Randy Cantrell

Randy Cantrell is the founder of Bula Network, LLC - an executive leadership advisory company helping leaders leverage the power of others through peer advantage, online peer advisory groups. Interested in joining us? Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com

Social Media For The Simple or Simple Social Media

Perhaps that title should have a question mark at the end of it. You think?

They’re one and the same, at least in my mind.

There are 3 things – components – that I believe are vital to effective social media behavior:

a. Caring
b. Sharing
c. Like-ability

When you’re asked to explain social media to people with no online experience, what advice do you give?

 

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Why Be In A Business You Must Always Defend?

Businesses have a life span. Some live to be very old. Others die young. None are immortal.

Some get sick, but they get well. Others get sick, then get sicker.

Some businesses die on their own, while others are euthanized.

The same is true of careers. Our professional lives aren’t often diagrammed by a never-ending upward trajectory. They sometimes stumble, falter and take a nose-dive. At times they have to be reinvented. Like the US Marines, sometimes we encounter problems in our career and we have to improvise.

If you’ve got a business – or career – that is always under fire…take heart. There are probably opportunities within reach. You have to get some focus and clarity so you can see them.

 

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Episode 90 – How I Turned An Investment Of $186.14 Into An Utter Waste Of Time

Podcast: Download

Internet marketing is full of snakes who want your money. We all love our dreams though. And most of us dream of more money!

A person buys a couple of domain names. Cost $15.74.

They invest in a year’s worth of shared hosting. Cost $83.40

They use WordPress, which is free, but decide on a premium theme. Cost $87.

Grand total of starting an online business capable of earning tens of thousands, perhaps more? $186.14

Three months pass. Nothing.

Six months passes. Still nothing.

Undeterred, another month passes. Nothing. Now depression sets in. Funk hit.

Hardheaded persistence prevails and another five months pass before they cry, “Uncle!”

They’ve managed to turn an annual investment (it’s really an expense) of $186.14 into an utter waste of time. That’s if they’re lucky.

The unlucky people have spent far more, in both time and money. They’ve purchased one $1997 information product after another. They’re on every Guru’s email list. They’ve purchased from all the big names. Thousands of dollars have been spent fueling their dream. They’re convinced success is happening for everybody with an online endeavor. They just lack the information necessary, but that next Guru Launch is going to be the missing link to their online success. They’ve foolishly swallowed lies or anecdotal evidence. Like lottery players all over the country, they embrace the dream of “getting lucky.”

Here’s the Wikipedia entry for the phrase “anecdotal evidence” –

The expression anecdotal evidence refers both to evidence that is factually unreliable, as well as evidence that may be true but cherry-picked or otherwise unrepresentative of typical cases.[1] In other words, there are two distinct meanings:

(1) Evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay is called anecdotal if there is doubt about its veracity; the evidence itself is considered untrustworthy.

(2) Evidence, which may itself be true and verifiable, used to deduce a conclusion which does not follow from it, usually by generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence. For example “my grandfather smoked like a chimney and died healthy in a car crash at the age of 99” does not disprove the proposition that “smoking markedly increases the probability of cancer and heart disease at a relatively early age”. In this case, the evidence may itself be true, but does not warrant the conclusion.

In both cases the conclusion is unreliable; it may not be untrue, but it doesn’t follow from the “evidence”.

Evidence can be anecdotal in both senses: “Goat yogurt prolongs life: I heard that a man in a mountain village who ate only yogurt lived to 120.”

The term is often used in contrast to scientific evidence, such as evidence-based medicine, which are types of formal accounts. Some anecdotal evidence does not qualify as scientific evidence because its nature prevents it from being investigated using the scientific method. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the “person who” fallacy (“I know a person who…”; “I know of a case where…” etc. Compare with hasty generalization). Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a “typical” experience; statistical evidence can more accurately determine how typical something is.

Do not trust an Internet marketer selling information products for $1997.

Resist the temptation. You can learn how to build a business without supporting these people. Sadly, some people still feel compelled to keep buying. Convinced there are secrets they don’t yet know, they read every sales letter, open every email and watch every sales video. Resisting the BUY button is difficult, even though the credit card bills keep on rolling in.

Don’t let that be YOU. Protect yourself.

 

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2 Big Questions Answered By The Power Of Triangulation

I’m not Special Agent Timothy McGee on NCIS. He’s an MIT graduate whiz.

I do envy his triangulation skills though. A few days ago I started thinking about the math of triangulation. Like most people I went directly to Wikipedia.

In trigonometry and geometrytriangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly (trilateration). The point can then be fixed as the third point of a triangle with one known side and two known angles.

Once I got my eyeballs facing front again, I re-read it. Then again. It finally made some sense.

Triangulation may help us solve two of the most pressing questions people have about their life pursuits.

1. Where am I?
2. Where am I headed? (What we usually want to know is, “Where do I want to go?”)

I’d like to give you three points of a triangle to help us pinpoint the answers:

a. Desire
b. Natural Aptitude
c. Skill

Let me explain in today’s video

Mentioned in today’s show:

Mitch Rossell, aspiring country music star – let’s call him a “star in the making”
My Word A Day Video using Mitch as an illustration. Look at the links in the notes to that video for more on Mitch.
Donald O. Clifton, a pioneer in the notion of soaring with your strengths
Soar With Your Strengths, the book
StrengthFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
The Element by Sir Ken Robinson, another book

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How To Succeed In Business By Really, REALLY Trying

 

This is a continuation of the last show, How To Succeed In Business By REALLY Trying.

The one-hit wonder defines a career. The sophomore slump doesn’t necessarily define a career, but it might. It depends on what happens in the years that follow.

We dream, we work and we prepare for an opportunity. Waiting for the door to crack open – even if only slightly – we hope for a chance.

Knowing what to do with an opportunity is an important component in how to succeed in business by really, REALLY trying.

Today’s show is all about the process – embracing it, enduring it and finding ways to even enjoy it. Rejection, failure and disappointment are part of it. The process is incomplete without them.

Mentioned in today’s show:

Willis Alan Ramsey
Muskrat Love performed by America, written by Willis Alan Ramsey
Ballard of Spider John performed by Jimmy Buffett, written by Willis Alan Ramsey
Robin Williams successfully morphed from mere comedian to serious dramatic actor
Steve Martin successfully morphed from standup comic to actor to author and all the while he was an accomplished musician. He’s just released a new record with The Steep Canyon Rangers.

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