Affiliate Marketing Blog

Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Mike Allen on Politics, Raising Chickens, and Elvis Presley

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Mike Allen, Founder at Businesswright Consulting, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

Mike Allen

I wanted to learn more about the real Mike, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Why he got a BS in Political Science
  • Asking for hen advice on Twitter
  • Elvis Presley’s birthplace
  • His day job before affiliate marketing
  • The last movie he saw
  • Using his name .me over the .com

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Coping with Entrepreneurial Failure

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My name is Shawn Collins and I am a member of Business Failures Anonymous.

Shawn Collins at Affiliate Summit East 2018

I’ve failed more than I have succeeded in business if you look at the sheer number of companies formed and ideas implemented. Sometimes, I put the businesses down quietly and others were more noticed when they were gone.

There is some amount of grief involved each time, but I’ve always managed to push through to the other side and find my next victory.

I have found it helpful to apply the Kübler-Ross model, better known as the five stages of grief when I’ve failed. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

A side note to this: the five stages of grief are often thought of as transitions for grieving people who have lost loved ones, but they are actually a progression of emotional states experienced by terminally ill patients after diagnosis.

Anyhow, I’ve used it incorrectly to apply to myself and my failings, and being aware of the stages has made it easier to process things.

I have worked through the stages in a sort of unconventional way… with music.

I suppose I could keep a journal or something to chronicle things, but that’s too new age for me, and even in elementary school I was getting C’s in penmanship. It’s only gotten worse.

So anyhow, I make playlists for each stage. It sounds hokey, I know. But it’s really been therapeutic for me over the years. Those early-stage playlists are heavy on stuff like NIN and Eminem.

Moving on it’s some Smiths and other mopey 80s stuff. Finally, I get to some chilled out music from artists such as Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett for the point of acceptance.

It’s not that easy for everybody, though.

An article was published by Inc. in 2014 titled “The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship,” and it was about the demons and darkness that often accompany entrepreneurship.

The piece was shared frequently on social media among affiliate marketers because it struck a chord with so many. Additionally, research from the UC Berkeley Institutional Review Board that was published in the journal Small Business Economics painted a dire picture for entrepreneurs.

According to the report, entrepreneurs are significantly more likely than the general population to experience depression, ADHD, addiction, and a bipolar diagnosis.

Earlier this year people were shocked to hear of the suicides of high profile entrepreneurs Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. But they were just the latest.

In the past seven years, there have been lots of other well-known entrepreneurs who took their lives, including Faigy Mayer (CEO of Appton), Aaron Schwartz (Co-Founder of Reddit), and Ilya Zhitomirskiy (CEO of Diaspora).

No doubt there are people in our industry suffering every day. Know that you are loved by those of us in the industry and outside of it.

If you are in danger of acting on suicidal thoughts or are in any other life-threatening crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the U.S. at 800–273-TALK (8255), or visit suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html for other country-specific hotlines.

Angel Djambazov on Great Coffee, Farmer Profiling, and His Wide-Ranging Music Taste

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Angel Djambazov, Co-Founder, Marketing, Mayhem, and Business Development at Lab6 Media, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Angel, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Angel’s music taste and serendipity with music
  • Being endorsed on LinkedIn for food
  • When his wife was profiled as a shoplifter
  • Best coffee in Maryland
  • His favorite films
  • What he wanted to do with his college degree

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Dustin Howes on Movember, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and the Squeeze Play

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Founder & Chief Coach of PerformanceMarketingManager.com Dustin Howes joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

Dustin Howes

I wanted to learn more about the real Dustin, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Fighting Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
  • Growing a mustache for Movember
  • Tweeting at Hulu
  • Rooting for the Seattle Sounders
  • Tucker Max
  • The origin of the squeeze play in baseball

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Don’t Take Every Shot – Pass It Sometimes

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Last week I was at a game for my son’s soccer team. One of his teammates, who is typically a ball hog, dribbled until he had a bad angle and took a shot that went nowhere near the goal.

Jack in action on the pitch

A bunch of parents shouted about his good shot.

But it was selfish play and a bad shot. He should have crossed it.

I couldn’t blame the kid. He repeatedly takes lousy shots, and the sideline shouts out accolades and affirmations. It’s rare his shots are even on goal, and even less likely for them to go in.

That Wayne Gretzky Quote

One of the quotes I see most often in business presentations is that one from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

That’s not the whole quote, though. It’s the end of a bigger thought.

“The day I stop giving is the day I stop receiving. The day I stop learning is the day I stop growing. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

And yes, the premise is true that you do miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. However, it gives the impression that The Great One was firing off shots at every opportunity. But he wasn’t.

Gretzky has the NHL record for most goals all-time with 894 in the regular season.

Another notable item in the record books for Wayne Gretzky is the most assists in the regular season at 1,963. His assist total is more than 700 higher than the number two guy, Ron Francis.

Pass It More Than You Shoot

Wayne Gretzky scored tons of goals. I don’t think another player ever eclipses his record. And even less likely that another hockey player gets more assists than him in the NHL.

Remember this fact – he had more than twice as many assists as goals. That brings it back to the first part of his quote, “The day I stop giving is the day I stop receiving.”

He didn’t play selfishly – he directly helped his teammates score way more goals than he scored personally.

While the quote about the shots is probably his most popular one, I prefer a comment he shared in an interview a couple of years ago in Entrepreneur Magazine.

When asked which of his 60 records he’d like people to remember him for most, he responded, “Records come and go. When people remember me, I want them to say, ‘That guy worked as hard as he could on every single shift.’”

What is your work style, your work ethic? Do you go for the individual glory with each opportunity, or do you make decisions that will benefit your team the most?

Don’t be confused by clowns telling you those bad shots are good. Pass it off when somebody else has a better angle on it.

Zac Johnson on Hurricane Sandy, His Favorite Comic Book, and Meeting Shaq

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Entrepreneur Zac Johnson joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

Zac Johnson

I wanted to learn more about the real Zac, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • How he first started earning money
  • Dealing with Hurricane Sandy
  • His favorite comic book
  • Star Wars vs. Lord of the Rings
  • Having ulcerative colitis
  • Meeting Shaq as a kid

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Declan Dunn on Raising Wolves, Disco Fries, and remember.org

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Declan Dunn, Chief Growth Generator at Simply Responsive, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

Declan Dunn

I wanted to learn more about the real Declan, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Heading west from NJ to CO
  • Disco Fries vs Poutine
  • Raising pet wolves
  • Working on remember.org
  • Dangers of cell phones
  • His book selling for nearly $1k on Amazon

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Vix Leyton on Tattoos, Working at Tesco, and Ice Hockey

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Vix Leyton, PR Princess at Decision Tech, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Vix, so I asked her a variety of questions I figured she had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Her first job
  • Public urinals in England
  • Ice hockey in Wales
  • Morrissey ruining his music with opinions
  • Quality beers in the UK
  • Getting tattoos

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Brian LaFrance on BBQ, Sour Beers, and Mr. Zog’s Sex Wax

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Brian LaFrance, Lead SEO Analyst for CBS Interactive, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

Brian LaFrance

I wanted to learn more about the real Brian, so I asked him a variety of questions I figured he had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • Circuit of the Americas in Austin
  • Angelo’s Burgers in Oceanside, CA
  • Mr. Zog’s Sex Wax
  • Cooking BBQ
  • His favorite beers
  • South Park

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.

Anne Parris on The Disaster Artist, Introvert Breaks, and @ShotAtLife

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Anne Parris, Managing Partner at Midlife Boulevard, joined me to chat on my podcast, This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins.

I wanted to learn more about the real Anne, so I asked her a variety of questions I figured she had not been asked in previous interviews.

Topics included…

  • The Disaster Artist and The Room
  • Her ratings on Facebook
  • Taking introvert breaks at conferences
  • Shot at Life
  • Craft beer
  • The National Society of Newspaper Columnists

Links from this episode

If you enjoyed this episode of This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins, please share it.

This is Affiliate Marketing with Shawn Collins is focused on the people behind the affiliate management/OPM companies, advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, and affiliate networks.

On each episode, Shawn interviews a new guest related to the industry, so you can learn more about the people of affiliate marketing.

After all, affiliate marketing is about the people; not the companies.