Marketing Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Why You Need To Keep Positioning Yourself As An Expert

The Case For Why You Need to Keep Positioning Yourself as an Expert.

This is the second time in my life it’s happened. A stranger asked for my autograph as I stood on the street. I was positioning myself as an expert without even realizing I was doing it.

I’m not a celebrity or a known personality. So why did these passers-by ask for my autograph?

I was a perfect September day and the passers-by were just following their instinct and conditioning.

You see, I was with my client Marya who was about to be featured on NBC to talk about her new book Career X, that we had recently published for her. We thought it would be fun to hire a video crew to document our experience leading up to being on NBC, and both she and I could use the video in our marketing.

So, the passers-by didn’t recognize us or mistake us for celebrities. They just assumed that we were celebrities based on our positioning -the video crew following us signaled to them and made them believe without a doubt that we were celebrities and they were just too bashful to even ask who we were.

They were attracted to us as celebrities – whoever we were.

So why am I telling you this?

As an entrepreneur or author, you should always be positioning yourself as the expert so that you stand out in your niche. It helps do the following:

Solidifies your expert positioning
Presells prospects on working with you
Creates an enhanced desire to work with you
It sets the expectation that as an expert, they can expect to pay premium pricing to work with you

Even if you are higher priced than your competitors or the highest price in your market, positioning yourself as an expert reduces price resistance and negotiation.

Take a lesson on expert positioning from celebrities like Richard Branson

Here is another example of expert positioning from a true, internationally recognized celebrity – Richard Branson – one of my business heroes.

Doing lead generation on LinkedIn, I noticed something in conversations with my new connections. Following some back-and-forth messages and a few phone conversations, if I believe that a connection might be a fit for my services, I will ask if they’ve ever thought of writing a book. On numerous occasions, I have gotten a sharp response back saying, “I’m already an author.” In one instance, the response was “I’ve written ten books and they are translated in multiple languages.”

I’m human and sometimes I make mistakes, so feeling I had possibly goofed and missed it on their LinkedIn profile when I initially reviewed it, I went back and checked. Nowhere on their LinkedIn profile is there a mention of their book. This always surprises me. For most people, writing a book is something that they’re immensely proud of. It’s a big achievement. And it’s a great expert position piece. So why isn’t it on their profile?

Branson and Gary V recognize the importance of positioning, continually. They both showcase their books in their profile graphic and title description.

Richard Branson takes his positioning even further by including endorsements for his book from other recognizable names – Sheryl Sandberg and Bill Gates. He shows that positioning is an ongoing process, even after you reach celebrity status.

Dan Kennedy, legendary marketer and author stated it well when he said:

“The simple truth is, if you aren’t deliberately, systematically, methodically – or rapidly and dramatically – establishing yourself as a celebrity, at least to your clientele and target market, you’re asleep at the wheel, ignoring what is fuelling the entire economy around you and neglecting development of a measurably valuable asset.”

Want help with your celebrity positioning? Schedule a complimentary strategy session here

Ready to add Author to your resume and positioning? Join us for the 8 Week Book Coaching Program

Why Your Brand Needs Both PR and Content Strategy

You’ve heard the expression ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ It is true for your communications, which should include both PR and content strategy.

An ideal communication strategy strives to incorporate all channels to get the attention of stakeholders. This includes using the following types of media: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned or the PESO Method.

PR and content strategy both serve unique and useful purposes for you, work well together, and as a result create greater Roi. Here is how:

PR is Earned media and Content Marketing is Owned Media.

Your content strategy can consist of your website, blog posts, articles, and social media. It gives you a chance to communicate with your audience and share ideas and topics that matter to them. It is also a chance to educate and inform about your brand.

Using the right keywords in your content can help your ideal prospects find you, based on topics, solutions, and products they are already searching for. Your owned media is a key component of your communication strategy as you get to tell your story and craft your communication and messaging your way. You have full control over your content.

Your owned media gives you a chance to communicate directly with your audience, exactly as you choose to, as often as you choose to.

Publicity is referred to as earned media, as it is something that you have to work to garner. With PR, while you have less control over your messaging – the media has the final say on what they write, it is the most desirable form of communication. Getting mentioned or featured in the media gives you free visibility in front of an audience outside your own.

Being written about in the media gives the reader, viewer or listener the impression your brand is endorsed by the media [though technically it is not]. You get a positive boost to your brand by being associated with the media outlet. Think of it as a 5-star review on Yelp or another online platform.

Unlike your owned media, you don’t get to decide when, where, or how often you get publicity. What you can do is be strategic in the media outlets you target and have a consistent media outreach plan.

How Your PR and Content Strategy Work Well Together:

Your owned and earned media complement and lift each other. Consumers are suspicious and less trusting of what you say about your brand, products, and services. They do trust the media. Publicity provides third party credibility to your brand. It also provides authority positioning; someone else, the media, citing you as an expert or talking about your product.

Your earned media makes for great content. You amplify the value of the publicity you get when you share it with your audience.

The benefits of having both owned and earned media are that they [can] help you get more publicity. When a journalist googles you to see if you are a credible source, they will see the content you have put out, as well as any media coverage you have gotten. Together they paint a stronger picture and make you more attractive to the media as a credible source.

For prospects who discover your brand after reading about it in the media, the content you have created will help them learn more about your brand and will be taken more seriously. Your credibility has already been established for them by the media.

Communications Content Marketing Content Strategy PESO PR Strategy public relations Publicity

6 Ways to Get Readers Lined Up Before You Even Publish

As I was watching the Bourne Identity the other night, I saw 6 ways to get readers lined up. I was seeing it for the umpteenth time and enjoying the commercial breaks for a change, because Matt Damon came on to talk about the soon-to-be-released movie Jason Bourne, and how the movies were made. He gave us some insights and behind-the-scenes looks into all Bourne movies, including the newest one.

It got me thinking about what a great job Hollywood does promoting movies and how there are lessons that can be applied to other products or services and particularly to selling books.

Here are 6 Ways to Get Readers Lined Up Before You Publish

Give a Sneak Preview

Create a preview and ‘coming soon’ content. Movies do this really well with trailers for upcoming features; we’re accustomed to seeing these before the main picture is shown in the theater. This starts to build interest and buzz for the upcoming movie. It let’s us know that it exists, and whets our appetite, so we start thinking about going to see it, before it even gets released.

This is something that many authors don’t take advantage of, and the results can be downright depressing. You work so hard to write your book, if you don’t offer some kind of preview, pre-announcement or information about your book to build buzz before it’s finished, you may publish and hear crickets. Not the way to go. You can take a page from Hollywood by giving away a sample chapter, making a video about your book, or talking about the writing process.

Create an Online Destination

A movie gets its own website and hashtag even before it’s released, so anyone interested in finding out more about it, can go to the site and find all the information in one place, making it easy for the interested audience to stay up to date, and plan to go see it.

Authors benefit from doing the same. Build an online home for the book; this can be a landing page, a free-standing website, or a page within your existing website where people can go to find out information about the book. You’ll want to include some information, preview content, when the book will be available for sale. You want to capture email addresses of the people who are interested in your book, so you can notify them of updates as well as when you actually publish. This is really key to making book sales right away on this book and future books.

Get in Front of Your Existing Audience

Hollywood knows where their existing audience is… in the movie houses! They show the coming attraction trailers in theaters, as they know they have an audience in those moviegoers – people who clearly like movies.

As a first time author, you won’t have the same type of existing audience of people you know read your books, but you do have friends, family, and anyone in your personal and business networks who most likely will be excited about your book, want to support you, and will buy a copy.

Find New Audiences

Hollywood gets in front of new audiences by taking out ads in publications, and they are now using social media more and more, including promoting a hashtag for a movie before it’s released.

You can do the same for your books. If you don’t know where your new audience lives, what you can do is find a lookalike audience. If you write erotic books then you could see where people are talking about Fifty Shades of Grey or some other book in that genre. You can assert yourself in the conversation – don’t just promote your books and spam the audience, but join the conversation and find out how to become part of that community. By doing so, when your book is published, you can then engage those people, introduce your book, and turn them into raving fans for your book as well.

Share Social Proof

Social proof is really a key factor in building credibility. People don’t care what a Hollywood studio says about its own movie, but they care what the critics and public say. Movie trailers, posters and ads will feature positive one line accolades from the media such as “The must see movie of the year- David Denby, The New Yorker”. Trailers created pre-release, are updated to include these quotes and any award nominations the movie receives after it’s released, to reinforce the positive buzz about a movie and entice you to see it.

The same is true for your book; just like moviegoers don’t care what the studio says about their own movie, they won’t care what you say about your book. So as an author what you can do for social proof is you can get pre-publication reviews for your book. Before you publish you can ask people to review it and give you a review or testimonial. You can get endorsements from influencers or well-known people in their field, or experts on the book’s topic. You can include these on your book landing page, in your book, or in your book’s promotional materials, as well as on social media to add credibility and positive buzz.

It’s very important to take advantage of social proof, as well as all the ways to build buzz for your book and to get people excited about it, and get them over to your book landing page, where they can optin to your list. Once you publish, you can get readers by directing all promotions right to your Amazon book page to make it easy for them to buy a copy.

A Promotional Tour

Before a movie release, the lead actors will make appearances on television talk shows to raise awareness and build buzz for the movies. A carefully selected clip is shown as a teaser for the audience. The release date and locations will be covered, acting as the audience’s call to action.

As an author, you can create a promotional tour before you publish, and without even leaving your home. There are many podcasts that will welcome you as a guest, before your book is published. Some blogs will also welcome you as a guest pre-publication. This is where your book landing page is key to capitalizing on the experience; when you create a call to action during your guest appearance, you’ll want to direct listeners or blog readers to your landing page, so they can sign up to be notified once you publish.

Do not make the mistake of waiting until your book is published before starting to put these initiatives in place. It’s very depressing to finish the hard work of writing a book and not see any results when you publish. Set yourself up for success by creating a book landing page that captures the email addresses of interested potential readers, so you can notify them as soon as the book is available for sale. You will get lots of sales that way.

You may not be thinking of turning your book into a series like the Bourne books that the movies are based on, but the studio has done something really smart by building a franchise or a series of movies; they’ve built a ready audience for the next one in the series!

You don’t have to write a series of books to benefit from a franchise. By building an email list you have a ready audience for when your next book comes out, even if it’s on an another topic.

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Why An Author Media Kit Helps You Get More Results

As an author, one of your goals is to have your books read by as many people as possible. To achieve this, you need to get as much visibility as possible. An author media kit will be a key component in assuring you succeed; whether you use publicity, public speaking or both of these strategies to get in front of your potential readers.

The Professional Standard

A media kit, is also called a press kit, or in its short form, a one sheet. By any name, a media kit is the standard professional tool used by authors, speakers and experts to present themselves to the media and event planners. Whether you are traditionally published or self published, you will be expected to have a media kit. It is not unusual to have a few versions of your media kit, from a one sheet to a full featured, detailed, multi-page media kit.

What exactly is a Media Kit

A media kit is like a folder of information about you and your book, containing the who, what, where and when. It should include a brief author bio, book blurb or synopsis, review or media mentions and contact information. It should also contain your book cover image, as well as an author head shot. The longer version of your media kit can also include a sample chapter, multiple reviews and longer versions of the author biography.

Just the Cliff Notes Please

In our busy world where information overload abounds, you don’t have much time to grab someone’s attention. People no longer read, but scan documents looking at headlines, bullet points and images. Busy journalists get bombarded with pitches and don’t have the time to read long documents. A concise, elegant and well crafted media kit is like Cliff Notes version of you and your book, providing just the right information to intrigue the reader, as well as make it easy for them to find out more about you online, and contact you.

How do I use my media kit?

Host your media kit on your website. You want to make sure it’s easy to find; an ideal location for it is in your online media room where you host your news and media mentions. You can also post your media kit on your about page; that way, it will also be viewed by your prospective readers who will want to learn more about you and decide whether they want to buy your book. When you send a pitch to a journalist or a book reviewer, link to the online version of your media kit, as many of them don’t accept attachments. Offering a media kit to those you are pitching for publicity or speaking, demonstrates you are a true professional.

A Media Kit Is A Living Document

Media kits should be updated routinely so as to reflect the latest news, reviews and information about you and your book. When you get a great book review or you get media coverage, you can add that to your media kit to showcase it, and keep it up to date.

A media kit is a professional tool that makes it easy for someone else to talk about you, write about you, and invite you to speak at an event, easily and efficiently. In some cases, they may not even feel the need to speak with you, as your media kit has done its job speaking on your behalf 24/7.

To get started creating your author press kit, check out our Easy Author One Sheets

This is excepted from an interview I did at the 9th Annual Book Marketing Conference Online: Reach More Readers. Listen to the full interview here

Build Your List of Book Buyers Before You Even Publish

Your Opportunity to Make Book Sales with One Email

You have probably heard that the money is in the list. It’s never been more true than for authors, who can build a list of book buyers before you even publish. Set yourself up right in advance, and you can make book sales with one email.

Having a list of interested readers, ready to buy your book as soon as it’s published or available for pre-order, is a major asset.

Many authors make the mistake of focusing on writing and publishing their book and not thinking at all about their marketing until their book is already completed. Building your author platform takes time; building a prospect list also takes time. It’s understandable to put off even thinking about marketing, considering how much concentrated effort goes into the writing and publishing of a book. There’s nothing worse than publishing your book after all your hard work, and hearing crickets – no sales, no reviews, nada. It’s actually pretty depressing; and it doesn’t have to be that way.

Smart authors spend some time building their author platform in advance of publishing their book so that even before they launch, they have generated some interest in their book. By building an email list of interested people, that interest can turn to buzz and sales the minute you publish.

Build a List of Book Buyers Before You Even Publish

The simplest way to build an email list, is to create a book landing page that allows potential readers to opt-in. That way while you’re busy completing, editing, and polishing your book, you can be gathering the email addresses of interested people so that the minute you publish you can let them know about it. Your book has a waiting and ready audience even before it’s published. Once it is, you know you can send one email and make book sales. This is great insurance that your book will make sales, get read, and your hard work will pay off.

Once you have built your list, you can use the time before you publish to build engagement with your audience. Here are a few topics for those emails:

Behind the scenes of a day in the life of you, the writer
Ask for input – on a cover, a subtitle…
Let them know about a major endorsement the book received
Update them – let them know where you are in the writing/publishing process

Building engagement helps create a sense of know, like and trust. This will have your list rooting for you, supporting you and even more committed to buying your book as soon as it’s released. The great news is that if you build a list of book buyers and keep up the engagement, you’ll have a list of hungry readers and buyers for all your future books as well.

author marketing author platform book marketing book promotion Kindle list building resources self-publishing

Don’t Call Yourself An Expert

Don’t call yourself an expert, even though I know you want to be seen as one. Saying I’m an Expert doesn’t always feel right – whether you have impostor syndrome and don’t think you are worthy of that title [even though you most probably do deserve to be called an Expert], or you fear being seen as being boastful.

The real reason calling yourself an expert doesn’t work, is because we live in a review or reputation economy. People don’t trust what you say about you. Sorry, that is the truth.

Here is what they do trust, according to Neilsen’s Trust in Advertising survey:

Recommendations from friends and family
Online reviews, recommendations and social proof [high number of likes, huge twitter following…]
The media

Not mentioned in the survey, but they also trust: Authors

Don’t Try this Trick at Home

Muhammad Ali called himself The Greatest, before he even believed he was.

It worked for him, but for 99.999999% of us, we would raise some eyebrows and be thought of as many things BUT the greatest.

To communicate that you are an expert to your network – prospects, partners, social media, clients, and even your mom….

Don’t Call Yourself An Expert – Do this:

Display reviews, recommendations, media mentions and testimonials prominently on your website, in your social profiles, in your bio… [More about how to do this effectively in an upcoming post]

Let others do the talking for you. It’s much more effective and believable. And it doesn’t feel braggy or insincere as it does when you call yourself an expert.

Here is what this could look like in person. When asked, “What do you do?” You could respond with something a client has said about you. I might respond as follows:

“My clients call me the ‘Make it Happen Maven’ – I help them get more visibility and authority positioning, and help them become bestselling published authors.”

Not only is it a lot more authentic and in tune with our review economy, it’s a lot more intriguing than saying, “I am an authority marketing and book publishing expert.”

Now, what do you do? Please comment below and let me know!

authenticity customer experience Marketing media darling Media Mentions Networking pitching the media PR Strategy public relations

10 Ways to Use Interviews in Your Marketing

One of the strategies in your marketing toolkit today should be the interview process. The interview, or a simple question and answer session, can be very effective in facilitating the creation of a variety of valuable customer facing content such as blog posts or profile articles, to content that is strictly for internal company use.

The beauty of the interview process is that you can simply hold a conversation that you record and have transcribed into text. Speech to text software is now built into computers and smart phones, or you can use a transcription service. You now have both text and audio versions of your content. Both versions can be re purposed into additional formats including video and Power Points. You can get additional mileage by extracting short quotes or sound bites to use as social posts and tweets.

What works so well about this format is that most people are comfortable speaking about their business, product or service, than they are writing about it. Most people also prefer being directed and prompted. A blank white page with free range, can be very daunting.

Ask a client to write a testimonial for your business. They’ll wonder what to write about and put it off. Sending them 3 questions to answer about your business is a much easier and more comfortable way for them to respond, taking the guesswork out of it for them.

The beauty of the interview process is that it is a strategically designed set of questions that can help you elicit the story that you would like to tell. Whether you are interviewing a customer a strategic partner or one of your staff, by strategically designing the questions you get to shape the outcome, and can reap the benefits of 3rd party credibility – someone else telling your story and singing your praises.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

Here are my Top 10 Interview Types:

1. Customer Input
Many companies do not take advantage of this simple and obvious activity. Your client will be more than happy to tell you what their biggest challenges are and what they would like help with; then when you offer that solution they’re sure to buy.

2. Testimonials
Clients are usually happy to give you a testimonial however many businesses don’t even ask. Create an easy format with questions that prompt the client’s response, and your clients will thank you. They are often uncomfortable not knowing what to write, so when you remove the guesswork it is easy for them to just get it done.

3. Case studies
This is an underutilized form of content for your business. Case studies are so valuable because they show prospects how you solved another company’s problem, which gives prospects the ability to see themselves in your existing client, and basically try your solution on for size. It is also a form of third-party credibility, which carries more weight than a description of that very same service does in your company brochure or website.

4. Product Research
Interview customers to find out what they like about your products, as well as features they would like to see added. Everyone loves to be consulted and offer his or her opinion. Your customers probably use your products more than your own staff does and have probably already thought of things that could be improved or features that will make your product better. Make this an ongoing each aspect of your marketing and product development and research

6. Industry Insight
Interview a partner or vendor about different aspects of your industry. This can create a thought leadership piece and help inform your customers and your prospects about your industry trends, inner workings and the state of affairs.

7. Interview a Recognized Expert or Thought leader
By interviewing a thought leader, you are giving people access to someone they know and respect, as well as getting the benefit of greater exposure due to your expert’s popularity. This also positions you as a top expert and a peer of the thought leader.

8. Interview Staff

A staff interview can create content that introduces your staff and the role that they play in your business. This personalizes your business, provides insight into who a customer or vendor will be working with, and helps deepen engagement with your brand. This helps create greater consumer confidence, as people buy when they feel they ‘know, like and trust’ the company.

9. Interview Yourself
The interview format works very well to generate content more quickly, so why not use it yourself, wearing both the interviewer and subject hats. If you decide to keep your finished piece in an interview format, no one needs to know who the interviewer was, however you can also turn the interview content into a general article.

10. Interview to create a book
This one is possibly my favorite. Use an interview format to create a book. Many professionals, entrepreneurs and the public in general are interested in writing a book, yet it’s a daunting project that often gets put off repeatedly for that very reason. Using a strategically designed set of questions, it’s easy to create the content for your book through an interview. Your book can be published keeping the interview format, as I do with the books that I publish for my clients, or you can turn your answers into prose. Either way, it helps you get your book written much more quickly and efficiently so you can reap the benefits of being a published author.

The interview format is incredibly versatile and can be included in your marketing and content toolkit to help you create the variety of content that are required in today’s marketplace. Using interviews in your marketing can help grow all aspects of your business. The value of the interview format can be clarity. Simple questions, answered directly. I recently interviewed a colleague who runs a unique marketing service, for a profile in an online magazine. After reading the published interview, one of her prospects commented,

“Now I really understand what you do and the value of your service.”

That is the power of asking the right questions. Ready to put interviews to work for your business?

Note- this article was written using an interview format [I interviewed myself using a speech to text software] then edited the text for the final article.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

This post first appeared in Business2Community

book creation book writing content creation Content Marketing content marketing toolkit customer experience customer service free resources ghostwriting interviews Kindle Marketing Publicity Tool self-publishing writing

Your Business Bucket List

A successful and satisfying career, like a well-lived life, can benefit from a bucket list. Interviews with highly successful individuals consistently reveal that they set targets and goals and then plan their actions to move them closer to achieving them.

Your business bucket list is the perfect way to set major milestone goals for your career or entrepreneurial journey. As I began thinking about this topic, I heard “You Can’t Take That Away From Me” start playing in my subterranean jukebox. While the song’s lyrics aren’t directly analogous to your business bucket list, the title is what brought it to mind for me, and one of the key reasons to create your own list.

Any of the items on my recommended business bucket list, once accomplished, will pay you big dividends for the rest of your life. These are the kind of achievements that set you apart, open doors and unmistakably position you as a top expert in your field or niche, and provide acceleration to your career.

They also increase your pay scale and revenue significantly.

By establishing your instant credibility, as well as providing 3rd party credibility, there is more trust in you and your expertise. It’s no longer ‘what you say about you’ that people are interested in. Think of it like trying to decide on which new restaurant, which new printer, or service provider to select; we now go and check out the online reviews and recommendations before making a decision. These bucket list items offer the equivalent of a 5 star review from a third party, providing a trust factor and predisposing others to you. They are more inclined to hiring you or buy from you, and they will be willing to pay higher fees for the privilege of working with you.

With all the noise and competition out there, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. There are certain accomplishments that insure you are immediately noticed and respected. Whether you are seeking a job, to close a big deal, set yourself apart from the sea of competition get more visibility, get in front of your ideal audience more easily and close the deal, land your coveted job, get more speaking gigs… your bucket list achievements pre-sell others on you. They also inspire others to seek you out, rather than vice versa.

5 Bucket List Goals To Skyrocket Your Business:

Top Industry Award

Whether it’s a Pulitzer Prize for literature, a Stevie Award, MacArthur Genius Grant, Making the Inc 500 list, or a more regional industry prize, being honored with one of these types of awards is priceless. In addition to the honor, it is recognition for your excellence and hard work often determined by an esteemed panel of judges and by your peers.

While the voting and selection may be out of your control, you can still proactively position yourself for awards. It goes without saying you need to do your best work. Build a list of the top awards in your industry along with the deadlines to apply; that way when you feel you have achieved sufficient professional accomplishment, you and your team will have the information on hand to begin the application process. Some awards are based on third party nominations, not applications. In this case consider asking a trusted colleague or client if they would consider nominating you.

Being honored offers third party credibility and recognition, along with incredible visibility – the organization giving out the awards typically initiates a publicity campaign that features you!

Media Darling

Getting featured in the media gives you increased visibility and lends credibility and authority; these days it also adds an additional trust factor. In what has been called the Trust or Reputation economy, media coverage, whether you are mentioned, quoted or featured provides third party credibility and the perception that the media is endorsing you.

Whether it’s the NY Times, the Today Show or the Huffington Post, or a smaller regional media outlet, once featured, you are a lifetime media winner!

You can and should leverage the publicity you receive by showcasing it in both text and graphics. We are becoming more and more visually oriented and the media logos on your site or marketing materials grab immediate attention and act as a trust trigger, instantly associating you with the credibility and exalted status that is attributed to the recognized media outlet.

Bestselling Author

Many people want to write a book, yet they never manage to get around to it. Writing a book is a big accomplishment [only 8% of aspiring writers succeed] and will serve you well throughout your business life.

There is even greater respect and recognition that comes with being a bestselling author. Whether you are a business owner, a speaker, or a full-time author, being able to call yourself a bestseller dramatically increases your credibility and positions you at the very top of your field. It often leads to additional opportunities such as speaking invitations, guest professorships and consulting projects.

It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Keynote Talk

Being invited to speak at an event is always an honor. It can be an accomplishment, especially when you are selected to deliver the keynote at an event whose audience are your professional peers. The fact that you were the one selected to speak is one of the ultimate forms of professional recognition.

The pinnacle in recognition for a keynote talk is one that gets posted online and goes viral. It could be a Ted Talk, which on its own carries great cache, a university graduation speech or another top event. The beauty of your talk going viral, in addition to the obvious one of increased visibility, is that this usually indicates that your talk has resonated with people on a deep level, one that typically transcends industries or country. This extends your recognition and opens up new opportunities across disciplines, around the globe.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champ’ – Muhammad Ali

Personal Physical Challenge

‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, states the nursery rhyme. While we’ve been conditioned to keep a separation of church and state when it comes to business and personal matters, there are a few accomplishments that shouldcrossover and be highlighted. One of them is completing an arduous physical challenge, as it is a noteworthy achievement, and as such should be showcased.

Businesses and entrepreneurs recognize the mind body connection. There is great respect for someone who undertakes the kind of herculean training and endurance test that running a marathon, completing a triathlon, climbing Mt. Everest and hiking the entire Appalachian Trail encompasses.

A successful and major physical challenge demonstrates to your business prospect or prospective employer that you plan your training, set goals, and then meet them despite how tough the going gets. It shows that you have the mental toughness and discipline to achieve what most of us mortals will only dream of, yet never even undertake. It inspires confidence that you will bring this excellence and determination to whatever you do whether it’s personal or in business.

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile- Roger Staubach

Whether you are a solo-preneur, a coach, a business owner or an employee, a business bucket list will help you achieve your goals faster and propel your career forward at lightening speed and with more ease.

These bucket list goals are ones that will pre-sell you to strangers and create a favorable instant impression when used on your resume, as part of your professional bio, when you are introduced as a guest speaker, on your website, in your press kit, in the bio section of client proposals …

Ready to check items off your own bucket list?

I am available to help you strategize your own business bucket list. Ask me about our accelerated Media Darling and Bestselling Author programs.

My own business bucket list is still evolving. So far…

Top Industry Award [FastCompany – Top 100 People Online, NYWA – Galaxy Award]
Media Darling: Featured in national media [there is always room for more]
Bestselling Author: my recent book “Business Leadership Blueprints”
Physical Challenge: Completed the Dublin Marathon

This article first appeared on Linkedin Pulse

Inspiration From Successful Entrepreneurs

I’m still inspired a week later……..and can’t wait to share with you some truly great things… A week ago I was attending the Entrepreneur Magazine 360 Conference here in New York City, getting inspiration from successful entrepreneurs.

It was a very energizing day hearing from a variety of entrepreneurs ranging from:

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas to Daniel Lubetsky founder of Kind Bars, Olympic Skier/NFL player/Philanthropist/Entrepreneur Jeremy Bloom, to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanion.

I was inspired, impressed, validated and educated- I still am, here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the event:

Are you a Visionary or an Operator?

Les McKeon gave a great presentation on the journey a business goes through. He demonstrated why:

“You are either a Visionary or an Operator – you can’t be both.”

Will.i.am was intelligent, innovative, inspired, visionary, awesome…. He hardly spoke about music, and spoke more about his company i.am+ which is going to compete directly with Apple with its wearable tech.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Entrepreneurial ideas come frm fusion = Mixing + inspiration + needs + community.@iamwill ” quote=”Entrepreneurial ideas come from fusion = Mixing + melding inspiration + needs + community.”]

In 2015, everything is going to be wearable and functional. Maybe a jacket instead of a phone.

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Sometimes you miss major success by 1 Inch

Jeremy Bloom- Olympic skier, NFL football player, philanthropist and entrepreneurs founder of a 100 million dollar company, had a 22 second shot at making Olympic Gold… yet missed by 1 inch. It’s what he did after missing that was so inspiring!

You may have heard the expression Fail Fast. Jeremy gave himself 48 hours to have a pity party. To replay in his mind all the things he could have/should have done differently and then he moved on with his life.

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Daniel Lubetsky, founder of Kind bars, proves you can be successful and be kind [pun intended]

When you move from a skeptic to an evangelist, nobody can stop you.

There were so many wonderful ideas, inspirations and insights! I hope these examples have inspired you as well.

One more thing… all these entrepreneurs have one major accomplishment in common. Can you guess what it is? Please place your guess in the comments below. The first person to post the answer wins a special prize!

Whenever you have the opportunity to be around and get inspiration from successful entrepreneurs, grab it. As Daniel Lubetsky said, “Entrepreneurs are probably the most fun at a party.”

What all the entrepreneurs who spoke at the Entrepreneur 360 Conference have in common is that they are all authors.

To your publicity success!

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Your Customer Experience Equals PR

Customer experience is a part of your PR. A very important component.

Studies have shown that there are two types of customers who talk about your brand and your business – ones that are raving fans and love you and those who are very unhappy with you or the experience they’ve had with your company.

What is the experience people have with your company?

Your customer experience equals PR for your brand

A few examples – Let’s start with the happy experience

Fat Witch Brownies, make the yummiest brownies I know. I like to send a box of their brownies as a gifts to help celebrate happy occasions and to thank business colleagues for referrals or other generous actions.

I had recently ordered a gift box of brownies to thank a business colleague for his help on a project, when they didn’t arrive at the recipient’s office, I found out that I had used the wrong address.

I called the Fat Witch and asked if there’s a way to check on where they had delivered my order to, and if there was a way to get them rerouted. I fessed up that I had made a mistake with the address. They said no, unfortunately they couldn’t trace the package, however they would gladly send the brownies again and only charge me the shipping. This had been my mistake, and yet they were willing to share some of the cost to resend my package.

Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. Source: HBR

The bad customer experience

I went online to use Haiku Deck, a presentation software that I had been using for awhile. After spending over an hour creating a new presentation I saved it and went to export it. A window popped up telling me that to export it into Powerpoint, I would have to upgrade to the paid version for $9.95. This was a new requirement, but I was fine with paying to use their service – that is until I completed payment and returned to my work area on Haiku Deck only to find that my hours worth of work hadn’t been saved.

Yes, technology is great when it works.

I was extremely frustrated, first about the the loss of time, but also that I had just paid and was now left with nothing. I contacted customer service whose response was that I had done something wrong. They had tested the software therefore I had done something wrong.

95% of dissatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience. Source : Dimensional Research.

Time lost in creating the presentation. Time lost talking to customer service. Not a happy camper. Now the mere mention or thought of Haiku Deck brings up the unpleasant experience, which is now imprinted on my brain.

71% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good service. Source: Forrester

Now back to how customer experience, and particularly customer service is part of your PR.

Public relations by definition is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

Consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews, and the media – in that order. Consumers make buying decisions based on recommendations online reviews and companies they read about in the media.

If your if your customers are going online and writing about you, posting on social media, or making recommendations to friends and family, what are they saying?

Remember, like me your customers remember the excellent and exceptional experiences and the terrible ones, and that’s what they will talk about.

I know which experience I want my customers to have and what I want my customers to be talking about.

The Fat Witch, has a made me even more of a raving fan. I just had to go and tell a few friends on social media to show my appreciation.

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