Crypto Talks

 Today I will be talking to http://shankman.com/ (Peter Shankman). The New York Times has called him "a public relations all-star who knows everything about new media and then some,", while Investor's Business Daily has labeled him "crazy, but effective." Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage. An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Customer Service, Social Media, PR, marketing and advertising. Interview Highlights Books are great to get speaking gigs. As you start to create value people will notice it and if it's good people tend to share it. Having an audience is a privilege - it is not a right! You have to figure out what your audience wants and that comes from knowing who they are. You have to be willing to be open. Failure is great beca

http://traffic.libsyn.com/write2bread/101_Coincidences_in_Life.mp3 () First of all thank you so much for the amazing feedback for the episode 100. For those who have not listened to it - the write 2b read podcast episode 100 featured interview with me, which my friend podcaster Bill Nowicki had recorded just few days after the podcast was launched. So if you wanna know more about me as a person and find out who stands behind this voice and as I’ve been told pretty thick James Bond girl accent - then head over to http://www.anialexander.com/100 (www.anialexander.com/100) By reaching the milestone of 100 episodes I spent some time thinking about how much I have learnt in less than a year of podcasting… And it’s not like all the things I’ve learnt are related to podcasting, not at all… So today I would like to talk about the coincidences in life… which later, looking back are things that had to happen in order to lead you to things which you had to come across. In order to explain what exactly I mean I’ll re

We are at episode 100 and I still can't believe it! It has been a very exciting and fruitful period. I still remember how I recorded and later re-recorded many times my very first episode. I sounded nervous and did not like the result... but it is still there the way it is. I did not record a new one to replace it, because I thought that it is fair to leave it the way it came out ... I have enjoyed almost all the interviews done until now and I am proud that I've spoken to so many awesome people. It blows my mind to realize that every day someone I don't know listens to me somewhere on the other hand of the world. It feels weird and at the same time amazing to realizing that there are many people I have never met who hear my voice at least twice a week... I truly appreciate every single listener. Every time I feel down I re-read your reviews and e mails and the day gets better. I won't be mentioning names, cause you know who you are and you are so many but I  would like to thank everyone, who has encourag

When I was young we trusted the educational system and thought that it was enough to gian all the  knowledge one needs to have for the adult life. Maybe that’s because the educational system was much better back then… or maybe it’s because we were extremely naive… I don’t know. Now, I start really disliking schools. I have a feeling that most of the important things are not taught there. Besides that in the times when the access to information and knowledge is  just few keystrokes away I don’t see the value schools bring so much… When I talk to people and complain about the schools I am also trying to explain what I wish I was taught there and what I wish I knew back then…  So I decided to share those with you today. I wish that instead of teaching what one should do in life and what is wrong and right they taught us to follow our dreams… Unfortunately most of us forget about our childhood dreams by the time we grow up.  But maybe that would not happen if we were told that dreams and  adult life could co-

My today's guest is http://tuckermax.com/ (Tucker Max). His first book, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, is a #1 New York Times Best Seller, spent five years on the list, and has over 2 million copies in print. His second book, Assholes Finish First, and his third book, Hilarity Ensues, are also NY Times Best Sellers. He co-wrote and produced the movie based on his life/book, also titled “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.” He has also been credited with being the originator and leader of a new literary genre, “fratire,” is only the third writer (after Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis) to ever have three books on the NY Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at one time, and was nominated to the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential List in 2009. He currently lives in Austin, Texas. Interview Highlights There is 1 way to know if your writing us good and that's if people who don't know you and don't care about you read it and recommend it to their friends. Quality is not measured by how beautiful your sentence is. T

Many authors think that writing a book is very hard and that once you finish your book, the rest is a piece of cake. Well I would argue about that. For example personally for me the writing process is more enjoyable and much easier than everything else that needs to be done after that. Once you have completed your manuscript there are so many things that you need to do after. It may even make some writers feel overwhelmed and confused. So let’s understand what should you do once you finish writing your book? What are the things that you will have to deal with. Get feedback Who you should get feedback from? Well many rush to their friends and family but I personally think that it is not a good thing. First of all – they are people who might not be able to be objective. Second, they may feel bad about hurting your feeling and may not provide any negative feedback. And the third thing is that they may not be your audience. For example I write women’s fiction and it is logical that my husband is not the mo

My today's guest is http://www.chrismarr.co.uk/ (Chris Marr). Chris Marr is a content marketer, blogger and podcaster. He helps businesses in and around Fife to embrace content marketing strategies and improve their communication. He is content marketer, blogger, Director of Learning Everyday Ltd, Founder of The Content Marketing Academy and Host of https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-academy-podcast/id911933420?mt=2 (The Marketing Academy Podcast). Interview Highlights Content Marketing: the ability to communicate with people without selling to them. Go with the platform your audience resonates most and you feel comfortable with. The best thing is to stick to one main platform in the beginning. You can create community around your content. It is very important to connect on a personal level with your audience. Building audience takes time. [spp-tweet "Build your audience piece by piece, one person at a time."] You don't need to create more content. You can engage with other people's conten

We all have given up at some point. All of us at a certain point have stopped believing that we’ll be able to make it. Some of us have done it often, some just very few times, but all of us know how it feels. The  sad fact is that most of us give up far too soon. I was thinking the other day - why do we actually give up? What are the most common reasons and are there any ways to get around those? Let’s get to the first reason - discouragement. No matter what you have decided to do, as soon as you share it with people there will be at least few who will tell you that YOU Can’t Do it and come up with different reasons about why it can’t be done. At that point you may decide to give up the idea even before giving it a try.  Instead of thinking about giving up think about how are you going to prove all those people wrong. Get inspired by the biographies of Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs and Ray Charles and all others who proved that discouraging words have no power. In fact proving those who doubt me wrong has be

My today's guest is Mark Dawson - the author of John Milton series. Until recently, Mark worked in the London film industry. He now writes full-time and is working on three series. I found out about Mark Dawson few weeks ago, when I read the http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2015/04/17/mark-dawson-made-750000-from-self-published-amazon-books/ (article about him in Forbes.) Last year Amazon paid Mark $450k. I tried to find out how did he make it and which were the main components of his success. In this interview we you will find out Where did Mark gain knowledge about self-publishing and book marketing   When he realized that things start happening How did Mark build his e mail list  How Mark manages to be so prolific  How Mark makes sure that his readers want to read the next book in the series  How to use Facebook ads How long did it take Mark to become full-time author  Which is the most powerful marketing tool for authors  How much money Mark spends to publish each of his books  Useful

Click the banner below and get a free audiobook from 150,000 available fiction and non-fiction titles for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player. http://www.audibletrack.com/click.track?CID=102175&AFID=354344&ADID=671645&SID= () I am not sure you know this, but a while ago I was a self-development blogger. My blog was called http://www.lifeprobabilities.com (Life Probabilities )and although I am no longer the owner and the author of the blog it still exists.  Now Vinod is the owner of the http://www.lifeprobabilities.com (Life Probabilities )and he is covering self development related topics there so you can check out the blog if you like similar topics. So today I will present you with one of the blog posts I wrote at Life Probabilities about success. Since the thoughts I had are still valid I decided that I could share them with you here too. Who doesn’t want to be successful? Yup, that’s what I thought. No one. These days there are many talks about becoming successful, not giving up after failure

My today's guest is Jyotsna Ramachandran. She is a stay-at-home mom and an online entrepreneur. Her kindle publishing business Awesome Life Resources has given her the freedom to earn a full-time income from home. Jyotsna shares her experience of building a home business through her book http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UTPUM86 (Job Escape Plan). In a short period of one year Jyotsna managed to set up her Kindle publishing business, which brings her $4.5k monthly passive income. She has portfolio of 45 published books in 7 different niches. The most amazing part of it is that until now she had not even had written any of the books she published. I tried to dig into the details and show you the business model she is using. You could go ahead and try it too. Kindle Publishing Business Model  Choose a profitable niche on Amazon Research the bestsellers in that topic and see how they are selling Read reviews of those books and see how to position your book differently Hire freelance ghost writers Publish the b

The whole week I’ve been thinking a lot. The more I thought the more I got confused. Well thinking too much is a dangerous thing I have to say. Sometimes overthinking keeps you from actually taking action. You keep thinking and analyzing and coming up with outcome scenarios and after that coming up with back up plans… then back up plans for the back up plans which would not work… In short I was totally confused and lost. I was thinking about my personal brand, about my presence online… about what to do next, about what to change and what to keep the same. I got in touch with good friends, who spent their time listening to my stories and plans and hopes and stuff. I guess I wanted to know what I had to do… I was trying to map up my desired future and retro-plan it coming up with a plan how to get there. And as a result I learnt few things which I want to share with you today. The first thing I realized after speaking to many people, and most of them are quite successful and prolific - is that I am not alone

My today's guest is Liston Witherill. In 2014 Liston walked away from a CMO position at a $10M company to start my own thing. He was already totally booked in his consulting business two months before leaving. That is because Liston is a proudly trained conversion copywriter and he is no joke when it comes to sales. He spends most of his time trying to understand how people are making decisions. In this interview we talk about the copywriting, as well as writing book description and sales page. Below are just the few highlights of the interview. Yes, I do this on purpose. I don't provide you with a transcript so you go and listen to the show. Highlights Present the book in such way that it resonates with the people, who read about it. Copywriting is NOT a creative writing. With copywriting we always have a goal of getting someone doing something very specific. Number one mistake in copywriting is that people talk about themselves. The copy should be focused 90% of the time on a reader and what he wan

Today I would like to talk about numbers… No, no - we will not go into maths or any calculations. I want to talk about how the digital numbers sort of determine how cool we are… Let’s see how people who don’t know you judge about your reputation online? They look at how many followers you have on Twitter, how much traffic does your website get, how many likes your Facebook page has, etc. They check who your Facebook friends are and how many of those are well-known and influential people. It becomes a game of large audiences, big e mail lists and download numbers. Let’s look at the traditional publishers. They don’t care about what kind of book you have. All they care about is how large is your audience and how many of your book you could sell to them… Which makes me think - hey if I had a large audience and could sell many books why would I need you anyway? The problem is - When we get into that swirl we forget one simple truth and that is - those numbers represent people. Every single one is a human bei

Today I have a very special guest. If I had not met him online most probably the Write 2B Read podcast would not exist. My guest is Meron Bareket. He is the host of the http://meronbareket.com/ (Inspiring Innovation podcast) -  and the http://www.podcastincubator/Ani (Podcast Incubator) - The World's Best Step-By-Step Podcast Training & Community To Take You From Zero To Launching A Successful Podcast. The http://www.podcastincubator.com/ani (Podcast Incubator) was the only resource I used when I launched my podcast in only 3 weeks. I knew nothing about podcasting 3 weeks before my podcast launch so I had to learn everything from scratch. I know that there are many famous brands to go to but where I personally went to and got everything I needed was at the Podcast Incubator. There are step-by-step videos, I have access to Meron Bareket, who ensures over the shoulder support and the community is absolutely amazing. For me personally relationships are important and http://www.podcastincubator.com/ani (Podcast

While many of those who live here are over excited about Kim Kardashyan’s visit to Armenia I instead make sure that you have fresh audio content that will encourage and inspire you. Today it will be just me pouring out the thoughts that I decided to share with you. So we’ll have a short solo piece this time. Did you know that if you close your eyes facing towards the sun you’ll see very nice bright colors inside your  head. The colors will be changing and vary from yellow to bright red with a bright orange and all shades  in- between those. You will enjoy the esthetically pleasant sensations. Well I didn’t know either, until one day when I was writing in the balcony just before the sunset. When the  sun came out and started kissing my face I decided to take a moment and concentrate on the nice sensations. So I took out the sunglasses and closed my eyes facing the sun. Why am I telling you this you would wander and what does it have to do with writing? Well, while watching those nice colors I realized how

My today's guest is Nathan Chan. Nathan is the Publisher & Editor of Foundr Magazine, a digital magazine for young entrepreneurs on the App Store & Google Play store. Nathan launched Foundr in March 2013 from his bedroom and in a small period of time it has become a top 10 ranked 'Business & Investing Magazine' on the app store. He has had the pleasure of interviewing some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs around the world namely Sir Richard Branson & Arianna Huffington and much more. But surprisingly enough publishing a magazine and entrepreneurship are not the topics we have covered in this interview. I decided to talk to him about Instagram because he had amazing results using that channel. In over 5 months Nathan started his magazine Instagram account from scratch and reached over 110k followers. Besides the brand exposure and the community around the brand he is now receiving around 1200-1500 e mail sign ups a week. How cool is that? In this interview I tried to pick his brain and find out what a

I personally hate waiting… Waiting puts me into vulnerable situation. When I am waiting for something it feels like I do accept the fact that the thing won’t happen until a certain period of time is passed. It makes me feel weak. It makes me feel as if things depend on anything else but me… From the very young age we are taught to wait… We had to wait for the dinner so after that only we could eat the desert. We had to wait until we grew up… Because there are so many things I could do only then. That was why I impatiently wanted to grow up fast when I was a child. The gown up life seemed so attractive back then. And once we grow up we end up waiting on a bigger scale. We keep postponing things for later. We postpone building our dreams, following our passion, getting rid of certain things that make our life miserable… we wait for the right time to start doing things that we’d like to do. How many times have you heard the phrases like “As soon as the kids grow up…”, “When I have more time…” , “When I find

My today's guest is Gabriela Pereira. Gabriela is the Creative Director and Instigator of DIY MFA, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters degree in writing. She earned an MFA from The New School and has taught writing both online and at writing conferences. Her book about DIY MFA is due out in Spring, 2016 from Writer’s Digest Books. Learn more at http://diymfa.com/ (DIYMFA.com). We spoke about writing, of course and below are the highlights of our conversation. What Gabriela Said Whenever I see a debut author launch their first book it makes me realize that magic is possible. I do believe that writing is a teachable skill. There are no accidents in writing. You should strive to reach the point when you can break the rules on purpose. There is no right or wrong way of writing because that would mean putting your brain on autopilot and following the rules. Every word should be in your writing for a reason. When you're just putting your words on a page you're creating the raw material. Putting wor

Derek Doepker is a multiple #1 bestselling author with books in the fitness, self-help, and publishing niches. Through his courses – which include ‘Kindle Bestseller Secrets’ and ‘Hooks for Books’ – he has trained thousands of authors on how to write, publish and market their books successfully. He’s also got a #1 bestselling book called ‘Why Authors Fail’ that reveals the 17 mistakes that stop self-published authors from achieving success and shows how you can fix them. In this interview Derek provide self-publishing advice and shares the most common mistakes that writers make. Advice from Derek Put yourself in the shoes of the book buyer. Imagine yourself going through the experience of buying your book. Become very reader-focused. Turn competitors into companions. Tips for your book's success 1. Grab attention (by the book cover, title and description) Paying for professional book cover is investment, not an expense. If you book does not have a good cover you will be losing out many sales or your b