North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: February 5, 2010

My guest was Melanie Young, Back Alley Tours.

Back Alley Tours is a 90-minute walking tour through downtown San Diego’s historic Gaslamp district.

Before a 1912 vice raid, this district was known as the Stingaree. Dozens of brothels and saloons greeted visitors as they disembarked from the Fifth St. Horton Pier—now the site of the San Diego Convention Center.

Police looked the other way—that is, they looked right out the window of Police Headquarters, which was smack dab in the middle of the Stingaree.

All this changed when San Diego’s citizens decided to host the 1915 Panama Expo. And at least some of the city’s 40,000 citizens asked: what do we do about the Stingaree?

Find out which of your favorite downtown buildings once hosted ladies living “the sporting life,” which street created the district’s official “Boundary” and where local Asian and African-American families found ways to survive and thrive, often right next door to the most notorious saloons.

Twitter

Have you taken a class on Twitter somewhere and still don’t understand how to use it, let alone how to set it up?

Let Debra Simpson, Syndicating Your Content, help you. This “hands on” workshop is just for you. You will actually be working on your Twitter account. Don’t wait any longer, get the “hands on” help you need today!

On Wednesday, February 10, 2010 from 10am to 12pm PT (1pm to 3pm E T) you can get the hope you need to:

• Set Up Your Account
• Customize Your Background
  Using Photoshop for Your Background
  Using Ready Made Backgrounds
• How To Get Followers
• Twitter Services and Directories
• Twitter Strategies

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: January 29, 2010

On this episode of North San Diego Business At Large TC Leary, TLC Estate Jewlery, and I discussed how she’s using social media to leverage her business online.

TLC Estate Jewelry buys and sells estate related jewelry, sterling silver items, collectables and more at her store front in Oceanside, as well as participating in shows throughout Southern California.

Felena Hanson, Perspective Marketing, was my guest. Felena brings over twelve years of marketing and management experience to the table. She’s not only an industry expert but also a marketing professor, author, and international speaker. So, naturally we started our conversation with marketing with an emphasis on small business.

We also discussed the upcoming Business Women’s Mega Mixer, which will be held March 25, 2010. This fundraising event will benefit the Women’s Museum of History and will be held at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Be The Media

There are two podcasts here. The first audio is David Mathison, Be The Media, interviewing Seth Godin and Scott Stratten. The second audio is Debra Simpson, Syndicating Your Content interviewing David Mathison.

These are David’s Show Notes

Seth Godin: “America’s greatest marketer” and Scott Stratten: Author, UN-Marketing

Special guests today include Seth Godin and Scott Stratten.

Dubbed “America’s greatest marketer” by American Way Magazine, Seth Godin writes the world’s most popular marketing blog, is the author of eleven bestselling books on marketing, and is the founder of Squidoo.com.

Today we’ll hear about the unique way in which Seth will be marketing his new book, Linchpin.

In the second half of the show, I interview Scott Stratten, author of the book UN-Marketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging.

Scott’s viral videos have been viewed over 60 million times. He writes a wildly popular blog, has a rabid and engaged Twitter following, as well as a lucrative speaking career as a trusted expert in viral, social, and authentic marketing.

Create A Digital Product

Creating a digital product that can be downloaded from your website serves two purposes. You can give it away free to build your email database, or you can sell it for passive income. No matter what you decide to do with the final product, it will raise your credibility and perceived level of expertise. It’s essential for any business. Join me and learn how to put a digital product together!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
10am to 12pm Pacific Time
1pm to 3pm Eastern Time

If you’re ready to turn your website from a free-loader to a fee-loader, then this seminar is for you.

In this powerful information-packed seminar you will learn:

• What information products are
• Why you need information products
• How you can create information products
• How to market and profit from information products

Here are some of the ways your business will benefit from information products:

• Create an ongoing passive income stream
• Expand your brand and credibility as an expert
• Enjoy benefits of being an author
• Have back of the room sales for seminars and talks
• Create products others can sell for commission with affiliate programs
• Build a product funnel; there are no limits

Click Here To Register

Morgan Run Country Club

The Score Women’s Networking breakfast was held Friday, January 22, 2010 at Morgan Run Country Club.  If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw the tweets from the breakfast.

I’ve been attending the Score Women’s Networking Breakfasts, each month, since 2004. When I started networking at the breakfast, there were two breakfasts each month, one in North County, one in Mission Valley. Each drew approximately 30-35 attendees.

It was November 2006 when we had the first joint breakfast.  Shortly after that, Score made a change, one networking breakfast, every other month, centrally located at Morgan Run. It was a stroke of genius. The breakfast became a “never miss networking event” for me and the attendance grew to 160 business women. (ok, and some men)

Anyone in the business community knows I’ve been an advocate of this breakfast. I think it’s one of the jewels of our small business community. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I take pictures and tweet them up with a link to the business as a way of helping introduce the North San Diego Business community at each breakfast. Hence, my decision to step up and ask Score a few questions about the future of the breakfast after attending it Friday, given the attendance was 101 and not quite as many exhibitors as any recent breakfast.

It’s customary when asking a professional speaker to provide a 45 minute, pro bono, presentation, especially where there are exhibit tables being sold, to offer the speaker an exhibit (or speaker’s) table at the event. Score has decided to adopt their workshop policy of forbidding the presenter from marketing their business, thus Carolyn Gross was not offered an opportunity to share her products with the attendees…..of course, she could have purchased an exhibit table. This just doesn’t make sense.

These are my concerns.

• Those of us who attend regularly realize that the exhibit tables for these breakfasts sell out immediately.
• If you want a table, you need to purchase it ahead of time.
• Having a robust exhibit area offers the attendees the opportunity to meet other business owners and network with them.
• Having a large number of attendees offers the exhibitors tremendous value for their marketing dollars spent, and in turn, becomes a great event to exhibit your business.

As I see it, the exhibitors feed the attendees, and the attendees feed the exhibitors.

So, do the same people attend the breakfast each month? No. Many come for the program. Thus my concern.

• The speaking community in San Diego is small.  They all know each other.  Once the speaking community discovers that they are not permitted to market their business, and won’t be provided a speaker’s table for their books and products, does Score think it will be able to provide the same quality of speakers they’ve had in the past?
• If Score doesn’t provide the same quality of speaker, will it draw attendees?
• If Score doesn’t draw attendees, will it draw exhibitors?

If Score is going to change the Women’s Networking Breakfast (from the Agenda and the website) into a workshop, by adopting the workshop policies, then why sell exhibit tables? I don’t believe Score sells exhibit tables at it’s workshops, where it doesn’t allow it’s workshop instructors to market their businesses.  Now, in all fairness, I don’t know if Score pays them or if they offer the workshops pro bono. None the less, it’s seems somewhat hypocritical to enact part of the workshop rules, and not all of the workshop rules.

Score San Diego, I implore you to review this policy. In March you have Pamela S. Perkins, founder of the Human Communication Institute and author of The Art and Science of Communication: Tools for Effective Communication in the Workplace speaking. Having the opportunity to purchase her book could make the difference for an attendee. Please don’t deny the small business community tools to help them with their success by denying the speaker a table for her books and products. It’s a small price, a speaker’s table, that yields you great profits. It’s a system that’s been working for years, and can continue to work, if you can see past your workshop rules. This is still advertised as a networking breakfast.

So, small business community, what do you have to say? Is a speaker’s table too much to offer so Score San Diego can attract the best speakers possible to their breakfasts? Let’s have your comments….

Shown in the slideshow:

Carolyn Gross, Carolyn Gross
Sadie King, The Conscious Cook
Leslie Osterman & Pam Bothelo, Send Out Cards
Linnea Zeiner and Felena Hanson, Savvy Cuisine
Pamela Croft, Dinner At Home
David McCain, Communicating With Heart
Mary Rogers, Mission Accounting
Melanie Young, Back Alley Tours
California Bankruptcy Group
Carlos Chavez, San Diego Printing
Sherry McKenzie, Veronica Glass Jewelry
Sue Crum, The R.E.D. Team

A lot has changed. Today we can instantly publish our thoughts, use a blog to write a book, share our views through social sites like Facebook and Twitter. So why not add one more tool to syndicate our message, online radio.

There are two events next week that will help you discover whether a radio show is right for your message. On Monday, January 25, 2010 I’ll be interviewing David Mathison, Be The Media, on citizen journalism. You’ve seen how the Iranians used Twitter to report on the uprising. You see YouTube videos that capture moments in time, from people just like you and me. Mark the interview in your calendar and join me as I ask David to help us become Citizen Journalists.

Then on Thursday, January 28th from 11:30am to 1:00pm, I’ll be speaking to For You Network North County on syndicating your content through online radio. They’ll be meeting at Buca di Beppo (1921 Calle Barcelona in Carlsbad’s Forum). Contact Barbara Eldridge, Mind Masters, for information and reservations.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: January 22, 2010

How to make videos that don’t suck is Jeff Underwood’s mission. His site Better Internet Videos shares information on creating video for your website. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Google loves video on websites. We are going to find out if that’s true, and if so, how to leverage it for our message.

He shared tips and techniques for creating videos that help you syndicate your content on the internet. So let me invite you to participate by commenting on this post. Ask your question, or share your tips on video. Join the conversation and tune into the show on Friday at 3pm.