Leveraging Your Thought Leadership
This book offers good advice about how to promote yourself as a professional speaker. It’s not detailed, but it’s a good overview and introduction for anybody who wants to build a speaking business.
This is not a book about presentation skills, so look elsewhere if you want to improve your speaking skills. But if you’re already a competent presenter and now want to turn that skill into a business, this is a good way to get started.
This short book by Seth Godin encourages you to take action. Don’t wait for permission, don’t wait for everything to be right, don’t wait for somebody else. Just do it!
This book is more of a call to arms than a how-to manual. It was the first book in Godin’s “Domino Project” (now completed), so it gained a lot of publicity for that reason alone. But it’s good not just because of the marketing hype surrounding it; it’s good because it’s good!
Godin starts by asking the provocative question: “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” That’s the major theme underlying this book, which encourages readers to take initiative, shun conformity, and actually do things.
If you’re an expert or thought leader, read this book with two things in mind. First, of course, you will get value from reading the content – and applying it in your business. But also read it to see how you could possibly do something similar yourself – that is, write a short, easy-to-read book with one simple concept.
My new program “From Guru to eGuru” is starting today!
I’ve designed this program for you if you’re running a business as a speaker, trainer, coach, consultant, author, thought leader or professional adviser, and you want to improve your online presence, supplement your existing programs with online education, be more productive, or design a better work style … or all of them!
In other words, you’re already a “guru”, and now you want to become an “eGuru”!
The first module is about positioning and personal branding. Here’s a quick summary of what we cover:
Watch this overview video, which shows you what’s in the module:
To join, you simply become a member of the eGurus Community, my private membership site for thought leaders and infopreneurs. As a member, you get access to the full “From Guru to eGuru” program (as well as many other benefits, but this is the biggest benefit for you in 2013).
If you’re already an eGurus member, do nothing! You will automatically get access to the program.
If you’re not a member, find out more about the program here.
Expert Gold Radio brings you monthly ideas, information, interviews and insights into leveraging your leadership – through better communication, on-line learning and Internet marketing.
Listen to the episode here:
In this conversation, Chris Pudney and I describe some practical things you can do to build your personal brand – whether you’re an employee or a business owner.
Get the book “Out of Office” here.
E-mail and productivity specialist Steuart Snooks talks about the importance of thinking carefully when writing your e-mail, and shows how writing better e-mail can reduce your incoming e-mail overload as well.
Whether we’re employees or business owners, it’s more important than ever before for us to create our personal brand.
Listen to the episode here:
Buy the book here (available at a reduced price for a limited time).
Additional resources:
This is a book to help you think more clearly and break free of the constricting – and possibly outdated – mental models you might be using now.
Broadly, the book is based on the idea that the way we make sense of the world is largely based on our own internal processing, and far less than we think on the actual external world. Therefore, to improve your understanding of the world – and give you more power when dealing with it – you can change your mental models.
Much of the early part of the book explains this idea in more detail. Personally, I think the authors labour this point too much, and take too long to get to the practical applications. After all, once you “get” the idea that mental models rule your understanding and behaviour, that’s all you need to know before doing something about it!
When the book does eventually offer practical advice, it’s very good. For instance, the authors suggest a number of ways to broaden your thinking:
These are all extremely useful guidelines for anybody who wants to be more innovative and more creative. If you fall into these categories (and we all should!), or you would just like some new ideas for thinking about the world in a different way, read this book.
Expert Gold Radio brings you monthly ideas, information, interviews and insights into leveraging your leadership – through better communication, on-line learning and Internet marketing.
Listen to the episode here:
Join brand expert Michael Neaylon as we talk about the importance of building a strong personal brand – one that’s aligned with your values and dovetails with your organisation’s brand as well.
Visit Michael’s Web site here or read his blog here.
The Internet has given us so much more flexibility in the way we organise our work and home life, and my co-author Chris Pudney and I discuss this in our book Out of Office. We recently talked about some things that are changing in this world, and came up with 8 predictions for 2013.
The world is changing faster than ever, and your clients and audiences expect you to be current with your area of expertise. They expect you to solve their information overload problem by taking in large volumes of information, sifting through it and sharing with them what’s relevant for them.
Everybody consumes information in different ways. So there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for everybody. But I do have some guidelines here to help you work out the best method for you to manage your incoming information (I’ll focus on just online information here). It’s based on the well-known “six questions” formula: Why, What, Who, How, When and Where.
Look at all the information you’re getting – e-mail newsletters, Facebook updates, blog posts, tweets, e-books, special reports, and so on – and re-examine why you’re getting it. If it’s no longer useful to you (and perhaps it never was!), get rid of it – unsubscribe, unfollow, unfriend, whatever.
Be ruthless! Don’t hold on to it for fear that you might miss out on an occasional nugget of useful stuff. You’re already missing out on thousands of other nuggets elsewhere on the Internet, so trying to hold on to everything is impossible anyway.
Decide exactly what sort of information is important to you. I recommend you ask yourself three questions:
Find the right thought leaders, influencers and other experts, and follow them – through their newsletters, blog, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, podcast, whatever.
Don’t follow other people – or at least, have some way to follow them at a lower priority. For example, I use Tweetdeck to read my Twitter feed, and I have a special column for the people I particularly want to follow:
I follow these people because they often share relevant articles and ideas with their followers. I’ll only check other people’s updates if I really have the time.
I like reading (because I’m a fast reader) and listening to audio (because I can do it while multi-tasking), but I don’t like watching video. I know other people who love video because they watch it on the treadmill or on airplanes. Know what works best for you, so you can get the information in your most preferred modes.
Whatever you choose, try to automate the incoming information, rather than having to remember to get it manually. In other words, subscribe – to blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, whatever.
Finally, determine the best time and place for you to consume this information. For example, I subscribe to a lot of blogs, so every day I receive hundreds of new blog posts. I like skimming the posts at the start of each day, but I don’t spend time reading them immediately (because that would waste productive hours in my morning). Instead, I bookmark them for later reading – which I do on my phone or tablet when I’m out of my office.
Your approach might be different, depending on your most productive times, your lifestyle, your technology devices, and the type of information you consume.
So those are the five factors to consider when choosing how to get your incoming information. The key idea – as I’ve said already – is that you should choose what’s right for you, instead of just getting whatever turns up in your in-box!
One of my clients mentioned to me recently that some of the articles he published online over a decade ago are getting better ranking in Google than his more recent stuff. This is despite the fact that the old articles are on an old Web site that he isn’t using much anymore, whereas the newer articles are on a newer, more dynamic, Web site.
He put this down to my skills as a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert. While I appreciated the compliment, in this case I think the reality is different.
The real reason his older articles rank better is that – most other things being equal – Google values longevity. In other words, old Web pages do often rank better than new Web pages, because Google knows they are from established businesses and also haven’t been created just for the sake of boosting rankings.
This is an important principle in general. It’s not just about Google and SEO. Google is simply reflecting the importance of something that applies in other areas of life as well. You might call it longevity, wisdom, age or experience, but it comes to the same thing: time is important.
As the Spanish saying goes: “Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo”: The devil knows more because he’s old than because he is the devil.
We see this in the world of wealth creation, where advisers and consultants talk about the power of compound growth. The best “get rich slow” strategies all say you should start investing now, so you give compound growth (which Albert Einstein called the eighth wonder of the world) time to do its magic. In fact, a common saying in wealth creation circles is: “Time in the market is more important than timing the market”. I’m not a financial adviser (and certainly no Einstein!), so don’t take this as advice! But it does make sense to me, and it’s the basis of my own financial strategy.
Longevity and experience matter in business as well. If you’re looking to build a long-term relationship with an accountant, lawyer, consultant, landlord, caterer, or other supplier, wouldn’t you rather work with somebody who has a proven track record? Of course, there are exceptions, but in general, that experience and track record count for a lot.
That also means, of course, that people are making the same sort of judgements about you.
First, get in the game. If you’ve been dragging your feet to get started with something – whether it’s building a Web site, starting an investment plan, or creating a new relationship – start now, so you can take advantage of experience, wisdom, age and longevity.
Second: Highlight your experience. If you have impressive numbers that demonstrate your experience – especially if they set you apart from others – emphasise them in your marketing and positioning. This includes things like number of years in business, number of clients and customers, your age (where relevant and appropriate), and number of years applying your skills and expertise.
Some people can take advantage of their youth (for example, “the youngest Australian to …”), and that’s appropriate. But don’t ignore the other possible meaning of “having age on your side”!
As you might know, I was in Sydney last month to attend Matt Church’s excellent Million Dollar Expert Program. It was the fourth time I’ve done it! You might say I’m a slow learner; I prefer to think I’m a discerning connoisseur of quality 
One of the main reasons I attended was because Matt was running it, and Matt has been one of my most influential mentors over the years. If it had been presented by somebody else, I would have been less inclined to go, and I probably wouldn’t have got as much out of it.
It got me thinking about the value of mentoring in general. It’s something I’ve done a lot – both as a mentor and as a mentoree. So I thought I’d share some of my thoughts here. I hope you find this useful, especially if you haven’t used a mentor before.
If you’re going to use a mentor, you might as well get the best. I’ve had the privilege of Glenn Capelli mentoring me in presentation skills, Matt Church mentoring me in my thought leadership and intellectual property, Creel Price mentoring me in entrepreneurship, Paul Counsel mentoring me in wealth creation, and David Penglase mentoring me in sales and business development. Some of these names might not be familiar to you, but believe me when I say they are all masters at what they do.
And these are just the people I’ve paid for mentoring. There are many others I’ve followed and learned from, of course.
I don’t think it’s necessarily true that free advice is only worth what you pay for it, but I do think it’s easier to be motivated to take action when you pay for the advice. Paying for mentoring helps me keep myself accountable for the return on investment. I suggest you do the same.
(By the way, the going rate for one-on-one mentoring seems to be around $3,000-$5,000 for a three-month program)
Paying for mentoring is a good start, but it’s not necessarily a commitment. Do something more to commit yourself – set up a support group with other mentorees, announce it publicly, hire a staff member you can’t afford in anticipation of your success, whatever.
The first year Matt was mentoring me, I spent more time sitting in airplanes flying between Perth and Sydney than I actually did sitting down with Matt. That was a huge commitment of energy and time, but it really motivated me to make the most of the mentoring.
Come to your mentor with a clear goal. My best mentoring clients are those who come to me with specific goals and plans in mind, and we can then work together on how to achieve those goals. I’ve learned that it helps my mentors if I do the same when the roles are reversed.
Whenever I learn something new, I immediately start thinking of how I can improve it! I suspect I’m not alone! But this isn’t appropriate for a mentoring relationship, so I have to keep stopping myself from “improving” my mentor’s advice.
Ask lots of questions, but don’t argue. They’ve got the experience, so do it their way, not yours. For example, when David Penglase was mentoring me in business development, the path he suggested for me was very different from the path I had in mind. But it would have been crazy for me to insist on doing it my way.
There’s no point getting the advice if you don’t use it. Mentoring is not like reading a book, watching a keynote, or attending a training course, where you sift through the information and figure out what’s relevant to you. It’s not for you to pick and choose. That’s your mentor’s job; yours is to do it.
(From the other side of the table, I know my favourite – and most successful – mentoring clients are those who follow through with their actions)
I believe mentoring is the fastest way to accelerate your growth, in whatever area of your business you’d like to improve. So please do it sooner rather than later. Even if it seems like a big investment, it’s worth it!
© Copyright 2013 Gihan Perera. All rights reserved |
8 Windich Place, Leederville WA 6007, Australia
E-mail:
|