Tag Archives: information

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Reputation Management Begins With Credibility

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Information moves faster and its reach is more widespread than at any time in history. Audiences—your clients, competitors, business colleagues and community in which you operate—participate in the 24/7 news cycle and expect transparency in real time. The lightning-fast movement will also include stories that involve your brand. Whether those stories posted by your organization and its supporters and are intended to build and celebrate your brand, or are negative and, for some unfortunate reason meant to undermine the perception and value of your brand, it is imperative that business owners and leaders take a proactive stance and manage information related to your entity as well as potential audience reactions to that information.

Staying out in front of the buzz about your business that’s pinging through the echoverse is essential, primarily because the potential for the appearance of unflattering information, that may or may not be true, is possible. The last thing you want is for a public relations crisis to land in your lap and create a five-alarm fire that forces you into a reactive rescue mission that can only leave you in a position of weakness, no matter how quickly and expertly you quash it. You will no doubt agree that having the luxury of shaping your brand stories and eliminating the need to control a crisis is the best defense? You may already have guessed that creating and presenting relevant and timely information is how the war can be won.

Online search and social listening

The potential for attacks on a business entity is worrisome and the aggression can be persistent. Arguably, the expansion of Artificial Intelligence powered automation has intensified the ability for bad actors to launch dirty tricks campaigns: some may originate from a particularly vicious competitor, or an unknown hacker may enjoy bringing trouble to the life of another human being. The first pillar of reputation management is maintaining consistent awareness. Business owners and leaders who fail to regularly monitor what is being said about their entity and note the prevailing tone of opinions expressed could be doing their brand reputation a disservice. Monitoring the prevailing sentiment is ideally an ongoing practice that informs you of what your customers and other stakeholders say about your brand. About every three months, it will be useful to search your name and the company name, plus your city, in engines such as Bing, Google and Yahoo and read what the AI summary or other search mechanisms reveal about you and your brand.

Quick response to customer complaints found on social media platforms must express empathy and offer a practical solution; apologize and offer your side of the story and make amends when possible. If a customer offers criticism (that might be constructive, BTW), address the matter. Disparaging rumors directed at your business must be met with a polite but firm, discreetly phrased but truthful, clarification. If you see that your business has been reviewed in an excessively negative and/or inaccurate way, contact the reviewing site and request that the offending post be removed.

Brands are also turning to social media user comments for market and consumer info when trends and other marketplace developments evolve too quickly for traditional research methods to keep up. Social listening tools like Talkwalker use AI to pull specific brand insights from the vast quantities of data available on social media platforms, in real time. Social listening, another manifestation of that practice, tracks online comments made about your brand, industry and competitors across social media platforms. From an analysis of those comments, a the big picture will emerge of the unfiltered perceptions that your customers, prospects and others have about your brand. Social listening can also capture developing trends that are bubbling up and indicate where opportunities (or risks) that impact your entity are hiding. In short, social listening data can assist all facets of your brand.

Informative and timely content

The second component of your reputation management strategy is investing in your strengths before an emergency develops. Build genuine, search-visible assets steadily, so that when a difficult moment arrives, your reputation has the depth to absorb it. A company that has consistently shown who it is can take a hit that would flatten a competitor with nothing in reserve. That reserve is built in the quiet quarters before a crisis, not during one.

By positioning yourself as a go-to source of useful insights and info, you’ll win audience trust—and that is vital. The quality and timeliness of the information you deliver, whether by text, video, or audio, will enhance your value. Distributing your thought leader content on social media platforms favored by your target audience maximize distribution and help you build a following. You’ll benefit from increased name recognition, eventually acquire trust and influence and, ultimately, you’ll create for yourself a solid brand reputation. Linking your blog and/or newsletter to one or more social media platforms when you publish is a great way to share your compelling content with a wide audience (readers will find my weekly blog at LinkedIn activity/posts.)

Because you cannot manage what you are not watching, those who pay attention to narratives that appear in the digital space or print, whether friendly or unfriendly, are getting reputation management right. A concern caught early on is a conversation; that same concern, if ignored and allowed to fester, is a headline. An effective business leader’s goal is not to respond well to incidents, but to anticipate that, unfortunately, occasional headwinds are inevitable. Building up credibility, which could be expressed as thought leader expertise, client, nurturing colleague or peer relationships and being responsive to any concerns, or participation in community organizations and/or events are the invisible yet powerful and sustainable pillars of reputation management

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Vlada Karpovich

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Audit: Is Your Marketing Content Doing the Job?

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Relevant, actionable even, marketing content is the engine that pushes a business entity forward. Marketing (and its tactical sibling, sales) is enshrined as one of the three pillars of a business, along with operations and finance. A range of marketing content can be developed and employed to carry out strategies and tactics that promote the company’s business solutions—its products and/or services—by addressing the pain points, goals and challenges that prospective customers who make purchases on behalf of their organization must resolve.

That content is used to advance defining story narratives that communicate how your company’s products or services produce returns on investment for customers—commonly, financial gain, operational efficiencies, risk management, or achieving a mission-critical goal. B2B marketing content is meant to create conditions that persuade prospects to green-light the sale:

  • Expand the customer list by introducing the business entity and its solutions to prospects who have a problem to solve or goal to reach
  • Generate viable sales leads
  • Establish trust in the perception of the solutions that the business provides
  • Promote the company’s visibility and credibility
  • Distinguish the business from competitors
  • Enhance the brand reputation
  • Position the company to survive and thrive by growing sales revenue and profit

We approach 2027 with the knowledge that for Freelance business owners, implementing a powerful marketing content strategy that is carried out by credible, useful content that is timely and able to address the needs of prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey has never been more important. Now that B2B decision-makers have made it known that 67% prefer to self-direct their buyer’s journey and only contacting the vendor until they approach the comparative evaluation of solutions that have made it to the short list. Because it is often not possible to add your input to the buyer’s journey until a decision is about to be made, it is imperative that your marketing content is persuasive enough to carry your solution through the vetting obstacle course with a good chance to emerge as the winner.

Adjust to the B2B buying reality

The sales cycles in B2B has become long and perilous, and prospects are known to be demanding. The communication formats you have in place, e.g. presentations, links to webinars or podcasts and case studies, too, exist to show prospects why your solution makes sense. During the buyer’s journey, marketing content must satisfy the priorities of influential stakeholders, gatekeepers and, finally, the decision-making committee. Before any campaign launches, your organizations needs alignment in three areas:

1. Content availability: right time, right place

Ask yourself—when you’re looking for something, whether it’s your keys or some useful information, you need whatever it is to be there when you need it, in a place where you can find it. This basic fact of human nature unfortunately prevents lots of informative marketing content from being noticed and receiving serious consideration by the parties for whom it is intended. So much useful marketing content is created and subsequently clicked out of existence, unable to fulfill its purpose, because the recipient decided it wasn’t worth the time and energy to deal with it when it landed in the inbox. Unfortunate timing condemns good content to suffer the delete button. In other words, good content does not automatically become visible content. Prospects tend to rank what they read:

  • What looks relevant
  • What looks important
  • What looks familiar
  • What can be ignored

Another scenario that drains the power of content is putting a story that could be effective in front of the prospect at the wrong time. Keep in mind that your job is to nurture the buyer’s journey and organically move it forward, toward a successful conclusion—the sale. You cannot force the process. It is imperative to have at the ready informative and persuasive marketing content that informs each stage of the buyer’s journey—awareness, research, decision and post-sale. If you only produce early awareness stage, “top-of-funnel” content, it’s likely you’ll get window shopper prospects who never convert. If you only produce “bottom-of-funnel” content that’s intended to encourage prospects who are evaluating short list candidates so they can finalize the sale, it’s likely you’ll get many prospects to take the journey in the first place. Oh, and your content must not only address each stage of the buyer’s journey, but also stand out and capture attention. B2B buyers keep a trigger finger on the delete button and they’re ready to click.

2. Audience attention

You already know to define your audience and confirm factors that incent them to seek out your type of service or product and what they want to achieve when your solution is implemented. Once you’ve confirmed your prospect’s agenda for doing business with you (or one of your competitors, but we don’t want that to happen!), you must ensure that your marketing content makes viewers stop, read and look. B2B marketing is no longer about competing against other businesses anymore—it’s competing against multiple distractions, sensory overload, fatigue, or doing nothing at all. When a prospect eyeballs your content, here’s the time frame you’re up against:

  • 3 seconds to grab their attention.
  • 30 seconds for a glance.
  • 3 minutes for a full read

Eye-catching

An arresting visual, an unexpected revelation, humor, or emotional honesty are among the hooks you might use to bring audience attention that causes them to engage with your content and read on. Providing a contrarian or surprising fact or statistic that challenges a common belief can likewise be compelling.

Call-to-action

A call-to-action asks the reader to do something — learn, win, sign up, give feedback, for example. Many emails that drop into the average inbox lack an interesting, appealing subject line. It’s so easy for the eye to slide over much that is sent. Devise an amusing, novel, or practical call-to-action that will both grab attention and either inspire or dare your intended reader to read on.

Emotional relevance

You will be mistaken if you think that the decision-makers for your sale are ruled by the logic of facts, figures and potential outcomes. most decisions are emotional first and rationalized second. Humans naturally pay more attention to things connected to:

  • Identity
  • Safety
  • Status
  • Belonging
  • Aspiration
  • Fear
  • Pleasure

Humans remember what we feel and this is why emotionally relevant marketing consistently tends to outperform purely informational marketing. Facts matter but feelings determine whether those facts are noticed.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Liquoricelegs

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Don’t Get Too Personal

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Personalized marketing defines the future of marketing. Personalized marketing has not delivered on its promise. Got it.

Personalized marketing was supposed to revolutionize how you communicate with prospects, build and strengthen relationships with customers and promote your services and products to target market segments. Its purpose is to tailor your marketing messages, customer experiences and other communication with individual customers based on their unique attributes, purchasing history and preferences. Higher customer retention rates, increased sales revenue, increased customer lifetime value and decreased customer churn are among the most valuable benefits associated with personalized marketing.

Marketers were highly enthusiastic. But then came trouble in paradise, as consumers signaled concern about the privacy of their personal information and browsing behavior, which caused some turbulence in the digital sector. A reset occurred, as certain leading internet browsers instituted a ban, or allowed users to restrict, the use of third-party cookies, the mechanism that enables tracking of online behavior. As a result, marketing leaders (and that includes Freelancers and small business owners) have had to rethink their marketing personalization strategies, just when they were wrapping their heads around Customer Relations Management software and how Artificial Intelligence capabilities refined and optimized the effectiveness of personalized marketing strategies. Sigh.

So, it was necessary for brands to go back to square one marketing and shore up collection of first-party data that customers were willing to share. That information is more valuable than ever now—-and isn’t it better that you own and control your customer data, that customers and prospects know what you know about them; and they also know that you won’t sell their personal data? There’s a lot of upside that results from expanding your collection of first-party customer info—the process helps you strengthen relationships, because you’ll have more opportunities to better understand customers and you’ll be better prepared to improve their experiences with your brand.  You can apply personalization on any digital channel if you have access to customer data — often unified through a customer data platform put into place by your CRM service, which will use AI and algorithms to tailor customer experiences based on his/her data and behavior.

Realize that your customers expect and appreciate a personalized experience from the brands they regularly engage or do business with regularly. A McKinsey research study found that 76% of customers are more likely to purchase from brands that personalize. Customers want to know that the brand understands who they are and their needs and does not bombard them with unwanted sales offers.

The benefits of successful marketing personalization

  • More consistent and relevant customer experiences. Personalizing customers’ experiences shows that you understand their preferences and interests. This makes them more likely to engage and remain loyal to your brand, since they know you won’t pummel them with unwanted info.
  • Increased sales conversion rates. The more relevant your offers, the more likely that prospects and customers will value and accept the call-to-action you’re prompting them to, whether that’s purchasing a service or product, signing up for a subscription, or scheduling a consultation. Personalization enables you to entice customers with offers based on their past purchases, interests and real-time behaviors, since you’ll know what matters to them.
  • Higher customer loyalty, retention and lifetime value (LTV). Personalization sets you up to deliver relevant marketing messages and content, as well as the context in which to make recommendations for services or products, add-ons or upgrades, that are likely to resonate. When your organization demonstrates to customers that you are paying attention to their priorities, customers are more likely to give you repeat business and extend the customer lifecycle, which is vital for retaining customers in the long term.
  • Maximized marketing efforts and budget. Personalization ensures you’re always targeting customers with highly relevant offers. This means you’re not wasting your (and your customers’) time and resources. Coupled with the increase in conversion rates and revenue, this makes personalization an incredibly powerful tool for maximizing marketing spend and return on investment (ROI). It can even apply to your broader branding efforts, such as choosing the best name for your YouTube channel in order to engage a specific niche audience and earn more returns from your multimedia content.

 Types of personalization

Marketing personalization can be expressed in different ways, depending on what you want to achieve. For example, some personalization is one-to-one, meaning it’s directly related to the customer’s specific information — a technique increasingly powered by AI personalization. Think email marketing, from blogs or newsletter to special offers or events. Other times, personalization is applied using a targeted approach through customer segmentation, where you choose specific characteristics or customer attributes for a customer group based on their buying history or other interaction with your brand puts them into the segment receive a certain personalized experience.

Personalization can be as simple as having a person’s name in an email rather than an all-purpose general greeting, or as detailed as including the details of a customer’s recent purchase or web browsing in that email. It could also include showing particular product promotions on a website based on a person’s past purchases, or sending special promotions via SMS or a mobile application. Customers expect personalization on every channel, a continuity across website, mobile, SMS (text) and email communications.

Other examples of personalization include:

  • Product recommendations based on past purchases or online browsing
  • Product promotion info based on the website pages visited
  • Email offers to a segment of customers who own a particular product or receive a certain service
  • Communicating with a customer post-purchase to ensure they are happy and have no difficulty using the product or service and accessing its benefits

Boundaries matter

While there is no doubt that customers and prospects expect and appreciate personalization, they want to ensure their privacy. When, where and how much your brand personalizes the customer experience deserves consideration. It is imperative that you avoid making those who’d like to engage with your brand feel that you’re getting too personal, that they’re being closely watched. The feeling that business owners and marketers want to communicate is “I matter to this brand.” Build your personalization strategies around that thought and avoid activities that may feel like a violation.

When inviting those who engage with your brand to share certain info, you can take an important step in relationship-building by demonstrating that transparency is a policy you live by. Customers worry about brands collecting too much data, using information in unexpected ways, or creating experiences that feel too close for comfort. How data is used, confirming that it will not be shared with third parties and demonstrating that cybersecurity measures have been installed to discourage data security breaches will go a long way toward earning the trust of your customers and prospects. Clearly stated privacy policies, explicit consent mechanisms, giving customers control over their data and only personalizing in ways that genuinely add value to the customer experience you provide are must-dos.

Tools for effective marketing personalization

To effectively personalize your marketing efforts, implementing data analytics tools is necessary. Analytics tools track customer behavior that reveals website interactions and email responses, for example, so you can accurately tailor your strategies in response. Utilizing a marketing Customer Relations Management platform will optimize those capabilities by centralizing customer data to facilitate targeted, personalized communication. N.B.–maintain the quality of your customer data by taking steps to ensure that it is updated and accurate.

CRM analytics serve as the foundation for both customer journey mapping and sales forecasting by providing the behavioral data needed to understand how prospects move through your sales funnel. Every touchpoint, interaction and transaction recorded in your CRM becomes a valuable data point that reveals patterns in customer behavior and purchasing decisions.

Customer journey mapping relies heavily on CRM data to identify which channels, types of content and engagement lead to conversions. This info helps you understand which activities are most likely to indicate a purchase, or make the prospect more likely to make a purchase. You’ll also learn where in the buyer’s journey prospects are prone to abandon—or accelerate— their buying decisions.

Finally, your marketing CRM platform will greatly improve sales forecasting and ensure the data will be accurate when you analyze historical CRM data to predict future performance based on current sales funnel activity and even seasonal trends. CRM reporting tools enable you to track every interaction across the customer lifecycle, providing the comprehensive data needed to create reliable revenue projections and identify which touchpoints contribute most to creating sales.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Everett Collection. Jean Porter and Jimmy Lydon in the film Sweet Genevieve (1947)

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Newsletters Are Back

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Marketing mavens have rediscovered the newsletter. After a period of what could be called benign neglect, when this once standard marketing tool fell out of favor and was sidelined, the reappearance of newsletters represents a long overdue acknowledgement of data-verified performance results. Without question, the newsletter has for several decades been among the most effective promotional and relationship-building resources in a marketer’s arsenal.

Some of you reading now may have once looked forward to receiving a favorite newsletter that was delivered by your postal service. Then, in the early 2000s, your humble newsletter demonstrated its agility and responded to the new technology known as email, and seamlessly adapted from hard-copy to digital format. In fact, it can be successfully argued that the multi-faceted, hard-working newsletter was the original email marketing content. The format has again demonstrated that it is an effective, and therefore valuable, component of well-conceived marketing strategies and campaigns. Marketing thought leaders have joined the cheering section, calling digitally distributed (i.e., email) content marketing as foundational to long-term business growth.

Newsletters by definition are communication tools that facilitate engagement and relationship development with readers—that is, current clients, past clients, prospects and also colleagues and peers who’d like to familiarize themselves with your business—and you. According to a 2026 report published by Newsletter Industry Statistics, 78% of B2B marketers use newsletters to generate leads and 60% say newsletters are their top driver of customer retention—which, BTW, invites repeat business. A well-composed newsletter can showcase your entity, and you, in many ways:

  • A platform for you to tell your brand story
  • Cultivate client relationships, inspire trust in prospects, re-engage past clients
  • Demonstrate your thought leader expertise
  • Nurture brand loyalty
  • Make announcements and updates
  • Present product or service spotlights
  • Generate website traffic and sales

Because your newsletter is capable of influencing more people than you may realize, and in more ways than you might imagine, it is imperative that you make it a good read. You have a story to tell; ensure that the information you share is relevant, timely and compelling. Spice up the text with a splash of appealing visuals that aligns with your narrative, using both still images and (short) video clips. Be sensitive to reader attention spans as you compose your newsletter: three pages, or about 500-600 words, is probably suitable for most but still images will expand the page count. Furthermore, your newsletter (and all of your marketing emails) should adhere to mobile device specs, because 60% will be opened on mobile. As for scheduling your newsletter, monthly is an acceptable frequency known to build and maintain reader engagement.

Make it relevant, visually interesting and personal

Before you commit to producing a newsletter for your Freelance entity, decide what you’d like your newsletter to do for your business? Would you like to increase brand awareness, generate leads, nurture relationships, or boost sales? In most cases it’s all of the above, but it makes sense to know your destination before you set off on a journey.

When you’ve clarified the purpose, you can confidently choose topics for articles and other content that will guide your creation of an effective marketing tool. Your customer relations management data will reveal what your clients want to know and, even better, can segment clients into groups based on relevant distinguishing criteria, such as for-profit or not-for-profit designation, pain points or goals that motivate clients to seek out your solution, purchase history, or frequency. By segmenting your audience, you can then tailor certain elements of your newsletter content to each group and in that way enhance the relevance, personalization, engagement and, ultimately, sales revenue generated. Artificial Intelligence software will optimize the insights provided by your CRM data, that can accurately pinpoint client preferences, priorities, behaviors and challenges. Moreover, AI software such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, Ideamap, or Microsoft Copilot, for example, can facilitate the brainstorming and idea generation process and present to you potentially dozens of interesting newsletter topics that would address the focus of your target newsletter reader groups.

According to data reported by Exploding Topics, approximately 72% of newsletter subscribers are motivated by a desire to either stay up-to-date with company happenings or learn about a topic of interest when they choose to subscribe to a newsletter. Surprisingly, when given the option of receiving updates about your brand by way of social media or an email newsletter that slips into their inbox, 90% of readers choose to receive your newsletter.

So there is your mission—identify headline topics that will be segmented by personalized interests and priorities and made available to readers based on what resonates most, as a way to encourage relevance and value that readers will associate with your newsletter, as well as your company. With assistance from your CRM and AI resources, you will learn which topics that a critical mass of readers would like to take a deep-dive exploration into, and also topics for which they’ll be pleased to receive just basic info. Lastly, readers will appreciate quick and visible access to links that announce upcoming events, perhaps some in which you’ll have a featured presence, such as a podcast, webinar, or teaching assignment. Ideally, your newsletter will function as a portal for conversation with your clients and prospects. Make it interactive by including a mix of content that they’ll anticipate reading every month, such as:

  • Links to your blog or other useful articles
  • One deep-dive article
  • Poll or survey
  • Product or service spotlights
  • Call-to-action
  • Special events—your speaking or teaching engagements, participation in charity events

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: courtesy of the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. Muse Reading Greek (Boeotia) circa 435-425 BC

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The Value of Networking

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Relationships are the beating heart of humanity and a factor that, for better or worse, impact your fortunes in life. In the professional sector, the process of networking presents opportunities to meet business colleagues with whom you might cultivate (mutually) productive relationships. Your willingness to meet and greet colleagues you encounter in various settings can open the door to relationships that bring tangible benefits to your business or career. Wherever conversations and handshakes can take place, even the sidewalk in front of the Apple store where a crowd of hopefuls waits to buy the next cool device, can be a networking opportunity.

Whether by intention or by chance, you never know how or when you’ll meet someone who will bring a positive impact to your life or business. Networking, wherever it occurs, is a low-risk gamble that can deliver a sizeable pay-off—information or insights that sharpen your business acumen, an introduction to a prospective client—or maybe finding a great tennis partner. Whatever happens during your adventures in networking, the benefits you receive will be better if you prepare in advance for the experience.

Develop objectives

As noted, networking has the potential to have a powerful influence on your business and for this reason, a well-planned marketing strategy will not overlook this resource. Smart Freelancers take networking seriously; you get the ball rolling by first strategically evaluating the potential value of the networking events you might attend. In other words, it’s important to understand why you think it’s a good idea to attend certain events? “To network” is an incomplete answer. What do you want to happen?

Well—maybe you recognize the name of the speaker and you like the topic? You could pick up some useful information and hope to reconnect with an acquaintance or two whom you haven’t seen since the pandemic. You’ll be off to a good start with those two objectives. Now, consider if there is some information or insights your colleagues, if they show up, might share with you? Could it be that you’re thinking of offering a new service, or you’ve been investigating the potential of a niche market and one of your buddies could give you some feedback? Or maybe the program speaker can address your questions with you privately, after the talk? Now you’re on your way!

Networking requires a certain amount of time and money and you owe it to yourself to create a rational business case for your networking “why” by developing objectives that can be tied to tangible business outcomes or support one or more objectives. Networking needs an agenda, like touching base with a colleague or two because your recollection of their experience and relationships makes you suspect that either or both could give you some actionable input.

Be sure to check out the RSVP list, which the event organizer may have posted on the website, and confirm that your buddies—or someone else you’d like to meet—plans to attend. Whether or not you see familiar names on the guest list, there are basic questions that can serve as your networking agenda and almost guarantee a successful outcome, however modest. 1.) Meet a client. 2.) Get a referral. 3.) Get information. More potential agenda items are listed below.

  • Customer acquisition: Are you looking for new clients? Learn how clearly and concisely describe the profile of your ideal customer to colleagues you meet and connect with.
  • Strategic collaborations: Do you need a business partner or investor? Or maybe you’d like to find a Freelance videographer to join you on a project every now and again?
  • Investor: If your company is thriving and scaling in the form of growth or expansion is on your mind, you may be on the lookout for a knowledgeable and trustworthy investor who is willing to help you fund the plans for your enterprise.
  • Research & feedback: Is there a new product or service you’d like to test the waters with? Obtaining direct, first-person feedback from potential customers or industry peers provides useful, actionable, insights.

Attend the right networking events

Not all B2B networking events will be appropriate for your industry or business objectives. The “best” events depend entirely on what you’d like to make happen. You wouldn’t wear a tuxedo to a casual coffee meetup and similarly, you shouldn’t attend an emerging technology summit when you’d like to meet HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) specialists.

When investigating your networking possibilities, consider the event’s audience and how connecting with those who attend will be beneficial for you and therefore worth the time and money you’ll invest. Start with your objectives, then match them to the right event and develop a reasonable agenda that puts you on a path to a worthwhile networking outcome. Don’t forget to check the Small Business Expo’s Event Calendar for upcoming networking opportunities designed for for small business owners in your area.

Pre-meeting prep

Once you’ve chosen your event, devise your onsite strategy, from the initial meeting with colleagues to conversations that can segue into “What brings you here and what do you do?” questions to graciously inviting follow-up, if a post-event conversation appears to be mutually agreeable. If one or more colleagues are on the RSVP list, consider how your target contacts might be able to share info, give feedback, make a referral, or make an introduction on your behalf. You can rehearse how you might adroitly make the ask.

  • Research attendees: Most nationally known professional associations, industry expos and skills-building conferences post attendee lists on the program website; meeting organizers recognize the selling power of knowing who is on the RSVP list.
  • Upgrade elevator pitch: Meeting colleagues while networking is similar to an interview with a prospective client. In both instances, you must concisely and powerfully articulate your value proposition; as you describe your solution will help your a prospect to resolve a pain point or achieve an important goal. Distill your pitch until you can effectively deliver it in 20-30 seconds.
  • Note-taking app: Immediately after a conversation with a colleague, make it fast and easy to document key details of the conversation and future actions. A note-taking app will allow you to efficiently capture and organize your thoughts expressed as notes, drawings, images, or URL links and store it in the cloud for you to access on your devices. Expedite personalized follow-up by recording names, company, industry or expertise, discussion topic and agreed-upon future actions. Adding details (e.g., “mentioned s/he swims regularly”) will enable you to personalize follow-up communication and enhance the quality of your CRM data.

Positive first impression

The goal while meeting and greeting colleagues and facilitating potential relationship-building opportunities that might lead to a business collaboration or partnership of some kind is authenticity, so be your personal best self. Extend your hand and greet others with friendly eye contact, a warm smile and a firm handshake. On the no-fly list are: Card spamming—avoid the promiscuous distribution of your business cards, which is very annoying. Instead, exchange cards after a meaningful conversation. Monologues—networking and all conversations are a two-way street. Ask questions and listen more than you talk to obtain useful info and insights. Hard sell—no one wants to be sold to immediately. Focus instead on building rapport and understanding needs first, so you’ll learn where, how, or if your solution can address the contact’s goal or pain point. See below for behaviors that will enhance and optimize your networking fortunes.

  • Active listening: This is your superpower. Ask thoughtful questions and truly listen to the answers. People remember how you make them feel, not just what you say. This helps you gather “insights” into their needs.
  • The “Give before you get” principle: Offer value upfront. Can you share a relevant industry insight? Make an introduction? Recommend a helpful resource? These actions build trust and reciprocity and promote strong relationships.
  • Quality over quantity: Focus on having a few meaningful conversations that may lead to business opportunities or actionable insights, rather than dozens of superficial gab fests.
  • Open body language: Smile, maintain eye contact and avoid crossed arms. Approachability is paramount.
  • Graceful exits: When a conversation reaches a natural end, have a polite way to disengage. “It was a pleasure speaking with you, I see someone I need to catch before s/he leaves,” or “I’d love to follow-up on this topic later. Enjoy the rest of the event!”

After the handshake: nurturing business relationships

The business cards handed to you won’t bring a client or generate revenue on their own. The post-event phase is critical for moving new contacts from casual acquaintances to valuable allies who may be willing and able to directly impact your client list and annual revenue.

Nurturing your valuable relationships, whether new or long-standing, is a continuous process. Step up and offer info, insights, an introduction, or other help you can give to those with whom you are already acquainted, from an event speaker to others whom you meet during your networking adventure. You may be able to help in the moment but if necessary, consider inviting follow-up that will carry relationship-building into the future. When you hand your card to someone, make it clear that your style of networking is a two-way street.

  • CRM for contact management: Do not neglect to add new contacts to your database, with detailed notes that memorialize in your customer relations management tool the conversations you were so lucky to have. Now you’ll be able to smoothly pick up the thread when conversations continue. Schedule reminders to invite follow-up.
  • Social media engagement: Don’t just connect on LinkedIn; engage with their content. Comment thoughtfully on their posts, share relevant articles and diplomatically keep yourself at top-of-mind.
  • Share valuable content: If you discover an article, report, or event that you suspect would interest a contact, share it with them. Be selective with what you share as you position yourself as a helpful resource.
  • Make strategic introductions: If you know two people who could benefit from connecting, offer to introduce them. A good introduction is a powerful way to add value to your network.

The 48-hour follow-up formula

The real work begins after the networking event. The clock starts ticking as you leave the room.. The business cards handed to you won’t bring any clients nor will they generate any revenue until you get busy and keep the momentum going. The post-event phase is critical for moving contacts from casual acquaintances to valuable allies who may be positioned to directly impact your client list and annual revenue. Speed and a welcoming, personalized follow-up approach are your action items.

Your post-networking activity is to continue the conversation; furthermore, you must avoid stumbling into a sales pitch and also kill any signs of desperation. Your follow-up contact will be most effective when your tone is friendly and relaxed, but also purposeful—you have an objective and moving things forward is imperative. If it is you who will help a colleague further his/her objective, follow-through with whatever you committed to in a timely fashion. You can reach out by telephone, but a videoconference will be more effective and, if geography and schedules allow, a face2face meeting is better still.

  1. Personalized message: You’ll demonstrate your appreciation and authenticity to those colleagues you’ve agreed to follow-up with when you reference specific details from the conversation. A good way to personalize your outreach is to say something along the lines of “It was great discussing (the topic) with you at (event name) yesterday. Your insights on (the worthwhile wisdom) were particularly interesting.”
  2. Provide immediate value: If you referenced an article that your new contact found interesting, attach it to your follow-up message. If you made a strategic introduction on behalf of your new contact, mention that you were delighted to connect the two of them. If you gave feedback on an initiative or some other business question that your contact has been exploring, reference the interaction and invite him/her to reach out if there is another question or clarification that would be helpful. Providing value reinforces “give before you get” relationship-building behavior that builds trust and increases the likelihood that your favor will be appreciated and returned.
  3. Propose next steps: So you have an objective or two in mind and an action plan is needed to move things forward? In your message, suggest an in-person coffee meeting if geography allows or a follow-up videoconference call. “I’d love to continue our conversation about (proposed follow-up topic). Would you be open to a 30-minute face2face or video call next week?”
  4. Multi-channel outreach: Your first outreach method should be either email or text, whichever seems most appropriate for your new colleague. Next, since it usually doesn’t seem too pushy to invite new contacts to connect on LinkedIn send a request. Keep personalization going by composing a short invitation note that references where you met, as opposed to merely clicking on the prefab LinkedIn invite. Moreover, if your new colleague posts interesting content on the platform become a follower and, when you have something relevant to add, respond with a comment and not just a like, to demonstrate that you’re paying attention and understand the new contact’s value as well.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © NurnbergMesse Group

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8 Stepping Stones to Smart Decision-Making

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OK, here’s another fact of life we all must face—when there’s a decision to make—should you have a slice of carrot cake, or should you skip dessert—or maybe there’s something on the table that’s more important than splurging on dessert? Leaders of Freelance solopreneur entities may have an important business decision to examine. To complicate your task, there is also the matter of determining which data resources will give your decision-making process the best support?

It’s often the case that some information that would be useful will not be available to you, for some reason or another. For example, despite the considerable amount of website and social media engagement data that’s at your fingertips, along with your company financial records and perhaps also industry reports, some that may have been generated by heavyweights like Accenture or McKinsey, you may nevertheless struggle to interpret and utilize certain information. There is often data you don’t have and sometimes also data whose relevance you don’t understand.

In fact, there is also data that indicates that misunderstanding how to leverage data can lead to mistrust of data. Doubting your data can cause you to regret certain of your decisions, because you fear that you may have misinterpreted the data and that your possible miscalculation might spoil the decision outcome. You may fear that a previous decision made failed to deliver the desired outcome because you either didn’t interpret the data appropriately or you relied on the wrong metrics.

A 2023 study found that those called upon to make decisions, especially impactful business decisions, rather frequently feel overwhelmed, and perhaps even unqualified, to sort through and recognize which data will be helpful to the decision-making process and that the phenomenon is hurting the quality of their business performance. According to The Decision Dilemma, a 2023 study by Oracle and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life (2022), it is common to feel regret caused by the possibility of having made an unfortunate decision. Study outcomes showed that 85% of participating business leaders admitted questioning certain decisions they made over the previous 12 months. Furthermore, the 72% of participants who admitted that the sheer volume of data is overwhelming, along with the 35% of participants who were unable to determine which data or data sources were either relevant or accurate, caused most in the study to lose trust in data. Moreover, that lack of trust has at times prevented them from making a decision.

The 14,000+ employees and business leaders across 17 countries who participated revealed that business owners and leaders are struggling to make decisions in their (personal and) professional lives at a time when they are expected to make more decisions than ever before: 74 % of respondents reported that the number of decisions they make every day has increased by 10x over the last three years. Additionally, 85 % of respondents feel unable to make good decisions. That feeling of inadequacy has a negative impact on their quality of life, from causing them to experience anxiety (36%), to miss business opportunities (33%) and contributing to unnecessary spending (29%). As a result, 93% of respondents reported that they’ve changed how they make decisions.

As a leader, knowing what should factor into making the best decision you can is crucial. How might company expenses, products and/or services, your company brand, or customers be impacted? You might not have access to all the information you’d like, but you are most likely aware of a number of key factors that will give some indication of the outcome of your decision. To that end, I share with you decision-making suggestions compiled by members of the Inc. Magazine Leadership Forum, a group of founders and C-Suite business leaders who understand that decision-making without complete information is an everyday occurrence, making the availability of a framework to guide your process essential

SEE THE BIG PICTURE AND PICK A DIRECTION

Decision-makers are encouraged to keep the big picture of your organization and what you’d like the decision to bring about as you predict potential outcomes and assess risks that help you to weigh possible losses before deciding which actions you’ll take (strategy development). This approach ensures that your decision will align with long-term organization goals and promote its growth.

Remember also that in many cases, making almost any decision is better than not making a decision and that making no decision is a decision by default. Choosing against making a decision is not a synonym for caution. Pick a direction, commit to it and then do all that you can do to make it work. Your final result may not be 100 % perfect but it may suffice and, best of all, can take you a step closer to your ultimate goal.

BREAK AWAY FROM FEAR AND FOCUS ON GROWTH

Alas, it is inevitable that many decision-makers are imprisoned by the fear of negative outcomes. Avoiding risk is an essential ingredient in every decision-making process, but risk management should not be an expression of fear, because fear limits opportunities. Letting go of fear allows you to recognize and pursue opportunities, especially when the quest for opportunity is leavened by appropriate risk assessment and management.

Psychologists have proposed numerous strategies to help side-step fear (which is usually exaggerated or even irrational). Identifying the worst-case scenario of your decision outcomes, which is an element of scenario-planning, is perhaps one of the best remedies. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best!

CONFIRM FACTS AND AVOID CONFIRMATION BIAS

Separate facts from interpretation that’s tainted by confirmation bias. Also known as wishful thinking, confirmation bias lulls you into interpreting information in a way that conforms with what you expect or would like to happen; you may be inclined to ignore or discredit information that does not support your preferred outcome.

That said, don’t be afraid to be guided by the outcomes of previous decisions, whether or not they produced the preferred outcome. Trust your track record and do the best you can with the available data and the resources that are in hand. Once you’ve done your homework and objectively examined the available information, have faith that it may be preferable to take a chance and own a mistake than to play it safe and lose out on creative, innovate decision.

You can escape the blinders of confirmation bias by asking yourself the tough questions. It will be wise to confirm that your company has the necessary resources, for example, market share, revenue, expertise and/or relationships to implement certain decisions. If your resources appear to be lackluster, you may need to launch a remedial plan—an interim decision— before embarking on a decision-making process to launch a major initiative.

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

Consider initiating your decision-making process by creating a list to catalogue the decision options that are available to you. It’s very basic, but it’s helpful to know what your options are. You can also rank what appear to be the best options by next listing the potential benefits associated with each direction available. You want to be able to confirm that your assumptions reflect the best picture formed with current data and also to acknowledge that which you are unable to know.

Assumptions are like the scaffolding used on a building but they are tricky because they are vulnerable to confirmation bias—magical thinking you want to avoid. Yet, assumptions in decision-making are necessary because you need a few “givens” to depend on—the size of your customer base, the performance of your best-selling services, the impact of your major competitors, for example. The danger is when your assumptions remain invisible. Unexamined beliefs about people, processes, or systems can silently distort judgment and create blind spots. 

ASSESS WHAT IS UNKNOWN

How wonderful it would be to know what you don’t know—or at least recognize that there are happenings about which you haven’t got a clue. Another useful contribution to successful decision-making is to brainstorm about the unknowns. How can you figure out how to know what you don’t know? When compiling and analyzing data, you may not realize that it’s primarily a collection of vanity metrics. If you invest an hour, or a day or a week, to think about the unknowns, you’ll have a better chance of coming to the table with a true understanding of what factors are in play for your decision. Keep a piece of paper and a pencil handy and write down what comes to mind when you least expect it.

DETERMINE WHAT CAN BE ADJUSTED

Catalogue what must be right about the outcome of your decision and what can be adjusted later. As noted above, pick a direction, assess the likely risks and fix what needs some adjustment. When information is incomplete, and that’s often the case, you might decide to follow a strategy that has wiggle-room for a reversible choice or two. Sometimes, time matters—either you are compelled to make a decision to save yourself a peck of trouble, or you want to catch a good opportunity and you may be holding enough cards to catch the wave and ride it. Momentum matters—but it has to be paired with flexibility so that the right adjustments can be made in response to unexpected developments or if new information becomes available.

PROTECT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Because information may be incomplete or inscrutable, you will likely be well-served to let protecting (or enhancing) the quality of your customer experience be your decision-making guiding star. In a fast-changing business environment, you’ll rarely have all the answers to questions that would clarify your understanding and affirm the path you should take. If your decision preserves customer trust and, if possible, enables you to keep the business to rather quickly and efficiently adapt to marketplace fluctuations, you can more easily make adjustments if there is push-back from your customers. Depending on the decision you must make, it could make sense to get some input from customers to learn how they might feel about changes that would be visible or impactful to them.

ACCEPT MISTAKES AND COURSE-CORRECT

It is not unusual for Freelancers and other business leaders to be called upon to make impactful decisions quickly and with only partial, maybe even questionable, information. You must learn to accept that mistakes will be made. Impact comes from being able to identify, own and modify decisions as new information surfaces. The real mistake is to hold on to bad decisions because they were already made.

You rarely have complete information, so effective leaders learn to make timely, confident decisions using their experience, industry knowledge, understanding of the broader environment, and awareness of the competitive landscape—then quickly course-correct if new information shows the decision should be adjusted.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Adobe Stock, generated with AI

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Level Up Your Thought Leader Cred

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Being a thought leader is a vital ingredient in a Freelancer’s recipe for a B2B content marketing strategy that moves the needle. In fact, establishing yourself as a credible thought leader is foundational to building a thriving Freelance client list. Freelancers must recognize that business acumen, lived experience and data you share with content followers, some of whom are prospects and clients, is a valuable strategic asset. What you know and how you express your knowledge is the core of your Unique Selling Proposition and the engine that drives your ability to deliver solutions that produce results and convert prospects into paying clients.

Many independently employed professionals label themselves an “expert in the field and thought leader,” but few do so with a carefully considered sense of purpose that leads to an actionable outcome—like persuading a hesitant prospect to become a client. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace that’s populated with cautious prospects who’ve lengthened B2B sales cycles and pushed your next paid invoice farther into the future, it is imperative to distinguish yourself from those whose “thought leadership” amounts to checking the box and calling it done.

Tickling a handful of marketing metrics doesn’t prove that you’re a credible thought leader, either; click bait posts and articles are only eye wash and audiences recognize it. True connaisseurs of thought leader content track business impact (vs. 63% overall) and 51% track brand authority (vs. 38% overall) to assess how audiences really feel about their content. They measure the relevance of their thought leadership with insightful metrics:

  • Audience engagement — views, downloads, shares (80%)
  • Business impact — lead generation, pipeline influence (63%)
  • Audience feedback — client/prospect feedback, sentiment analysis (40%)
  • Brand authority — speaking/media opportunities, publication citations (38%)

Furthermore, connaisseurs publish their thought leadership on marketing channels that provide an audience of B2B prospects who are serious about obtaining useful information. If you are not currently publishing on these channels, as well as getting out in front of a live audience every once in a while, add these items to your thought leadership promotional activities.

  • LinkedIn (76%)
  • Email newsletters (54%)
  • Speaking events, webinars (52%)

Those who “get” the power of thought leadership know that the information they present may be used by audience members who are either familiar with or contending with a particular challenge. The insights and info you present as a thought leader is used to support responsible decision-making, whether in the moment or in the near future. Therefore, the goal of savvy Freelancers is to produce credible, possibly innovative and reliably useful thought leadership content that followers and other readers or viewers will notice and remember. Below are thought leadership ingredients you can use to develop your recipe for success.

1. Solve a problem readers will recognize

Effective thought leadership is born of a vexing problem that is urgent—an emerging risk, a stubborn and mysterious challenge or failing, or even a misunderstood opportunity. The most perceptive and confident thought leaders will dare to step outside the usual narrative or practice and provide a perspective the audience hasn’t heard before and use it as a launchpad for potentially effective solutions. Does your thought leadership content inspire your audience make smarter, braver, decisions, or help them to avoid a potentially costly error, or problem they may not have considered?

Thought-leadership content that presents insights and information that helps decision-makers perform not as mere functionaries but as leaders who know how to keep the mission-driven goals of their organization in the forefront builds trust and separates you from competitors. To achieve that, thought-leaders must be aware of what audience members need to know now—before a competitor tells them first.

2. Present thought leadership content with an out-of-the-box idea

Defining the problem is where thought leadership starts and proposing an innovative way to perceive and address it is what gets thought leader content noticed. A true thought leader is provocative, one who reveals an “aha” moment that makes a new way of looking at things both credible and memorable. Create thought leadership content that challenges conventional wisdom or reframes a common problem in an unexpected way—and show your audience that you understand the problem and how it can be solved.

To stimulate your creative spirit, you may want to employ an Artificial Intelligence tool to rev up your brainstorming. You’ll have to experiment to find the right prompts that help you discover intriguing, but credible, possibilities for topics that answer questions for readers and reveal what they consider to be an emerging concern. AI can also help you frame your approach to the topic and provide suggestions as to which narrative threads might be included in your content. Also, use storytelling to shape your content, as it is usually the most relatable way to communicate with your audience—and they’re more likely to retain the info you deliver.

A concise overview of a case study or references to insights gleaned from user generated content that’s appeared on your company’s social media accounts are excellent sources of lived experiences that are provided by your very own followers. You can also discover topics to explore as well. Let AI help you start the brainstorming process by showing you topics that your audience are likely to find relevant and then build your case with real time source material that might reflect both your own experiences and that of your clients.

3. The best thought leadership content is in the trenches

When scouting for source material, keep in mind that residents of the C-Suite may not give you boots-on-the-ground perspectives or stories that reveal out-of-the-box perspectives or possible solutions that bring “street cred” to your thought leader content. Clients and colleagues who have a customer-facing role are better positioned to provide you with the most interesting topics, experiences and insights that bring authenticity to your narratives. You want reports from those who notice shifting customer behavior, for example, and other grass-roots experiences that bring a rawness and depth to your thought leader content and makes it relevant to a wide audience.

4. Thought leader content is considered useful

Good thought-leader content earns attention by delivering relevant information. That doesn’t mean checklists or how-tos—but it does mean clarity and ideas that make a subject that is complex feel as if it can be navigated and understood. When your followers and other readers finish your article and let the information you provided and hit the save and/or the forward button, that will verify your status as a thought leader. Useful content helps readers do things like:

  • See a risk they hadn’t considered
  • Argue for a decision internally
  • Convince the audience to take action
  • Shift the mental model audience members were using

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©nobelprize.org (L-R) Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Simon Johnson of MIT and James Robinson of University of Chicago in Chicago, IL

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Meeting Primer: Make Every Minute Matter

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So you’ve decided to call a meeting. Maybe you and your client’s team are due for an update/ check-in; or has an unexpected glitch created a project roadblock that demands a problem-solving strategy? Let’s look at the bright side—-has what appears to be an opportunity revealed itself and the purpose of your meeting is to verify that the opportunity is not a mirage and deciding how to proceed?

Oftentimes, a meeting means a decision must be made. When it comes to meetings one thing is certain—the purpose is always about finding the way forward, where you’re going and how you’ll get there. Moreover, there are always action items to follow-up on.

Meetings have a checkered history; there is an unfortunate tendency to deviate from the agenda and get lost in the weeds. Salvation is within reach, however, when the convener—you!—thinks through the key components of the meeting so that you will enable the meeting to both fulfill its purpose and leave the participants feeling energized, engaged and effective.

Agenda

It is your job as meeting convener to create the conditions for a successful meeting. Begin by identifying the purpose of your meeting—must potential solutions to a problem be explored, or must the team determine strategies that will advance a certain goal? Once the meeting purpose is confirmed, the convener will then consider which information and/or actions will be needed to support the meeting purpose and inform the creation of the meeting agenda—which will be the meeting journey roadmap. To create the agenda, allow yourself to do some some free association thinking to get a mental picture of what must be discussed and resolved.

Attendance

Next, decide who should attend, as well as those who perhaps for political reasons you would be wise to invite. There may be certain stakeholders or power brokers who must be in the room (or in virtual attendance), whether you want them there or not. Those on the must-invite list could be a net-positive, however; you may be able to convince one of the VIP attendees to troubleshoot, green-light, recruit allies, approve funding, or somehow advance your vision of what needs to happen.

Following the list of heavy weights, you’ll be free to draw up a list of those who should attend, who you want to attend, because they have the subject expertise and insight that will benefit the meeting purpose. Finally, there are those you should ask to attend because they know how to get things done and can be trusted to carry out important action items—and just as valuable, if there’s a vote taken, they’re with you!

Bear in mind that there may be stakeholders /VIPs who simply appreciate receiving info regarding the outcome of your meeting, but they do not need or want to attend. If someone doesn’t need to be there, offer them alternatives, such as asking them for pre-meeting input or sending them a follow-up meeting summary. Fewer attendees mean more-focused conversations—and ultimately better outcomes.

Use the “Five W’s”—who, what, where, when, and why—to generate the participant list. Who needs to be there? What, if any, special information should you bring in resources to support the conversation (meeting handouts or presentation slides? What information can drive decision-making and needs to be shared and what is just a distraction and doesn’t need to be included?

You must also consider the most inclusive and welcoming format for the meeting—in person or virtual? It’s entirely likely that your meeting will be hybrid and it will be necessary to design logistics that will make those who attend virtually feel fully present.

Engagement and participation

As you know, the best meeting outcomes are achieved when you bring together participants who have the means and motive to contribute something relevant to the proceedings. Lackluster participation in meetings weakens the result by reducing collaboration, hampering decision-making and eroding team unity. How can you encourage more fruitful engagement? Step One is to create an agenda that directs attention to the core purpose of the meeting, whether check-in, problem-solving, or decision that must be made, or opportunity to exploit.

Start by clarifying expectations for the meeting and participants by outlining some of the supportive behaviors you want to see in your meetings. For example, you might emphasize mutually supportive behaviors such as nonjudgmental communication, collaborating to tackle challenges together, sharing of resources and information. It’s also helpful to offer team members different ways to contribute—for example, allow for written input before, during, or after meetings. Giving those who are typically less vocal a structured role can help empower them to speak. When participants know that their insights and wisdom are valued, they’ll find the motivation and courage to speak up and they have the potential to perhaps bring an unexpected idea or perspective that will greatly improve the outcome and relevance of the meeting.

Finally, make every minute count and don’t run over. Set meetings for the shortest time necessary, not by default increments like 60 minutes. Honoring to the agenda and ending on time helps people sustain focus, reduces frustration and communicates to everyone that your meetings are worth attending.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Siphosethu Fanti/peopleimages.com for Adobe Stock

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Summer Reading 2025

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Professional development is like getting regular exercise and maintaining a balanced diet—a gift you give to yourself as you strive to become a successful business owner. When thinking of professional development, conferences sponsored by professional associations or skills building courses held at a college may come to mind but think again—professional development is available in a variety formats. Among the most accessible and affordable methods to obtain professional development can be found in books.

Reading has traditionally played an important role in the development of successful business owners and leaders. When you open a book, a world of ideas, information and insights will be there to enlighten you. You’ll find lessons and experiences that can be critical to your growth as a business owner and leader, shared by authors who give first-person accounts of how they overcame challenges and found success. The books you read can teach you how to sharpen your business acumen and use your newfound proficiency to propel your business forward. The practical knowledge contained in a typical business-themed book can result in your discovery of actionable insights that can become competitive advantages, from refining your decision-making prowess to bolstering your effectiveness when working with teams.

In today’s fast-paced and endlessly-evolving business landscape, continuous education is not only beneficial, it’s essential; but in the age of information overload, it may be difficult to find time to read when you devote the majority of your time to operating your business. Furthermore, you may feel too overwhelmed by the process of researching and identifying topics that will be most useful or interesting to you—the business books genre is a wide field. With those realities in mind, I am happy to share with you a selection of books curated to appeal to Freelance consulting professionals and also business owners or leaders. I hope that one or more titles will interest you. First, here are suggestions that may help you find time to read this summer (and beyond!).

  • Schedule. Like scheduling time for any important task, specifying your reading time will help you choose a convenient time and make it easier to honor your commitment to professional development. Consider reading after dinner, to lend a “relax and unwind” vibe to your reading. You may find the 8:00 – 11:00 PM time slot, three or four nights a week, a great way to wrap up your day.
  • Formats. Especially if your commute is 45 minutes or longer, or your fitness routine is self-directed and not in a class format, consider listening to audio books and/or podcasts as your method to obtain professional development. When in transit or working out, insert your headphones and tune in to an interesting book or program that expands your knowledge, builds skills and enhances your performance as a business owner or leader.
  • Topics. There are many business-themed titles published each year, but it is inevitable that only a select few will appeal to you. Reading book reviews of titles that grab your attention—in the business section of your local newspaper, in the Wall Street Journal or other nationally known newspaper, in Kirkus Reviews , or Goodreads—to winnow potential reading choices as you discover and evaluate titles and authors that may appeal to you and maintain your motivation to read and learn. Below are 10 books to cue up on your Summer 2025 reading playlist.

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business (2019) Paul Jarvis

Online-tech veteran Paul Jarvis, whose A-list clients include Microsoft and Mercedes Benz, describes the advantages of running a “company of one,” whether as an independent Freelance professional or as an autonomous, corporate employee. Jarvis has most emphatically not bought into the “grow or die” ethos and prefers instead to operate as a “lean and agile” entity. Jarvis explains how running your one-person shop enables you to both achieve a work-life balance that works for you and, just as importantly, enables you to avoid the need to navigate a potentially suffocating corporate hierarchy and sometimes poisonous office politics. In your little empire, you can work efficiently. Jarvis has learned that smart entrepreneurship isn’t about size—it’s about building a better business that works for you.

 Company of One details a refreshingly original business strategy that’s focused on a commitment to being better instead of bigger. Jarvis has discovered that staying small results in maintaining the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life as you avoid the headaches and complications that are inherent in traditional growth-oriented business. With this groundbreaking guide, you’ll learn how to set up your shop, determine your desired revenues, manage unexpected crises, keep your key clients happy and find self-fulfillment as you do.

Competing in the Age of AI (2020) Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

Here’s a book that is an excellent resource for business owners and leaders whose organizations currently use, or are considering, Artificial Intelligence powered tools in their operations. The authors have produced a useful guide to the realities of doing business in today’s digital landscape and present actionable insights into how introducing AI-driven operating models can enable businesses to achieve scale and scope at an unprecedented rate.

Iansiti and Lakhani show how reinventing a business entity around data, analytics and AI removes centuries-old constraints on scale, scope and machine learning advantages that have traditionally restricted business growth. Recent examples of companies such as Amazon and Google demonstrate how AI-driven processes vastly improve the ability to scale, when compared to traditional data analytical processes, and allow massive scope increase, enabling companies to straddle industry boundaries and create powerful opportunities for machine learning—to drive ever more accurate, complex and sophisticated predictions that make business strategy becomes a new game.

The authors also outline the inherent risks associated with AI and offer recommendations for rethinking current operating models; they also examine the responsibilities that the introduction of AI requires of its users. Finally, Iansiti and Lakhani are transparent about the potential societal impact of AI and point out the potential for algorithmic bias, privacy concerns and cybersecurity threats, along with the need for responsible AI development and governance.

How To Talk To Anyone About Anything (2021) James W. Williams

James W. Williams has written a refreshingly honest, easy-to-follow guide to meeting and greeting and initiating conversations that’s tailor-made for an era when many meetings and even networking opportunities are regularly held in virtual format. As a result, the only avenue to connect with colleagues and attempt to parlay fleeting interactions into deeper connections is hobbled by a computer monitor. Engaging communication skills are increasingly recognized as a powerful and influential competency. 

While some are born with a silver-tongued gift of gab for many, communication aptitude must be developed and nurtured. Williams’ advice is likely to bolster the social acumen of even the most shy and introverted among us, the wallflowers who feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when attempting to navigate business-slash-social gatherings. If you’ve ever felt awkward in the midst of a meet & greet, or unsure of what to say after an introduction has taken place, this book will show you how to access your communication potential and learn to become a confident conversationalist.

How to Talk to Anyone About Anything provides a user-friendly roadmap that will enable you to practice, grow and eventually shine in social and professional situations. Active listening, small talk and storytelling are situations that the author discusses, as is how to develop the fine art of appearing approachable to your fellow guests when you’re standing alone and wondering if you’ll talk with anyone. Readers will appreciate the many good examples that provide teachable moments and make this book ideal for professionals and social learners alike. Williams’ book is a great soft-skills business resource, that will be a great help to those who struggle with small talk, pitching to clients, or relationship-building within your team. The insights are perfect for occasions where first impressions and informal conversations can open the door to business-enhancing or career-building opportunities.

10X Is Easier Than 2X (2023) Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Call this book a must-read for ambitious business leaders. When the mission is to level up business growth, here are insights that give an eye-opening perspective on how to achieve exponential, rather than incremental, growth. This no-nonsense read can give business leaders and owners actionable insights into scaling their businesses rapidly, leveraging technology and resources more effectively and positioning their entity to stay ahead—of the competition and customer tastes—in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Businesses leaders often aim to achieve progress, for example, and may focus on doubling their results year over year. However, Sullivan and Hardy argue convincingly that aiming for tenfold growth is not only feasible but also more practical and rewarding. As they see it, going for 10x requires letting go of 80% of your current life and going all-in on the crucial 20% that’s relevant and high-impact.

Readers will find practical strategies and mindset shifts that inspire you to break through limitations and achieve exponential growth. The authors emphasize the power of thinking bigger, setting audacious goals and taking massive action. For business owners and leaders, this approach is invaluable as it encourages innovation, pushes boundaries and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom (2019) Janice Bryant Howroyd

“Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to be professionally” is the core message offered by author Janice Bryant Howroyd, who grew up in a family of 11 children. Here she discusses the principles and techniques that she used to build a multinational staffing agency. The author guides readers through questions of leadership, risk-taking, developing confidence and networking, among other topics.

Howroyd also emphasizes the significance of data-driven and strategic business decisions as she simultaneously encourages readers to take a holistic approach to making the most of both their professional and personal lives. The author addresses as well the topic of diversity from the perspective of a black female entrepreneur and urges readers not to define her by demographics. In sum, Howroyd shares in her book the values she lives by and continues to represent: that of a leader who works for good, for growth and for innovation, for her family values and for the same ideals upon which she founded her company—that success is transferrable.

The 1-Page Marketing Plan (2018) by Allan Dib

“The most common way small business owners decide on this (marketing and advertising) is by looking at large, successful competitors in their industry and mimicking what they’re doing. In reality, this is the fastest way to fail and I’m certain it’s responsible for the bulk of small business failures.” Now you know why this book is included in the reading list!

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation revolution that makes creating a marketing plan uncomplicated and fast—it’s literally just a single page! By creating and implementing that one-page wonder, you’ll have an effective marketing plan that you can put into motion. Dib understands that small business owners (and Freelance professionals as well) trying to jumpstart their marketing often don’t have adequate resources—money, time, or expertise—provided by employees or Freelance consultants—that big businesses do. The author has devised a credible alternate path that shows how you can create a basic marketing plan to help steer your business in the right direction and, as Dib himself says, puts you on “the fastest path to money”.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working (2025) Dan Heath

Reset offers a guide to fixing what’s not working in your business operations—in systems and processes, organizations and companies and even in our daily lives. Author Dan Heath provides real-world stories and actionable insights that can empower you to create lasting change in your organization—and maybe in your life, as well.

What if you could somehow learn to unlock forward movement and achieve the progress that matters most to you, without the need for more resources—like money and connections? Heath shows how, with the same relationships you have and the same financial resources you can access, it is possible to reconfigure the circumstances and bring dramatically better outcomes to your life. Yesterday, you were stuck. Today, you can reset.

The author explores a framework for getting unstuck and making beneficial changes that matter. Heath says that the secret of success is to find the leverage points—places where a bit of effort can yield a disproportionate return. Do that and you can rearrange your resources and activate those pivotal points. Heath also points out that to even experience the feeling of progress can be a leverage point that can accelerate the arrival of the positive change you desire.

The 48 Hour Start-Up: From Idea to Launch in One Weekend (2016) Fraser Doherty

This can’t be done, you say? Well, author and serial entrepreneur and Scottish citizen Fraser Doherty MBE (who was awarded the honorific title Member of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements) begs to differ. In his book, Doherty provides actionable advice on how to identify and shape a viable business idea that is ready to launch in only two days. Doherty’s reasoning behind the 48-hour deadline is simple—he argues that prospective entrepreneurs (aka wantrepreneurs) spend too much time and energy obsessing over the “perfect idea”. The time they waste waiting for the “perfect idea” to appear is time that could be used refining and adapting that business idea for customers who could actually use it.

The book is helpful with the initial decisions that aspiring entrepreneurs must consider when starting a business. In his considerable experience, Doherty has found that launching a business does not have to involve complicated financial projections, elaborate presentations, or extraordinary innovation. A simple, well-executed idea is what it takes to launch and sustain a successful enterprise and Doherty has done it more than once—the first time while still in his teens. 

Doherty also emphasizes that before you invest significant time and resources, quickly reality-test your idea with potential customers and conduct basic market research. The process will help you gauge market demand for your product or service, assess your main competitors, identify and address potential problems early on and, in general, refine your product or service based on the uncensored feedback received from potential customers.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy (2011) Richard Rumelt

It is a given that developing and implementing strategy is the primary task of a leader—whether military leader, business leader, baseball manager, or tennis coach. The definition of a good strategy could be expressed as a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, author Richard Rumelt asserts that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy buzzwords, motivational slogans and financial goals with “strategy.”

Rumelt displays an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology and history to expose and clarify the often-muddled thinking that is the foundation of too many so-called strategies and his book details a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategies that will be effective in the real world.

The book helps readers to recognize and avoid the trap of bad strategy and guides them to adopt good, credible, action-oriented strategy that honestly acknowledges and responds to the challenges that businesses encounter. Rumelt cautions readers that strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision, or planning; rather, strategy is a coherent, action-backed plan supported by a rational argument.

Rumelt emphasizes that strategies are often confused with goals and visions and points out that a plan is what sets strategies apart from goals and gives you a clear idea of what is necessary to succeed. To evaluate and decide which strategies are suitable for your organization, the author says it is necessary to confirm whether you have the resources to implement your strategy and, in addition, ensure that your strategy fits with your current situation. The actions need to fit with your present circumstances and work together to give you the best possible advantage. After this, you’re well on your way to a faultless strategy implementation.

The Courage To Be Disliked (2018) Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Strictly speaking, this book is not a business book. One might consider it as an accelerator that gives the determination to push forward with a desire to launch a business entity or achieve other important goals. Kishimi and Koga present their book as a dialogue between an older philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five enlightening and thought-provoking conversations the philosopher, who happens to draw from the theories of Alfred Adler, a late 19th- and early 20th- century psychologist and thought leader in that discipline (along with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and B. Fred Skinner), explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. The wisdom that the philosopher reveals is deeply liberating and enables his pupil to develop the courage to change and to ignore the limitations that others, or even the pupil himself, may use to control him.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance, yet it is not without controversy; certain of authors’ premises you may find shocking or, at least, unrealistic. Still, the book is, at its core, about reclaiming your power and using it to shape the life that is meaningful to you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Beli_photos

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Create Content That Delivers

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You will agree that the internet is the leading source of information and entertainment for everyone on Earth who has connectivity. The global data and business intelligence platform Statista reports that in 2025 5.56 billion, approximately 65% of the world’s population, has internet access. To nearly every business entity on the planet, that means about 5.34 billion potential customers—many of whom are too young to launch a buyer’s journey, but some of whom might influence purchases their parents make—are available to receive online marketing information.

While the vast majority of the world’s internet users will become the customers of only a select few brands, the wide acceptance of digital communications gives marketers everywhere the green light to create and post a vast amount of marketing information and the digital space is now awash in content of every type—audio, video, images and text. Audience appetite for content, whether information or entertainment, shows no signs of abating. The number of digital content websites and platforms continues to proliferate and invite contributors to produce still more content, all of which beckons viewers, listeners and readers to show some love and click here, please!

Content saturation of the internet is an inevitable phenomenon. According to the nationally known content marketing expert Neil Patel, nearly 40 % of enterprise companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year. Freelance solopreneurs and smaller business entities will likewise continue, or perhaps increase, their content marketing activity as well, but the dominance of content presented by the multinationals can easily cause the comparatively modest content produced by small entities to be overwhelmed as if by a riptide. Freelancers are understandably frustrated with this occurrence. How can you become more visible when your content must swim with the whales—and sharks?

It’s a vexing problem for sure but there is a commonsense strategy, one that plays to your strengths and demonstrates resourcefulness and creativity. The best response to content saturation is to activate your problem-solving ability and devise a strategy that guides you to create content that not only resonates with your audience, but also positions you to gain and maintain the attention and loyalty of your target audience. Whether your information is intended for social media posts, or focuses on developing and promoting content featured in your webinars, weekly blogs, or monthly newsletters, be reassured that content perceived as valuable will be acknowledged and followed by your target audience. It’s just about guaranteed that content featuring information that is specific, practical and actionable will result in a loyal and thriving audience who will regard you as a trusted expert. So, your mission as a content producer is to learn what is meaningful to your readers, listeners and/or viewers and let their priorities guide your content development and distribution strategies.

Educate yourself by reading articles that discuss from local and national perspectives developing trends, pending legislation, competition, opportunities and other updates in your field. Producers of relevant content must also be consumers of relevant content! If producing content figures prominently in your marketing strategies (and I know that it does), you may find one or more of the following five suggestions able to enhance the value of your marketing content and also position your content to bring in a healthy ROI—which might include establishing you as a thought leader.

Relevant, realistic and relatable information

Content that your audience considers to be relevant and practical is more likely to be valued, implemented and shared. Gaining a reputation as a reliable and respected source of content by your audience will incline them to become your followers or subscribers. Content that your viewers, listeners, or readers consider potentially actionable and known to be trustworthy can also encourage loyalty to you, your content and your organization and may persuade some to become your customers. To create content that’s considered useful and trustworthy, and resonates with your audience, you must stay ahead of emerging trends in your industry and be aware of and responsive to the evolving preferences, priorities and concerns of your customers.

Actions are easy to implement and afford

Your audience should be able to envision the usefulness of the actions or strategies your content recommends, even if only a minority of them is prepared to implement your ideas now or in the near future. Individual circumstances will dictate what audience members decide to do, but any advice put forth in your content must inspire confidence.

Furthermore, your content should not recommend actions or strategies that involve implementation costs that many would consider expensive. I’ll go so far as to say that the average B2B content viewer is looking for ideas that can, with a minimum of time and fuss, be used to grow their customer list, streamline business operations and either save or make money—practical advice that can be implemented at no cost or low cost. While business expenses are inescapable, content creators win more fans by recommending actions that demonstrate recognizable value and are accessible and affordable to the majority of the audience.

Your content is your own creation

Rather than doing a copy/paste of another’s work, content creators should value their lived experience—victories won and battles lost, resilience found, the worries of sleepless nights and sudden inspirations—and share those stories with your audience in ways that will be interesting and useful to them. Producing content is usually time-consuming, but that is the price of authenticity and it is worth it. To give yourself a starting point for your creative process, search for trending topics in your field, or comment on an aspect of the most frequent internet search questions related to your marketplace sector that were made over the past week.

Links to expert 3rd party support

In this post I’ve referenced marketing expert Neil Patel and the global business information platform Statista. Demonstrating to your readers/listeners/viewers that key points of your content are supported by recognized nationally or globally respected thought leaders gives them reasons to trust and value the recommendations and insights offered in your content.

Avoid confirmation bias

Content that is valued and popular is shaped not by the creator’s preferences, but by the readers/viewers/listeners in the audience. A common tactic used to help creators avoid confirmation bias is to simply ask audience members what they want to see and hear now, so that you can ensure the relevance of your content. Every few months, you might create a short survey that encourages content viewers to express what matters to them. In a four or five question survey, you can also slip in one or two audience demographic questions—Are you self-employed or an employee? What is your main area of expertise?—and begin to build an audience persona, which will enable you to heighten your responsiveness to your audience.

  • Social media polls Your preferred platforms provide a convenient means to create and send a survey that will help you learn more about your audience. Social media platforms make it easy for you to engage and more effectively communicate with audience members by providing fully customizable forms that help you expand your reach and even grow your base of followers. Polls are equipped with analytical tools that will give you information on your audience’s age group, location, profession and more.
  • Online and email surveys. The most important part of conducting online surveys is knowing what you want to learn from each question, and to keep questions short and easy to answer. You can also create email campaigns to survey your existing client base and gain valuable insight about them. For a very basic customer survey, ClickInsights sets up a one-question, one-click email survey; create a more extensive survey at Survey Monkey.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © A Tokyo soba noodle delivery in 1956. Bettmann Archive/ Getty Images