2011 New Media Seminar - New York City

As in most professions and industries, the major trade organizations host a years conference or trade show.  In the radio and TV business, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) host a large scale conference each year in Las Vegas.  In 2011, over 85,000 people attended.  These large trade shows are great for displaying new equipment and computer software.

For talk radio hosts and radio station management, the real trade show, the place to be is the New Media Seminar, presented by Talkers Magazine.  Michael Harrison, the founder and publisher of Talkers Magazine started hosting the New Media Seminar 14 years ago, after a similar trade show disbanded. 

Michael has been in the radio business for over 40 years and knows the trade better than anyone.  Michael is my inspiration for Life Coach Radio/Life Coach Media.  Hosting your own multimedia entertainment station from your own website, or as Michael calls it, the "media station."

One thing Michael Harrison offers new media pioneers like myself is chance to be recognized for our attempt to change the way media is delivered today.  Michael produces a list each year called the "Frontier Fifty", outstanding talk media webcasters.  Talkers Magazine has even changed their slogan to be "the bible of talk radio and the new talk media."   

This year, on June 10th & 11th, the 14th annual New Media Seminar took place in New York City.  As I try to do each year, I attended this years event and as expected, it was outstanding.  Sometimes educational, sometimes controversial and at one point, even shocking, with the keynote address by Alex Jones.  The keynote address was advertised as "Beyond The Box" and let me tell you, it was way beyond the box, it was a 30 minute rant from the stage. 

I had the pleasure of networking with several of talk radio's superstars.  

Neal Boortz, is an Atlanta home town favorite.  Neal is a gentleman and a scholar.  Neal carries the nickname, the talkmaster, and he sure can talk.  He tells it like it is.  If you are into political talk radio, check out Neal's show at  http://www.boortz.com/ .  The Neal Boortz show is syndicated by Dial Global.

Sean Hannity is a true superstar.  Hosting his own radio and TV show on Fox.  Sean is a household name, especially if you are interested in the tea party.  Each year, Sean hosts a after hours party at the New Media Seminar, with ice cream, sweets and adult beverages.  If you have ever heard me speak, you know that I often comment that Sean has not forgotten what it feels like to be on the other side.  He will always stop and shake hands, visit and say hello.  Learn more about Sean Hannity at  http://www.hannity.com/  .

Stephanie Miller is a riot.  What can I say, she is a stand up comic, as well as a talk show host.  Stephanie is the life of the party and this year, she received the Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to talk radio by a women.  Stephanie's show is syndicated by Dial Global.  To learn more, visit  http://www.stephaniemiller.com/

Rusty Humphries is a unique individual.  While he recently made the new when he was held in the middle east, he impresses me the most with his unique marketing tools.  Rusty has created his own line of "beef jerky" and offers it for sale through his local Atlanta advertisers.  This is a very unique marketing concept and gives an extra value to his advertisers.  Rusty stunned the New Media Seminar when he started handing out free Rusty Humphries Beef Jerky to the 525 guests in the audience.  Visit Rusty on line at http://www.talk2rusty.com/

Doug Stephan is a staple in the industry.  Doug has been in the business for many years and he and I shared a moment together walking down memory lane.  Doug remembers the talk radio greats.  Doug and I share the same work ethics and motivation in life, we like to work and we love what we do. 

Doug is a dairy farmer by trade and talk radio host for the love of talk radio.  Take a minute and visit Doug's website at http://dougstephan.com/  and be sure to go to his photo page and see Doug plowing the fields and taking care of his dairy cows.  There is no question why he calls his show, Doug Stephan's Good Day.

Jeff's Billboard on I-75 near Adel Georgia

My goal has always been to dedicate my time to promoting Life Coaching as a profession.  I want to bring Life Coaching to those who need it the most.  In the past, Coaching has only been available to those who can pay $100 to $500 an hour.  With Life Coach Radio and the Life Coach Bus, I will be able to assist people in finding personal success, managing life changes and personal challenges.  I will be able to help callers and guests reach their personal goals.  

 

 

I am promoting the Life Coaching profession and hope to build the US Life Coach Association ( USLCA.com) to become one of the biggest and best coaching associations available to all Life Coaches.  

 

 

If you travel on I-75, in South Georgia, look for my new billboards and get ready for my new radio show, Life Coach Radio.

 

 

Near mile marker 37, southbound on I-75, near Adel Ga.
Jeff Wasserman's Life Coach Billboard

 

From Big Valley to Dynasty, Linda Evans

Last week I was in New York for two conventions, Blogworld and the Book Expo.  For the first time, both conventions were held at the same time at the Javits Convention Center. It was an interesting convention, Book Expo is the once a year meeting of everyone in the book publishing world, from publishers, editors, established authors, new authors and those wishing to publish their first book.  It was quite a mix of people, the convention was very busy,  but the most interesting dynamic to me was the interest in my company name and badge.   

 

 

Normally, I register for media trade shows with my other company name, JSW Media Inc.  I was at the Blogworld and new media convention for the Life Coach business.  As I was walking down the isles, so many authors and publishers stopped to ask what Life Coach Marketing is all about.  Most had heard of Life Coaching, but never saw a company dedicated to the profession.

 

 

One of the authors that I met brought back so many memories, it was like walking down memory lane.  Linda Evans has written a new book that will be out in print in October 2011.  It is called, Recipes For Life.  You may remember Linda from Big Valley or Dynasty, but Linda's love is the kitchen, she loves to cook. 

 

 

 

The "Life Coach" on my shirt caught her attention, but the name of her new book caught mine.  "Recipes For Life" is a metaphor I use in coaching.  People often ask me what makes a great relationship, or what makes a great career or the most often asked question, how do you build a business.  All of these require a recipe, just like in cooking.  They also require time, patience and love.

 

 

Look for Linda's new book in October is you enjoy unique cook books sprinkled with stories about Richard Burton and Lee Marvin.

 

Jeff's Visit To Blogworld

Social Media has become the talk of the trade.  The media business has gone from traditional media, to new media, then the buzz word was social media and today the talk is Social Business. 

 

 

Monetization is the key to all internet traffic.  At first, the internet was mostly websites with links and banner ads.  Then Google introduced Keywords, which became the trend.  The internet was designed for easy uploading, so journaling quickly took off and evolved into blogging.  The biggest blog convention today is Blogworld, which up until this year has been held each year in Las Vegas in the fall.  

 

 

This year, Blogworld has changed it's format and split into two shows, an east coast and a west coast show.  This years east coast show was held in New York at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on May 24th, 25th & 26th, 2011.  It was held in connection with Book Expo.

 

 

 

The theme at Blogworld is blogging and new media, but the emphasis seems to be on the business of blogging.  Whether you run a news site for a traditional print media or a web site for a popular radio station, having a tremendous amount of hits to your site is great, but unless you can figure out a business model to generate revenue at some point, the site becomes a burden to the business.

 

 

 

Social Media is great, but unless you can generate direct sales or income, social media is a hobby.  Recently Google admitted they dropped the ball by not putting up a bigger social media competition against Facebook a few years ago.  Today, Facebook and Twitter are the talk of Social Media and now Social Business.

 

 

Now that Facebook is selling ads, based on the success and usage of Facebook, it is inevitable that Facebook ads will take the wind out of Google AdWord sales.

 

 

The buzz at this years Blogworld was marketing successfully using social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. 

Is Your Life Overloaded?

Have you ever been in the bathroom drying your hair or in the kitchen running the microwave and all of a sudden the power goes out?  If the outlet you have the appliance plugged into has a GFI, you may have tripped the outlet, causing it to lose power.  Naturally, you try unplugging one of the appliances and then reach in and click the reset button and the power goes back on.

This is often due to the outlet being overloaded.  While GFI outlets serve many purposes,  I decided to use the GFI outlet to demonstrate or help you visualize our lives.  We are internally wired to handle a great deal of multitasking, assignments and stress, but when we undertake too many projects, too many commitments, we often find our lives overloaded.  Just like the outlet, if you overload your life, most of the time you will end up sick.  This is our body telling us we are overloaded, just like the outlet.

I am sure you are thinking to yourself, "I have no choice, family, career, life."  This may be true and the changes in technology that have taken place in the past couple of years has made our lives even faster.  Today we have added responsibilities with social media, computers, smart phones and tablets.  This is the future, so we need to take time to remember the fundamentals of life, like take time to stop and smell the roses or revisiting our priorities.

If you find yourself with high blood pressure, headaches and sick too often, maybe it is time to disconnect some of your internal appliances.  Just like the GFI outlet, if you don't unplug or turn something off, you are going to overload your life again.   

  

Earlier this year, I lost my father to heart disease at the age of 83.  He and I spent a great deal of time discussing life and aging.  In all of our father-son talks, he never once said he wishes he had worked more.  In my Life Coaching experiences, I never had an elderly client say they wish they had spent more time in the office.  I always heard things like, "I wish I had taken more time with my children" or "I wish I had taken more trips" or "I wish I had lived life more fully." 

As I embark on the 2011-2012 Life Coach Road Trip, I want to remind the people I meet to take time in life to enjoy the journey, don't focus on the destination.   It is like a vacation, getting there is half the fun.  

Get to Know Jeff Wasserman - Part 2

While this blog is new and not many people have read it, as time goes on, people who want to know more about me, my life and my vision for the Life Coach Road Trip will go back and read these early posts.  So I wanted to share more about my life, my reason for the bus tour and what I hope to accomplish over the next 18 months.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, I was raised to keep out of the spotlight.  While this is good advice on some subjects and causes, it did not work for me when it came to the Life Coach profession.  I found Life Coaching early on, a time when few had heard of Life Coaching.  I was familiar with motivational speakers, self-help authors and advice columnist. 

From the time I was 15, I loved reading self-help books, listening to motivational audio tapes and attending any type of personal development workshops, even if they came with a sales pitch to buy a product or service.  I just loved the energy in the room and the excitement the presenters were able to pull together in the room.

After college, I owned a business, then another business and yet another business.  People use to say I was living the American dream, I was a serial entrepreneur or a true businessman.  In fact, I was just really searching for a feeling of accomplishment.  That is something that most business professionals are in search of.  Sometimes it is an illusion, like water on a desert, it is always just over the horizon. 

During those 15 years of living in Orlando and building a business or two, I loved to work, I was a workaholic.  I created my personal energy from working, from seeing a plan come together.  I went from working to live, to living to work.  Again, I was in search of accomplishment, reaching a level or point in life that really, is not a stationary point at all.

During that time in my life, no matter how hard I worked, no matter what changed in my life,  several things were consistent.  First, I listened to talk radio, especially Bruce Williams, a personal and business advice, nationally syndicated talk radio host.  Secondly, I enjoyed eating at restaurants like IHOP, Denny's and Waffle House.  It's not really the food, it's the environment. 

 Waffle House is as main street as you can get.  The waitresses are as down home as they come, the food is prepared in front of your eyes and most of the time, you can talk to the cook as he or she prepares your food.  It is very much like growing up as a kid, watching your mom at the stove, cooking your meal.  I guess it brings back good thoughts of a time in life, when things were simple and you felt protected.

When I went to Atlanta and picked up the bus at Adnormous, the first stop was Waffle House.  As you can see in the background of this bus picture, the familiar Waffle House is waiting with my hot cup of coffee and hashbrowns covers, smothered and chopped. ( I usually order a waffle, but hashbrowns are what they are famous for).

Thanks for reading and looking forward to sharing more about the tour in the next blog post.

Jeff

   

Get to know me, Jeff Wasserman, Professional Life Coach

I am hoping to use this blog to introduce myself to you.  I don't want to overload you with my life history or my visions all at once, so each day, as we build up to the start of the radio show, I want to share with you a little about myself.

 

I have had this goal or dream to host a talk radio show since I was 16.  I love radio, it is still one of the greatest inventions. 

 

When I was young, I was brought up to "blend in the crowd," to "stay under the radar screen."  My father taught his kids to " go with the flow and just fit in."   It was good advice at the time, but as the years went by, it caused me internal conflicts.  I could not "self-promote" and feel good about myself, it felt too much like "bragging."  So for many years of my life, I started, owned, operated and eventually sold businesses, while staying out of the spotlight.  My name was never used, all my business had corporate names, that were not directly tied to me.  I was never the spokesperson for my businesses.

 

When I started coaching professionally 12 years ago, I struggled to brand myself.  I still felt a need to stay under the radar screen.  Even though I found clients quickly from past business relationships and referrals, I knew that it was time to take my own advice and break the pattern of living under the radar screen.

 

A couple of years ago, I decided to pursue my dream of spreading the coaching message, just like the story of Johnny Appleseed.  I wanted to go city to city, town to town and meet the people, face to face, and share with them my Life Coach concepts and services.  I wanted to introduce coaching to the general public, not just the celebrities and corporate executives.

 

 

 

I decided that the best way to achieve this goal is to buy a bus, wrap it and start the show as a on-location, live event.  I plan to distribute the show at the start via the internet, but eventually, host the show on the radio, possibly in a syndicated format.

 

So when you meet me at one of my live events or if you call into my show, please know that just like you, I had childhood thought patterns that I too had to change.  It was not easy, but I am doing it.  With your help, I can overcome my " belief pattern" that was no longer serving me well. 

 

So there you go, I just shared with you a little about myself and I hope this may help you or someone you know, who is trying to change a "learned behavior" from childhood that is no longer working.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Jeff