watching this:

A real person, a lot like you from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

My hope is that I remember this next time it’s time to have an opinion on someone else’s business and shut my mouth.

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One of the things that went wrong was the book I wrote.  I abandoned it because, well, I have acute IRS problems, and I can’t bonzai something to perfection when I need money now.  The thing is, I do and did have the time to get stuff done with regard to FT.   But I didn’t get things done because, largely, t wasn’t in front of me.

So I decided to fix that a couple of days ago.  I made some firefox tabs after my wife and I improved communication by sharing a Gdoc ToDo List (I know, I know, Remarkablogger is cringing as we speak).   But, I needed to do some easy things on an iterated basis.  And since I switched to FireFox 3.5.1b, Morning Coffee (a good plugin) ceased to work.  So, I made tabs:

Chase-  I check my bank balance every day, mostly to make sure I have not been levvied recently by the IRS.

Analytics- I’m just keeping an eye on stuff, and as my coffee brews, looking at numbers helps.

Twuffer: I have underused Twitter.  Twuffer help me keep current.  I do a mix of broacsast + connections, and it’s working.

GenuineChris – So I remember to post.

F#@% Therapy: So I remember to post.

Guerrilla.ME Again, so I remember.

LinkedIN: Answer whatever questions are in my wheelhouse, and look around for people to connect with.  I’ve been on LinkedIn for 2ish years, and have underused the site.  So it’s time to get after it.

Facebook: Kinda the same deal.  FB is more about broadcasting than any of the other sites I deal with, but yano, I need to pay more focused attention to my groups etc.

YouTube: I’ve not used this NEARLY as well as I can, and I need to make sure I’m actually making a video once or twice a day.

Then it’s my MDAs- Minimum Daily Actions,

My @todos and @projects

My family budget/expenses.

And finally, my Greader. I don’t keep up with feeds like I used to, which isn’t a bad thing.  I’m using reader now for alerts that I need to pounce on.

This gives me enough to do without being bored or distracted, and it is reasonably portable.   If you’re on the web, almost all browsers have home tabs these days that you can set, and this is a handy way of getting done.  Remember: GTD is mostly a collection of kludges and tricks that’s design is to make you better, faster, smarter.

[Time spent on blog post: 9 minutes]

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I read it, implemented half the stuff he suggests on half my posts.  I was going to go nuts with it, but meh, why.

This is what happened

So, this is where YOU go to buy it:

Remarkablogger’s WordPress SEO Secrets

He also knows his stuff with regard to this new THESIS theme we’re using.

Now, it could be improved.  It needs more checklists, and more “just do it now,” stuff, but it’s perfect for most people.  You write good content, and you make it sing.

GO buy this today.

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Thing is: I could tell you EXACTLY what I’m gonna do.

HOW I’m gonna do it.

And still be fine.  Still win the war.  Because most people (you) aren’t gonna take any action.  And most of my ideas are not revolutionary.  An account creation and social media training site.  Big Whoop.  Oh, it’s a kickass idea.  One form propagates to 30 sites.

But doing it–getting it done, finishing it, making it happen is what matters.  So I can share it here, and not feel threatened.

Grinding out the damn work.  Nobody wants to.

So with that said, I’m going to make a MINT off of Brian Clark and Chris Person..

All while I send them $40,000 and more.   (Think about this: have you ever deployed a product that can cause people to have goals of sending you $40,000 and get rich doing it?)

And I’m going to tell YOU how–the cliffs notes–that I’m gonna do it. Because you won’t.  Nobody will outhustle me.  Nobody on the corner has swagga like me.

They made the Thesis framework.  It powers my blogs.  And my clients blogs.  And it’s a worldbeating gamechanger.  I reviewed it here. I wasn’t generous enough with it…because I was pissy about only being able to order one deployment license at a time.  There are annoyances that are working themselves out.  I’m pissed because EVERYONE bought it.

Here’s how that thing is gonna make me a mint:

I’ve gotten a good start on collecting overlays for Thesis.  Thesis is made to be tweaked and customized.  It’s made to do different and cool things…and it does a decent job.  Kasey Kelly was instrumental in getting me started on this stuff.  I’ll have 20ish looks, deliberately putting buttons elsewhere and resizing them.

The second thing: by collecting this work I commoditize the design process.  By having 10 aboslutely and freakishly good overlays (I’m at 4), I can sell those themes, do a better job for less money than anyone.

The third thing:  $750?  For a kick ass website?  AND training in the basics (SEO, Running WordPress)  AND customization?  AND your plugins installed?  HOLYCRAP.  AND an affiliate program (20%)…?

The forth thing:  More stuff to sell.  “Insanely Great” products that deliver training and value, and help people sell their own stuff.  Social media account creation, ping services, blog writing.  If I get my 700-1000 clients (225 work days * 4 a day), I can help them all.

There are details to work out: which CRM, what other stuff, but this is an awesome way to live.  My guerrilla.me product will be every bit as strong as this product and they will sell each other forever.

I can spend $2,000 bucks on initial thesis designs, and then $100-150 to designers…for one off customizations that utterly kick ass.

I can make $460…net…20 times a week.  And more.  ($750 – 40 for thesis = 710 -25 for merch. services = 685 services – 125 for design = 560 – 100 for affiliates (average) = 460)  * 20 = 9,200.

Direct sales can drive this.  Each client should also retun another $800 gross/500 net/ year.

I believe that thesis is gonna keep getting better at the same rate, and so I’ll hitch my star to theirs for this gig.  I can get this stuff done rapidly, and knock this out of the park.

The difference between me is that I’m a sales guy.  A hustler.  I’m wired that way.  I don’t tire of selling people.  I’m more @garyvee.  I love it.  I want to help people plugin to the matrx and help them sell.

I just told you what I will do, and it doesn’t matter.  You’re free to fight me or join me.   Point is, execution matters.  I will outsell your marketing.

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