What is a Platform?
This weekend I attended a book festival that offered a session on platform building for authors. The panelists launched into a discussion of the importance of platform to sell books, but it wasn’t until an audience member asked for the definition of platform that they actually attempted to explain what it was. The definitions varied …
Choose Your Distractions, not The Other Way Around
In our daily lives one of the soft skills that needs to be learned is how to effectively deal with distractions.
Everyone has distractions:
Projects need to be completed Emails need to be answered Phone calls need to be returnedWhen you allow distractions to take over your day it’s kind of obvious that your …
Personal Brand Promotion on Facebook
Facebook is a great platform to promote your personal brand. As a platform that was generally built as a place to interact with friends and make new ones, it is great ground to display your personal brand. Over the years, changes to Facebook have made it possible to increase your reach through advertising and marketing …
Influence of the Introduction
For the past four years I have had the privilege of working with a bunch of financial services firms in the northeast in a collaborative training and development program. In creating and delivering content, I would always make sure that just about each day we had a special guest speaker come in to talk to …
Building an Artistic Career: An Interview with Tim Livingston
I recently sat down with Tim Livingston, an LA native who just produced his first theater production in New York City’s Off-Broadway Kraine Theater. The 100 seat theater enjoyed a successful sold out three night run that grabbed the attention of industry personalities from talent agencies, to casting companies. “The Protaganist” follows the life of …
Build Relationships to Earn Sales
Would you rather purchase from a serious, black-and-white-type salesperson, or one who is easy to talk with and who might also become a good friend?
While that might sound like a dumb question, too many business and salespeople are afraid to go out of narrowly defined boundaries. They ignore references to personal events such as …
Mixed Messages Cause Confusion & Drama in Many Workplaces
“There is no confusion, I was quite clear!”
So proclaimed my client in a conversation last summer as I was helping evaluate the under-performance of an employee recently transferred to a new role.
My client made this claim when I brought to his attention that his employee told me he was confused by what was …
Personal Branding Weekly –Firm, Fair and Consistent
Special favors are always tough. They either erode your personal brand or put a finer point to it.
At the age of 21 years old, I became a manager leading a team of 50+ people with four mid-level managers who reported directly to me. I was gifted some sage advice from a senior manager who …
Tips for Writing a Succinct Brand Bio
I have to provide a bio for a guest post and I’m stuck. What types of accomplishments or positions are worth mentioning in a limited amount of space (and what should I drop)?
The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. …
How to Repair a Tarnished Brand
It takes years to build a reputable brand; one that people trust and talk about positively. Unfortunately, a brand image can be ruined in an instant. Just ask Paula Deen or Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, whose careless remarks sparked outrage and damaged their otherwise positive images. It’s Murphy’s Law that says things …