+++

Right now we’ve never had more opportunities to simultaneously stay connected and transcend international borders and time zones. There’s a dangerous flip side to that. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for us to say `enough is enough’. I’m going to unplug.

We believe that being constantly busy qualifies as being productive and successful. If we can occupy our fingers by texting or typing voraciously on our smartphones then we must surely be important, efficient, and cutting edge, right? We’re so proud of our latest iPad 2 or Blackberry Playbook and their ability to allow us to work from anywhere and never leave our `busyness’ behind.

Sadly they are in fact part of an epidemic where information overload and hyper connectivity are creating, for want of a Lady Gaga reference, little monsters. People who can no longer sit and do nothing, just let their thoughts drift away. Stressed out, overweight and seriously unhealthy people giving up their life to the internet. Those who can’t hold real life conversations with people right in front of them as their Twitter feed, Facebook Inbox and LinkedIn group discussion is more `important.’

As Jonathan pointed out in Creative Kryptonite and the Death of Productivity

Hyperconnectivity gives us the perception of getting more done, it makes us feel like we’re doing more, because we’re using every free moment of every waking hour.

Jonathan kindly allowed me to write about how being disconnected makes you more connected but we all know how difficult that can actually be. Luckily there is a solution and it’s right under your very nose.

We have the most amazing online tools at our disposal to help us be more streamlined, effective and organized than ever before. Tools that actually allow us to disconnect and free up time to live in the real world. It all comes down to how you view and use them everyday. Here are a few of my favourite that you can use to your advantage:

Chrometa

If you ever wonder exactly where your time goes every day then you should get to know Chrometa. This is a free application that analyses and reveals how you spend your time by automatically tracking your computer usage and then using this data to improve your personal and team productivity. It runs in the background and records everything you do while you work. It helps with project tracking so that you don’t need to start or stop a timer or use a spreadsheet to keep track. All you have to do is categorize them once. For freelancers it’s particularly useful because you can track your billable hours to the exact minute.

Rapportive

Given you already spend way too much time on email then let me introduce you to my best friend. Rapportive is a free application you install as a plugin in Gmail (available on Firefox, Chrome, Mailplane, and Safari) that replaces the ads with detailed, Web-sourced information about each person who emails you. It’s quite literally transformed how I view my inbox. Now when someone I don’t know emails me I get this pretty visual on who they are – their title, location, photo even, and the ability to connect with them from within the email on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. If you’re an MS Outlook user there’s a similar service called Xobni – (inbox spelt backwards).

Evernote

You’ve likely heard of this free downloadable app that lets you clip to the cloud Web pages, photos, business card signatures and more. Evernote pretty much enables you to remove paper from your working life, and since it’s searchable, you no longer have to rely on folders and data management. I use it to clip a website, link or blog that I want to come back to later and tag it in a way that makes sense to me. I use it for blog post ideas, travel tips and even writing my book. You can use it on your mobile too and sync across multiple computer so no matter where you are you can still access your life.

Shoeboxed

If you have a bulging wallet full of receipts you’re holding on to, to claim as expenses then it would be much smarter for you to stuff them into an envelope, along with business cards and documents. Then send them via postage-paid envelopes or camera-equipped smartphone for Shoeboxed to take care of for you. They scan and data enter every document, then organize everything in a secure, searchable online account. All of the receipts you send to them are also accepted by the IRS, so if you are ever audited, just show the images of your receipts from your account.

TeuxDeux

If you’re constantly making to-do lists then you may like the super simple interface of TeuxDeux.com ((a cute play on French words which, when spoken properly, sound like To-Do). It’s amazingly uncomplicated so you don’t need spend your time figuring out how to use the features. You just get stuff done by adding items to your list, and clicking on it to check it off when you’re done. If you don’t, all of your unfinished tasks automatically move over to the next day’s list. The beauty of this is you start to see what you’re consistently putting off, which probably goes to show you it’s not a priority so you should just delete it.

Hootsuite

For all of you social media addicts, if you want to stop wasting time and get more strategic then you should check out Hootsuite. It is social media dashboard that you can hook up to all your social media accounts including your Facebook profile, page, multiple Twitter accounts, LinkedIn and RSS feeds. You can choose which updates go to which accounts and when. You can schedule them out during the day individually or in bulk. Hoosuite allows you to set up tabs and columns with lists and people you most want to follow and engage with so that you stay focused. Along with analytics reports, you can add team members to manage your accounts, and track keyword mentions of your name so that you don’t miss out on any RTs, mentions or important conversations.

There really is no need to be a slave to the internet and the ongoing influx of media and information. It’s not going to go away so you need to use these tools to manage your priorities and time to make the most of every single minute. Life should be rich tapestry of experiences – both online and offline. Make sure you don’t miss out on them.

+++

Natalie Sisson is a Suitcase Entrepreneur and Adventurer who shares creative ways to run your business from anywhere in the world. She is passionate about using online tools social media and outsourcing to create more freedom in business and adventure in life.

People often ask where my ideas for books, blog posts, essays and keynotes come from.

Simple answer…life outside of writing books, blog posts, essays and giving talks.

I launch a company, product or experience, succeed, struggle, fail, recover…so I write about it.

I have a great customer experience at a restaurant, or a terrible one…so I write about it.

I watch my daughter grow up and wonder at what she’s thinking along the way…so I write about it.

I struggle to build a career while also honoring my desire to be present in the lives of the people and experiences I hold dear…so I write about it.

I try to grab the reigns of health, fitness and mindset, sometimes in triumph, other times defeat…so I write about it.

I have conversations with incredible people…so I write about it.

I paint, write music, travel, go on walkabout, wonder which way is up…so I write about it.

I blend that with the quirky lens through which I take in the world and out comes content, stories, ideas, discoveries and experience.

On the rare occasion I feel stumped for things to write about, it’s always because I’ve spent too much time writing and not enough time living beyond the pen.

It’s always a sign I need to put down the moleskine and step away from the screen.

Not in the name of contriving a content-worthy life, but in the name of living a life worth writing writing about.

Today, just a year and a half later, it’s a multi-national company with more than 450 franchises sold under the name of Naked Pizza, including a flagship shop in Dubai. It’s on a mission not just to build a giant business, but to prove that healthful and profitable can go in hand in hand.

And it all kicked into high-gear when co-founder and chairman of New Orleans venture marketing company Trumpet, Robbie Vitrano, teamed with the original owners, changed the name to Naked Pizza and swapped its sign out for one that asked people to follow Naked Pizza on twitter.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Vitrano last month and, true to the naked name, he was incredibly transparent about how the team has been able to accomplish an astonishing business transformation and growth rate and what drives them beyond building a cool business.

What follows in an in-depth look at one of the most inspiring conscious business success stories in modern history…

Jonathan Fields: Your personal story is a pretty cool story, as is what you’re doing with Naked Pizza right now so I want to explore both of those things. So let’s step a couple of years back with you. You right now a major figure in this company called Naked Pizza, which is beyond a company, it’s more of a movement. But this isn’t what you’ve been doing for the better part of your life. Take me back to your prior career and tell me what you were up to.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. So the — it’s a bit of an iteration. You know, maybe that’s being too kind. It’s kind of stumbling forward through this advertising career that I’ve been involved with for a better part of my life, about thirty years.

So I started as a copywriter, started, you know, wanting to write the next great print ad and television spot and so you spend your time essentially in trying to apply innovation. I mean that’s essentially what people employ you to do and of course this great big ego fest associated with that or you’re trying to sort of create this issue from everyone. And I think in the process there’s all this great talent and all this great business building and all these great ideas being discussed.

But oftentimes, you get removed from the actual process of building businesses that maybe deserve to be built and perhaps have something to contribute to society that are maybe more considerate of their cause and effect. That maybe the only thing they exist for is not to create wealth or create jobs, but also to have some kind of positive social impact. So you sort of mash that up that it’s sitting in the back of your head and you go into this career and then you get a little bit older, you have children, maybe you each start to sniff around the midlife crisis.

And you start to say, you know, how I can use all these things that have accumulated, this different way of working, these smart people that I’ve had a chance to work with in a way that accomplishes the things that I love about advertising, which is innovation, ideas, use of media, art, words, language. And apply it towards building companies that are actually improving the world, like their core substantial social contribution. And that was something that was sitting on my shoulder for a while. And then and I’m from New Orleans so what I joke about is that, you know, oftentimes in popular conversations, they’ll say, you know, XYZ is having his Katrina moment, well my Katrina moment was Katrina, right.

So you go through that experience and all those things that seem a little far off get a little closer and you start to say if not now, when?

So coming back from Katrina, having an agency of about 45 people, we made some very specific decisions that we were going to work with the people that mattered to us, and in particular those organizations or those companies that were going to be involved in restarting New Orleans. And there’s a whole lot of back-story to that, but essentially, the people who came back were committed to that idea of saying, okay, our city really needs to be reexamined.

This is an opportunity to confront, deal with some of those problems and really ask ourselves what’s our contribution going to be. And my area is business and so if your job is to build businesses, it would be great to build businesses that are going to contribute to not only the recovery of the city, but perhaps in terms of that more macro conversation about whether a business should behave in a more responsible way.

So I got involved with a number of businesses that were involved in recovery, a number of organizations, raised a little bit of money that we can invest in some of those companies. But the sort of the dirty little secret of advertising is that we’re hopeless optimists so we think we can solve any problem with a creative idea, you know, a well termed phrase and you realize actually you need a little bit more than that to start up a company.

So we took a couple of baby companies in, we built out a space in a part of town that had flooded about a 12,000 square foot — a former ice house. And we’re going to use both our physical footprint to catalyze recovery in that area because the place is about — well it’s still about 60% recovered in terms of evacuees coming back into this area, but at the time it was right about 20%.

And then we’d also say, let’s use our talents to contribute to those businesses that are good ideas, but probably need to be further examined, further vetted, and maybe more focused in terms of how they would actually build this business and even scale it.

And it was through that process that I got involved with the original founders of Naked Pizza, which was then called the World’s Healthiest Pizza.

And it was through that kind of energy in the community, myself and a lot of other organizations, an organization I co-founded called Idea Village was involved. It’s kind of a non-profit businesses. And collectively in a very kind of barn-raising way, got involved with the World’s Healthiest Pizza and through about a year and a half of more professional affiliation, we decided to say let’s really do this.

So, let’s form a company, let’s go out and acquire some investors, let’s build a franchising company because we think that’s the right way for us to scale quickly. And so in a little building about 500 square feet that took about six feet of water in Katrina, we launched this idea of saying let’s take one of the world’s most popular and unhealthy fast foods and make it a recipe based on both actualizing ancient diets and also some of the way in nutritional science.

So to make this pizza logically correct and then take a billion dollar business model, the carry-out delivery pizza business model and use it as a Trojan horse to demonstrate that fast food can be part of the solution, and the overall academic of obesity and chronic disease that’s related to diet. And so that sort of brings me to the present.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And it’s really about showing that it’s possible to build business around conscious living, around health and have them be profitable and successful and roll that out; have that have a bigger impact.

Robbie Vitrano: From the very beginning things were a bit odd sized, maybe a little naïve. But it was essentially recognizing that from the very beginning it wasn’t — you know, let’s not go out and add to the confusion or the misinformation around what people have a bit of overinvestment in, the silver bullets that kind of solve the problem with diet and health. But let’s sort of focus on using this kind of very accessible metaphor as a way to reacquaint people with really a biological common sense.

It’s a 200,000-year-old nutritional blueprint that we’ve been following as a human species. And, you know, no one tells a deer how to eat, no one tells a bear how to eat. And so, you would think that the most so-called highly evolved animal you’d think would have some sort of common sense approach to what they should eat and not make themselves sicker or less healthy. But, you know, through a combination of things industrialization, food policy group, dollars and cents, you know, big agriculture, we’ve kind of changed that whole equation to actually create kind of this ocean of food and food like products, as Michael Pollan would call it, that are entirely misaligned with the foods that we’re supposed to eat.

So the idea was if you could use this highly accessible model and this highly accessible food, and demonstrate that you could take this one product and render it in a way that’s much more aligned with the way that anybody is supposed to eat. So a diversity of whole food ingredients, a diversity of fiber sources that feed both the human cells as well as this microbial system that has a lot to say about this nutrition and how vulnerable you are to infection. If you could create that and make that possible with pizza then maybe you could demonstrate that other producers of food and other suppliers of food could do the same and perhaps should be obligated to do the same.

So, we wanted to kind of puncture that myth that I think is perpetuated by people who are probably asking too few questions and maybe a bit too interested in their bottom line about offering products that ultimately harm instead of help in the name of creating so called jobs for capitalists. We think you can do both. Profit and scalability and mission and purpose are all inseparable in our mind. So we did a lot of little bon mots for that. You know, you can’t save the whales unless you can afford the boat, but the come on is that you’re trying to demonstrate this as a viable model.

And we also think maybe a third or more, that the world doesn’t necessarily need another Whole Foods for lack of a better example to sort of preach to the choir. What is kind of missing from the overall equation is outside of that 5% that’s jobs at Whole Foods and some really wonderful companies that are providing that, you know, whether it be Organic Movement or Alice Waters or whomever, there’s a whole host of people both in the US and around the world that really just want access to products, that are convenient, that are affordable that are tasty, but also healthy. So, we figured that not only can we offer this product as a tangible example of it, but we can also use it as an example to create greater engagement, greater activity and hopefully ultimately hold people more accountable than plow the plate.

Jonathan Fields: So I want to kind of deconstruct this a little bit because it’s pretty fascinating what you’re up to.

Robbie Vitrano: Sure.

Jonathan Fields: And so let’s back up a little bit and I want to talk about the business side of it, but also I want to talk about the human side of it. From the business side of it, you come into this thing and right now it’s called Naked Pizza and it’s a franchise model, which is a whole interesting conversation in itself. I don’t know if you want to actually go down that road.

Robbie Vitrano: [Chuckles] Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: But –

Robbie Vitrano: Happy to but, yeah, it’s full of glory and things.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. I’ve actually been in that role very briefly with the last company that I owned so…

Robbie Vitrano: But we can commiserate.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. It’s an interesting place. But it starts out as something called World’s Healthiest Pizza. Now, you’re a guy who’s in the world of marketing, communications, advertising, branding and what’s this name saying to you and tell me why has it evolved to Naked Pizza?

Robbie Vitrano: Well, the original guy, the archeologist and his partner, my partner now who comes from a real estate background, basically said let’s call it what it is. You know, it’s — we essentially made the world’s healthiest pizza so we should call it World’s Healthiest Pizza and the world will beat a path to our door. And what they did right was really focus on making sure there is integrity in the product and that they were able to really make something that delivered a truthful benefit.

What they probably were maybe missing a bit at that time was it was a little too preachy. And so, strike one was that people don’t particularly want to be preached to aggressively. And then secondly was that there’s a bit of a gag reflex associated with health and pizza if it’s too overt.

So you immediately raise a bit of a defense on the part of the customer that they say well if it’s a healthy pizza then it must really taste like shit, so, you know, or a cardboard, would be kind of. But the problem there is that you’re isolating so much of the market that really would dig and really enjoy a healthier pizza if it didn’t feel too medicinal. And the concern in all things like that is that, you know, is the tradeoff just too much.

You know, you’re asking me to abandon too much of what I like and it’s too risky especially if I’m a mother bringing a pizza into the house or bringing one over to my husband or whomever. So it ends up getting kind of pigeon holed as maybe too much of a female product, too much of a different sort of product that you’re making a compromise on taste.

So the thought was, you know, let’s take the good, which is the product really works and you’ve got a ton of attitude, it’s fun and we’re thinking about doing things in a big way. And let’s lower the bar of access a bit without losing the integrity of it. Let’s make it a little more fun, let’s make it a little more accessible. So let’s keep the good and just provide a little bit more of a easy, friendly handshake on the way to helping people understand what’s really important about not only product, but also the relationship with this company. So it took quite a while to get everybody comfortable with this idea of the name change, but I think once we did, it made perfect sense. So, you know, everybody had to come to it in their own time.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And which is interesting because the company is what, about a year or so old at that point?

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It was about two years old at that time.

Jonathan Fields: And was it one location or more than one location?

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. Actually, they tried a couple of different thoughts there ranging from restaurants to a carryout idea to even playing around with a couple of different products. But the — so that was, you know, the wandering in the wilderness stage, the necessary exploration so were very much part of kind of the laboratory stage. And we still refer to the original location as the lab.

But, yeah, it’s at a time when, you know, you start with a product and then you start thinking, a bit about the business model. But probably we really hadn’t got past the product that we can actually give with a customer at the end stage.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And it’s interesting too because now you know if we flash forward, really it’s not that long ago that we’re talking about that.

Robbie Vitrano: No.

Jonathan Fields: — you were having these conversations. But the growth has been kind of interesting. You come from a much bigger world and probably your perspective is much bigger and much broader. So the notion of changing a name when it’s in one location or two locations or something like that is not a huge deal.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: You’re still pretty early in the business cycle. But I’m guessing the guys who started this thing were saying, whoa.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It’s — I mean I think the idea of going big and introducing scale into it was a part of those conversations. I mean again if you sort of take on this notion that, you start with that very open ended question, what if pizza was good for you, it does provoke you to dream big and think big. So almost by definition, if you’re going to go through that door, you tend to start thinking. If you are thinking about the social implications, you start to think big about this then you start to pay attention to things like that there are billions and billions of dollars of pizza sold, that it is one of the single most popular foods in the world that translates and transcends cultures.

So early on, I guess that reality was in our mind, although, you know, a fairly removed reality given what the company was comprised of and what we’re dealing with at the time, but it did happen in a very quick way. I mean once the ball started rolling and we started to get real focused on what the potential was… And I was excited about the company just because I really just thought, it was a great idea and it was very attractive because it was an opportunity to fly some of the things that I believed to be true. And oftentimes I had a difficult time convincing clients or, you know, the traditional role between ad agency and client convincing those dynamics to move where you’re able to impact all aspects of the business, not just the marketing.

You come in again. So, if you sort of fast-forward to where we are now, now you’re… About 18 months ago was when the idea was saying, okay, what kind of money do we need, what kind of infrastructure do we need to make this thing work. And so it focused on the idea of raising money, of starting to document sort of a business infrastructure, the franchise model, what sort of things did we need in the way of processes, documenting them. And again mechanically, you know, like most you’re not really sure what you don’t know at that stage. And you probably lurched a bit, over rely on advice because there’s always an expert that if we had a nickel for every time somebody came on and said, you know, here’s what you need to do.

But it was through the process of working through that, working with the different individuals involved in this and working through the process of thinking about what it is we wanted it to be and what were the right first steps that again about 18 months ago, we had a pretty clear idea that with a fairly small amount of money, we could articulate the key aspects of this company, focusing in on the carry-out and delivery model, about a thousand square foot box that’s surrounded by about 20,000 homes that you have the ability to deliver pizza to in about 30 minutes.

So, we studied the things that people like Domino’s do very well and we hacked into that model. I mean pure and simple, we didn’t try to reinvent the wheel or we didn’t need to. But the point was that we were making a different promise to people and we are able to keep promise with a product that actually did what it said, it didn’t hurt you, it actually helped you. And so you can get some — you can move very quickly by paying attention to the things that work and not being too eager to reinvent the wheel, and also it’s fairly thrifty.

And then the other piece to that which has, you know, received a fair amount of attention has been the use of social media.

Jonathan Fields: Right.

Robbie Vitrano: And again, social media wasn’t seen as sort of this magic elixir for communication and it wasn’t seen as being, oh, it’s free. What social media was that it represented basically the form of communication and interaction and engagement that was the perfect complement to this sort of business idea. And as you know, we’ve spoken to and I think a lot of other really smart people understand, that businesses that are built from the beginning with an expressed sense of social responsibility that are willing to be more authentic and a little more real and are willing to let go with the brand, are able to and rewarded with engagement that makes social media not only a great way for telling your story and getting it to a lot of people, but it also keeps you honest, which I think is equally important. You know, the social media basically, is the irrefutable truth that comes back at you and says, you know, wow that’s a really great idea or man are you full of shit.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah.

Robbie Vitrano: And give the evidence. That you have an opportunity to correct those things as you iterate the business model ultimately towards building a better relationship with a customer, which is the Holy Grail by any definition.

Jonathan Fields: And it’s funny you say it really keeps you honest. I’ve had the experience of speaking at a conference where the tweet stream or a particular session are being streamed live on a screen next to you. Talk about keeping you honest in real time.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah, exactly. It calls you on it quickly. But it’s refreshing. It’s an interesting way to build a business and I think it’s the way that, you know, people sort of want to but feel like they can’t or felt like they couldn’t build a business in years past. But now, people are again rewarded for doing it this way. And I think there’s a lot of really smart people that are now getting into business that maybe didn’t before because these new tools exist and maybe they needed to get in business before.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. And it’s really interesting because you can get a level of not only engagement but feedback about what’s working and what’s not working at a speed and I think on a level of honesty and integrity that was — it was so difficult just a couple of years ago. If you polled a bunch of people in a room and take them a little bit–

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah, I call them the feedback. And always the old way the focused group.

Jonathan Fields: Right.

Robbie Vitrano: And whether focus groups were right or wrong or whether the survey that the researcher put together for you with your end size sample was right wrong, it never felt real, you know? It’s like you’ve got this phonebook size report back that said that 65% of people like blue.

And you just never felt it, you know. I mean you look at it and think that’s not giving me any inspiration to create something interesting. But when you get a response be it Twitter or Facebook and people tell you a little bit more about it, you can follow up with a direct conversation, which we’ll do often. I find that much more inspiring to do better work. You know, it just feels more real. So again, I think it’s often just to me is the ultimate competitive edge and I believe it is. And if it’s what helps you kind of get up in the morning a little bit earlier and work a little bit later because sometimes you need to, I like that social media sort of mainlines that mentality in a way that I think is again good for good ideas.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. And it’s interesting too because a lot of the concern for people especially entrepreneurs or not even so much entrepreneurs but larger brands that are concerned about entering the whole world of social media is the loss of control of their message.

Robbie Vitrano: Right.

Jonathan Fields: And there is a fear and that is a reality. You have to do it and put it out there and let it go and morph in sort of be spread the way it’s spread. But what you’re talking about is the really the flipside of that which is you get so much back if you’re willing to engage in the conversation and listen and respond.

Robbie Vitrano: Right. And I think, you know, to that too, we’ve thought about that quite a bit and I think, which you also have to be honest about is whereas we make a lot of speeches about the brand isn’t what we say it is, it’s what the customer says it is and it’s a consumer controlled media platform. But I think what really makes business ideas work and what makes social media work is that you’re able to express your point view in a clear way. So you’re still compelled to put forth your point of view. It’s not like you’re just sitting there like some kind of Gumby marketer or a business developer.

And just waiting for somebody to tell you what to do. In fact, there’ll be no respect in that anyway. So you still are compelled to sort of demonstrate why you deserve to exist.

So, it’s always peculiar to me. I get it because of the bureaucracy that exists in larger companies and more traditional companies. But I don’t think we’re dealing with any more vulnerability today than they did ten years ago. I just think it’s just a little more confounding to them. And maybe also at the root of it is, you know, a lot of the people that are intimated by social media are people that work really hard to trivialize it and although, it’s funny to trivialize, don’t throw the baby out of the bath wall, I think is the point that they’re missing so…

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. So let’s circle back to what’s actually happened with the company over the last two years or so. Tell me about what’s happening growth-wise. Where did you start, where are you at now and where are you going?

Robbie Vitrano: Well, so 18 months ago, actually about 12 or 10 months ago, we were still a single location business. One it’s not even 500 square feet, it’s 496 square foot, cinder block building that had a big chunk of glass missing out of the front window. But out in front, we took down the sign that said Naked Pizza and replaced it with a sign that said, Follow Us on

Twitter. Did that in the later part of 2009 and that was kind of our first volley across the, or at least our first shot across the bow kind of picked by TechCrunch and Mashable and really kind of set us going and really kind of opened our eyes to the possibilities.

Shortly after that, you had people like Mark Cuban get involved and the Kraft family, not Kraft Foods, but the family that owns the New England Patriots. Both are bona fide billionaires for what that’s worth. But they put a very small amount of money into this, this has largely been a bootstrap operation, but what they did was validate it, they credentialized the idea. And, you know, Mark Cuban is not a sentimental guy, but I think they all liked the idea that this — you know, and crack on the wall.

And so from there, we were up and running. We got enough money to go out and put basically, a franchise document together so we could qualify to issue franchises throughout the United States.

And the other thing that started happening around that time, we started to receive not only some major media play. Well, “The New York Times” was the first major article. We’re covered in Rob Walker’s “Consumed” column. But a number of other major publications and media started to cover us in addition to a number of blogs and online media sources. And that contributed to literally thousands of inquiries about investment and franchising. Now, that number is up to six thousand inquiries, which is a heavy level of interest. And the most important part at that point again, you know, to sort of making it up as we go was vending properly. We wanted the right people in the floor.

And, you know, it’s clear that our money wasn’t the same. And what was extraordinary, remember this was the middle of the recession, right. Although, I guess it ended, but we didn’t know about it yet. But here we were in the time where there was not capital available through traditional lending sources and small businesses were drying up, unemployment was at or above 10%. And what you found is there was a ton of money parked on the sidelines by really smart people and they were very interested in finding a way to use their money in a way that had more of a social contribution.

And the other thing that most of these people who came in the door had their personal experience. They stories about family members who either were suffering from obesity or type II diabetes mellitus or digestive diseases like Crohn’s. So, they had these personal stories that they really wanted to do something about. So we started to select as best as we could through the vending process people that we thought would be great partners for us that had the combination of dollars and understanding of social media and the heart to help us to start to bring this concept out of the garage.

The first stores started to open around the summer of 2010. So in a little bit less than a year, we started to open up the doors in our first stores. The first store that opened was in Miami at South Beach right in the heart of South Beach. We had developer there, somebody had a lot of experience in multi-unit and what that did was that brought people literally from all over the world to come check out the space.

And from there, we started to really dial in as to what type of people we want to do business with. By the end of 2010, we had about 450 stores under contract. Meaning 450 stores had been claimed by paying a franchise fee by developers to secure territory rights for stores. And now, they’re on a schedule that obligated them to open stores in a specific amount of time. So, that’s all very contractually documented.

Around that time, we also had, the gentleman’s name was Ian Ohan, hopped on a jet in Dubai, fly to Houston, jumped on a motorcycle in Houston and rode to New Orleans and tried to convince us that Dubai was the perfect place for our first international store. And furthermore, tried to convince us that international — we should move into international right away, which seemed absolutely perfectly absurd at the time.

So in August of 2010, we flew to Dubai the first time for all us. And what we found there, I mean in addition to 120-degree temperature was a place that although was reeling from the recession, which truly was, you know, basically this marketplace for business development in a part of the world that’s about 80% ex-pats. Essentially people are there to do business. So there was this crush of money and business development and interests, just capitalism on steroids was there. And so that unleashed another huge round of invested, or interested investors from the international stage. So, from the point, we agreed that we would do something in Dubai. Dubai is the way Emirate Airlines speaks to it. It’s about 6 hours away from 4 billion people, which makes it pretty attractive.

Not the least of which being, you know, the major markets of India and China, and India being one of the hottest markets for growth. And incidentally, in both Dubai as well as in parts of India that are experiencing, rapid growth, now they’re being afflicted by the same issues you see in the States in fact to a greater degree. So congratulations, our modern society is inflicting the Western diet upon the developing world as well to where obesity rates are now exceeding the US, type II diabetes rates are exceeding per capita the US. Dubai has a number two per capita.

So the brand fit well there. So while we were opening up brands throughout the US over the last year, we ended 2010 with about 12 stores open.

And we opened in January of 2011 our first store in Dubai in the Dubai Marina. And what was extraordinary about the experience was that the opening of that store coincided with the first revolts of protests that were happening across the Middle East initially in Algeria but in Egypt it was starting to kind of rock and roll and then spread throughout Syria and Yemen and throughout. What was interesting to see was that, our company, which was largely social media based at a time when these revolts which were all being fueled by social media, that sort of notion of politics and culture and commerce. You know, that social media was transcending these issues amongst the population that was primarily young, very interested in voice and participation.

So, what — you know, not in a validated way but in a way that seems pretty obvious to us was that our brand represented a brand that that newly engaged population could own. They loved that they could play with the brand and touch it. So we went out to the community in Dubai and we reached out to the entrepreneurial community, the tech community, the social media community. We even showed up as keynotes at health fairs, which featured doctors and medical professionals and then some pizza guys, you know, talking about the holistic response to health issues in society.

And that was rather extraordinary just to see the response and the success of that store in Dubai, the second one is opening next week and to see the response and reaction. We even documented that in a video piece that we produced that captures the story in other people’s words. We used the direct words from social media. And not highly curated lift on them. You know, we sort of took the innovation, just published it and it’s rather really long.

So, this year in 2011, we’ll open about five stores per month through the remainder of this year. So we’ll end the year somewhere between 60 and 70 stores open between the US and Dubai. We have several new markets that are coming on right now in addition to the 450. So we’ll be somewhere around 500 or 600 stores under contract. Philadelphia is coming on, Kansas City. We’ll be opening up in Manhattan in June. We have letters of intent for India, Australia, Japan, a few other countries.

So right now, it’s the process of focusing on, on the operational issues and the training and inculcating this culture with our partners in the franchise world. And we’re also going to be doing a couple of interesting projects. In particular, we’ll be the operator of stores in Phoenix. Phoenix, which you may or may not know is one of the more prolific and successful delivery pizza markets. And in fact we have a real, on view as we say for hot deserty places. But Phoenix sort of works out as the place that fits the model nicely.

We also kind of like the fact that they were spanked pretty hard by the recession as well so we’re making a pretty significant investment. We’re going to open up five or six stores right off the bat over the next couple of months. We’re going to put a training facility there. And we’re starting to reach out to the social media community, the technology community, the entrepreneurial community and we’re starting to get a really great response.

So much like Dubai, over a two or three-month period by the time we open up the store, we expect that we’ll have a great group of sort of advocates and like minds, not necessarily customers but people that help us do what we do and that we enjoy engaging with and learning from. And then we’ll start to you know focus more on the customers around individual stores. And through that network, we’ll start to do the things that we do pretty well, which is again start to take our product, which basically does what it says it’s going to do, but also is meant to be an example of some things that you can do a bit differently even in the terms of the questions you ask for business or the products that you consume.

Jonathan Fields: I mean it’s a pretty incredible journey in a remarkably short period of time and I’m blown away by what you guys have accomplished. I love businesses where people step up and say, you know what, we want to really do good, but for us to be able to do good on the level we want to do good, we also have to do well, and then we have to prove to other people that they can do well at the same time.

So the way you’re going about it, it just really strikes a chord with me and I’m back there saying go, go, go. I think it’s an amazing model also not just for what you’re doing, but you’re setting an example business model wise for a whole bunch of different entrepreneurs and the potential people who are on the front lines to step and say, you know, maybe I can go in with my money and do well and do good at the same time.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It’s cool. But you can demonstrate that. I think there’s some great — I mean, you know, I was listening recently that corporate profits are at an all time high and there’s so much money that’s pent up right now that it’s being stopped in terms of how it’s being deployed whether it’s hiring within companies or investing. It is because there’s still just a lot of fear out there. And I think by demonstrating what the new marketplace looks like and maybe helping to redefine how people are successful in it. And there are so many companies that I think that are doing similar things and helping to demonstrate that if you can prove that it’s not just a — you know, it’s not a feel-good, it’s not a soft business idea, but that it can be accountable to the bottom line, but also create the kind of world that you like to bring your kids up in then there’s not a lack of capital out there.

There’s probably a lack of belief and will. So, yeah. I mean the stuff that I talked about with Alex in his show it was fun to see how he’s applying his advertising background to create a profit brand around ideas that need the attention and need the care and the customization. I think in the advertising industry alone as I spoke on a panel about this a few years ago when I introduced Naked Pizza to a New York audience was really amongst that small group at the time that I think it’s continuing to grow.

Advertising people are kind of in the middle of the action. You know, it’s up to them to maybe speak the truth, you know, the power while they’re in that position or that situation. But if you recognize what the market wants and you can demonstrate that it’s a viable business idea, I think there’s just enormous resources out there that could be deployed in a very, very different way than the past, but a very successful way nonetheless and really kind of fit the reality of this post recession, post mass media world.

And you can either be my guest and pay nothing or come for 20% off. Here’s the deal…

Until this year, Blogworld happened once a year in Vegas, but they’ve just added a new New York City event and moved the fall event to Los Angeles.

For all you authors and aspiring authors, it’s especially cool, because it’s being co-located with the largest publishing-industry conference, Book Expo America, and…wait for it…one full-access pass gets you into both shows.

That’s an insane amount of education, networking and fun for the price of one ticket.

But, before you spend a dime, the good folks at Blogworld have worked with me to arrange two very cool things for you guys:

1. A Complimentary Full-Access Pass – I’ve got one VIP pass that will get you in for the low, low price of, well, nothing! I’m going to give it away to the person who shares the most compelling, funny, horrifying, bizarre, dramatic, happy, sad, silly or downright chunkiest reason that they absolutely must go to Blogworld in the comments below.

But, you need make stuff up, plead your case, post your comment by midnight EDT on Wednesday, May 11th to qualify. As always, the pass be awarded based on my utterly non-scientific, thoroughly-biased, bribable, completely covert selection criteria. No purchase necessary, you can’t be my sister, yadda yadda yadda. I’ll announce the winner Thursday May 12th.

2. Get 20% off – Even if you don’t win, the cool kids at Blogworld Expo have given me an exclusive 20%-discount code to share with you. It’s – JFIELDS20.

So, be sure to enter it when you register here.

Oh, so what am I talking about at Blogworld East?

Here’s the description of my session:

Tapping Technology to Build a Digital Enterprise

Most authors just want to write, but in this rapidly changing publishing environment, that’s not enough. To stay in control of your career, authors must become enterprises. And social media, along with a variety of other online and mobile tools and platforms, is now making this easier and less complex than ever before. This presentation will explore how to build a digital empire around your writing pursuits that allows you the freedom to continue to do what you love and take control of your living and career path.

Now go, plead your case for the Comp pass in the comments below or just jump on in and commit now for 20% off.

Why?

Because the people wanted to be able to express a a strong opinion or position as a way to create a deeper, more engaged conversation and stay authentic, but were concerned about how their comments would be taken “in the wild.” You know, that place where context is a fleeting fantasy and soundbites rule over understanding and accuracy.

I’ve actually had a similar experience in a number of other settings. In an odd way, it seems channels known as the protectors of transparency, authenticity and truth have created a dynamic where people are increasingly scared to be transparent and speak the truth, because of the risk of being taken “the wrong way by the wrong people.”

Always on, all the time doesn’t always work when your goal is the cultivate an environment where participants in a conversation feel safe enough to get real.

So what do you think? Is twitter the ultimate transparency catalyst or is it a truth killer?

Or something in between?

There’s a great divide about this in the blogosphere. Some folks believe you should never restrict the conversation. Others believe the “Your comment is awaiting moderation” message is such a turn-off that it kills the conversation.

I’ve found the exact opposite to be true. Here’s why…

When I publish a post, it’s often written in a way that’s intended to be a conversation starter. You are free to disagree with me or anyone else in our community all you like, we’ve had some amazing conversations around strong positions.

BUT I don’t tolerate speech that is overtly mean, hate-based, non-constructive or purely commercial.

My house, my rules.

I moderate to keep that overriding ethos intact. And I want people to know that. I want anyone visiting to know that you can take a strong position, but that you cannot attack or spew hatred. And I want others to know that this blog is a place where you can get real, you can ask uncomfortable questions or express opinions or ideas that might make you feel a bit nervous without being blasted.

I moderate because it’s important for you to know that this blog is a safe place to be.

And, to me, the value of that so far outweighs the discomfort you might feel awaiting moderation when you post your first comment.

FYI – I don’t put every comment in moderation. I monitor conversations, but comments only get cued for approval the very first time you comment. After that, you go live in real-time, but I’m still watching. And if something offensive slips through the cracks, I’ll take it down.

I like to think this policy is one of the many reasons the comment section here has become such a valued place of ideation and conversation, while so many other blogs are shutting their comments down because they’re filled with nastiness and spam.

Curious what you think…

If you feel like grabbing copies, just click on the books…

[FTC Diclosure: Yup, those suckers are affiliate links, if you buy either book using them, you'll not only have my, Guy and Gary's eternal devotion, but I just might make enough to get that new diamond encrusted bagel with cream cheese I've been eyeing]

Back in my fitness/yoga entrepreneur days, I landed a number of nice features in The New York Times.

But yesterday, I found my way back into the pages of the Style section in an article that takes a contrarian look at the big-box health club industry and asks why 90% of American adults agree that fitness is critical for their lifestyles, but for more than 30 years, 85% still refuse to join health clubs.

I’ve had lots to say on this in my posts about the unfortunate way the mainstream health club and fitness industry has evolved, focusing on boredom and distraction, rather than engagement and community.

You can check out what I suggested was one major problem with the modern-day health club model in yesterday’s New York Times article.

Fire Starter With Danielle LaPorte: Replay

On Wednesday evening, Danielle LaPorte lit up 250 maxed-out conference-call lines with a live Fire Starter session.

Two people, Jessica Swift and Dave Ursillo were the lucky recipients of her tremendous insights, wisdom and hard-core practical strategies.

As I anticipated when I announced the call, way more people (650) signed up than we had lines for (250), so a lot of people got closed out.

The great news is…we recorded the entire jam-session.

So, if you’d like to listen in, click over to the podcast of Danielle, me, Jessica and Dave rocking out for more than 70-minutes (yeah, we went a little over, but be sure to listen to the end, because Danielle answered a bunch of bonus questions from the comments).

You can either listen live or just download the mp3.

AND…If you’d like to learn more about Danielle’s Fire Starter Session home-program, click here

Your tribe doesn’t want a lecture, they want to pull up a chair.

Ah, the allure of an audience.

It’s so tempting to succumb to the belief that just because people show up to try you on for size, you’ve now earned the right to preach to them.

Some leaders, bloggers, speakers, writers, teachers, innovators and creators do this. And they do it really well. Building giant followings and brands.

And, yes, you guys have endured a rant or two (maybe three, lol) from me. But…

Every time I feel myself drawn over to the preaching side of the isle, I start to break out in ass-wipe hives.

Just not my preferred modus operandi.

Maybe it’s because I still consider myself very much along the same journey as everyone else. I just have the luxury of getting paid to spend a whole lot more time asking the questions everyone else asks, researching the answers, acting, testing and experimenting with the results, then sharing what I’ve discovered.

So, for me, a really important guiding principle has been…

Your tribe doesn’t want a lecture, they want to pull up a chair.

At least, that’s how I like to run this place, more like a digital cafe.

It’s actually something that was taught to me by one of my earlier mentors in the blogosphere, Liz Strauss. And it’s something she learned from her dad, who just happened to run a real-life tavern when she was growing up.

So, I’m curious, what’s the tone you most vibe with?

“Voice of God” or “c’mon, let’s talk?”

And, what’s the tone you set in the way YOU communicate? Share your thoughts in the comments…

++++

[FTC Disclosure: 1. Danielle is insanely cool. 2. I love introducing you to insanely cool people. 3. You may want to work with Danielle or buy her stuff after you hear what she just did on the conference-call and you realize how ridiculously smart, savvy and cool she is. 4. If you do click on the above link, then buy her stuff, I get rich. Not just a little bit rich. Like, stupid, gobs of bling, Jonny's got a new grill rich. 5. Fieldsy needs a new grill. 6. Not really. 7. I never liked Maraschino cherries. 8. No offense intended to Mr. Maraschino. 9. The Dude abides.]

Content is king…right?

If you want attention, a platform, the ability to lead, sway, sell, move, emote, promote, you need to be putting out killer stuff.

But, there’s a major wrinkle in the theory that pretty much nobody talks about, even though it’s become one of the most powerful content models on the planet.

The content…doesn’t have to be yours!

We are assaulted and battered by so much content, from every direction, that 99% of the time, we don’t know where to look first. We don’t know what’s critical or what’s crap.

There’s so much coming at us so quickly that if we undertook to read just the first few sentences of everything in an effort to decide whether it was worth it to read the rest, that alone would take us from morning to night.

Enter the Master of Curation…

One of the single most valuable roles you can play in this cataclysmic cacaphony of content is to be the one who lends sanity to the process of finding and sharing only the cream of the crop.

That’s why many of the world’s top websites and blogs are largely curation-based.

Lifehacker.com is a great example. There’s a smattering of their own stuff, a more substantial article mixed in here and there. But it’s largely about curating the need-to-know info in the world of, well, life and tech hacks.

And, according to their advertising info-page, they get 4.4 million visitors and 43 million pageviews a month…curating other peoples’ stuff.

Hell, that’s almost as much traffic as I get (wink, wink, nod, nod)!

Other sites crushing it under a similar model include:

• Neatorama.com
• Swiss-Miss.com
• LaughingSquid.com

On my own blog, some of my most trafficked and best ranked posts in the SERPS are not my original content, but rather curated one-offs and collections, like:

• 37 Videos That Will Blow Your Mind and Inspire Renegade Action
• 55 Quotes To Inspire Creativity, Innovation and Action
• The 7 Keynote MBA: How to Save 2 Years and $100,000

Why? Because I spent a lot of time sourcing, reviewing, vetting and assembling the most valuable content so that others wouldn’t have to. And, because I’ve done it repeatedly, people have come to trust my ability to do it well.

So, as you’re thinking about how you can best serve your tribe and deliver the coolest content experience possible, think beyond creation and consider mixing in curation.

It’s a powerful ingredient to add to your content cake.

But, before you start curating your way to fame and fortune, there’s one more secret to great digital curation. You can’t just re-post something.

You’ve got to add value and relevance beyond the original content.

It might be by assembling disparate pieces into a coherent collection. Or, it can be as easy as adding commentary, context, cliff-notes or highlights. My last post on J.K. Rowling;s Harvard commencement speech on failure and imagination is an example of adding value in the form of context (tie-in with New Years energy) and highlights (pull-quotes below).

So, have you put this strategy to work? And, if not, how might you?

+++++

On a Tuesday morning this past February I had a conference call with John Wiley & Sons Publishing House, one of the top business publishing companies in the business.

Exactly one week later, I was offered a big book deal.

One week.

No agent.

And, a completed book proposal (written after the first phone call with Wiley, not before).

Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed about the story (even though everyone tells me to proud) because I know how hard it is and what a struggle it has been for many very talented writers to land a book deal. There are (somewhat ironically) many books, blogs and more on how to get a publishing deal, write a book proposal, hire an agent, etc. And, there are stories from some of the top authors in the world about how many times their book idea, proposal or entire manuscript was rejected, rejected, rejected…and eventually accepted.

Given the typical process, how did I manage to secure a publishing contract without jumping through any of the typical hoops?  More importantly, what are the takeaways and lessons that you can apply to your own business and brand?

My intention with this article is to give you an inside look at my experience and offer you several valuable lessons on positioning, marketing, speed, taking action – more strategies than any creative, hustling entrepreneur can apply. And, to offer you relevant strategies you can use immediately – whether you want to write a book or not.

The Radar Screen

I’ve wanted to write a book for many years because I love the physical act of writing. But I just didn’t want to write a book just to write a book. I wanted to write something meaningful, impactful and helpful (and entertaining…hey gotta live up to non-boring right?). Something I could pour EVERY ounce of energy and effort into to make it really special. I had friends that told me to write a book and self-publish it. And that seemed like an interesting idea and there are many examples of great self-published books. But, I figured if I kept working hard (and by working hard I mean writing articles and blog posts and conducting video interviews day after day after day…every day!) something good would happen and the path would become clear.

Here is what happened. On RISE, my Web TV show, I’ve interviewed MANY amazing authors and big thinkers including (to name a few) Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, Brian Solis, Tara Hunt, Tamar Weinberg, Tim Ferriss, David Meerman Scott, Shama Kabani, Brian Halligan, Bill Guertin…and the list goes on.  And when a good interview is conducted about the book, of course the publisher wants to know about it. So, many of these authors shared the interview with their publishers. And guess what happened? The publishers came to my site (not known to me of course) and started watching the shows. I was now on the radar screen.

Being Ready & Flexible

One day, Bill Guertin, author of “The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales,” called me one day to mention that Wiley Publishing was interested in talking to me and I should take the call because this rarely happens.

(Much credit goes to Bill for helping me prepare for the call!)

Normally, potential authors (with the help of an agent) contact the publisher in hopes of getting a “yes” as opposed to waiting for a publisher to seek them out.

But, in this case it was inbound. They came to me. Cool!

When Bill asked me if I would take the call, my answer of course was a resounding YES!

A couple of days later, I had a great conversation with Lauren at Wiley publishing. We chatted it up for quite awhile about books, my brand, www.The RiseToTheTop.com, Wiley Publishing, etc. etc.

She asked me if I ever thought of writing a book and I told her absolutely. Not only did I want to do it, but I was extremely passionate about doing so.

Then came the $10,000,000 question (not sure why I wrote $10,000,000…but you know what I mean).

“What would you like to write to book on?” she asked.

Now I don’t know anything different because this was my experience, but from what I understand this is not a question that is normally asked. As mentioned before, specific book topics and themes are normally “recommended” or pushed to would-be authors.  Not only is it rare for a publisher to contact an expert about writing a book but it’s also rare to let that author decide the focus of the book!

In response to Lauren’s question I discussed my passion helping unique, creative entrepreneurs. More specifically, I outlined my core principles to marketing and promoting by being smarter, faster, cheaper as opposed to dumber, slower expensive. Becoming a trusted resource as opposed to a product pusher. Dominating by educating, entertaining and inspiring. Learning how to out-smart as opposed to out-spend the competition.

The differentiator being a combination of personal experience and stories from others. I told Lauren that every strategy and big idea in the book would be something that I’ve had personal experience with and what helped grow The Rise To The Top in less than two years from just an idea to a community of over 100,000 big thinkers and well into six-figures in profit. But, I didn’t want the book to be about me. It is about helping others (like you), so a big element was interviewing 200+ creative thinkers over the past three years and learning what worked for them (as well as thousands of conversations with innovators online and off) and then pulling it all together into easy-to-digest big ideas.

Lauren liked the idea and asked if I could put it in writing in a book proposal and get it her by the weekend which was just a few days away.

“Sure!” I said without really thinking about it. She gave me some guidance on the proposal, I cleared a bunch of worthless meetings from my schedule and went to work.

On Tuesday, I received a phone call. Heart-pounding, I was told they loved the proposal and voted unanimously. And, interestingly, they decided to offer me a contract and offer on the spot as opposed to running it through more committees.

All in seven days.

What are the lessons learned? Was this some kind of magical fluke?

Lessons Learned:

1.  Your home online is ridiculously important. Your hub. Your platform. Obviously, the most important thing is the content, but design also matters. When people come to your website do they mutter “WOW this is cool!” or click away to one of the other zillion options online?

The key to positioning your hub is content. Because content spreads. Your “About Us” page doesn’t. Are you consistently creating educational, entertaining and/or inspiring content?

2.  You never know who is watching, listening or reading. Numbers are overrated. “Who” is watching, listening or reading is underrated. If you have three people visiting your website and they are all amazingly influential or the exact people you want to hang out with, you are doing something right. And good things will happen.

A question to ask yourself: Am I EASY to get in contact with through my website or do people have to jump through hoops to hunt you down?

3.  Interviews are relationship builders. For me, I got to know amazing people by interviewing them for our community. Did I ever expect anything in return? Absolutely not. And look what happened….

A tip on relationship building: Always give something of value FIRST and ask for nothing in return. How can you be helpful? Perhaps make an introduction for someone, blog about them or some other way of giving a little love.

4.  You have to be ready. I might have procrastinated in writing a book or getting it together, but as soon as a publisher was interested, I went into full focus mode. This is one of the benefits of being a nimble entrepreneur as opposed to a plodding slow one. Things change and you can either jump on amazing opportunities or let them pass you buy. It is up to you.

I use the 20% rule. I try to leave at LEAST 20% of my TTDTS (Total Time Devoted To Stuff) open. This time is used to evaluate new opportunities, meet new people and also devote time to something new (and then re-shift time once again). Try it.

5.  Reputation matters online and off. When your name is mentioned, what do people have to say? If your name is searched online, what comes up? If people ask about you on social media sites, do people know, like and trust you. It sounds cliche, but, being good to people and being a person of your word goes a long way.

Fast forward to today, December 7th 2010, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business has been brought to book life. I hope you will pick up a copy and pick up a buffer of ideas to help your business. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Bottom line is that business is a long-term relationship and not a one night stand. But, you can definitely speed up the process by focusing on building a passionate following, helping others and key relationships. You would be surprise not only what doors you will be able to open, but what doors are opened for you.

________

David Siteman Garland is the Founder of The Rise To The Top, The #1 Non-Boring Resource For Building Your Business Smarter, Faster, Cheaper and author of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business