Prison Consultant Shows Success After Prison
Sunday, June 7 through Saturday, June 13, 2015
Sunday, June 7 (Office)
I spent the day developing systems that would allow me to bring more people on board to spread my work. The Earning Freedom podcast requires a lot of man hours to produce. It begins with scheduling guests or outlining a program topic. Then I must record the podcast. After recording the podcast, I must mix the audio file so that it includes the into and outro music. With the file mixed, I convert the file into an MP3 file. Then I must write the show notes, with links and keywords. I then load the file to a hosting service. Next step, loading the files into the MichaelSantos.com website. Following that, it’s important that I complete all of the social media work, which means announcing the work repeatedly throughout the day on Twitter, and once a day on Facebook and LinkedIn. Then, I must also maintain my newsletter, which I release three times each month and update this blog to record my activities. There is a lot of work that I must complete, but with systems I can delegate others to perform some of the administrative tasks. Today I built a spreadsheet that would allow me to begin that process of delegating tasks.
Monday, June 8 (Systems)
This morning I completed the spreadsheet for Twitter. It includes the title of every episode that I’ve recorded, a hyperlink to the page where it appears, and a hash-tag friendly tweet for twitter. Then I loaded all of that content into Hootsuite, a service that allows me to auto-schedule the release of tweets on Twitter. With Twitter, auto-scheduling can be an effective marketing tool. Why? Because billions of people use their cellphones to receive news. While they’re waiting for one thing or another, they can scan through their Twitter feed and see what’s happening–particularly with news that interests them. But it’s an ephemeral feed. Meaning, people scan through so quickly that they only read headlines. If they like what they read, they click the link and visit the page for more information. I want a strategy to attract people who have an interest in the products or services I offer. I’m testing the strategy today with my mom.
Tuesday, June 9 (Mercedes)
Today I surprised Carole with a new Mercedes SUV. I wanted to celebrate her graduation from the master’s program at the University of San Francisco. Carole has been studying toward a nursing career for about 10 years and I’m so incredibly proud of her discipline. I continue to document her accomplishment because I want her to know how much her pursuit of excellent impresses me. Both Carole and I have been disciplined in our pursuit of a career throughout our journey. When I returned to society after 26 years in prison, significant resources I developed allowed me to begin building my career. Carole and I operated as a team. Knowing that I would have an immense amount of work ahead, Carole returned to school in pursuit of her master’s while she simultaneously worked full time as a hospital RN. Now we’ve reached the end of her studies and I am so happy to celebrate her success with this new vehicle. It symbolizes the love, respect, and admiration that I have for her.
Wednesday, June 10 (Doug Hocking)
The Earning Freedom podcast is becoming more mature now that I have recorded nearly 100 episodes. I’m ready to begin developing these podcasts into a job-training program for the formerly incarcerated. Today I had a lengthy conversation with Doug Hocking, CEO of Hocking International Laboratories. Doug employs more than 100 people at his various locations and I spoke with him to gauge his interest in hiring formerly incarcerated individuals. I pledged to use the Earning Freedom podcast as a “soft-skills” training course that formerly incarcerated individuals could use to demonstrate their commitment to adding value to an employer. If I vetted the individuals, Doug agreed to consider them for full-time employment. This could be a great fit for one of my prongs–which is opening job opportunities. Employment in career-track positions, I think, is essential to improving outcomes of the nation’s prison problem.
Thursday, June 11 (Michigan)
Today I met some challenges from a client I’ve been trying to land. I’ve been working with representatives from the state of Michigan’s DOC. My hopes were to persuade Michigan to use the Earning Freedom Mastermind program as a resource in the prisons and in the reentry programs that it offers. More than 15,000 people go through the Michigan DOC each year. I am convinced that the Earning Freedom podcast could serve as a useful tool to motivate and teach them. The administrators agreed that it’s a promising tool. Yet today, they shared a tool they use to assess programs. In order to comply with that assessment tool, I will need to invest a considerable number of hours to flesh out my program. Now I must determine whether it makes sense for me to pursue this path of developing the program in ways that states like Michigan would want to use it. Once I developed the program, I’d need to give it away. States like Michigan would then use the program without charge to assess its performance. After we collected a sufficient amount of data, the sell would become much easier. But I suspect I’d need to wait 24 to 36 months before I reached a level of sustainability.
Friday, June 12 (Degreed)
I had a lengthy conversation with two young representatives of a Degreed, an innovative company that changes the way we assess education. Instead of measuring educational accomplishment with university degrees, Degreed allows individuals to demonstrate their learning through independent study. Anyone can design a course, and anyone who enrolls can learn from the course. Degreed lets us know that we all can offer value to the world, and we can collect learning resources from any number of places. I opened an account on Degreed. When my schedule opens, I’m going to begin building the Earning Freedom Mastermind course on that platform. People will be able to learn from strategies that have empowered me through the journey.
Saturday, June 13 (Michael)
This morning I had a lengthy conversation with Michael, a young man who graduated from Washington State a couple of years ago. Michael is working in marketing now and I invited him to invest some time marketing my products. There are many ways that he can add value now that I’m developing systems. During our 90 minute call, I introduced him to all of the products and services that I offer. Since my mom and Abhimanyu have been helping with the social media tasks, I’ve asked Michael to embark upon a direct-mail campaign that will let attorneys know about the sentencing mitigation, and consulting services I offer. In theory, if we connect with 1,000 defense attorneys, we should persuade 50 of the value that I can offer to clients. If those 50 defense attorneys introduce my work to two clients a year, I would build a client list of another 100 clients per year. Revenues that those accounts generate would allow me to grow my business.
Miles for week: 8.61
Miles for month: 15.05
Miles run for year: 392.19
Weight: 169
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