Today we welcome to the show Matthew Capala the founder of Search Decoder
Matthew is a branding and SEO expert who has helped large brands, such as Apple, Dell, and Tommy Hilfiger leverage the use of the internet to spur growth. He is an adjunct professor at NYU where he teaches search marketing. He is the author of two books; Away with the Average and the Amazon best-selling book SEO like I’m 5.
As an Inbound marketing consultant, he is a sought after International speaker, having spoken at events like the Internet Summit, Search Marketing Day and MIX Caribbean. He is also a blogger whose work has been featured in The Huffington Post, TNW and ProBlogger. Matthew’s gone from construction worker to bus boy to a waiter to executive and now an entrepreneur. He’s a fellow Udemy instructor and a self-proclaimed bootstrapping dreamprenuer.
Matthew, Welcome to the show.
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Recommended book(s) for the show
Since I believe that reading is a necessary part of becoming a BRAND new you, I ask all of my guests what non-fiction book are you either reading now or just recently finished.
All of the links below are affiliate links that come with no extra cost to you.
Matthew mentioned two books.
The first is a book by Robert Cialdini, PH.D. called:
Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion
This is a classic book on persuasion that explains the psychology of why people say “yes”—and how to apply these understandings in our everyday lives.
Once released Matthew will also read this book by Dorie Clark:
StandOut – How to find you breakthrough idea and Build a following around it
Standout can be pre-ordered now on Amazon and will look into how too many people believe that if they keep their heads down and work hard, they will be lauded as experts on the merits of their work. Dorie challenges that this mindset is simply not true anymore. To make a name for yourself, you have to capitalize on your unique perspective and knowledge and inspire others to listen and take action.
This book is very relevant to the discussion that Matthew and I have on the show today.
Other Books mentioned –
SEO like I’m 5 – Matthew Capala
Away with Average – Matthew Capala
Reinventing You – Dorie Clark
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuk
WHY YOU NEED TO START BLOGGING
Matthew recommends owning your name in Google search results and the best way to do this is to have your own website. As you plan out your online strategy your website will act as your main hub where you will link everything you do online.
Why a website? Because each of us, you and I, need to think and act like a small media company. We need to be publishing content online and a blog allows you to do that quickly and easily.
Before you say that life is great and you have no need for a website, listen to the section of the podcast when Matthew and I discuss how after time we can easily get complacent and fall into a normal everyday routine in both our professional and personal lives. Matthew explains how this risky this path is today.
He references Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat and how being average is now officially over. In order to excel to get promoted, you need to add extra to your performance in order to compete today. The world has changed dramatically in just the last few years and having a great resume no longer helps you stand out.
Today, you need to be found and you need to be seen as a subject matter expert. You need to Just Start. Stop being complacent, Stop making excuses. Instead, be interesting.
TO BE INTERESTING, YOU MUST BE INTERESTED
When you are just starting out it is important that you don’t talk about your personal life on your blog. It’s not for posting pictures of your children or the party you went to last week.
Instead, you will use your blog to talk about what you want to be known for, what you want to be seen as an expert in. That’s why it’s really important when you are getting started to curate other people's information and don’t think of yourself as an expert.
You should, however, think of yourself as a life-long learner. Do things and help people and provide value to others. Curating other people content is a great way to establish yourself in a “space”. Once there you will learn all kinds of useful information and your audience will respect your ability to curate the content they want to see.
After some time learning from others, you will be able to add your unique point of view on top of theirs. Doing this will naturally lead you down the path of becoming a creator. Then after you have been blogging for a while you can use your content to publish a book on Amazon to further establish your thought leadership.
VISUAL STORYTELLING ON SLIDESHARE
Here a great quote by Seth Godin, “If you’re boring no one wants to connect with you. If you’re boring no one’s going to pay extra for you”. Think of that in the context of your day-to-day activities at work. Are you boring?
One way to not be boring on your website is to use SlideShare to help you tell stories. Matthew highly recommends using SlideShare. SlideShare makes use of PowerPoint and Keynote slides to help tell visual stories. It’s really a social network for professionals. It allows you to be interesting and not boring.
SlideShare is owned by LinkedIn which allows you to embed the slides into your profile. How many people profiles do you see with SlideShare presentations embedded in them? This simple act will help you stand out from all of the other profiles on LinkedIn in an educational and entertaining way. After all isn’t that why we learned all those PowerPoint skills?
Link to Matthew's SlideShare presentation on Personal Branding is HERE.
WRAP
The best way to get in touch with Matthew.
Twitter: @searchdecoder
Website: searchdecoder.com
Matthew's upcoming podcasts:
- SEO Like I'm 5
- Mastermind Sumo
Matthew left the listeners with this final thought when it comes to your career.
Is invisibility is a fate worse than failure. So fail. But in order to fail a few times, you need to just get started.
Thank you, Matthew, for being on the show.
