Want to Know How to Use the Power of Publicity to Your Company's Advantage?

Want to Know How to Use the Power of Publicity to Your Company's Advantage?
With the increasingly rapid pace of our business world, the
importance of getting your brand name regularly in front of
your target market is a very real situation that all
companies face. Even more difficult: actually being
remembered by consumers. Every month hundreds of
thousands of new companies with stacks of new products and
services flood media channels, so it's imperative to find
new ways for your products to be noticed and stand out in
such a crowded marketplace. Besides the obvious methods of
direct mail and display advertising, many companies also
choose to be featured as a guest on talk radio shows around
the country or distribute their press releases to national
magazines and newspapers.

These are, of course, fabulous ways to gain exposure, but
there is yet another vehicle which can help you harness the
power of publicity - appearances on local and national
Television!

TV is one of the most tangible forms of media to promote
your company and products to the masses. As it is a visual
medium, TV enables your target market to actually see and
hear why your product is of value to them. The visual you
create leaves the audience with a lasting impression you
just can't make on radio or in print. But just because
you've been invited on as a guest, and you're an expert on
your product, does not necessarily make for good TV.

In addition to having product knowledge and being a really
good looking man or woman there's something called a
likeability factor that involves a variety of tools you
need to have, for the masses to really sit up, pay
attention and buy into your message. With this in mind,
here are a few tips that will help you become the kind of
guest every host wants to have on his or her show and will
enable you to capitalize on this very valuable air-time.

1) Be energetic. Hosts and producers don't want duds on
their show! Have some energy and show your enthusiasm. The
more engaging you appear the more interested and involved
the audience will feel.

2) Be mindful of body language. If you are on-set watch
out if you are notorious for tapping your feet, squirming
in your chair and clenching your fists - these send the
wrong message. If you always talk with your hands, that's
okay; just don't over-exaggerate your movements and make
sure you don't make loud sounds that could interfere with
your microphone.

3) Research current news topics. Become well-versed in
current affairs that relate to your topic. If the anchor
asks you a question about a timely news story and you don't
know what he's talking about it erodes your credibility,
and likeability factor to their audience. So it's a good
idea to do a quick online news search for any stories
related to your topic right before your scheduled
interview. On the off chance that you are asked a question
that you don't know how to answer, be honest about it.
It's better to admit you're not sure about something than
to give out incorrect information.

4) Don't sound rehearsed. You don't want to sound like
you're reading from a telemarketing script. That's a cue
for viewers to simply tune out - they want to be
entertained and informed, not sold to. Instead, jot down
the key points you want to convey ahead of time. It's okay
to think about what your answers will be, but don't feel as
though you have to learn your lines. Then when it's time
for the interview, focus on those talking points and always
bring your answers back to your key message.

5) Don't be wordy. Don't try to look smarter by using
words only a few will understand. No one likes listening to
a pompous lecturer. People respond better when you talk
like they do. So keep your message simple and easy to
understand so viewers can relate to you better. Also avoid
insider jargon or technical terms that the general public
may not be familiar with. Keep in mind, your goal is to
achieve broad appeal to a wide audience; you can't do that
if they can't understand you.

6) Pace yourself! Remember that what you're really doing
is having a conversation. Talk at a normal pace - many
people talk too fast when they feel nervous and this can be
extremely distracting for viewers. Think about it, who
wants to sit down with their morning coffee and tuning into
their favorite morning show to watch (and listen to) an
annoying motor-mouth! The best way to combat this?
Actually listen to the interviewer's questions. The host
will appreciate your attentiveness and your engagement in a
lively dialogue.

7) Be descriptive. Pepper your answers with descriptive
words. Don't forget that a good portion of the TV audience
may not be actually watching their TV; they could be
getting ready for work, watching their kids or making
dinner. So appeal to their senses and help paint a picture
with your words.

8) If you stumble, stutter, or slip-up during an interview,
forget about it and move on. Don't dwell on your mistakes.
Don't get flustered. Even the most experienced news
anchors flub a line from time to time. It's best to just
move on instead of drawing attention to it. However, if
you've said something that is factually incorrect, address
it immediately and say something such as, "what I meant to
say was". The bottom line is stay on message and you'll be
fine - the audience understands that everybody makes
mistakes.

9) Get to the point. Don't ramble endlessly. You'll lose
your audience with long-winded answers that go on and on.
We've all struggled to stay awake during speeches or
lectures that seemed to last forever. But, in this case,
viewers will simply change the channel at which point
you've lost a great opportunity to promote your product!

10) Convey appropriate emotions. If you're talking about a
serious topic such as cancer, terrorism or mortgage
foreclosures, you shouldn't be grinning. Likewise, if your
topic is light-hearted, smile and don't be afraid to share
a chuckle with the host. Haven't we all seen someone on TV
whose facial expressions don't match the nature of the
subject? It's disconcerting for viewers and it makes you
look disingenuous. This is key for the likeability factor.

...and the list goes on, but this is a great start! Always
remember that your intention for every interview is to
enlighten the listening audience about your product or
service and interest them in purchasing it. And, what
happens if you're successful? Well you may not only be
invited back as an expert guest, but you could also drive
demand into the stores where, let's be honest, you would
rather your customers be parked instead of in front of the
tube!

----------------------------------------------------
Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on publicity
for authors for nearly two decades as CEO of Event
Management Services, Inc (EMSI). If you would like to
receive her free Ebook "How to Be a Great Talk Radio Guest"
visit http://www.emsincorporated.com .

Stuart learns that micromanaging spells disaster!

Stuart learns that micromanaging spells disaster!
Stuart had built up his electrical contracting company over
five years - and was disappointed to find that the staff he
had recruited did not seem to share his enthusiasm for the
job.

I asked Stuart to describe his company structure - and it
became clear that right from the early days, he had been
planning for the future. Casting his mind back to when he
had started his new venture, Stuart told me that he had
dreams of creating a successful business which would bring
employment to local people. Stuart knew that if he were to
achieve his ambitions, he needed to design a proper
structure for his fledgling company.

As well as creating appropriate systems and procedures,
Stuart had worked out how to ensure that everything from
sales & marketing through to finance & purchasing was
covered. Having taken a "big company" approach to his
small business, Stuart had believed - somewhat
optimistically - that actually running his company would be
plain sailing.

However, to his horror, profits were down for the second
year running and Stuart was beginning to believe that he
had been mistaken with his "grandiose" ideas and structural
plans. "Perhaps I have just been thinking too big," he
said, "maybe I just need to scale down the operation."

I assured Stuart that his approach had been correct - and
that many business failures can be attributed to the lack
of proper planning together with poor systems and
procedures.

"In order for a business to succeed, the right structure
needs to be in place from the beginning. So, I think we
need to look elsewhere to discover the root cause of your
problem," I said, asking him to tell me next about his team.

"Well," he replied, "I pay them over the odds but it looks
to me as though they take no ownership of anything. In
fact, they act as though they are just doing a 'job' - and
I'm disappointed as I expected so much more from them. "

Stuart had hoped that a fresh pair of eyes would provide
the answer - and together we decided to conduct a 360o
assessment of the company's management team. As I sat down
with Stuart's staff, I kept hearing the same story: "Stuart
doesn't trust us to do our jobs properly." Most of his
staff felt that Stuart interfered with their work - and
"micromanaged" their activities. By the end of my last
one-to-one session, I had concluded that Stuart simply
didn't want to let go of his "baby".

In our follow up meeting, I discussed my findings with
Stuart, who smiled sheepishly and admitted that he had
always liked to be in "control". I suggested to Stuart
that if he wanted to see different results, then he needed
to start to do things differently.

"You know that you took on good people in the first place,
so how about focussing everyone on the company goal of
making more money - and then letting them get on with their
jobs!"

Initially, Stuart looked sceptical but his face began to
relax as I continued, "Discuss with each individual their
personal targets and action plans - and make sure that the
latter are all specific, measurable and timed. You might
also want to get together with your staff monthly - almost
like a business coach - to discuss their progress and
successes. Of course, you will also be able to see if
there are any problems looming on the horizon. By allowing
people the space and freedom to do their jobs, you will
increase - exponentially - their motivation and job
satisfaction."

Stuart nodded and he saw the sense in my suggestions. I
continued, "Your job is to create the vision, strategy and
structure for the company's long term success or in other
words you are here to work 'on' the business, while your
staff are in place to work 'in' the business. "Just
remember," I concluded, "that you are not here to do
everyone's jobs in the company - leave that to the experts
you employ!"

----------------------------------------------------
Olivia Stefanino is a leadership consultant, speaker and
author of the internationally acclaimed management book,
"Be Your Own Guru". Interviewed on more than 25 radio
stations and featured in "The Guardian", "Natural Health"
& "Red", Olivia is a guest columnist for a number of
national and international publications. Download your
fr*ee e-booklet, "128 ways to harness your personal power!"
by visiting http://www.beyourownguru.com

Surviving Technology - 5 Tips to Keep Your Customers from Firing You...

Surviving Technology - 5 Tips to Keep Your Customers from Firing You...
As a business owner, how you perceive your customers
trickles down into all aspects of your business. How you
feel about them, talk about them, and serve them provides a
filter that your employees and service providers see
through, and that your customers can perceive right away.
This is a filter that your customers are intuitively aware
of in their interactions with you. They will be attracted
to you, or not, based on how you feel about serving them.

When you're starting out in a new business, you may be
looking for ways to best utilize your time, since it may be
just you juggling all aspects of the business. Utilizing
the latest technology is one way you can potentially
alleviate some of the stress of being the only person
answering the phone. As a small business, you may be
competing with many larger companies, so customer service
is especially critical. One major advantage of being small
is that you get to interact with your customers on a more
personal level, and this is where you can shine.

If you decide to use technology in your business it may be
one of the first interactions your customers have with you
as a service provider. Their first impression of your
business through this technology can start you off with a
warm, friendly relationship or an adversarial one. Once a
relationship starts off on the wrong foot, it's always
harder to change its direction...

A common example, I encounter on a daily basis, is the use
of directive recordings for the first contact with
customers. As a continuous user of technology, I want it
to provide me with a reliable way to access information, so
I can connect to the people and resources I need to build a
financially viable business. When I call for support and
receive recording after recording, with no option for
talking to a live body quickly, it's wasting my time and
causing me stress and frustration. In this way, technology
is keeping me from experiencing the very ease of
communicating and accessing information it was supposed to
provide!

The maze of companies that have gone to this method of
providing customer service is astounding. In many cases,
by the time a person reaches a live body they are so
frustrated that the service rep has to first overcome their
irritation before the problem can be addressed. In
addition, you need to take great care in choosing the tone
of the recording, since reaching a recording, as the first
point of contact with a company, can make customers feel
like you don't want to be bothered with their requests for
service.

It's possible to create a better customer service
experience and serve the company's best interests at the
same time? Here are some possible answers to this dilemma.

1. Give the customer no more than 3 or 4 recorded options
when calling in for customer service. One of the options
should always be allowing the customer to dial zero to
reach a person, who can immediately direct the customer to
the department that can best help them. I suggest using
zero since it's the most universally recognized number for
operator assistance.

2. If you require that the customer input their account
number, don't ask them for it again when they reach a
service provider. If your technology doesn't allow you to
transfer the account number to a representative, don't
require that the customer provide it up front. If the
account rep needs to verify the account number, tell the
customer they are asking again for verification purposes,
or verify other personal information instead. Repetition
is a small, but irritating, inconvenience.

3. Always provide a call back option if customers have to
wait more than five minutes to speak to a representative.
Show your customers you respect their time and you will
find the respect is returned.

4. Always call back the same day, if possible, but no later
than 24 hours after the initial contact. Unresolved issues
that go on for an extended period of time cause customers
to be even more irritated when they finally speak to
someone who can help them.

5. When talking to customers, always listen to all the
issues before responding. I have had more than one
customer service representative interrupt me before they
heard all my issues. This led to me repeating the problem
several times, and more frustration, because I was not
being heard.

Your customers are normal people with fears, insecurities,
and obligations just like you. These are people who are
looking for your business to help them:

* Solve a problem.

* Enjoy life more.

* Feel better about themselves.

* Provide something they need.

* Feel more secure.

The bottom line is, they are coming to your business
because they want help.

In the technology arena it's easy to get side-tracked by
the latest and greatest thing to make your life and
business "easier". But technology alone won't pay the
bills. Always come back to the basics of great customer
care strategies.

----------------------------------------------------
Would you like to learn more about how building a
soul-based business can create a thriving business that
feeds your spirit and bank account? Visit my website at
http://www.soulpreneursuccessstrategies.com to check out my
free "Creating Money" ebook, free articles, and Soulpreneur
Coaching Services.
Sandy Reed, the Soulpreneur's Coach, is a business coach,
writer, ex-corporate manager, and co-owns her own
successful home-based business.

How Great Leaders Successfully Jumpstart Reorganized Teams

How Great Leaders Successfully Jumpstart Reorganized Teams
So many clients have been telling me they're launching new
teams this month. But there's a catch - these are new teams
made of "old parts," which is to say no brand new employees
are on the teams. The teams are comprised entirely of
managers, professionals, and staff who have been
reorganized to better meet market demand.

Is it any different launching a brand new team vs. a
reorganized one? I don't think so, but it's easier to blow
it, because of assumptions you make about people you
already know. The steps are the same; it's the nuances that
are different.

Most leaders and their direct reports do a fantastic job of
addressing the goals and business objectives of the team
and of planning the tasks to be done. It's the building of
relationships that is too scant or poorly executed, and
this is why it's essential to build a relationship with
each new team member, and to get any relationship issues
out on the table so they can be addressed. If you don't
have time to deal with relationships now, when exactly will
you? This also gives you a chance to spend time with new
team members and learn who's on board and ready to move
forward with you and who isn't.

Let's look a little more closely at underlying relationship
problems, because they always come back to bite you.
Because your team is comprised of people who already have
working relationships of some sort, you need to understand
what's already going on, who's likely to work well together
to produce results, and if there are problems to be
addressed early on.

You also need to observe what's never going to be fixed
because, frankly, this means you need to eliminate someone
(or several someone's) from this team soon. It sounds
harsh, but it's the truth. I see more leaders drag down
their teams with team members who hate each other, each one
waiting out the other, hoping the hated peer will quit or
get fired. This makes it impossible for the team to get to
work and move the organization forward.

Be sure to check your relationship assumptions at the door,
even as you keep your legitimate concerns. A legitimate
concern is one that's backed up by observed behavior or
reports from reliable and utterly trustworthy sources. If
you've seen two people nearly try to kill each other while
working on separate teams, o.k., you can safely assume
you'll need to do some heavy-duty relationship repair or
eliminate one of them from the team, but remember that
there are plenty of relationship problems and strong points
that are mostly hidden from you. This is true for all
leaders. There are no exceptions. You just can't see
everything that's going on all the time, nor should you in
most cases (that would be micromanagement). But this is
also why you have to ask.

To that end, here's what I see the best leaders doing,
generally in this order:

1. Meet with each of your direct reports one-on-one,
preferably in person, in a private place.

During the one-on-one, ask each direct report to share any
observations or concerns, not just about the business goals
and objectives for the team, but about the team's ability
to work well together to get the job done. Be open about
your own concerns, too, to encourage a frank discussion and
to begin building a trusting relationship with each of your
new direct reports. No, they won't tell you everything,
but you'll at least establish that you want a relationship
characterized by frank exchange.

Ask what he or she needs from you as a leader. You might be
surprised. If you don't ask, you will give your directs
what you want from a leader, not what they want, which is
often different. I'm working with two leaders now whom I'm
convinced are among the most independent people on the
planet. They constantly have to remind themselves that 80%
or more of the managers and professionals in their
organization want what seems like an absurd and downright
insulting level of direction, because their needs are
different.

Share what you need from him or her as a team member and,
in the case of management teams, what you expect from his
or her leadership. So few team members will ask, and this
is incredibly good information to know.

2. Bring the team together for a good, solid launch. That's
launch, not lunch, but food is always a nice addition. Ask
each person what he or she wants to get out of the meeting,
the one thing that will cause them to leave at the end
saying, "Wow, that was a great use of my time on this new
team."

Yes, this does mean a little bit of designing the meeting
on the fly, particularly if you are surprised by some of
their answers. If you or they absolutely hate
improvisation, ask them in advance and build the agenda
accordingly. Have a flipchart in the room and use it to
track the discussion and any decisions made.

Reiterate any important messages that you shared in the
one-on-ones, whether they be business/task-oriented ("the
company missed our sales target by 20% last quarter for the
first time and it's our job to turn that around this very
quarter") or relationship-oriented ("I expect you to work
together, to share resources, and to come to me with
solutions, not just problems. I want you to work out your
differences regardless of whether or not I'm in the room. I
don't plan to play referee; I've got my hands full calming
shareholders.").

3. Do some concentrated teambuilding focused on the
relationship side of the equation; the business/task side
as well, if you need it. I use the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator® (MBTI®) to help people work better
together because it is reliable and valid and I have
delivered proven results with it many times over. I also
occasionally use other tools if I deem them a better fit.

Whatever tool you use, make sure you use it to learn about
each other and your likely team strengths and blind spots
in a non-judgmental manner. Any tool that measures
someone's effectiveness, for example, is terrible for
team-building, because it puts people in a hierarchical
line-up from the most effective to the least effective.

Use a tool that brings people together by helping them
understand their own styles and needs and the styles and
needs of their teammates, not one that designates some
styles as superior, which is impossible to measure, anyway.

4. Collectively set measures for team success. The obvious
measures are the achievement of your business goals, but
what about also measuring some of the things that enabled
that achievement? How about a measure of the quality of
your decision-making process? How about a measure of how
committed you are to work with each other going forward?
How about a measure of how quickly and effectively you were
able to integrate new team members, or respond to changes
in direction or work load or whatever else matters to the
team? The options are endless, but there's merit in
identifying a few measures of how you got there, not just
whether or not you got there.

Happy Launching!

----------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Selby Long, Founder and Principal of Selby Group,
provides executive coaching and organizational development
services. Jennifer's knack is helping clients navigate the
leadership and organizational challenges triggered by
change and growth. She knows firsthand that great plans
often fail because companies don't take into account the
human factors that come into play when implementing them.
Visit Jennifer at: http://selbygroup.com

The World's Oldest Job Interview Question - and How to Answer It

The World's Oldest Job Interview Question - and How to Answer It
"Tell me about yourself."

It really isn't a question. It's an open-ended command.
It's an icebreaker for both interviewer and interviewee.

To put it another way, imagine you're single, and imagine
yourself at a cocktail party. And as you're mingling, you
meet someone attractive, and you say, "Tell me about
yourself."

And that person doesn't shut up for the next fifteen
minutes. Does that sound like fun for you? Probably not.
You're probably looking to catch the host's eye for a
conversational escape by minute five, and mentally crossing
off a list of lame excuses to walk away by minute ten.

In other words, you've essentially stopped listening and
you feel trapped. Do you want your job interviewer to have
the same experience with you?

When you rehearse your answer to this question - that is,
when you practice or role play with a friend, business
coach, or loved one - here are a few tips for creating a
great answer:

1. Don't go for the throat.

Your resume got you in the door, and you're going to be in
the interviewee's chair for another 30-60 minutes. Relax.
Don't try to tell the interviewer why you're the right one
for the job in that first answer. No interviewer ever hears
the answer to "Tell me about yourself" and says, "Stop the
interview! The job is yours!"

2. Keep it high-level.

The executive summary of your resume has the salient points
of your career direction concisely packaged. Drawing from
that language (though not parroting it) reinforces your
personal marketing message, and connects the dots between
you and the position you're seeking.

3. Keep it focused.

Don't talk about your early childhood unless it has a
direct correlation to why you're in the interviewee chair.
And if it does have a direct correlation, get to the point
fast.

4. Keep it brief.

You'd be surprised at how slow time moves in an interview.
In a conversational tone and style, reading this article
aloud would take less than three minutes, and it's about
400 words. Three minutes is forever in an interview,
especially at the start.

There's a reason why "Tell me about yourself" is so
commonly used, and it's just to get the conversational ball
rolling. Keep your answer simple, high-level, focused on no
more than 2-3 salient points, conversational, and about
half as long as this article.

----------------------------------------------------
Allen Voivod is the Chief Blogger for ResumeMachine.com,
the leading resume distribution resource for managers,
executives, and professionals looking to accelerate their
job search results. Get the attention of thousands of
hiring agents with the largest and most frequently updated
recruiter database on the web, and dive into a wealth of
immediately useful career articles and blog posts - all at
http://www.ResumeMachine.com !

Can Becoming a "Thoughtleader" Give You an Edge? Attempts to Quantify Its ROI Say YES

Can Becoming a "Thoughtleader" Give You an Edge? Attempts to Quantify Its ROI Say YES
Have you ever thought about or noticed a competitor
utilizing "thoughtleading" as a business development
strategy? Positioning yourself and your firm as
leading-edge thinkers in your field involves publishing
articles and books, speaking regularly to professional
groups, getting yourself noticed by the media and surveying
your target market in order to produce research data that
only you possess.

If that sounds like fun, or simply a potentially
advantageous way to distinguish your firm's services, one
major hurdle to choosing to implement such a novel strategy
might be the question of ROI, specifically: : Does evidence
exist that a thoughtleading strategy really will generate
new business growth? Is there any way to accurately measure
this? Can a "thoughtleading Return-on-Investment (ROI)" be
quantified? More importantly, can it pay dividends for YOU?
Happily, the answer to all four questions is "yes."

Studies indicate that a quantifiable ROI can in fact be
discerned, and, just as happily, indications are that
results will be overwhelmingly affirmative. Getting to the
heart of the issue, however, first requires an
understanding that age-old ways of measuring ROI may not
always apply here. That's because a new equation in our
economy, one that's mistier than traditional bottom-line
measurements, demands alternative methods of measurement.
This new equation is the economic asset of "intellectual
capital" (or IC).

The concrete ROI metric standard until now has always been
based on "I-can-see-it-with-my-own-eyes." This still
applies to material goods of course but IC's decidedly
non-Industrial Age elements can be harder to fathom. Mary
Adams, Managing, Principal of Trek Consulting LLC
(http://www.trekconsulting.com/), specialists in the
developing study of IC as an asset that can be measured,
explains it this way: "Can you imagine a merchant without
an inventory report, having to sell product without knowing
the quantity or price of goods he owns? Yet this is the
position that most corporate leaders are in today. They
lack basic consolidated information about their most
important resources: Do we have the right people, network,
and knowledge to meet our goals? Are we positioned for
continued innovation? Where are we at risk?"

Such relatively "soft" questions leave the interpretation
of data and resulting ROI conclusions in the hands (and
minds) of analysts to a greater degree than has been true
of traditional ROI measurement with its clear numbers and
black-and-white company balance sheet. As one example,
Kennedy Information, the nation's premiere management
consulting think tank, which regularly conducts surveys of
management consulting compensation, has found that firms
and individual consultants at the topmost point of the
compensation chart are paid way, way better than the
remaining 99% below. When asked how the top 1% manage this,
the response is crisp and clear: "Oh, those highest
revenue-producers are the ones who regularly publish
articles and books, do speaking engagements, and connect
with the media," the Kennedy people explain. "They are the
thoughtleaders."

Another recent study has also correlated increased revenue
with publishing, speaking, media and other individual
thoughtleading actions, adding that thoughtleading's ROI
will be measurably high when thoughtleading actions are
integrated with a firm's more traditional marketing and
sales activities. Article-publishing ROI, for example,
incorporated in the marketing and selling pipeline, can
easily be measured by asking prospects if the firm's
published articles had played any part either in their
initial decision to approach the company or in their
ultimate decision to do business with the company. One
professional services firm can testify to this personally.

"We always email prospects a PDF or two of our published
articles early in the sales process," says the firm's
president. "We want our prospects to see a relevant
published article of ours so they will glance at it and be
impressed. 'Wow, this looks pretty cool' may be all they
say, then we move on. But that's sufficient to stamp my
firm as something more than some run-of-the-mill
consultancy, which is what they may be thinking."

Some studies have even produced clear and definitive
measurements sufficient to satisfy even the most old school
quantifiability standards. One survey of law firms by
Levick Strategic Communications and PR Newswire surveyed
200 firms that had gotten themselves mentioned consistently
in the legal media. Their survey found that the 25 firms on
its list with the highest revenues were also those with an
average increase of nearly 20% in overall media presence
over the previous two years. Firms ranked below these 25 in
terms of income, however, reported a mere 1% increase in
media presence.

Is there also anecdotal evidence that thoughtleading
produces a measurable ROI? You bet. Former top executive
recruiter Jim Masciarelli, now founder and CEO of
PowerSkills Solutions, a "relationship capital" consulting
firm, recalls one time when his book PowerSkills: Building
Top-Level Relationships for Bottom-Line Results clearly led
directly to a piece of business that he certainly would not
have landed on his own: "A partner of a top venture capital
firm who knew me from my past career as a retained
executive search consultant called me up after receiving an
announcement of my book PowerSkills, which details a system
I created for building profitable business relationships.
He said, 'I understand you're now doing advisory and
alignment work with CEOs and executive teams. We could
really use your help!'

"Their portfolio company had just acquired a major Internet
company in a 22- billion dollar stock deal," Jim recalls,
"but the CEO did not yet have a plan to integrate these
companies. The mere announcement of my book (and, with it,
my new practice) repositioned me as an expert in his mind
in this new line of work I was now pursing. As a result, I
got the introduction to the CEO and ultimately the
assignment as well."

Are you wondering if all this means that publishing an
article or a book, or engaging in other thoughtleading
actions such as public speaking, media and research, will
automatically yield you new business and/or drive your
incomes levels up above that of your competitors? Well,
there are no guarantees in life, so no one can say for
sure. But it is clear from all the data and anecdotal
evidence that the likelihood is there. Since most of your
competitors will ignore it, a thoughtleading business
development strategy could be the smartest decision a
professional services firm could make. There are just so
very many facts, figures, studies, stories and personal
experiences to back you up.

----------------------------------------------------
Ken Lizotte CMC is author of the new book The Expert's
Edge: Become the Go-To Authority that People Turn to Every
Time (McGraw Hill) which shows professional service
providers how to position themselves as thought leaders so
they can "separate themselves from the competitive pack."
Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group
inc. (Concord MA), Ken speaks at conferences and other
business events on such topics as becoming a thoughtleader,
getting published, creative thinking and work/family
balance. Visit Ken's website at
http://www.thoughtleading.com