GSD Chat

"You realize what matters is how you treat people and the quality of life (you live)." - Michele Meyer Michele Meyer is probably the most punctual person you'll ever meet. She has said herself she has an "unmarred" history of being on time! Despite her always being on time, Michele is most known for her skills in writing. She has written for several companies across many industries such as major airlines like Delta, American Airlines, United, and Southwest; the major credit card providers MasterCard, Visa, and American Express; and several in the fashion industry companies such as JCPenny, SHANY Cosmetics, Caviar Affair Magazine, Allure, and People. She began writing short stories and poems at the ripe age of 3 and hasn't looked back since! Michele has always been the reporter type, always wondering what makes things tick. Her advice to writers is, "The moment you're interested, start writing and start reading…it doesn't have to be printed, but the more you write, the better you get at it; and the more you read the better writer you are." Find out how this well-traveled writer Gets Shit Done on the Get Shit Done Chat!

"Speakers that fumble on their words may not be the best public speakers who know what they're talking about are much better than the most eloquent speakers who are on stage not really understanding the topic they're talking about." Cathy paraphrasing Tamsen Webster She has done plenty of things that have gone well…and things that haven't. She got started in AP English battling the question of, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" She asked a teacher for help, stating her strengths are Art and Math. To which the teacher said she couldn't be good at both. Took a professional-personality test and Marketing came up! She admits that, while she's not artistic, she IS creative (there is a huge difference between the two). Worked for 2 agencies out of college. Realized she wasn't making the impact she wanted; thinking, "If my job went away, no one would be affected. I'm in advertising." That's when she made the switch to non-profits and Content marketing Institute and started helping people directly, that's when she realized she became more fulfilled with her work on a daily basis. Took an Enneagram test, got a Type 2 which is a people pleaser. Her life coach helped her use it to her advantage. Most challenging part of job: marketing to marketers about a marketing event. Worry about marketing the right way. Having the flexibility from her boss to try stuff was great. Try it and if it doesn't work, just turn it off and now we know better. "Having someone in your life that is making sure you're happy, not only in yourself but in the brand [is very helpful]." Non profits: Orange effect & No Kid Hungry Joined OE because of Pulizzi connections. Wants to give back to the community to help pay back the people who have helped her in her upbringing. Trying to put herself out there more, doing more presentations. Admits she doesn't always get shit done. Recently bought John Lee Dumas' Mastery Journal to help her focus and has seen great success, holding her more accountable. She asks people for help when she needs it. Writing is one of the harder things she does. "You can't schedule creativity." She was once the reason the company she worked for didn't get an account after a successful presentation. Her team pulled her in, assessed the situation, everyone was okay with it and used it as a learning/growth opportunity of how to present during a business presentation. Cathy threw in a sarcastic joke that the client didn't take too kindly and it resulted in them going with someone else. Questioned if she was on the right path or fight the urge to quit? Yes. She didn't agree ethically with a business decision a client made. It made it difficult to work with them because her client didn't hold the same ethics and moral values as her. She had to tell her contact that it isn't working out and the person respected her more for her honesty and openness. Biggest challenge: Carrying on Joe's legacy with CMI. Coming up with new ideas for CMWorld to make it exciting. "From bad ideas come good ideas." Best advice: If you don't like what you're doing, then go do something else – Joe Pulizzi 10 yrs advice: Stop being in someone else's shadow. Got comfortable being a behind the scenes person. She would want credit for work that she's done now. Any keynote speaker for CMWorld: John Stewart Common trait of successful people: Surrounding yourself with people who want to be successful and are hardworking towards that common goal. Mark on the world: Wants successful and kind children. Best compliment she got: Principle asked "How do you have such nice kids?" Eat 1 food for a year with no repurcussions: Popcorn & sushi Book: Any book that tells people how to be happy in what they're doing. And start off strong by saying, "I want to do this job because it makes me happy; not because it makes the most money." One question she wishes she had the answer to: How do we correct our political system? Car karaoke song: Head over heels by the...

"You get to a place where you just assume that, just because you got there, everybody else does…You don't think you're very smart because you come up with these ideas and you just think, 'Well, it's so obvious, everybody should see this' -> and they don't." - Tom Martin Tom Martin, President of Converse Digital and believer in "painless prospecting," at a younger age had the ability to learn new programs within hours to the point he could teach others. He eventually taught himself programming and found a niche where he would learn the techie, geeky stuff, but found a way to communicate how to use it to the marketers so it made sense. Not many people were doing that, and that's how he got his start. He saw a disconnect and filled it. The drawback to this ability, is that he suffers from what he calls "Marketing A.D.D." where once he figures something out, he's ready to play with the next "toy" or figure out the next challenge. Building trust with clients is everything. If you can't communicate your message, your ideas, or your vision, that trust is lost and it becomes incredibly difficult to work with a client. Like myself, Tom experiences all the time that feeling that once you figure something out quickly, you immediately discredit yourself because, if you can figure it out so easily, surely everyone else can…so how could this provide anyone any value if the knowledge is so "common sense"? But as a colleague reminded Tom, "You get to places faster than other people. You connect dots in ways that other people don't connect them." Big deflating moment: stressed over his presentation for CMWorld to earn a keynote spot (which was all but guaranteed if you got a perfect 5), was told he was only 1 of 2 people to get perfect 5's. He thought he had keynote in the bag…and didn't get it. Sometimes you have to sit back and ask yourself, "What do you really want? And are you really willing to work for it?" Find out more on how Tom Gets Shit Done on his episode of the Get Shit Done Chat!

"You have to be very realistic as to what you're comfortable with and be able to say no." - Shira Abel Shira is either the luckiest professional, or the hardest working. Odds are, it's the latter of the two as she has either fell into or taught herself a good portion of the skills she uses to keep her company, The Hunter & Bard, going strong. She started out in Digital Marketing when it was in its earliest stages and taught herself HTML and how to build a website. She never planned on being an entrepreneur, but years later, here she is rocking it out. She's also full of knowledge on the industry known as "SaaS" or Software as a Service, as well as Behavioral Engineering. But, as you'll learn in this episode, she doesn't focus much on Behavioral Engineering anymore as it doesn't produce the results she's looking for when she's speaking in public. Speaking of public speaking, Shira has had just about every malfunction and technical error happen to her that you could ever think of! But, she's able to keep her cool, overcome the awkwardness, and still deliver a fantastic presentation. As she said in this episode, "a big portion of speaking is your likeability." She's a very humble professional, caring mother, and definitely someone who knows how to Get Shit Done! Listen to her episode and find out how she gets it all done!

"The path to success is paved with failure and stumbling." - Matt Heinz Matt Heinz comes from a working family. His Grandfather mowed his lawn until well into his 90s, so it was instilled in him that you just Get S*** Done. Matt has owned his own business, Heinz Marketing, for quite a few years. Admittedly, he's just figuring it out as he goes, trying to pay the bills and feed his family. He also doesn't wait until he's "ready" to do something. As he said during the show, "to this day,...

“…I should have asked WAY more questions up front that I didn’t ask because I felt like they were stupid. I felt like, if I asked, then the client would think, ‘Why are you asking that?’” Kyle Brost kind of fell into entrepreneurship. Got there by accident. He wasn’t a good employee, so he ended up working for himself. He started with a cleaning company and grew to a business strategy company. Now, he asks his client key question, “If you hit your financial targets, how is anybody’s life...

“Be true to who you are and believe in yourself. There are so many people out there that need you for your gifts and talents…” - Kim Monaghan Kim Monaghan is a career coach who believes mentors help push their clients/mentees outside of their comfort zone so that they can grow. To see that happen first-hand has an empowering effect. She also believes that asking for help is necessary, not only to a successful professional life, but a successful personal life as well. "When you’re asking...

“If you’re not happy with (your job) and you feel you could do more, it’s your responsibility as a human being to do something about it.” When people think about Joe Pulizzi, 2 things come to mind: 1) Content Marketing 2) The color orange. He is commonly known as "the Godfather of Content Marketing." Joe helped take an industry that's been around for several years and define it to the point that several marketing professionals have built successful careers out of it, and there's a very...

“We should all be guiding our lives, designing our lives, to do the things we want to do, to be with the people we want to be with and to be in the places we want to be. It’s choice! Change is actually right around the corner if you just decide to do it.” Andy Crestodina is the type of professional everyone wants to meet. He's smart, charismatic, and very good at what he does. What makes him the type of professional everyone wants to meet it, he's genuinely interested in helping...

"It takes a lot of work to look this relaxed..." Alison Stratten is a pro at getting shit done. She holds 2 degrees, started her own lingerie business, published multiple books, and hosts a podcast that's been going on for 4 years! Her and her husband, Scott Stratten, form the brand UnMarketing. What they do best is highlight awesome businesses being awesome and bad businesses being bad. They embody the human persona, and not just from a consumer standpoint, but as a regular person. They...

"Empathy is the counter-intuitive secret to success." Who do you know that has held 53 (yes, fifty three, that is NOT a typo) jobs and still ended up successful? Michael Brenner, that's who! Who is he? After his 53 jobs, he's become a speaker at global events (he's been named a top business keynote speaker by Huffington Post), author, and CEO of his own company. He's also been named a top CMO Influencer by Forbes! He believes that marketing has a marketing problem -> “It’s really hard to...

"Information is everywhere, but perspective is rare." Michael Dermer is "The Lonely Entrepreneur." Through a discussion with a friend, he came to the realization that the journey of an entrepreneur is a very lonely one: no one is there to help you, or show you the path (since there is no "correct" path) to success, until you apply the *unsexy* processes of getting shit done. We hear often that passion and grit are what it takes to be successful running a business on your own. But did you know that over 90% of startups fail? That's because, somewhere along the line, those that failed stopped putting in the effort needed to keep their business progressing. Michael understands what that's like, hence why he created the Lonely Entrepreneur, as it provides a community of business owners to help each other through the struggles and get from point A to point B. Michael believes that successful entrepreneurs find the sandbox that no one is playing in and make it their own. They also handle the unsexy stuff every. single. day. But he also came to realize that being an entrepreneur meant he had to come to terms with being humble and a learner. Sure, it's fun and sexy to talk about the BIG things you're doing at dinner parties, but it's not the BIG things that progress a business. It's completely unsustainable. Doing the small things, and learning from mistakes, are what keep a business growing; because no one's life is a highlight reel of adventure. It just doesn't happen that way. Some fun facts about Michael: Best piece of advice -> "You really have to embrace the journey of being an entrepreneur. Embrace the journey of getting better at it with humility." Worst piece of advice -> "Don't write a business plan." Advice he'd give himself 10 years ago -> "I wouldn't have my family invest in the next round of my healthcare company because it put a large strain on my relationship with my brother. That level should have been saved for private equity funding." A trait he finds most desirable in people: Attitude, then aptitude What does he think about while traveling -> "Entrepreneurs. It's a sickness!" Non-fiction book for high schoolers -> The Art of War by Sun Tzu One question he wish he had the answer to -> "What is the most direct path to achieve the 'human dream'?" His car karaoke song: Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run" or "Thunder Road" Check out the Lonely Entrepreneur online! Website Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Julia McCoy is what's commonly known as an "entrepreneur." She started her own content writing company, Express Writers, 7 years ago and she has grown it to a very successful company with several employees. Although most would call her successful, Julia's success didn't come without some MAJOR road blocks. But she was able to work through the hard times, she was transparent and honest with her clients when shit hit the fan, and got shit done. The best part? Her company continues to set their personal bests for revenue generated. Despite the fact she's an introvert at heart, Julia keeps busy with her family, playing the harp, writing content, keeping her business going, participating in the #ContentWritingChat Twitter Chat hosted by Express Writers, she has published a book, built her own content writing certification course, AND wants to get into public speaking! Find out how Julia continues to get all sorts of shit down in this episode of the #GSDChat!

I believe, to this date, this is my LONGEST episode, and rightfully so! Karen is as genuine as the come. She's a holistic coach who cares deeply about helping others and leaving her mark on the universe. She is kind, she is caring, and most of all, understanding which (at times) feels like a rarity. Her dog, Paco, is her source of peace and happiness as he keeps her centered. You may have also seen Karen on fellow GSD-er JP Sears' "Purposeful Pointlessness" live videos on Facebook where...

Ayelet Baron is a rare gem. She understand people AND business. She's one of those who's looking out for others above herself. Having been through the corporate ringer, she is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to expecting and getting the best from your teams. It's all about passion and respect! Her book, "Our Journey To Corporate Sanity," she talks with several successful business-people about logical sense in business which, sadly, feels like a relative term at this point. So many...

Winnie Sun is the epitome of doing good, looking out for others, working hard, and getting shit done. She is the Managing Director and Founding Partner of Sun Group Wealth Partners, a trusted financial fiduciary consulting firm providing financial planning services to small business owners, senior executives, celebrities, and established families throughout the West Coast. With more than 16 years of experience in the financial services industry, Winnie has been selected as Investment...

Aaron Orendorff is a writer who is saving the world from bad content through his brand, iConiContent. Don't believe me? Just check out the laundry list of well respected websites & blogs that have featured his content: Mashable Inc.com FastCompany LifeHacker Entrepreneur CopyBlogger Content Marketing Institute Social Media Examiner Marketing Profs The Huffington Post Aaron also carries about him a perspective and confidence that most others would envy with this hashtag...

Evan Carmichael is know for one word: Believe. He's an entrepreneur who's built a reputation on Getting Shit Done. He believes entrepreneurs will save the word, compared to governments and corporations; I'm inclined to agree as entrepreneurs see gaps in society and try to fill them. Evan is always looking to help people out, and it's evident on his YouTube Channel as he models the masters with his several videos on some of the most well known, popular, recognizable, and influential...

Jay Baer, master of the plaid sport coat, and one of the top content marketers in the field. If you look up social, digital, or content marketing, odd are you will run into Jay Baer. Jay has spent years educating brands and marketers alike on the best practices of regular and online marketing and advertising. When he's not bestowing his words of wisdom upon professionals, he can be seen as a judge at chili contests. It's okay to be envious of him, we are, too. We won't spill too much of...

Leah's a fan of the mantra, "If you're not growing, you're dying." She's an avid goal setter and that has helped her publish FIFTEEN (yes, that 15) books in her lifetime. Her first article publication came when she was 17, for Seventeen magazine! Leah's is a product of her hard work and her success shows. Always the exception, but humble enough to not let it get to her head. She only writes about stuff she knows. She's a firm believer in having big goals, but creating small ones that lead...