Ep 55 - Dan Shinder Talks About Social Media On Steroids

In this episode Dan shares:

That  he developed his Social Media On Steroids course after someone pointed out that DrumTalk TV was achieving 900% more online reach and engagement than its competitors.

Dan considers himself an introvert which I found surprising.

Dan preaches that "There's a lot of people who are forever learners with no action. With learning and no action, the knowledge is worthless without application of the knowledge. There's no progress, and without progress, it's all for naught.  Just put it out there and do it!"

Dan has been playing the drums for 52 years.

"If you're 1% better for a hundred days and you do it once a day, guess what? You'll be a hundred percent, in about three months.  That's an amazing leap."

Dan used to want to be an oceanographer but Dan's dad ruined that for him when he took Dan to see Led Zeppelin in concert.

Dan doesn't follow the herd mentality in life or in marketing.

Dan mirrors the legendary Zig Ziglar's philosophy when he explains, "If you give people more of what they want, you'll get more of what you want."

Dan loves teaching and sharing wisdom.

Dan credits the NSA (National Speakers Association) with helping him realize that he could apply his methods to other industries.

Dan says that before you can find your tribe you first have to find who you are and what you can offer them.  " I encourage people to take a piece of paper or they could do this on the computer and draw three circles that intersect in the middle.  So you get that sliver like this and in those three circles, and one of them, you write skills in one of them, you write opportunity. And in the other one, you write desire and your skills are, that's kind of obvious your attributes. What you're good at your opportunity is who are you connected with? Who are you connected with?  That's those are opportunities. Your desire is what do you really love to do? What makes you happy? And when you fill some things in those three circles where those three circles intersect with that sliver, that's what you should do."

Dan encourages others to take an almost brutal look at their businesses and ask people that are NOT their friends to evaluate them.  Friends are less likely to give you the objective feedback that you need.

Dan dislikes the term 'avatar' and prefers 'persona' instead as he believes it more accurately represents a potential tribe member. He also beleives that you can have more than one target avatar or persona as people's experiences can vary widely.  There's age ranges, there's genders, there's culture, there's race.  There's social strata, economic and political mindsets.

Dan credits his parents with helping him to develop his own positive mindset.  He came from a very loving family and it wasn't until he reached high school that he realized that was not necessarily the norm for everyone.

His Mom originally wanted Dan to be a drummer but to her credit (almost a year had gone by since he announced that he wanted to be a drummer instead) she helped him find his first paid touring gig when he was 15.

Dan went on tour opening for bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Styx, Heart, and others, all at the age of 15.