Two friends of mine, here with Terry Bean, long-time friend all the way back from high school, believe it or not. And he doesn’t live in the same city with me anymore but we stay in contact, thanks to things like the internet, social media and Hangout. So welcome Terry.
Thank you very much, I’m excited to see you, this is really cool. I see you’ve got a little friend over there, too.
Yeah!
Hi Terry!
Hi!
Yeah, of course we have Kimmy, our social media puppet.
Ta-dah! I am excited to be here.
I’m excited to meet you. I’m going to browse on some of your hair later.
Okay, that’s great!
Yes, Terry wants to have the pink and green hair.
At least they don’t have shine.
That’s the color of hair I have. It’s the color of shine, if you ask indeed.
I love it!
Well let me tell you a little bit about Terry other than we went to high school together. Terry is, he’s a chief networking officer, he is also an attraction hero. He’s the author of the Universal Guide to Business Networking. He’s the founder of Network Tank, founder of MotorCity Connect and co-founder of uNetworked. Obviously he is a big networking guy. Terry’s passion to help others achieve success for all who matter to them. He is known as many things – a professional speaker, a social media pro, a relationship marketing expert. But most importantly he understands the value of true connectedness. And Terry is definitely out there on social media. I see his Facebook, mostly viral. He is intriguing, he is entertaining, he is, I mean, he creates the conversation, that’s for sure. So Terry, why don’t we start with that. Let’s just talk a little bit about your the conversations on your, let’s start with the Facebook profile that you have. What makes you put the post that you do?
You know, I think the best thing for that is the lack of filter inside of my brain.
No filters.
Yeah, right. The idea that people may actually care or think is work as I do intrigues me and so sometimes you just throw stuff out there to see what people respond to and I’ve long held the rule that I’m really here to entertain myself, if anyone else is entertained that’s just an added bonus.
You like entertainment?
Yep. Absolutely! Absolutely.
Let’s talk about like what are some specifics to your social media strategy? Because I know that you use a little more with the Facebook profile and this is intriguing to me because I moved away from my profile and now what I do is use my page and I just kind of post on to my profile for personal more than anything, a few business here and there where as you do more all of it from your personal profile. And I see there’s a lot , I mean you’re not the only person and sometimes I wish I just have one place, in a way.
And you know what, it’s exactly that reason that I do it that way. I started a page, it grew to about 500 people but the time I started it, I already had 1500 people on my profile and if I could have moved those people to the page that I wanted on the page and kept only those people on the profile the numbers would be very very different but I gave up. It was attrition, I couldn’t, I wasn’t tough enough to just keep moving people to the page so I said screw it, you guys want to be here, fine. It was a period of time when I didn’t accept everybody that offered to connect with me on Facebook and then I was like, okay I’m out there and it’s rude not to accept people so I let much people in. My wife got mat at me because I have pictures of my kid up there and then I like, this is what it is. And I just stopped letting everybody in again so I’ve got a backlog of people, sorry for those of you who aren’t in but that’s how it goes now.
I did too. I have a backlog also but.
Yeah, but you’re like a pretty girl, I’m this, that’s a different story though.
It really have that problem , too.
Yeah, and you’re a pretty puppet Kimmy. Would you do your hair like this?
I can do this!
Those of you on the podcast that’s where video comes in and little more entertaining.
Terry, don’t you think too, though, when you’re as involved in business that it just becomes part of your life anyway? That…
That’s what, I’m sorry go ahead.
I mean because that’s what a lot of times I think, too, is it doesn’t really matter that I have a logo because I am who I am and that’s what I connect with these people that I work with.
Absolutely. You know I started saying awhile ago that if Facebook is truly made up of your friends in quotes, then who, and family, of course. Who should care about more about your success than your friends and family? They should be supporting what we do for business. They should be interested. They should be willing to share that stuff, hopefully.
Yeah, yep. Thank you.
And I should not throw it down their face, it can’t be a hundred percent of anything. No one wants to see all of that – too many kid pictures, too many cat pictures, too many business posts, there is a line and you have to balance it off somewhere.
You should see the hamburgers that I post.
Where’s your favorite hamburger Kimmy, I want to know?
I love cheese burgers.
Basic cheese burger. Now, I’ve noticed that you’re talking about Google+ and we haven’t spoke personally lately but we I have been connecting to you over there, too, so is that another platform that you’re, what are your thoughts about Google+?
I am at the point of exploring Google+ again, you know like yourself and like many social media people. I forget, was it 2011, 2010 when we all jumped over there and you can just throw the hotdog down the hallway and it wouldn’t hit anybody because it was like evacuated pretty quickly? I do think with Google’s algorithm and what Google does and how it ranks pages, I think it’s important to have some participation there and like other social media sites, photos and videos seem to play very well there. It’s not a habit for me yet though, and I kind of want it to be because I think it’s important to get there but I know it’s going to take time for others to pay attention. I just commented, I mean I have over 600 circles. I mean I didn’t know there were actually 600 people there so… I’m pretty impressed.
Well, I think these hangouts have really made a difference for the community there too because there are just tons of hangout that are fun, they are interactive and people are getting to know each other over there face to face and I think that’s a whole new level.
I love, this is really cool. Thank you for having to step up my game and participating online Google Hangout because I have not done this yet. This is cool.
Yeah yeah, and we’d love bringing in people on here and we also love just testing the waters. There’s a lot of techie pieces to this, right Kimmy? We had quite a few pieces to get this all together. Kimmy had, you know we have special things for Kimmy’s situation, too.
We got to hire a builder.
Like a master builder from the Lego movie?
Yeah, no kidding. I need a chair to sit on. Nah, it’s been fun and you know it’s really cool. It’s a lot of times people use webinars and with hangouts and certain plug-ins you have the ability to actually do a webinar through a hangout. I just think it’s fascinating so you could actually have your website, you could do a hangout and nobody even know are in a hangout. Now that’s really confusing, isn’t it?
But it’s a webinar and a hangout. Yep. Exactly and you don’t have to pay for that. You can use it for webinar-side of things. You don’t have to necessarily have paid and some money that those webinar systems are so that’s free! I know, Google has a lot to offer a lot for free it’s just a matter of learning it and taking advantage of it.
And being able to submit to the all-powerful Google, of course.
Yes, yes, isn’t that the truth. And I think a lot of people are holding up and but I do think some people are really moving over there. We have friends on Google+ right now that completely do away with their Facebook. Now, am I ready to do that? Absolutely not. But I do think there’s a place for each, you know, there’s certain time and place for each platform.
It’s a good point. How many you know, you start a conversation on Facebook, you start a conversation on Google+. I’ve noticed that the results and the response is night and day. Are you on the same boat? I know you probably spend a little more time on Google+ than I do. Maybe that’s not true, I don’t know.
Yeah, Google+ I am at a point where it’s starting to I did the exact same thing that you did – took a break where I just said, you know I don’t know if this is ever going to take off so I took that break. I was on it right away, at first, and now I’ve ramped it up again but it still secondary to Facebook and so you know, I’m not as consistent as I’d like to be like you are. But I do have friends over there and one of the things that I’ve realized is the connections I can make like for interviews, majority of those, that are coming up. I’d say the majority, but a lot of the newer ones are relationships that built their Google+. So Google+has a big, big where I can get much more connected with techie people – entrepreneurs, techies, that kind of thing. But as for typical business owner I would believe that like my orthodontist offices for instance that I work with, I would say Facebook is still the place for them to be. Does that make sense? Ooopp, Terry dumped out, Terry disappeared, not sure. Hopefully he can come back and he froze up, okay.
Yeah, sometimes you lose a connection. There he is.
There he comes back.
And he’s back.
He’s back. We lost the connection. Well let’s talk about, I want to talk about a little more into doing what’s right more than just you. The consistency even if you don’t want to be. Let’s talk about that.
Oh yeah, you know what…
Totally agree, totally agree, by the way.
That’s a tough thing, right? There’s a, if you don’t have a purpose in your life that’s greater than making money because that’s what you want to do, because that’s what your family expects you to do, I think it’s really hard to get up and do great things everyday. I think you can do good things if that’s your goal but I don’t think you can do great things, lasting things, legacy-worthy things and so I think we have to set our minds to what we can do, what we can accomplish that’s so much bigger than just us! And when you have that why that’s so much bigger than just you or your immediate family I think it makes a little bit easier to go out and do what you know you need to do every single day.
I agree. I think that’s true.
Excellent! Excellent! I tried to follow up with that because I just, there’s many days that we just do our tedious work. Many days where we say you know I just got to go and post on Facebook. I just got to go, you know, did I get my post out there? You know, that kind of thing. I’m just so worried about the daily grind and stuff and this is coming from an entrepreneur but from a business owner standpoint, Kimmy, do you want add in because you’re the business owner.
Yep, well, I mean that’s just like opening the door of your shop. You’ve go to be there everyday and sometimes you don’t feel like it. Well on social media it’s the same way. When you’re a business owner you just show up regardless whether you feel good or not. So you got to do it, pull through it. You know one thing, too, for me is not chasing those shiny objects. There’s so much information that are thrown at us every single day that we want to pick up opportunity, we want to look at it and we think oh, there’s money in that. But then you realize you lose theme on what you’re building currently. So I think it’s really important to just stick with building a solid foundation and adding things in as you go.
Great, great advise. I’m a very curious individual and social media plays really well into that because there’s so much information coming at us all the time. How do you manage that? You know, I’ll talk about that too but I’m curious because I have the feeling we’re all that way. Do you like to set up a specific time where I’m going to have free time to go play around and explore, how do you deal with that?
Well I know for me in the shop I was telling Janet awhile ago I said I literally have to schedule time to be on my phone or I’m going to sit and look at Facebook all day long in between haircuts, you know, in between coloring. So if I schedule my time to be on social media networks it feels much better, I feel less stress. I just have to make a checklist of things I need to get done and kind of used that as a reward system, check it off, get it done, I guess I can spend 10 minutes on Facebook. So it’s just a matter of managing your time and your schedule.
That’s great advise Kimmy. And whoever does your hair, they’re fantastic.
Oh well, thank you.
Sorry, that one got me. And adding to that that’s one of the things I do want to going back to that since we’re on these whole Facebook-Google+ kick, let’s go back to that a little bit. One of the things I’ve realized I do turn off my Facebook now during the day. I have, I go on there maybe 10 minutes and I try to look at the stuff that is business related during the day and I try to like when I sit in bed with my iphone and it’s relaxation time, that’s the time I can click on the Kim Kardashian post. Oops, I said the word, sorry. But you know, once you start click on that, that’s the stuff that comes in your news feed more than the business type things. And so it can be, for me, sometimes I’ve seen a lot of junks that I don’t really want to see while I’m trying to work. And so I do turn it off. Where as for Google+, there’s a little bit, a lot different content over there. I can learn a whole lot more over there from individuals because they are like minded people like myself where as for Facebook, they’re just so much all out there. And so comparing those two platforms I could definitely recommend Google+. But I also do recommend 10 minutes to turn it off. I have to turn off now because Bing’s, oh, Bing, there’s a message.
Oh, right. So many bings. That’s a great point, I’ve been noticing that when I turn mine off, too, especially if I got something to do that’s on a deadline or writing in particular where you actually got to get in the flow because that thing is a distraction and I don’t know about you two but it is I’m like Pavlov’s dog salivating to see what’s going on, I got to go and check it out, there’s no time. I got to see it now, it couldn’t possibly wait. It wouldn’t bing me if it wasn’t important.
When you do a post, do you ever get that just when you put a post up? When you’re like oh what’s somebody say about it.
Oh good so I’m not only the narcissistic one down the trail.
Yep, you got it, there’s lot of shiny things out there.
Well good, let’s finish up, it’s been about half an hour. We try to keep this right around that half-hour mark so let’s finish up talking about your latest because I’m not even sure I see yourself on Facebook all the time and you’re just you are a busy individual and let’s just talk about what your latest project Terry.
I’ve got a couple that I’m working on and I’ve managed to figure out a way to take my passion and merge it with my work and have great partnerships that are allowing me to do that. We’re generating an organization called Click Click Car which is going to change the way cars are leased where it effectively eliminating the sales person from the mix so an individual such as yourself can go online, find a car they want, figure out the exact price per month to be able to lease this car, fill out the paper work and if you chose, have somebody bring the car out to you for a test drive or have somebody bring out the car to you for an actual delivery. You don’t even have to set foot in the dealership. It eliminates the haggling, it eliminates the time waste, it eliminates the uncomfortable feeling like you’re getting beat down in the box. So it’s really really cool process and weeks away from launching the alpha of that. And we’re going to do that in coincide with an event that I’m putting on called the 313D-Love event. The Detroit area code historically was 313 and they did some overlays so now there’s 6 different area codes in the Detroit area but originally we’re off 313 and on March 13th we’re putting on an event to show a bunch of love for Detroit and the love in the Detroit area. I’ve got about 13 really amazing people that are out doing great things from a community perspective from helping children, to removing blight, doing work for soldiers. I’ve got a couple of wonderful pot leaders, one of them is Shawne Duperon who’s a media pro and a networking person and has done a lot of work with Cassup and she’s doing a new project called Project Forgive. I’ve got a gentleman named Rod Hairston who was a lead facilitator and trainer for Tony Robbin’s organization for 9 years and he’s trained the Navy Seals, set up a bunch of things that Quicken Loans which is one of the largest mortgage companies in the country. Those two and a bunch of other folks share their stories, their passions, their energy in the idea of saying you know what, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. You can lead from right where you are and that’s what we need to get back to our former greatness. People stepping up and being the change we all need to see.
That’s terrific. Well, sounds really exciting.
It should be cool. It should be.
And when is this event?
The event is March 13th, the 313D-Love event, yeah, so it’s just right around the corner and we’re doing that at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, which is the largest collection of African-American artifact in the entire world, 22,000 feet of coldness.
Wow, you have been busy. What we’ll do is we’ll put that in the show notes so that everybody, anybody that’s from Detroit area wants to attend this event they can go find that. The show notes is going to be https://www.businessgrowthtime.com/3.
Okay.
https://www.businessgrowthtime.com/3, this will be on a podcast and video also. And then let’s finish up, so we’ll put all the links that you talked about on there because I think that I was looking into that recently, that’s interesting because with what I do for a living, we don’t drive that much so it’s something that you know, lease could be an option. So that’s very very intriguing point.
So I’m going to finish up with last couple of questions. First question, this is more for fun, have you ever been interviewed by a puppet before?
I love it!
That is a great question. Ah yeah, about three times I’m totally lying. I’ve never been interviewed by a puppet before.
Oh that’s good, not even that lam one.
Not even that funny little dog.
Well thank you, I appreciate your time.
And then the last thing, oh well, two more question, did you like Janet big hair in high school? My hair is big as Kimmy. It’s kind of big right now.
You had some hair now if you want to put real links up, grab a link to that photo of you and I sitting in history or whatever it was. I actually look like I have hair. I have Kimmy hair in that.
Oh, fun fun!
And the last question is, let’s finish up with what is it that keeps you fascinated with social media?
I think it’s the change. I think it’s ever changing, always something new and equally important at times you get to see stuff from a 360 degree perspective about the people you care about. You get to see the good, the bad, the great, the ugly, the gut-wrenching and the ridiculous highs and that’s all really, really cool.
Awesome, awesome. Yes, didn’t look at it that way before. It’s very true. Well thank you so much Terry for joining us and once again the show notes will be https://www.businessgrowthtime.com/3 and thanks a lot everyone.
Ba-bye.