Monthly Archives: February 2018

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Become A Media Darling

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Positioning oneself as a trustworthy expert is paramount and ongoing for B2B professional service providers.  Everything we can do to establish credibility and stand out in a crowded marketplace can add to billable hours, our reason for being. “The media,” meaning television, radio, magazines, newspapers, industry journals, podcasts and blogs, help us spread the word about our expertise to a wide audience.

Persuading media gatekeepers—editors and producers—to invite you to give a quote or become a featured player in a magazine or newspaper article, become a guest on a podcast, television, or radio broadcast, or write an article for a journal is not easy.  Many of your peers are vying to do the same.

Therefore, you must find ways to separate yourself from the pack and showcase your potential appeal and relevance to audiences.  Below are a few ways to make that happen. When reaching out to journalists, editors or producers, I suggest that you call first. Learn the name of the appropriate editor for your business category before contacting a magazine or newspaper.  Read a half dozen or so of his/her items and find out what s/he has written before you try to pitch your story.  If the response is positive, only then will you send your one-sheet bio and photo.

HARO

Help A Reporter Out will send to your inbox a boatload of emails every week, but you could obtain a few requests for quotes in exchange for the inconvenience.  HARO gives Freelancers and other independent business owners real opportunities to build  credibility through media exposure.  One will also learn how to build relationships with print and online media gatekeepers. You can eventually claim the title of expert and have the article clippings to prove it.

Social media and content marketing

If you’ve got 5,000 or more social media followers on at least one platform, or an impressive number of newsletter followers or blog subscribers, media outlets will pay attention.  Present your stats to the media gatekeeper when you get him/her on the phone and remember to include that info on the one-sheet bio that you’ll send, along with your photo, to media outlets.  Those with large social media and online followings know that your big following can boost their viewers/readers/listeners and that translates into additional advertising dollars.  It is a pathway to the short list of potential interview candidates.

Write a book

The barrier to enter the realm of book authors has dropped precipitously with the rise of self-publishing and cheaper printing costs.  Investigate self-publishing houses both local and national.  Find a topic and title that will grab your business’s target market and you’re on your way to becoming an author.

No matter what anyone tells you, hire an independent content editor to ensure the continuity and flow of your story and also hire a copy editor or proofreader to eliminate grammatical and spelling errors.  Your book is part of your brand, so it must represent you well.  You will be judged. A ball park budget for a 150 page book could be about $5000.  Write it off as a business expense, since your book is marketing collateral.

Make lots of money

If at least once in the past five years your business has grossed $1,000,000 (or close to it), then go ahead a lay claim to the fact that you’ve built a million-dollar business.  OK, so maybe you’ve grossed only half of that and it’s too much of a stretch to put yourself into the million dollar category.  But if indisputably you’ve created a very lucrative business, then speak up.  Media outlets will want you to tell their readers/viewers/listeners how you did it and how they can do it, too.

And the winner is…

Formal recognition of your success as an independent business professional is very powerful.  Nominate yourself for a chamber of commerce award, neighborhood business association, professional association, or any other business award that is presented somewhere.  If you win even third prize, then spread the word by adding the photo of you accepting the award to your preferred social media platforms and send a press release and photo to the business editor of local newspapers.  Add this information also to your one-sheet.

Judge a business award

About five or six years ago, I was invited to judge The Stevie Awards/ Women in Business category.  That I’m qualified to judge the expertise of my peers has impressed a couple of decision-makers.  There are many business awards being doled out.  Join a professional association and get yourself on the awards committee.  Add the judging duty to your LinkedIn page and media one-sheet.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: In 1955 Dr. Joyce Brothers, pictured with Boxing Commissioner Eddie Egan (her big question was about boxing), became the only female grand prize winner on “The $64,000 Question” (1955-1958). Brothers parlayed the win into a long and lucrative television career, which began in 1958 with a show on which she dispensed advice. She went on to take guest roles in dozens of TV shows and appearances on talk shows.

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Coaching Guide

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Have you ever worked with a business or life coach? I worked with a business coach as I built the foundation of my consulting practice and the experience was useful.  When a significant life goal is on your agenda and you’re unsure how to achieve it, or you recognize that you’ll need some expert assistance to help you make a plan, consider checking in with a business coach.  Also, if you find yourself thwarted as you attempt to move forward in life and achieve goals that you find meaningful or essential, but now you’re stuck and at a loss for a remedy, seeing a skilled business or life coach may be beneficial.

If you’re not the type of person who feels comfortable sharing intimate information in a counseling situation, or if the necessary time or money are restricted, it’s possible to coach yourself.  The ability to coach (yourself or others) to success is a powerful professional development skill.  We’re all capable of giving ourselves and others a pep talk.  We’re all capable of creating a list of goals, with timetables for completion.  We are also capable of asking ourselves eight insightful questions that when we answer them truthfully can help propel us out of a rut and put us on the path to achieving our most treasured goals.

The Difficult and Troubling Situation Exercise questions below were developed by Jack Canfield, corporate trainer, motivational speaker and author of The 25 Principles of Success  (2007).  You can use the questions to either self-coach or partner with one or more friends or supportive colleagues and conduct a group coaching session.  When a question is asked, answer thoughtfully and honestly, but without elaborate explanations or equivocations.  Let the questions do their work.  What is the difficulty or troubling situation in your life?  How and when will you overcome it?

  1. What is the problem or troubling situation?
  2. How are you contributing to the problem, or allowing it to continue?
  3. What are you pretending not to know?
  4. What is the pay-off for maintaining the status quo, for keeping things as they are?
  5. What is the cost of not changing the situation or your behavior?
  6. What would you rather be experiencing in your life?
  7. What actions will you take and what requests will you make to bring the conditions or experiences that you want into your life?
  8. When will you take those actions and requests for guidance or support?

Question 1 asks you to state the problem, or if working alone, to write it down.  Admit the problem or obstacle out loud or in writing.  Acknowledge that you have a troubling situation on your hands—a roadblock or obstacle, a significant disappointment, or a run of bad luck that is thwarting your desire to attain certain goals and live a life that would make you happy and proud.

Question 2 asks you to accept responsibility for the existence of the problem, or  ignoring it, perhaps enabling it and at the very least, prolonging it, or allowing it to continue.  This question helps you pull the plug on playing the victim, poor pitiful me.  If the roadblock or bad luck in your life remains there for a while, it’s likely that you’ve played some role in bringing it there or keeping it there.  Here is your mindset switch.  Let yourself know that just like you’ve allowed this obstacle to appear or linger, you can remove out.  You have know-how and power.  You are not incompetent and helpless.

Question 3 shakes loose the denial that surrounds your difficult situation.  In every seemingly intractable problem, it’s likely that s/he who is mired in the mess is pretending not to know why the matter exists.  So if your daughter hasn’t spoken to you in 5 years, don’t pretend that you don’t know why she’s cut you out of her life.  It’s just that you find it inconvenient to admit to yourself that you know.  You find it easier to hide your head in the sand and deny what you know because if you admit to yourself that you know, then you’ll have to do something about it—and you’re probably afraid to do that.  There is some seemingly greater difficult situation that you’ll need to confront and resolve.  Oh, no!

Question 4 requires that you recognize and catalogue the benefits you receive from allowing the roadblock to remain in place, for the problem to fester.  Maybe you run from responsibility?  Do difficult conversations make your skin crawl? Might the probable solution to your obstacle cost more money and/or time and commitment than you think you can muster, or cause you to stand up and take charge of your life in a way you fear you cannot?

Returning to school to earn an advanced degree or certification is daunting.  There are classes to attend, exams to take, papers to write and all are uniquely costly, in some way.  Ugh, why do that when you can go shopping when you feel frustrated about not advancing in your career? Shopping is fun and so is going out drinking with your friends.  Many of us prefer to just settle in and become “comfortably uncomfortable,” as my late friend Chris Nieves used to say.

Question 5 compels you to calculate the losses that have piled up as you allow the problem to continue,  through your lack of action— a stunted career, diminished income, an apartment that’s not in the part of town that you’d rather live,  the inability to provide certain extras for your children, an estranged relationship?  Refusing to act has  consequences.

Question 6 urges you to love and respect yourself enough to envision the things in life that would satisfy you—a fulfilling relationship with a worthy significant other, a home that makes you feel comfortable, a healthy body, a business or employment that showcases your skills and pays you at a rate you find acceptable, the ability to travel.  What conditions or experiences do you want in your life? Verbally paint the picture.

Question 7 reminds you that the resolution to any problem or obstacle demands that you get out of your comfort zone and take action.  The action might require you to reach out and request physical help or advice.  It’s OK if you cannot take on the problem alone.

So if someone is violating your boundaries by doing any number of things that make you feel uncomfortable, then you must speak up and put a stop to that behavior and apply impactful consequences to those who disrespect you.

Question 8 requires you to establish reasonable target dates to move forward with your actions.  Develop a timetable, add milestones and chart your progress.  Success is waiting for you!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Telemachus (l) and Mentor (who in the coaching of Telemachus was actually the goddess Athena, who disguised herself as the wise old man). Illustration by Pablo E. Fabisch from Les Adventures de Telemaque (1699) a book based on Homer’s Odyssey by Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon (France)

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Machine Learning: Coming To A Freelancer Near You

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Machine learning is a ground breaking technology that uses Artificial Intelligence to allow computer systems to automatically “learn” from the patterns of the user’s online browsing choices, without the need to program the system to do so.  Many of us became familiar with AI and machine learning through movie choices offered to us on Netflix or music on iHeartRadio.  Think also of the Digital Personal Assistants Siri and Amazon Alexa, other applications of AI and machine learning that many have embraced.  Machine learning focuses on developing computer programs that can access data, analyze that data (to find patterns) and then use that information to “learn.”

Machine learning and AI are slowly filtering down the food chain from global and national corporations to regional operations.  Start-up entrepreneurs are launching enterprises that employ machine learning and early adopter Freelance consultants will soon be able to incorporate machine learning beyond what we may already be doing with Siri and Netflix.  In particular, marketing is poised to become a primary utilization of the technology, in businesses of every size.

About a year or two ago, you noticed that when you visited a particular website and then returned to Facebook, LinkedIn, or your chosen online homepage, an ad from the site you visited would soon pop up and tempt you with an offer.  The phenomenon is called “real-time” by marketing specialists and it’s driven by the data that your browsing history generates via machine learning and AI.  It’s a manifestation of being responsive to a potential customers’ interests as a way to fill the sales funnel and facilitate a sale.

To take AI and machine learning a few steps closer to ordinary mortals on planet Earth, these tools are uniquely suited to B2B marketing, because they limit the (costly) trial-and-error activities that haunt every online or off-line marketing campaign.  Now, your marketing activities, whether presented in an online display ad, social media posts, or content marketing outreach, will be seen by those whose online searches indicate that they are likely to be interested in exploring your products and services.

Machine learning, augmented by AI, will allow marketing specialists to greatly reduce the wasteful expenditures inherent in every marketing budget and direct those valuable dollars toward self-qualified leads who have a much greater potential to become paying customers.  Your marketing campaigns cannot help but become more cost-effective whether online or offline, print ads in traditional publications, banner ads on individually targeted websites, social media posts, or email marketing.

Speaking of social media posts, machine learning allows marketing specialists to monitor trending topics on various platforms, i.e., topics that currently resonate with particular market segments.  Certain of those memes can become the basis of content for blogs, newsletters, email marketing and other promotional activities.

Finally, let’s circle back to what machine learning has been doing for Netflix and iHeartRadio, which in marketing speak is called demand forecasting.  When movie and music choices are offered to you, the goal is to give you what you want before you know you want it.  Current algorithms are doing a pretty good job of doing that now, but more sophisticated algorithms are in development, with predicting accuracy refined by machine learning and AI.  What is offered will still be a guess and just a suggestion, but for many of us, at least once in a while, we’ll receive an offer that we cannot refuse.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

display.png   Happy Valentine’s Day!

Photograph: Jean Jennings (l) and Frances Bilas programming ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first large-scale computer to run at electronic speed   Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania (1946)

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Intelligent. Trustworthy. Successful.

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When advising Freelancers and other self-employed business professionals on how to increase their customer list and sales revenues, the usual recommendations are repeatedly trotted out: Exceed expectations. Network. Get referrals.  Price well.

Yet there is another way to continually, subtly, position yourself and your business enterprise as dependable and competent and that is to be well-spoken.  Whether you are in conversation with friends and colleagues, clients and referral sources, a good vocabulary is always noticed by the listener on some level.  Well-spoken people get more respect in life.  They are listened to and trusted. Expand your vocabulary and your client list may follow.

How can you add more words to your long-term memory? Read! Read for business and read for pleasure.  Read new books and explore old classics.  When you encounter an unfamiliar word, look it up and claim it as your own.  Eventually, you’ll sprinkle those words into your written and verbal communications, without sounding like a show-off. Below is a list of words that you might want to get to know and use in your life and work.

Adept

Definition: being highly skilled or well-trained in a particular discipline; an expert  Synonyms: capable, accomplished

Example: Grace is very adept at financial analysis and as a result, she was recruited by several regional and national banks.

Aplomb

Definition: self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation  Synonyms: composure, poise

Example: Michael chaired what could have been a difficult meeting with a potentially hostile audience with aplomb.

Byzantine

Definition: devious and surreptitious operation                                                          Synonyms: complicated, troublesome

Example: Robert’s high personal ethics made it difficult for him to work for a company with such a Byzantine culture, so he tendered his resignation.

Cogent

Definition: well-reasoned, logical and compelling                                                      Synonyms: convincing, valid

Example: Yvonne and her study co-authors made three cogent arguments in favor of the proposed changes to the zoning laws.

Conundrum

Definition: a difficult problem                                                                                          Synonyms: problem, puzzlement

Example: Edward was charged with solving the shipping conundrum before the company lost money.

Cronyism

Definition: the appointment of friends and associates to jobs or other desirable posts, often evidenced by awarding promotions that are not deserved because the candidates are unqualified                                                                                                                           Synonyms: favoritism, preference

Example: It has long been said that jobs within city and state governments are obtained primarily through cronyism.

Delineate

Definition: to precisely describe or outline                                                                   Synonyms: describe, outline

Example: To ensure that things ran smoothly, the team moved to the conference room to delineate their plan on the whiteboard before beginning the project.

Deviate

Definition: to stray or depart (from a standard, course of action or the norm)    Synonyms: differ, stray

Example: If you deviate from your customer’s expectations, they may buy from competitors who offer a more consistent experience.

Dichotomy

Definition: a division into two parts, often contradictory or mutually exclusive  Synonyms: contrast, split

Example: By attempting to work half an hour on the production line, the president only further illustrated the dichotomy that exists between executives and factory workers in our company.

Disseminate

Definition: to spread or disperse                                                                                     Synonyms: announce, broadcast

Example: A downside of being a celebrity these days is that the internet makes it easy and fast to disseminate rumors about their alleged misdeeds.

Esoteric

Definition: difficult to understand except by a chosen few; a rare and special interest                                                                                                                                 Synonyms: unusual, sophisticated

Example: When speaking with prospective clients, it is recommended that you avoid using esoteric, industry-specific terms.

Fiasco

Definition: a total failure; a complicated situation that ends in failure                  Synonyms: calamity, disaster,

Example: My suit was wrinkled, my business cards got soaked in the rain and when I left, I found a huge piece of spinach in my teeth.  The whole thing was a total fiasco!

Galvanize

Definition: to propel a person or people into activity or inspiration                       Synonyms: inspire, motivate

Example: Leila gave a rousing victory speech, galvanizing her campaign volunteers to stay active on social media long after the election was over.

Incisive

Definition: penetrating, biting or remarkably clear (tone, words, etc.)                  Synonyms: clever, sharp

Example: Dan tried to counter the damaging points made by the defense attorney, but in the end, her points were too incisive and the jury sided with the defendant.

Juxtapose

Definition: place two items close together and side by side (often referring to objects that may at first seem to be in opposition or contrast)                                                       Synonyms: compare, differentiate

Example: To illustrate her point about how far the company had come, Mariam juxtaposed the image of the company’s original product with the modern version.

Leverage

Definition: to exert influence on to gain the desired effect (in business)                Synonyms: advantage, influence

Example: A buyer can limit the leverage of the seller if that buyer doesn’t seem overly anxious to acquire the product.

Litany

Definition: a long list or reciting of excuses, reasons, etc.                                            Synonyms: list, chant

Example: Jocelyn had a litany of excuses for her miscalculation — many were valid, some were not.

Mercurial

Definition: volatile or erratic; fickle; flighty, or lively and often quick-witted       Synonyms: changeable, impulsive

Example: The lead singer’s mercurial nature was well-loved by fans and the media, but brought lots of stress to his band mates.

Prudent

Definition:  wise and sensible in action and thought                                                   Synonyms: careful, shrewd

Example: Cate felt that it would be prudent to use 30% of the revenue from the sale to pay the organization’s debt and to deposit 30% into the endowment fund.

Quid pro quo

Definition: something given for something taken (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours) Synonyms: trade-off, equal exchange

Example: Heidi and Larry had a quid pro quo arrangement — they swapped desks, so that she could sit near her friend and he could sit near the girl he has a crush on.

Sanguine

Definition: accepting even negative circumstances with a positive attitude         Synonyms: unflappable, composed

Example: While it would make his job more difficult, Omar was sanguine when he was told he’d have to complete the project a week earlier than expected.

Untenable

Definition: indefensible, usually in relation to a difficult or impossible situation  Synonyms: illogical, unwarranted

Example: Naomi was in an untenable position; she couldn’t continue to tell her  employees to cut costs while she stayed in five-star hotels when on business trips.

Wunderkind

Definition: a young person who succeeds, usually in business                                   Synonyms: genius, mastermind

Example: The late musician Prince was a wunderkind, a highly talented guitar player, song writer and recording producer who signed his first record contract at age eighteen, with Warner Brothers.

Zeitgeist

Definition: spirit of the times                                                                                            Synonyms: outlook, trend

Example:  Ideas of world peace, happiness and rock’n’roll music defined the Zeitgeist of the 1960s in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Marie Curie, winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize in chemistry (for her work with radium and polonium). In 1903, she was one of three who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics. She is pictured in her laboratory, circa 1900.