Wednesday Weapons - To ask or not to ask; is that your question?

Written on 12:55 PM by J

To ask or not to ask; is that your question?

In a recent issue of Success Magazine, I read an article where, world renowned motivational speaker and entrepreneur Tony Robbins stated "success leaves clues". (I would recommend everyone pick up a copy of and subscribe to Success Magazine) This means that someone has been successful in your endeavor and one of the best ways to become successful and more successful, is to find out how they obtained their success. Hearing this both inspired me and made me wonder, why many entrepreneurs/professionals are not successful? Could it be because they are confused in constructing the business model? Could it be because they don't understand the best practices of marketing, themselves and their products? Could it be because they don't know how to begin to generate revenue from their endeavors? Or could it be because they do not ask for advice (in all these areas)?

Social Media blogger, Monica O'brien (@monicaobrien), blogged on the topic in her "Need Something? Try asking for it" blog. In this blog, she expresses there is no harm in asking, that many times the situation works in your favor…so what do you have to lose? ASK!!! I took this blog to heart and began to reach out to key players in the social media industry with questions of how to build, market, and generate revenue from our business endeavor. Most of the players such as Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki), Ryan Durkin of CampusLIVE, and most recent Jun Loayza of Future Delivery (@JunLoayza), are in concurrence and support of our resource to help young professionals/entrepreneurs communicate effectively in the corporate environment.

Jun was AWESOME enough to share a few tips on increasing traffic on our blog/site. I feel obliged to share with you, my friends; they are as follows:

· Promote the blog on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, and other social networks
· Use Twitter Tools to automatically post a tweet everytime you post a blog post
· Contribute to other blogs and publications: check out Jun's Press page
· Build followers on Twitter: strategically use Tweet Manager, Tweet Later, and Social Too

The following is a personal example of how asking questions benefit you (happened to me TODAY!!!!): I attended a Black History Month presentation for my job; where the key note speaker was nationally recognized Dr. Julianne Malveaux. She is currently the President of Bennett College for Women (HBCU), has appeared on many shows (CNN, BET, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, to name a few) and has written many books. She spoke about the resilience and faith of African Americans, including the historic victory of President Barack Obama. When her speech concluded, I asked a question regarding keeping the millennials energized and focused past the boost they received from the victory. (in an OPEN FORUM consisting of a couple hundred people!!) She responded by saying we have to "become our own leaders". The result of this ONE question was many top executives approaching me to commend the courage and it also placed my name in the hat for youth leadership (as I was the only person of my generation to ask a question).

To ask or not to ask; is it even a question? ASK!!!!!!!!

-J