I published a series of IntrepidTV episodes around the turn of the year that were originally – and obviously – published on video. I’ve gotten a bunch of requests for the audio-only versions of four episodes (Julien Smith, David Meerman Scott, Jonathan Fields, and Amber Rae).

I also had a bunch of requests for Colin Wright and Jason Falls, which were recorded way back in the fall that I will republish as audio-only soon too…

So, this is the third of those six, David Meerman Scott. You can view the original broadcast on IntrepidTV with David here.

From now on, all episodes filmed for the TV show will also be available on mp3 for download at the time the original conversation is published.

Enjoy my conversation with David Meerman Scott on his latest book, Newsjacking!

###

[by the way, you are encouraged to subscribe to the Intrepid Radio podcast on iTunes here, and you won't miss a thing from here on out!]

So…you might have noticed, especially you poor subscribers, that I published something to the blog every day during the month of January.

First, here are some stats I recorded as a result of the practice:

[please note these numbers are for January 2012, as compared to December 2011]

1. Comments to the blog increased over 6X. This was a big victory! Blogs are meant to encourage engagement. And publishing more often certainly achieved this. But the engagement came not necessarily from the act of publishing every day, but more as a result of publishing more thought-provoking material and concepts.

2. The amount of books purchased through my Amazon affiliates program held steady, but I did promote far less books over January than I did in December 2011. It was noted, however, that there were a heck of lot more click-thrus to check out the books I did promote.

3. It was my third best month ever in terms of sign-ups to my intrepid email mailing list.

4. My Alexa ranking did drop by over 200,000.

5. The amount of podcast downloads almost doubled. As a podcaster, this was a very exciting result.

6. Unique vistors to the site, as measured by Google Analytics, more than doubled.

So, a few thoughts:

Sure, these improved statistics are good results, but of course, the real desired result is moving the needle for the business and driving more business revenue. Being that I do NOT sell product online, but rather consulting services, I cannot really measure the impacts of this experiment on February 1st from a January experiment. It will be interesting to see if a new subscriber (to RSS, iTunes, email list) found in January might become a customer over the next several months. We’ll see. [note: I did sign a new client as a result of publishing a certain blog post in the first week of the month...]

Also hard to say that if I was to blog every day in February that several of these trends would “double” again. I don’t think I will continue publishing every day, but I will certainly publish much more often than I had been doing over the last quarter of 2011.

Oh, one other thing. Yes, I did worry whether or not I would be able to have enough material to publish every day. Turns out that getting into the habit and routine of posting every day made that process easier.

Turns out, if you have to publish every day, you just get down to it and create.

If you open your eyes and think just a wee bit, generating content should never a problem…and certainly wasn’t for me. In fact, I have material left over to run in February.

Blogging isn’t rocket science, but it is a lot of work. Writing every day does make blogging easier, and as shown above, does move the numbers.

[helpful tip: running experiments gives you something to write about, as evidenced above, you know, just in case you are struggling with ideas on what to blog about...]

###

[drawing by hugh macleod]

Amber Rae

I also had a bunch of requests for Colin Wright and Jason Falls, which were recorded way back in the fall that I will republish as audio-only soon too…

So, this is the second of those six, Amber Rae. You can view the original broadcast on IntrepidTV with Amber Rae here.

From now on, all episodes filmed for the TV show will also be available on mp3 for download at the time the original conversation is published.

Enjoy my inspiring and uplifting conversation with Amber!

###

[by the way, you are encouraged to subscribe to the Intrepid Radio podcast on iTunes here, and you won't miss a thing from here on out!]

Julien Smith

I also had a bunch of requests for Colin Wright and Jason Falls, which were recorded way back in the fall that I will republish as audio-only soon too…

So, this is the first of those six, Julien Smith. You can view the original broadcast on IntrepidTV with Julien Smith here.

From now on, all episodes filmed for the TV show will also be available on mp3 for download at the time the original conversation is published.

Enjoy our conversation around Julien’s book, The Flinch…

###

[by the way, you are encouraged to subscribe to the Intrepid Radio podcast on iTunes here, and you won't miss a thing from here on out!]

Spent a few hours this morning looking through all 588 blog posts I’ve published here since I launched this blog in Fall of 2008.

Wow. 588 posts. That’s probably around 176,500 total words assuming an average of 300 words per post. But more importantly, that’s a lot of content that for the moment, is sitting around dormant and underutilized.

What to do?

Here are five things one can do with old blog content:

1. Update the posts. There is a post I published in January 2009 that is my most-viewed post. And I hate it. It wasn’t as well-written as I would like, and my opinions have changed on the subject matter somewhat since then. So, I’ve made some plans to do some minor modification on the post itself. I will update the text to a small degree, add a picture, add links to more current and related content, plus add an invitation to sign-up to my mailing list, which did not exist back then.

2. e-books. After my exercise this morning, I have four e-books that are now content-ready. They just need to be edited and packaged. This is the immediate next step for me. But if you’ve blogged for a while, and have content organized into categories, you probably have some e-books in there. All you’ve got to do is carve it out of stone…

3. e-newsletters. Just this morning, I identified 18 older posts that I will repurpose and insert into an existing autoresponder program I am running. These were 18 articles that I loved writing, were proud of, were well-received at the time, but probably haven’t been read in over a year (or more). Time to get some function and use out of year(s) old content!

4. Repurpose old content into current guest posts. If someone invites you to guest post on their site, and you should usually accept offers to do that since it is a great way to expose you and your writing to a new audience, you can repurpose old content from your blog. You don’t necessarily have to write new material…

5. Print book. The list of bloggers who turned blog content into published print books (traditional and self-published) is growing longer by the day.

If you have blogged for a while, just remember this: there is gold in them hills. And you have lots of options on what to do with that old content. Get creative with it, and see your old content come back to life!

Plus, any other ideas?

###

[want to learn more about content? sign-up for my FREE content marketing course]

[drawing by hugh macleod]

[courtesy of jonathan fields - a past guest on IntrepidTV]

###

Apologize in advance for the adult language in today’s graphic, but as we close the week, I thought you needed to see this:

I first learned about HELL YEAH decision making from Derek Sivers, and was recently exposed to it again from Amber Rae, a recent guest on IntrepidTV.

Here is how it works:

When you are asked to do something, if your response isn’t “HELL YEAH!,” you should probably take a pass and find something more meaningful to do. Life is too damn short to waste it doing stuff that doesn’t get you excited and inspired.

“But Todd,” you might ask, “What if my boss suggests a bunch of tasks that I don’t feel “Hell Yeah” about?”

“Find more meaningful work,” is how I might respond.

Yeah, life is full of seemingly meaningless tasks. And you have to do two things:

One, stop doing meaningless tasks. This includes all things you won’t recall fondly whilst laying on your death bed.

[And me too. At this time, my life is too full of that kind of stuff. I am ACTIVELY weed whacking the lot of it.]

And two, find meaning in the things you are currently doing. There is oftentimes a lot of value in the work that you do, but your perspective and attitude label it as boring, pointless, and meaningless.

I am willing to bet that creativity is required for most of what you do. So be creative about it then. Find meaning. Do it better. Teach others. Learn from others.

But hey, at the end of the day, if you ain’t yelling HELL YEAH, move on. As you know, life is too damn short…

[Helpful tip: do something HELL YEAH this weekend. This is what you can blog about next week...]

###

[join me here to do some HELL YEAH marketing!]

[pic from Amber Rae]

I think one of the problems is that we all attempt to, or allow ourselves to be, defined by our work. We think we have to stay in miserable, unhappy jobs just because it is a status thing, or that we think this is what society expects.

I say bunk. No doubt, it is a lot harder (for me at least) to run my own business and have to eat what I kill. Sure, bills would be easier to pay with a regular paycheck, but I hated life like that. I love being on my own, responsible to myself, and flexible to do work that matters to me. It is a tough slog, but I love the battle.

But I think we are responsible for this predicament. What is the first thing we usually ask someone we meet for the first time?

“So…what do you do?”

Does asking this question subconsciously tell people that we expect an answer to be some formal, society-approved job? Maybe so.

So, here is what I propose. Instead of leading off with the standard “what do you do?” question, from now on, let’s start with these:

What do you love to do?

What are you reading?

What do you want to learn?

Tell me about your family?

What do you want to be known for?

What big, hairy challenge are you striving to achieve?

If you wrote the great American novel, what would it be about?

Would you rather be a writer, artist, or musician?

Where would you go if you could travel anywhere?

What would you do if you were president for a day?

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made?

I don’t know about you, but I personally find the answers to these questions to be a lot more meaningful, and a lot more telling about a person than how they spend nine to five.

What do you think? What other questions would you want to ask?

###

[join my merry band of intrepid raiders here]

[drawing by hugh macleod]

If the above quote doesn’t get you fired up to do what matters, I doubt you will ever do anything that matters.

And it probably isn’t motivation you lack. If you fret about not getting important things done, you have the motivation. You just lack the will to make the necessary behavioral changes (h/t Ramit and BJ). And that’s the harder part…

1. Why aren’t you starting the business you really want to start?
2. Why aren’t you writing the novel you want to write?
3. Why aren’t you learning the piano you so desperately want to play?
4. Why aren’t you traveling more?
5. Why aren’t you eating better?
6. Why aren’t you learning more about wine?
7. Why aren’t you reading more great books?
8. Why aren’t you spending more time with friends and family?
9. Why aren’t you getting out of debt?
10. Why aren’t you losing weight?
11. Why aren’t you learning how to cook?
12. Why aren’t you saving more for that dream house you want?
13. Why aren’t you getting over your fear of public speaking?
14. Why aren’t you closing more sales with your dream prospects?
15. Why aren’t you training for that marathon you want to complete?
16. Why aren’t you going after what you really want?
17. Why aren’t you spending time with the person you truly love?
18. Why haven’t you left the job you so despise?
19. [fill in the blank with the one important thing on YOUR list]
20. Why haven’t you gotten started?

You got one life.

You already know what needs to be done.

You already know it won’t be easy.

And you already know it is worth it.

So…

Act accordingly. I hope you have the courage to do so.

###

[to live a more intrepid life, join us here]

One of the things I sell is podcasting services — studio time, editing, post-production, strategic sales + marketing implementation of the show content, guest recruitment strategy, and being the show host if they need me. Not to mention broadcasting live from a client’s trade show booth…

Funny thing is, even though this is technically one “product,” each client looks at the service differently, implements it differently, and utilizes the content differently.

I didn’t sell them a one-size-fits-all service. I didn’t pitch them saying they had to do this my way. Each eventually bought because we crafted a package that made sense to them, and their needs.

I have dozens of prospects considering podcasting and content generation services from me, and all have a different notion in mind about how they will utilize my services and the content it generates. And unless you are selling very specific products that perform very specific functions, all selling is this way…

…if you sell successfully.

You have to adapt, or you will lose.

You have to seek to understand how your service, knowledge, and expertise best supports your prospect’s endeavor. If you don’t, you are demonstrating that you don’t really care, and are just trying to close the deal.

You have to be patient. Selling this way is harder, takes longer, requires patience, doesn’t fit well in a CRM system, and oftentimes frustrates your sales manager.

But in the end, the package you’ve adapted to best serve your new client ends up with better results, higher profit (for both parties), and longer-term loyalty from your customer.

Don’t be so hard-headed that things have to be done according to some spec sheet drafted up by an engineer who rarely sees the light of day. You are dealing with humans, who bring to the table specific sets of knowledge and experiences, and it is through this paradigm that they see opportunity in your service and/or product.

Your willingness to adapt demonstrates real commitment to making the business relationship work for both sides. This is what sells…

…not some damn spec sheet or a stubborn sales manager.

###

[join us to learn more about intrepid sales...]

[drawing by hugh macleod]