What if we lived life by telling another person “I’ll Wear Your Shoes”. What if we lived life by being more empathetic, more caring, listened more.

What if we at least tried just a little bit to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” as the 1895 idiom from poet Mary T. Lathrap goes.

Before we get upset about what someone said to us this morning.

Before we get angry at our husband or wife.

Before we yell at their kids, let’s first be willing to tell them “I’ll Wear Your Shoes”.

Like this video?

Encourage someone else to watch it.

Copy and post this to your platform of choice and share it!

Let’s be more empathetic, watch this short video “I’ll Wear Your Shows” at www.IllWearYourShoes.com

HOWEVER, The WSJ (and zillions of others) recently wrote about how the SAT tests will be weighed by “adversity” — https://www.wsj.com/…/sat-to-give-students-adversity-score-….

So if you’re a black kid and your school and other indicators are all on the “up and up”, your score will be weighted relative to a white kid who grew up in a “bad” part of town and had other social things going against you.

I TOTALLY GET THIS.

We want to level the playing field for education. I get it.

The SAT SCORE is a NUMBER and we want colleges to know that this kid might have had a low score but they have POTENTIAL and are SMART!

However, my concern is that this system will KEEP “disadvantaged” kids disadvantaged for their entire life.

This rat race of “COLLEGE SCORES” — angers me.

Indeed, JODI gets a relative LOW SAT SCORE and JAMIE gets a relatively high one.

JODI had parents who beat her and she had roaches and rats in her crappy apartment.

JAMIE lived on the Upper West side of Manhattan and had a (seemingly) perfect little life.

I GET IT.

We want to still give JODI a chance.

But guess what?

Although, Jodi might have an initially tougher way to go, SUCCESS CAN STILL HAPPEN.

Immigrants do it all the time.

They come from some “sucky” country with a “sucky” way of life, they don’t know English, drive Uber or get abused in a minimum wage job washing dishes and then they become the CEO of YOUR company or get a great job in any other position in our wonderful America.

My point being — INDEED — WE black Americans have an HISTORICAL imbalance vs our WHITE Americans.

I KNOW THIS.

However, at some point, generationally MUST WE NOT CHANGE OUR MINDSET.

LIFE IS NOT EASY. IT IS NEVER FAIR. There are winners and there are LOSERS.

Some succeed, Some fail.

Some cheat, some don’t. Some die, some live.

However, we have seen ENOUGH STORIES where GOOD CHARACTER, HARD WORD and a SKILL, will win in the end. Be the BEST at something.

Maybe I’m missing something. But I am so tired of us LOWERING STANDARDS so others can rise. INSTEAD we should be HELPING people RAISE THEIR STANDARDS and THRIVE. Am I missing something?

Tiger Woods showed this so well. He just KEPT GOING and KEPT GOING.

One of the questions I’m often asked is, “Ramon how can I get more customers and keep the customers I have”. It’s something that EVERY business owner wants to know, big and small.

The challenge with smaller businesses is that we have few resources, less staff, less time than a large business. They can spend lots of money on advertising campaigns.

For entrepreneurs who want to INVEST in their business, the key is to build a strong personal brand. I write about this in my latest book, “Celebrity CEO: How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive by Building Community and a Strong Personal Brand”.

Instead of trying to FIRST get sales, I recommend FIRST build a fan base, build a tribe. Get people to know, like and trust you.

Once you do this, it’s a lot easier to ask for the sale.

Trust is essential in sales.

Celebrity CEO, shows you the best practices and insights I’ve found over the years to grow my business. Indeed, I LOVE sales. But what I do much more than sales is develop, nurture, educate my community.

This article is a quick guide for event planners, hosts, speakers and for MICROPHONE RUNNERS in how to have the best Q&A experience ever.

1. Don’t be shy. Be proactive in your microphone running and don’t be shy. Remember you hold the mic YOU are in charge (in conjunction with the host)
2. Be proactive. Instead of waiting for the speaker to ask for the “next question”, you raise your hand, with your back to the speaker and you facing the audience indicating to the audience that you want to know who has a question. YOU then be READY for the next question, it moves things along.
3. Don’t encourage MIC hogs. When the attendee is finished with their question, politely take the microphone and go find the next question (see my point 3 above) in this way you are always keeping the questions flowing and in motion.
4. When you are ready for the next question, be sure to raise your hand so the SPEAKER knows where you are and thus where the attendee is with the question. On stage sometimes the lights are very bright and you can’t see where the “mic runner is”. So be sure to HOLD your hand hi or do a simple, “here” so the speaker knows where you are.
5. Kneel down — if you’re standing next to an attendee that is in the middle it’s polite to the other attendees for you to KNEEL as the attendee is asking the question. In this way you are not in the way of other attendees, of the camera or etc.

BONUS

I’ve also served as an event host and all around “help at the event guy”, there’s a few things to keep in mind.

1. Be proactive — LOOK around the room for PROBLEMS
2. Scan the audience — I always scan the audience for two reasons. One to make sure they’re having a good time and TWO — to see if there are problems. Often times I’ve seen someone tapping their ear to indicate to me that they could not hear.
3. Know audio technology — as “help at the event guy” — it’s important that I’m able to turn up volume, change batteries on hand held mics and so much more. At most bigger events you’ll have an audio team that can take care of this but at some events YOU might be the one to “save the day”.
4. Know about computers — there’s been MORE than one event where I’ve helped a speaker get their Power Point / Keynote working or in other ways. At times someone brought a computer that could not connect and I’ve helped out. If YOU know HDMI vs VGA and USB and etc you can help and be an asset
5. Touch base with the event host or organizer. I always check in verbally or at least make eye contact with the event organizer or host to ensure I’m doing things ok and/or that they’re ok.

Gene Marks has a nice article here about how to make your corporate event a success.

Recently, Ramon Ray was speaking at the NY Public Library. One of the attendees, a DJ, shared that he needed $8,000 in funding to start his business and asked Ramon for advice. Ramon cautioned that instead of seeking $8,000 in funding, the DJ should focus first on SELLING more of his DJ services. He can save the money to start the next phase of his business or wait until his business grows more. For investors $8,000 is a very small amount of money and the DJ’s business is too early for funding.

Another option is to at the every least seek a loan from family or friend.

While Shark Tank is an amazing show, I’ve interviewed many of the Sharks and show contestants, FUNDING is not what many emerging business owners needs. Sometimes we see the “media” frenzy over companies getting funding and forget that MOST businesses DO NOT need funding to start.

As Earl “Butch” Graves discussed with Marc Cuban at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneur’s Summit — what is MOST needed by business owners who are starting their businesses is making SALES and HUSTLE.

As you grow, sometimes you need a line of credit (or other financial option) to fund the GROWTH of your business — but NOT to start it.

Travis Perry gets a joy out of seeing children (and adults) learn the guitar through his invention and company, Chord Buddy. You might have seen him on an episode of Shark Tank.

During our discussion Travis not only shared his story, but also offered several important tips, including:

• You must have passion to keep you going through the TOUGH Times
• Build a team — you cannot do everything on your own
• Create more products and services related to your core offering
• You will have failure

Listen to our interview below

Amazon is raising the price of Prime from $99 to $119, reports CNBC and other news outlets.

No one cares.

Why?

Amazon offers exceptionally great customer service.

Has just about everything anyone can ever need.

The products and services are delivered fast.

Overall Amazon has earned the right to raise its prices.

When you do well, you can raise your prices.

Give value and then sales will come.

As entrepreneurs and independent business owners, sometimes we get so focused on business and hustle that we forget about heart. We forget about the importance of people and the empathy and understanding that go into building relationships overall, but especially within the context of building business.

I’m excited that Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia (a Gary Vaynerchuk company) will share her insights on people, teams, heart and hustle at the Seth Godin Mastermind at the Smart Hustle Small Business Conference.

The Seth Godin Mastermind taking place at the 13th Annual Smart Hustle Small Business Conference is held in New York City on Thursday, 8 November 2018.

http://www.smarthustle.com/conference

Hosted and produced by Ramon Ray www.ramonray.com , entrepreneur, global speaker and best selling author, the Smart Hustle Small Business Conference is one of the best events for business owners hungry to grow their business and better themselves!

Why attend?

• Video Marketing — Learn how to use video to get increase sales, attract more customers and build your brand. Speaker — Roberto Blake, Youtube Celebrity
• Hustle with Heart — Hard working and hustle are important, but without empathy, compassion and heart, it’s empty. Learn how to hustle with heart from Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer, VaynerMedia a Gary Vaynerchuk Company
• Your Perfect PItch — Learn how to quickly pitch your business to get people interested to want to hear more. Learn from Laura Allen, The Perfect PItch Girl and Adrian Miller, Adrian Miller Sales Training
• Inside Cory’s Cookies — Hear the amazing story of how Cory and Lisa built Cory’s Cookies and partnered with Marcus Lemonis
• Seth Godin Mastermind — Join Seth Godin for a powerful marketing mastermind to help GROW YOUR BUSINESS

With a curated mix of networking, main stage presentations and sponsors the conference is an oasis of practical insight for entrepreneurs hungry for growing their businesses.

Attendee, after attendee, after attendee share how much fun they had, information delivered, and tips and insights they received from the main stage.

For the past 13th years, Ramon has brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners who spend a day learning from main stage speakers and networking with each other.

One of the major highlights of the conference is the in demand “Seth Godin Mastermind” a 90 minute, intimate, discussion with marketing master and thought leader Seth Godin. Seth takes the time to share his thoughts on marketing, branding and more and more importantly answer specific questions from the attendees.

The conference, an all day event, is an exciting time of networking, inspiration and practical ideas to grow and scale one’s business.

Speakers at the conference include:

• Lisa and Cory, owners of Mr. Cory’s Cookies, recently who were invested in by Marcus Lemonis of CNBC’s “The Profit” — www.mrcoryscookies.com
• Roberto Blake, celebrity YouTube video expert. — www.robertoblake.com
• Laura Allen, The Pitch Girl www.thepitchgirl.com/ — expert in giving the perfect pitch
• Adrian Miller, expert sales training, www.adrianmiller.com
• Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer, VaynerMedia www.vaynermedia.com
• Ramon Ray, entrepreneur, global speaker and best selling author — www.ramonray.com