Feb 17

Rick Cooper Interviewed on School for Startups Radio

School for Startups RadioWhat strategies will drive growth on social media?

This is a topic I explored on an interview on School for Startups Radio. Jim Beach, host of the show, asked questions that startup companies want to know about how to build a presence on social media.

Click here to listen to the interview

About the Host: Jim Beach

Jim Beach School for Startups RadioJim is known for this belief that entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion. Jim’s first book, School for Startups, was published by McGraw-Hill in June 2011 and reached as high as number 9 on Amazon’s business section. Promoting the book, he has done over 100 radio interviews, was featured in a UPS commercial, was referred to as the Simon Cowell of venture capital by CNN, and was excerpted by Entrepreneur magazine and the Wall Street Journal India.

Author of “School for Startups,” Jim argues that entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion. Featured in a UPS commercial, published by McGraw Hill, hired by SunTrust, Wells Fargo, and Toshiba, and featured speaker around the US and in Egypt, Dubai, Japan, Brazil, and India, he is a recognized leader in entrepreneurship.

At the age of 25, Jim founded American Computer Experience. From 1993 to 2000, Jim grew the company with no capital infusion to $12 million in annual revenue and to over 60 permanent and 700 temporary employees, operating in 39 states and in three countries. The company was the world’s largest technology training company for children, and enjoyed corporate tie-ins with Microsoft, Intel, Lego, NASA, and many others. In 2000, Jim closed two rounds of venture funding, one for $2.4 million and another for $6.4 million. Jim was selected as one of the “Forty under Forty” most influential citizens by Georgia Trend magazine, and he appeared on NPR, MBNBC, CNN, and in the New York Times, Wired, and Entrepreneur Magazine as an expert on technology and education.

About the Guest: Rick Cooper

Rick is an Author, Speaker, and Coach. He is author of Seize your Opportunities, Marketing Magic, and Extreme Excellence. Rick works with small business owners who want to generate more leads online and increase sales on the internet.He specializes in working with Coaches, Speakers, and Experts. He helps them leverage their expertise to attract clients online. He has provided marketing consulting and support to some of the top speakers in the world.

Rick is a National Speaker on Online Marketing. He was featured in Comstocks magazine and has been interviewed by The National Networker, AllBusiness.com and the East Bay Times Business Journal. Rick started using social media back in 2003 and learned to leverage it to grow his own business. He has delivered social media training for several years. His content rich training programs deliver high value strategies focused on helping business owners increase their presence online, generate leads and increase profits.

Feb 14

Powerful Techniques to Process Email and Achieve Inbox Zero

Email Inbox Zero

Stay Current on your Emails

Are you facing email overwhelm?

In today’s information age, people are overloaded and struggling with the burden of technology. Yes, technology creates a burden.

In this powerful audio program, learn tips to handle email quickly and effectively.

Listen to my audio program on Powerful Techniques to Process Email and Achieve Inbox Zero…



Right-click here to download the audio mp3 file

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

Feb 07

7 Ways to Add Value to Potential Clients

As a small business owner, you have an uphill battle to attract new clients online. Competition is fierce and if you want to build a presence online, you have to take massive action. Work on your message and strive to reach more people online.

Listen to my audio program on 7 Ways to Add Value to Potential Clients now…



Right-click here to download the audio mp3 file

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

Feb 06

Ninja Hacks to Leverage Other People’s Time

You have limited time. If you want to increase your results, then you need to create leverage. Leverage is all about doing more with less.

So, what can you do to create more leverage? Watch this video now:

Dec 16

How to Increase Sales by Making More Phone Calls

Eric Lofholm and Rick Cooper

Eric Lofholm and Rick Cooper

While I am an expert in online marketing and social media, I am also an expert in sales.

I studied sales when I was back in college. I have been a student of Eric Lofholm, a Master Sales Trainer, for many years. I have also studied other methods and read many articles and books.

I have been in sales roles over the years. And as an entrepreneur, I am in sales. As a smaller business owner, if you can’t make sales, you go out of business.

How to Create a Sales Breakthrough

I want to share one idea with you that could create a breakthrough in your results.

I tend to be a detail-oriented, analytical person. So, I like to be prepared.

That mindset doesn’t always work well in an environment where you need to take action and make calls.

Don’t Fall into the Trap of Over-Preparation

Preparation can become an excuse for not taking action.

I was reading an article recently and it mentioned if you are in doubt about whether to make a call, then go ahead and make it anyway.

On top of that, most calls go to voicemail. So, chances are, you won’t even reach them on the phone.

Wow! What a profound idea. Something shifted in my head. What a great way to overcome the resistance you might have to make a call.

Nothing is ever going to be perfect. You will never have enough information.

And if you are reaching out more consistently over time, you will learn more about a person as time goes on.

I could do a whole training just on sales, but I will refer you over to my mentor Eric Lofholm if you want to improve your sales skills.

Selling is a Learned Skill.Eric Lofholm

You Need to Develop your Sales Skills

Here’s a fact: No matter how much effort you devote to your online marketing and social media to generate leads online, you will never be able to build your business if you do not improve your sales skills.

Yes, it is possible to generate sales online. But, sometimes people don’t buy online and you need to follow up.

I am blocking time every week to reach out and make calls. I enjoy talking to people. And it gives me a better way to learn about their business and to advise them.

How are you about making calls? Do you make calls consistently? Could you be making more calls?

Let me know if you struggle in this area.

If you want build a referral based business, you need to spend more time talking to people over the phone.

You have the potential to be much more successful than you are today and as soon as you realize the phone is your friends, the faster that will happen.

Rick Cooper
Social Media and Online Marketing Trainer

Dec 09

Focus on the Mission to Achieve your Goals and Dreams

Focus on the MissionWhen you set your mind to accomplish something, how effective are you in staying committed to achieve it?

The reality for many small business owners is that they are not committed enough!

I am a fan of survival shows. One day I was watching Man, Woman, Wild with former US Army Special Forces survival expert Mykel Hawke and his television journalist wife Ruth England.

Mykel was talking about the importance of focusing on the mission.

Many businesses develop a mission statement. But, what Hawke was talking about is different.

There is a mindset used in the military to focus on the mission.

What does that mean? It means to be focused on one goal and to take every action necessary to accomplish that goal. The key there is to select one goal and only one goal.

In a survival situation, that might be to self-rescue. In other words, to find a way out and a way back to civilization.

On the show Dual Survival, Army Veteran Dave Canterbury teams up with Primitive Living Expert Cody Lundin. Their methods often conflict, but they usually find a way to work together to survive.

On one episode, Dave said the Army’s motto is, “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.” I have also heard that phrase attributed to the Marines.

It’s a mindset that allows you to overcome any challenge or obstacle.

Think about it, when you are in the battlefield, you have limited resources. You have to make do with what you have.

It reminds me of the TV show MacGyver. In every episode, MacGyver had to come up with a solution with the limited resources he had (which by the way, usually involved making a bomb.)

Here are 3 Valuable Lessons to Remember:

1. Identify the one goal that is going to move your business forward

Once you identify that one goal, then focus your time, energy and efforts on accomplishing it. Avoid distractions. Focus on the mission. Put other things on the back burner and keep making progress on your primary goal.

2. Stay Flexible in your Approach

You might make a plan, but if the plan doesn’t work, you may need to make adjustments. You may need to fine-tune your approach. Keep innovating. Learn best practices. Test and measure.

3. Overcome Obstacles

Does it ever seem that just when you start making progress, something comes up that stands in the way of progress?

That’s called an obstacle. It’s part of life and it’s part of business.

One of the keys to overcoming obstacles is to maintain a positive attitude. Your mindset is critical to being able to think your way through the problems you face.

Develop the skill of being a problem solver. You don’t need to find the ideal solution. You need to find a solution.

So, whether you are in a survival situation or in your business, focus on the mission. Keep your eye on the goal. And when obstacles come up, improvise, adapt and overcome.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

Dec 02

5 Reasons to Generate Positive Publicity

Strive to Generate Positive Publicity in the MediaAs a business owner, one of your goals is to reach more people.

You have a message you want to share with the world.

That message communicates information about what’s important to you. It’s a message that will attract your ideal clients.

And every day, in some way, you want to share that message.

What if there was a way you could reach a larger audience? Would you be interested?

There is a way. It’s called publicity.

Publicity is not advertising and it’s not promotion.

Sometimes publicity is just getting your face out there. Sometimes, it’s associating your name with a cause or charity.

And sometimes it’s communicating your message.

As a business owner, you should look for opportunities to generate publicity.

Here are 5 reasons to generate positive publicity:

1. Publicity establishes credibility

When you appear on radio, TV or print publications, it boosts your credibility. People begin to look at your differently. It’s a difference maker in establishing you as being prominent in your industry.

2. Publicity gets you more attention

When you get publicity, you tend to get more publicity. People will take notice when you step into the spotlight. People will reach out to you and offer new opportunities.

When you approach the media, you can leverage past publicity to establish yourself as an expert on a topic.

3. Publicity helps you form strategic partnerships

Positive publicity will make you an attractive joint venture partner. When you get publicity, it shows you are playing a bigger game. It shows you understand strategy at a higher level.

Business owners are looking for people to partner with. By showing that you are media savvy, it enables you to step onto the playing field to increase your results.

4. Publicity positions you as an expert

Are you an expert in your field? Absolutely, right?

As an expert, you will attract more clients and grow your business.

The media are looking for experts. They want to talk to people who know what they are talking about.

Experts are a source of information. Get clear about what topics to talk about. Then, look for opportunities to get interviewed by the media.

5. Publicity opens the door to new opportunities

Once you begin to get publicity, you will suddenly find that new opportunities will come your way.

You may get new clients. You may get contacted to speak at an event. You may be contacted by high profile joint venture partners.

Publicity opens the way to prosperity. When you share information freely through publicity, you become attractive to people. They want to work with you.

What can you do to generate publicity in your business?

Make a list of possibilities.

Here are 6 Critical Strategies to Generate Positive Publicity:

  • Get interviewed by your local newspaper
  • Write an article for an industry publication
  • Book a spot on an internet radio show
  • Contact a freelance writer to be interviewed for a magazine article
  • Respond to opportunities to appear on a local TV morning show
  • Generating publicity is not difficult, but it does take focused effort

You need to be clear about what you want to talk about. You need to be confident. You need to be ready.

Are you ready?

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

Nov 16

Jason Cosper Talks about PHP 7 at Wordcamp Sacramento 2015

Topic: Way of the Future
Speaker: Jason Cosperjason-cosper-wordcamp-sacramento-speaker

Jason’s talk was part of the Advanced Track at Wordcamp. It was more applicable for WordPress Developers, but I wanted to some exposure to the tools, techniques and mindset of developers.

 

Jason started his talk by referencing a presentation he gave at a Wordcamp 6 months or so in the past. This talk was a revision on his recommendation to use HHVM, a substitute in some ways for PHP. With the release of PHP 7, he has shifted his perspective and is now encouraging developers to use PHP 7.

 

Here are 3 key ideas from Jason’s presentation:

  1. Most WordPress sites are running on old versions of PHP

Jason noted that 67.9% of all PHP sites are powered by versions considered dead. In other words, website owners are not upgrading to more current versions of PHP.

By the way, PHP is the computer language used to run WordPress sites.

“Nobody builds sites for the past. You build them for the future.”

-Jason Cosper

  1. One reason b to switch to PHP 7is so your website will run faster

The whole reason Jason was previously endorsing HHVM was because websites ran faster using it.

Jason has run some tests and discovered that sites are running faster now on PHP 7 vs. HHVM.

  1. Test your website on PHP 7 using HGV

You can test your website on PHP 7 is a development environment to identify any bugs to fix before installing it on your production server

Jason also talked about HGV, which is a vagrant that can be used to test PHP 7 in a safe, development environment. Jason provided instructions to install and use HGV. You definitely need to be a computer programmer to understand this.

Overall, I found Jason’s talk interesting. My biggest takeaway is that I need to think about what version of PHP is running on my websites. I need to come up on with a plan to switch to PHP 7 over time.

In this sense, Wordcamp has brought an issue to my attention that I had not thought about. And I’m thankful for that.

 

About the Speaker: Jason Cosperjason-cosper-wordcamp-speaker

Jason Cosper is currently employed as the Developer Advocate for WP Engine. Honestly, that’s just a fancy way of saying “he gets paid to talk to people about WordPress development.” Nice work if you can get it.

In his spare time Jason hangs out with his wife Sarah, divides his attention between two very tiny dogs, maintains the Force Strong Passwords plugin, organizes the Bakersfield WordPress Meetup, grills various meats, scours the internet for vinyl, samples assorted craft beers & whiskeys, and writes cranky tweets about the Lakers.

Twitter: @boogah

Topic Description: Way of the Future

With the performance gains promised by HHVM and PHP 7, WordPress site admins are living in pretty exciting times. The PHP world at large is in a proverbial space race, and every WordPress site will (eventually) benefit. But early adopters and folks who manage their own servers shouldn’t be the only ones who get early access to these face melting bumps in speed. In this talk, I’ll be introducing you to things you can do to get your code ready for these next generation hosting environments. And we’ll cover where you can host your code once it’s ready. If you’re interested in attending this talk, a passing familiarity with the command line helps, but isn’t a hard requirement.

 

Presentation Slides:

https://speakerdeck.com/boogah/way-of-the-future

Read my Full Review on Wordcamp Sacramento

Click here to read my full review of Wordcamp Sacramento

 

Rick Cooper

Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

 

Nov 16

Peter Chester Talks about Coding with a Team at Wordcamp Sacramento 2015

Topic: Coding with a Team

Speaker: Peter Chester

peter-chester-wordcamp-sacramento-speaker

Peter Chester

One of the most interesting presentations I attended at Wordcamp Sacramento, that was a little over my head, was on coding workflow.

Peter Chester from Modern Tribe gave a great presentation on how to structure a workflow where multiple WordPress Developers can build the same website. This is ideal for large scale web implementations.

Here are a few of the takeaways I got from Peter’s presentation:

  1. Move to a more structured workflow over time

It is natural for solo WordPress Developers to start off with an unstructured workflow. As they begin to work with other developers over time, they often develop and refine stronger, tighter workflows.

  1. Code for your future self

When hand coding PHP or any computer language, it’s a good idea to document or add comments in your code so that others can figure out the purpose of a particular section of code.

In a former life, I had the opportunity to write business requirements documentation for programmers. I have written some computer code over the years, mostly using database reporting tools.

I understand the need to create your code in a way for you to understand in the future what you trying to accomplish. It’s a best practice. And others should be able to understand it too.

  1. Do code reviews

When working on a team, it’s a good idea to have other developers review your code.

The benefits are consistency, quality and learning.

Peter also went into extensive detail on implementing Development, Staging, and Production environments.

It’s nice to know you can model best practices that are used in the mainframe computer environment.

While I didn’t understand everything I heard, it did expand my knowledge and open the door to what’s possible as a WordPress Developer.

About the Speaker: Peter Chesterpeter-chester-wordpress-wordcamp-speaker

Peter is a partner at Modern Tribe, the digital agency responsible for The Events Calendar and Image Widget WordPress plugins as well as for large scale WordPress builds including Harvard Law, Stanford Law and Steelcase.com. Peter often leads large technical projects with budgets in excess of $500k. Peter is also a father, musician, artist, surfer and list maker with an obsession for google spreadsheet formulas (though not necessarily in that order).

Twitter: @peterchester

Topic Description: Coding with a Team

As Modern Tribe has grown from a small team to a team of nearly 50

people, we have had to adopt a bit more organization in our workflows.

One thing that we’ve been working on recently is refining our code

sharing, review and deployment practices. In this session, I’ll share a workflow for collaborating with your team. Using this workflow, you will reduce delays, bugs and improve the technical skills of your colleagues.

Presentation Slides:

Click here for Peter’s Presentation Slides

Read my Full Review on Wordcamp Sacramento

Click here to read my full review of Wordcamp Sacramento

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer

Nov 09

Chris Lema Talks About WordPress Membership Plugins at Wordcamp Sacramento 2015

Topic: WordPress Membership Plugins

Speaker: Chris Lema

chris-lema-wordpress-membership-plugins

Photo Credit: Jennifer Bourn

Probably the most entertaining speaker at Wordcamp Sacramento, in my humble opinion, was Chris Lema. He has a larger than life personality and is clearly an expert in his field.

His presentation was funny at times, while also being jam-packed with amazing content. The audience roared at some of his humorous stories and took furious notes as he was sharing valuable insights.

Over the summer, Chris reviewed 30 different membership plugins designed for WordPress. Who would even undertake such a task? Chris did, and we can all benefit from that.

Think about the User Experience

Whether you are a plugin developer or a user, you should consider what the experience of using the plugin is like.

Many membership plugins are difficult to use, have too many options and often puzzle the user with convoluted logic.

Here are 3 criteria Chris Lema used to evaluate membership plugins:

  1. Ease of Use

Chris looked at how easy the membership plugins were to use. The more features, the more complex the plugins tended to be.

  1. Ecommerce functionality

Not all membership plugins offer the ability to sell products, services and programs. Consider whether you need this feature before selecting a plugin.

  1. Upgrades/Downgrades

Many membership sites offer the capability to upgrade or downgrade members over time. Not all membership plugins provide this capability.

Chris shares all of the criteria on his blog.

Chris also shared a tip for writing software reviews. He said score characteristics of the product. He actually received feedback from one plugin developer that thanked him for providing insights and objective criteria/scores. He said, “You have given us a benchmark to work towards and we are making changes to meet your criteria.”

Now, that’s a win-win-win!

About the Trainer: Chris Lema

chris-lema-wordcamp-sacramento-speaker

Chris Lema

Chris Lema is the CTO and Chief Strategist at Crowd Favorite. He’s also a daily blogger, a public speaker, and product strategist. He helps companies leverage WordPress, and helps WordPress companies find leverage. For twenty years Chris has developed and managed high performing engineers to build software products — particularly SaaS products in a variety of B2B vertical markets. He’s also spent the last ten years coaching startups on product development & marketing strategies.

Twitter: @ChrisLema

Topic Description: Lessons Learned From Reviewing 30 Membership Plugins

What happens when you review 30 membership plugins? You learn a lot about writing reviews. You learn a lot about products and product marketing. You learn a lot about membership plugins.Come hear the stories of these lessons if you’re either a product developer, in marketing, or a membership plugin user.

Presentation Slides

Click here for Chris’s Presentation Slides

Read my Full Review of Wordcamp Sacramento

Click here to read my full review of Wordcamp Sacramento

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer