Free Advice Friday
What Exactly is #FreeAdviceFriday?
Every Friday, I take my lunch at 1pm at the Middletown ( Louisville, KY ) BW3′s.
As a way to stay more productive and also network with others, I decided that I would share my lunch with business owners, marketing geeks, and web peeps to bounce around ideas and help them with their online marketing goals. Think of it like a normal lunch ( yes, I will be eating ), but with the opportunity to sit down and discuss issues, problems, ideas, or general web development talk with someone that has been doing “stuff” online since 1995.
Is This An Organized Event?
Nope. BW3′s does not even know I am doing this. Simply put, I am having my lunch there and could answer and talk shop with you while doing it. I am only expecting a couple people to even show up, so if we end up having 100 people all at one table for lunch I guess there will be a problem! Any way, this is just something I am doing every Friday at 1pm since I eat lunch there anyways. If you want to come, ask questions and network and hang out with like minded people, why not? I don’t charge anything for it, but you will need to purchase your lunch at BW3′s or else they might get pissed.
WhyAre You Doing This?
Well, not only would I like to network more with like minded people and also help out on projects I could be a part of, but I would also like to maximize my lunch as well by bouncing ideas and talking with others that are interested in the same things I am. Meetup groups after work, events held 1 time a year, and trade shows held in other states just never seem to fit me. I am either always having to do something after work ( I have kids and a wife ), or doing something else that 1 time a year, or can not travel to the other side of North America just to make an event.. However, I can devote 1 lunch a week ( for 60 minutes ) to almost doing the same thing!
OK, But Who Are You And Why Should We Care?
I get it, some stranger asking you to have lunch with you sounds odd right?
Well, I am a 15 year vet. to almost all things online. I’ve been a web design, programmer, Internet marketer, and entrepreneur all this time and there is nothing I have not done online. I have designed sites with HTML and CSS, programmed eCommerce back ends with PHP ,MySQL and Ajax/Javascript, have hundreds of top 3 rankings in Google and Yahoo/Bing across thousands of keywords, personally bought over 2 million dollars worth of PPC/PPV/Social Media ads, and handled budgets for Media Buys across all the top networks. I have split tested more design elements and banner ads then most web design firms combined.
I have also been involved in the full life cycle of product development, from concept to outsourced development, to fulfillment and logistics, and merchant account processing and call center setups. I have also personally been responsible for helping companies generate millions ( literally ) of dollars in new revenue. Currently, I am heavily interested in SaaS business models and creating lean start-ups for the web.
It’s just lunch, why wouldn’t you want to have lunch with someone willing to give you free advice about your online ventures?
Also, I am hoping to attract more like minded people, so this will not always “just be me” interacting with you, but hopefully a small group of talented people.
Anything Else?
1. This is not a free lunch for you. I’m having lunch and so should you.
2. Some Fridays I just wont be there. I am human and things come up. I will post on Twitter if I am not able to attend.
3. I choose to take a 60 minute lunch, I might stay afterward sometimes but I can’t do this for 2-3 hours every Friday.
4. This is generalized biz. help and bouncing ideas back and forth. I am not going to lay out a foundation for you to make millions online and increase your traffic 9999% for free in 60 minutes.