YOU WRITE: Have you seen this article about your company yet?
THEY THINK: Wait … there was an article about my company? Sweet! I hope it was positive!

YOU WRITE: I saw something that made me think of you…
THEY THINK: Really? Hmm … I wonder what makes other people think of ME?

YOU WRITE: Man, I sure hope you’ve already seen this…
THEY THINK: Eep! Did I miss something important?

YOU WRITE: I thought of you when I read this…
THEY THINK: I wonder if I’ve already seen it…?

YOU WRITE: I thought of you when I saw this…
THEY THINK: I wonder what this is…?

YOU WRITE: I was thinking about you the other day.
THEY THINK: Really? Cool! Tell me more. I like being thought about…

YOU WRITE: I was thinking about your business the other day.
THEY THINK: Ooh! This could be good…

YOU WRITE: Someone paid you a compliment yesterday.
THEY THINK: Hooray! Let’s see who loves me…

YOU WRITE: I blogged about you the other day…
THEY THINK: Link love? Awesome! Let’s have a look-see…

YOU WRITE: When I saw this, I immediately thought of you!
THEY THINK: Gotta love mindshare…

YOU WRITE: Your ears should be ringing…
THEY THINK: Yes! My evil plan for market domination is totally working!

YOU WRITE: Your name came up in a conversation recently…
THEY THINK: Sweet! I’d like to hear more about this…

1. Have you identified and valued your TRUE expertise and inventoried your negotiable personal assets?
2. How can you build an asset that is so attractive that buyers will come looking for it?
3. How can you get that money into YOUR pocket?
4. How can you transform your expertise into a product that people can EASILY become obsessed with?
5. How could you deliver unmatched value that, when asked to buy, customers would consider it to be a ‘no-brainer’?
6. How will people learn enough about you to want to hire you or buy from you?
7. If someone paid you $5000 to sit down with you for one hour, what would you tell him?
8. If someone was going to pay you $1000 an hour, what are the questions they have to ask you to get their money’s worth?
9. If YOU were your customer, what would you LOVE to buy from you next?
10. Of all the topics you’ve blogged, written or given speeches about, what immediately resonates with the most people?
11. What can you do to deserve this money from other people?
12. What contribution are you going to have to make to other people to cause them to give you the amount of money you want to acquire?
13. What do you do that people are eager to pay for?
14. What do you know that other people find valuable?
15. What do you know that people would pay money to learn
16. What have you accomplished that people would not only respect, but also desire to learn and utilize to gain the same benefits for their company?
17. What is everybody always asking you about?
18. What is the market value of your talents?
19. What is the reason someone is willing to give you money?
20. What new category (that people would pay to learn about) can you expertise create?
21. What specific skill are people constantly asking you to teach them how to do?
22. What three compliments do people make about your business that, to you, is just an effortless extension of your inherent expertise?
23. What topic (that you don’t presently address or don’t address enough) are your customers slowly starting to ask you to go deeper into?
24. What value are you prepared to give to others so that they will voluntarily give you their money?
25. When people ask to ‘pick your brain,’ what are the three most common questions they ask?
26. When people write you fan mail (or thank you in person) for how your work has personally helped them grow their business, what, specifically, are they grateful that you taught them to do?
27. Who has your money in their pockets?
28. Who is already attracted to you and sees you as a resource?

29. Who would give their right arm to acquire the valuable expertise you now realize you possess?
30. Who would pay you for what you know?
31. Why do you deserve the type of money you want to acquire?

1. The definition of flexibility is being constantly open to the fact that you might be on the wrong track. –Brian Tracy.

2. The more original your idea is; the less good advice people will be able to give you. –Hugh Mcleod.

3. People forget facts; but they remember themes. –Sam Ham.

4. Let us worship the spine and its tingle. –Chet Raymo.

5. The testing process usually happens when we least expect it, thereby catching you off guard and giving you no chance to display anything by your real personality. –Napoleon Hill.

6. Get busy living or get busy dying. –Andy Dufregne.

7. If you haven’t experienced it, it’s not true. –Kabir

8. Trying is just an easy way of not doing something. –Ken Blanchard.

9. You are the only person on earth who can use your ability. –M. Kathleen Casey.

10. He who has the biggest list, wins. —Lisa Jiminez.

11. Stay in your lane. If you’re good enough, people will move to you. –Russel Simmons.

12. Don’t steamroll your way into a conversation before establishing any relational credibility. –Bill Hybels.

13. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavoring to meet it halfway, we easily become indirect and apathetic. –Tchaikovsky.

14. It’s not (just) your list; it’s the relationship WITH your list. –Terry Dean.

15. Jump, then grow wings on the way down. –Jack Canfield.

16. One man’s over-eagerness can be another’s alienation. –Madelyn Burley-Allen

17. Art is learning how to be quiet. –James Hubbel.

18. You are constantly building your character out of the impressions you gather from your daily environment, therefore you can shape your character as you wish. –Mihaly Czsickzentmentaly

19. If you do anything regularly for a while, sooner or later the weirdoes will show up. –Jeff Buckley

20. When the president does it; that means it’s not illegal. –Richard Nixon, 1977

21. People don’t listen to what you say, they listen to what you do. –Crucial Conversations

22. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart. –Napoleon Hill.

23. It is what you ARE that makes the loudest statement. –Marsha Sinetar

24. There are certain movements when, whatever the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. –Victor Hugo.

25. When you run out of questions, you don’t just run out of answers, you run out of hope. –House.

26. The deeper your belief, the deeper your pockets. –Gitomer.

27. People who lie, cheat and steal in relationships are communicating that they have such an inferior view of themselves that they are not worthy of another’s trust. –Chip Bell.

28. People tend to romanticize what they can’t quite remember. –Ira Flatlow.

29. Successful people know a universe of people they can ask for help. –Questions That Work.

30. Proper prospecting prevents poverty. –Gitomer.

31. Absorb knowledge from every possible source and opportunity. Power gravitates to the man who knows how and why. –Orsen Swett Marden

32. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. –Romans 12:2 (Come on, it’s Christmas. Gotta quote the Bible.)

33. If people underestimate your ability, they will present you with an opportunity to deal with them when their guard is down because. Since they weren’t preparing a defense for the mental assault they were expecting from you, you will accomplish your objective before they realize what happened. –Glen Bland.

34. Many counselors bring success. –Proverbs 15:22

35. Sell something to one person who can make a decision for 500 people. Never sell to 500 people individually. –Bill Brooks.

36. Build something you have never built before. –Unknown

37. An idea is not any good unless it’s on the verge of being stupid. –David Mack.

38. The instant you stop trying to impose your agenda on others, you eliminate the fight for control. You sidestep irrelevant battles over whose view of the world is correct. –The Influencer

39. If a thought is not backed by emotions, zero action can be taken. –Lawton Howell

40. The less you know, the more likely you are to come up with an original idea. –Questions That Work

41. Make people want to stand in line and paying higher prices than they know they should. –Doug Hall.

42. People who need certainty are unlikely to make good entrepreneurs. –Peter Drucker.

43. If you can make it safe to learn, reduce tension and hostility, you may find that people’s natural curiosity will reappear. –Questions That Work

44. If they didn’t hire you, don’t solve their problem. –Gerald Weinberg.

45. Make sure they pay enough so they’ll do what you say. –Gerald Weinberg

46. Passion and stamina are twins. –Lawton Howell

47. Make personal growth a daily priority. –John Maxwell.

48. Participate as fully as possibly in the world around you. –Mihaly.

49. Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude and the society of thyself. –Sir Thomas Browne

50. Consider data without prejudice. –Edison.

51. Your future is your property. –Dan Sullivan.

52. We shape our life by deciding to pay attention to it. It is the direction of our attention and its intensity that will determines what we accomplish and how well. –Mihaly.

53. Continued innovation is the best way to beat the competition. –Edison.

54. Take a break from your problem. Find a way to pull its tail and make it worse. –Michael Gelb.

55. If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. –Toni Morrison

56. Write the book you’d want to read. –Martha Stewart.

57. The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours. –Edison

58. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. –e.e. cummings, 1955

59. The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action. –Mark Twain.

60. Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. –Judy Garland

61. We should learn to detect and watch the gleam of light which flashes across our own minds. –Emerson.

62. It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. –Herman Mehlville.

63. People are idiots. –Scott Adams.

64. No matter what happens, there is always someone who knew it would. –Mark Twain.

65. If you’re not booked, you’re not any good! –Larry Winget.

66. The unexpected jolts us out of our preconceived notions, our assumptions, our certainties, that is such a fertile source of innovation. –Drucker

67. He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. –Edmund Burke

68. Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. –Hugh

69. Diversity is the opposite of laziness. –Dan Kennedy

70. Don’t get stampeded by what people around you value. The task is to figure out what YOU value – and value highly enough to throw yourself into with unqualified passion. –David Maister

71. Unless a person knows how to give order to her thoughts, attention will be attracted to whatever is most problematic at the moment. –Mihaly.

72. To be overcome with the ultimate goal often interferes with performance. –Mihaly

73. Playfullness is the essential feature of productive thought. –Einstein.

74. Don’t congratulate yourself for baseline integrity. –Chris Johnson.

75. When we complain, we often project onto others the dissatisfaction of how we’re dealing with our own lives. –P.M. Forni.

76. Don’t worry about what’s ahead. Just go as far as you can. From there you can see farther. –Edwin C. Bliss.

77. Books don’t sell books. People sell books. –Frank Gromling.

78. Your vision gains power when you go public with it. –Nido.

79. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. –e.e. cummings

80. Forge in the smithy of your soul. –Rollo May.

81. A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. –Plato

82. Winners focus, losers spray. –Sydney Harris

83. If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, it’s because he works harder than you. –Hugh

84. The definition of being good is being able to make it look easy. –Hugh

85. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Thing are made slowly and in pain. –Hugh.

86. The longer it takes you to become successful, the harder it will be for somebody else to take it away from you. –Hugh.

87. You can’t be authentic when you’re trying to be authentic. –FastCompany, April 2007

88. The whole purpose of working is to support your ideal lifestyle. –Brian Tracy

89. If you’re waiting for the job, you’re dead. –Dustin Hoffman

90. The less you talk, the more you’re listened to. –Abigal van Buren.

91. Open-mindedness is the harvest of a quiet eye. –William Wodsworth

92. You get paid consistent with your ability to solve problems. –Ron Willingham

93. A brand doesn’t feel real when it overtly tries to make itself real. –FastCompany, April 2007

94. One of the surest ways to enrich life is to make experiences less fleeting. –Mihaly

95. A river reaches places its source never knows. –Oswald Chambers

96. Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid. –Albert Schweitzer.

97. Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it. –Rick Warren.

98. Kiosks don’t stare at you. –Steve Forbes

99. In art there are two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists. –Gauguin

100. No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking. –Voltaire

101. I want to be the poster boy for your nightmare. –Fred Smith

102. Don’t fall in love with your own excuses. –Brian Tracy

103. Court each other forever. –Zig Ziglar

104. You think I’m gonna stop doing something that works for me just because you don’t like it? –Ira Hayes

105. Kids will eat anything if there’s a smile behind it. –Superintendent of Missouri Schools

106. Spontaneity is the product of great preparation. -Doe Lang

107. It’s yours for the asking. -Earl Nightingale

108. If they can’t repeat it, they didn’t get it. –Sam Horn.

109. You can’t get rich unless you EN-rich. –Earl Nightingale.

110. A wise man does at once what a fool does at last. –Baltazar Gracian

111. It’s ok to be ignorant, but it’s not ok to STAY ignorant. –James Dale

112. It’s a beautiful life, just as advertised. –Edwin McCain.

113. If you want to learn what it takes, go back and see what it took. –Disney

114. It’s a new book if you’ve haven’t read it yet. –-Owner of a used bookstore in Sioux Falls

115. The hardest thing for you to do is take your thing and put it into another container and make it taste the same. –-HBO Special, Jerry Seinfeld

116. The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about. –Oscar Wilde

117. Everyone picks the best one when given a choice. –Seth Godin (For a list of 100 more Seth Godin keepers, email [email protected] and I’ll share his bald brilliance with you!)

118. It’s hard to build community around mediocre and mundane writing. –Guy Kawasaki

119. Music is my weapon. –Random t-shirt in a Beale Street Souvenir Store

120. Practice aggressive pondering. –-Andy Masters

121. If you have one Hungarian as a friend, you won’t have any enemies. –-A drag queen I met in Ft. Lauderdale.

122. If you can’t hide it, magnify it. –Giovanni

123. Real love stories never have endings. –-Random poster in a parade in Hermann, MO.

124. No great work of art is ever finished. –Michelangelo

125. You can’t please all the people all the time. Last night, all of those people were at my show. –Mitch Hedberg

126. Only in writing do you discover what you know. –-Julia Cameron

127. Writing teaches you that you never write just what you know. You write what you learn as you’re writing. –Julia

128. Ideas come to you and trigger other ideas. Thoughts crystallize and connect with others, and the combination produces a compound: an insight. –Julia

129. It’s not just a daydream if it becomes your whole life. –-Train

130. Don’t be a person of success, be a person of value. –Dali Lama.

131. Some of the worst things in my life never happened. –Mark Twain.

132. At the workingman’s house, hunger looks in, but dares not enter. –Franklin

133. When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it. –Freud.

134. When you meet someone, you intuitively ask yourself three questions: “(1) Can I trust you?; (2) Do you care about me?; and (3) Will you do the right thing?”. –Lou Holtz

135. If you are doing something you would do for nothing – then you are on your way to salvation. And if you could drop it in a minute and forget the outcome, you are even further along. And if while you are doing it you are transported into another existence, there is no need for you to worry about the future.’ –George Sheehan

136. Christians already? It seems to me that it takes a lifetime of work. –Maya Angelou

137. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you believe atrocities. –Random bumper sticker on a van in Queretero, Mexico.

138. Non-salespeople will sell if they think they’re doing something else. –Bill Guertin

139. You’re not out here to die for your country; you’re out to here to make your enemies die for their country. –Patton

140. Sweetness will get you more. –Random dude named I.C. I met on a plane.

141. Everything gets better for us when WE get better. –Larry Winget.

142. Love brings about passion and passion is always marketable. –Winget.

143. No balls, no babies. –Mark Cuban.

144. You only have to be right once. –Cuban.

145. Nobody values your time but YOU. –Brian Tracy.

146. ‘Once you have paid the price to establish yourself as an expert, a person of integrity who delivers high-quality results on time, you get to reap the benefits for the rest of your life. That’s called Creating Momentum.’ –Canfield.

147. Dare the things that age will fear. –Apple campaign

148. The Latin root for the verb ‘to compete’ is competere, which means, ‘to seek together.’ So be nice. Stop making war on the competition and start making love to the customer. –Richard Connaroe

149. You’ve got to kiss a little ass to kick a lot of ass. –A janitor I met at BEA

150. Do what you do so well that people want to see you do it again – and when they do, they will go out and tell others. –-Disney

151. Big breaks come from small fractures. –John Kapelos

152. The acoustics of the world are too good, so that what you ARE speaks so loud that people can’t hear what you SAY you are. If you don’t like the way you’re perceived, change yourself. That’s how you change perception. –-Bruce Markus

153. Seeking leadership destroys the process. –Arthur Scharff.

1. You’re not That Guy.
2. You’re not remarkable.
3. You’re not blogging yet.
4. You’re not marketing daily.
5. You’re not focused at ALL.
6. You’re not using Google Alerts.
7. You’re not word of mouth worthy.
8. You’re not building a permission asset.
9. You’re not reading Seth Godin’s books.
10. You’re not giving enough away for free.
11. You’re not building a timeline of credibility.
12. You’re not the origin; you’re just the echo of someone else’s idea.
13. You’re not leveraging your media appearances in every possible way.

14. You ARE getting talked about, but you don’t know who’s doing the talking.
15. You ARE remarkable, but you’re not relevant. Or worthwhile. Or marketable.
16. You ARE blogging, but you’re not disciplining yourself blog every single day.
17. You ARE blogging every day, but your posts are too long, too safe, uninteresting, unfocused and written with poor architecture and ZERO Call to Action.

18. You’re saying WAY too much.
19. You’re creating noise, not music.
20. You’re trying to force word of mouth.
21. You’re the observer, not the observed.
22. You’re trying to hard to convince people.
23. You’re trying to be the arrow instead of the target.
24. You’re worried about marketshare, not mindshare.
25. You’re interrupting people, not interacting with them.
26. You’re relying on your customers to connect the dots.
27. You’re marketing efforts cause customers to hear FROM you, not ABOUT you.
28. You’re trying too hard to be authentic, which results in you NOT being authentic.
29. You’re sitting around waiting for your annoying, low-rent YouTube video to ‘go viral.’
30. You’re using WAY too much text on EVERYTHING. (Come on. Nobody’s gonna read all that crap.)

31. You’re (still) calling it ‘marketing.’
32. You’re (still) calling them ‘customers.’
33. You’re (still) wasting your money on advertising.
34. You’re (still) using Papyrus as your company’s primary font.

35. You think people care.
36. You think people have time.
37. You think customers aren’t smart.
38. You think putting up a MySpace page is (actually) going to help grow your business.

39. You don’t know who you are.
40. You don’t have enough samples out there.

41. You take too long to return calls and emails.
42. You stop marketing when you become successful.
43. You have a strong web-SITE, but a weak web-PRESENCE.

44. Your marketing looks like marketing.
45. Your goal is to make money, not create positive change.
46. Your company name includes words like ‘Associates,’ ‘Communications,’ ‘Creative,’ ‘Kwik,’ ‘Premiere,’ ‘Solutions,’ ‘Deluxe’ and ‘Ultimate.’

How often do you spy on yourself?

You know, seeing how you’re doing? Checkin’ yourself out? Observing various situations and experiences behind that internal pane of two-way glass, taking furious notes?

I love it. It’s educational AND fun!

But it’s not easy. And part of this process comes from your ability to detach, disassociate and sort of ‘get out of yourself’ for a while, looking inward at your own behavior.

One practice I’ve found to be successful is self-questioning. Gently poking your inner landscape with an inquiry or two about what’s going on in the moment.

Here’s a list of 26 questions to add to your Self Spy Skit.

NOTE: Pick maybe 2-3 examples from this list. (You don’t want to flood your brain with TOO many questions or else you brain might explode!) So, practice asking yourself these types questions on a regular basis in a relaxed, yet curious manner.

REMEMBER: Spying on yourself helps you practice BEING yourself.

1. Is there anyone in my life that I treat this way?
2. Is this a new idea, or have you been working on it for a while?
3. Is this a personality tendency or a character defect?
4. Is this a problem or a predicament?
5. Is this an incident, a trend or a pattern?
6. Is this an opportunity or a torpedo?
7. Is this as exciting as I thought it would be?
8. Is this consistent with what I value?
9. Is this decision health promoting and life supporting?
10. Is this goal worthy of your time and passion?
11. Is this information necessary to the excellence of my work?
12. Is this life-cycle the one you want to be known from?
13. Is this person capable of giving me what I want?
14. Is this probable possible?
15. Is this really the right time to play the emotion card?
16. Is this something that might happen whether you worry about it or not?
17. Is this the most compelling message you can create?
18. Is your advisor giving a solo performance?
19. Is your anger justified?
20. Is your attitude better than it was yesterday?
21. Is your goal actually arbitrary?
22. Is your life beautiful?
23. Is your life full of minutes or moments?
24. Is your life working?
25. Is your purpose clear and specific enough?
26. Is your seeking destroying the journey?

1. The sculpture is inside the stone. Don’t just decide to ‘become’ THEE expert on (x). Instead, figure out what you are inherently the expert ON; then position yourself as such.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: What do you know that people would pay money for?

2. Is it WHAT you know, or WHOM you know? Ultimately, the only think you can really be an expert on is yourself. Your experiences. You philosophy. Your unique lens or filter through which you view and process the world.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: If everybody did exactly what you said, what would the world look like?

3. YOU. That’s what people want. That’s what people are attracted to. That’s what people will gladly pay money for: Who you are as a person. Not your ‘topic,’ but the way you think. THAT’s your expertise.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: Are you influencing people through what you know or WHO you are?

4. Perception isn’t just reality – it’s everything! See, it doesn’t matter if you’re the expert. It only matters if you’re the PERCEIVED expert. The obvious expert. The first person that comes to mind. The best positioned person in the minds of your customers, your colleagues and ESPECIALLY the media.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: What does someone have to google to get your name to come up first?

5. Zzzzzzz… OK, so, you’re the expert, right? Big deal. The real question is: Is your expertise relevant? Is it worthwhile? Is it marketable? Is it controversial? And do people even care? See, your challenge is to make your expertise a slice of a slice. A fresh take on an old idea.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: Is your expertise boring?

6. PhD, schmee-h-d. The word ‘expert’ comes from the Latin xperiri, which means, ‘experience.’ So, you don’t need a bunch of fancy degrees or an intimidating job title to be an expert. You need experiences, constant and intelligent reflection upon those experiences, and a platform where you can share what you learned. NOTE: Not what you’ve DONE, but what you’ve LEARNED.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: Are you an expert at learning from your experiences?

7. If you don’t write it down, it never happened. Writing is the basis of all wealth. And if you aren’t writing SOMETHING every single day, it’s going to be near impossible for you to become an expert. So, whether you use blogging, journaling or message boards, take advantage of any available platform to share your expertise.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: What did you write today?

8. UNEED2READ. Whatever topic you’re an expert on, I sure hope you’re read every book (or at least a few hundred books) written about that topic. Period. Experts are readers. Experts are learners. Experts are aware of what the other experts say.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: What did you read today?

9. Access to your smarts. Pretend you’re a consultant. Or a therapist. Or a life coach. Or any other type of listening based, advice-giving professional. And, your first EVER client should be walking into your office any minute now.

SO, ASK YOURSELF: If someone was going to pay you $1000 an hour, what are the questions they’ve got to ask you to get their money’s worth?

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
And what makes YOU the expert?

I WILL…
o I will listen today.
o I will say what I see.
o I will ask WHAT or HOW.
o I will take organized notes.
o I will think and pause before responding.
o I will listen at least twice as much as I talk.
o I will listen to myself as well as the other person.
o I will listen to ideas that make me uncomfortable.
o I will lead the other person where they want to go.
o I will listen to the silences between people’s words.
o I will acknowledge, appreciate, affirm and give attention to the speaker.

I CHOOSE…
o I choose to monopolize the listening.
o I choose to remain emotionally objective.
o I choose to use engaging, generative language.
o I choose to give advice ONLY when asked for it.
o I choose to ask and say the things that want to be said next.
o I choose to be conversationally selfless by giving the other person the stage.
o I choose to show the other person that I trust them to develop their own answers.
o I choose to listen with my eyes, arms, hands, fingers, legs, heart, mind and soul.

I AM…
o I am a giant question mark.
o I am curious and fascinated.
o I am now fully prepared to listen.
o I am making it a safe place to open up.
o I am prepared to receive the other person.
o I am making space to accept new ideas and thoughts.
o I am giving myself and the other person permission to open up and feel comfortable.
o I am a Listening Midwife who enables the other person to give birth to their thoughts, feelings and emotions.
o I am a still body of water in which the other person can see their reflection, which will lead to breakthroughs of their own making.

1. The Paradox of Choice. There are more choices than ever before – approaching infinite. So, people are just going to pick the best choice. Often times, it’s the first choice. Are you at the top of the list?

2. Time isn’t on your side. There are more thieves of time, attention and mental energy than ever before. You’re not the only important thing in your customers’ lives.

THINK ABOUT THIS: if you stopped advertising, would anybody even notice?

3. Nobody notices normal. Not any more. Now, this doesn’t mean there’s anything WRONG with being normal. However, positioning you, your business and your value as ‘normal’ is like asking prospects to find a needle in a stack of needles.

REMEMBER: our society rewards the exceptional. And those who get noticed get remembered; and those who get remembered get business. Are you noticeable?

4. What? Huh? According to Wikipedia, the human attention span is about six seconds. Can you deliver value and pique someone’s interest in that window of time?

5. Our culture demands specialists. Being well rounded is overrated. More Narrow Focus = More Big Opportunities. Have you picked a lane yet?

6. Cost. Corporate cost cutting is rampant. Which means buyers are likely to decide based on price. Which is dangerous. Are you leading with value or price?

7. Confusion. Most of the world does not understand what you do. The majority of service offerings are poorly defined. Plus, there’s a professional mystique to most job titles. So, don’t use jargon that alienates the public. Don’t give them a reason NOT to investigate your industry further. Are you using real, simple language?

8. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! People are bombarded every day with 3000+ marketing messages and are TIRED of being interrupted. Patience is at an all time low. And customers want music, not noise. Is your marketing interrupting or interacting?

9. It’s a GOTCHA! Culture. People just LOVE to prove others wrong, make them feel and look stupid and point out their inconsistencies. Are you maintaining consistency?

10. The limited window. According to The Wall Street Journal, first impressions are formed in about two seconds. As such, the only thing people can really make judgments about is how you made them feel in those few seconds.

QUESTION: Are you doing everything you possibly can to make this person feel comfortable engaging with you?

11. WOM Wins. Businesses grow because customers tell other customers. Who’s talking about you? And how are you monitoring that?

12. Hurry up! People like brands because they are decision-making shortcuts. What shortcut do you provide?

13. Be the first. The world is competitive, and customers can only pick one. So, people are most likely going to pick the best. What are you the first hit on Google for?

14. Unique, not different. The world is CRYING for uniqueness.

NOTE: that’s not the same thing as being ‘different.’ Different means ‘to stand out’ and unique means ‘the only one.’ Are you the echo or the origin?

15. Perception is reality. It doesn’t matter if you’re the expert; it matters if you’re the PERCEIVED expert. Perception is reality. You need to be the answer to something. What topic are you the go-to-guy for?

16. How do you like me? People either check you on, or check you off. Quickly. And they usually maintain those initial impressions because of an innate desire to maintain consistency with one’s actions.

ASK YOURSELF: Are you non-checkoffable?

17. Don’t sell; enable people to buy. Don’t count on your audience to connect the dots. Grab them by the shirt collar, pull ‘em in close and DELIVER-YOUR-UNIQUE-VALUE. Are you making it really, really obvious?

18. Smarty pants. Because people have access to more information than ever before, customers are smarter than before. How many books did YOU read last year?

19. Transparency is a must. Because of the mass media’s broadcast of corporate scandals, trust is at an all time low, and bullshit meters are at an all time high. Only the authentic survive. And you need to create greater trust on both sides of the sale.
DUDE: What have you done (specifically) in the past 24 hours to enhance your credibility?
20. Preoccupation. Customers need you to give them reasons why they won’t regret purchasing this later. Reinforce their buying decisions right away. How are you disarming buyer’s remorse?

21. Don’t please everybody. No matter what happens, about 10% of the people in the world aren’t going to like you or your ideas. Don’t sweat it. Forget about the 10; stick with the 90. If everybody loves your brand, you’re doing something wrong. Are you polarizing people?

22. The Working Hard Myth. People only give you credit for about 10% of the work you do, because 90% of it is never seen. How good is your 90?

23. It’s a MY Culture. Because of the exponential growth of Internet, humans now have instant access to infinite amounts of information. This creates a hyperspeed, infinite-choice society where customers are going to get WHAT they want, WHEN and HOW they want it.

REVERSE YOUR MARKETING: don’t aim; be aimed at.

24. It’s an Eggshell Culture. People are terrified of offending others. We live in a touchy, oversensitive culture resting on the shoulders of a million eggshells. Are you apologizing when you did nothing wrong?

25. Clients need to know they’re getting YOU. Because they don’t trust corporations, they trust PEOPLE. Tangibility, not magnitude. How well do your customers know YOU?

26. Customers crave simplicity. That’s it.

27. Customers are impatient. And they want the best. The ONE. The Guy. The Man. Are you That Guy?

28. Enabling people to buy. Customers are only going to do business with you if they’ve heard you, heard OF you, or someone they TRUST has heard of you. Who’s heard of you?

29. We live in a culture of sales resistance. Consumers are skeptical and require confidence before deciding to buy. They’ve been advertised to, marketed to, duped, fooled, conned, scammed, sold and screwed over too many times. How are you any different than every other salesperson out there?

30. Loyalty is a joke. And here’s why: big companies don’t realize that people aren’t loyal to big companies! They’re loyal to people. Not to mention, it’s not about satisfaction or even loyalty anymore. Do customers INSIST on you?

31. Prospects rely on familiarity. Which is good, because familiarity leads to predictability. Predictability leads to trust. And TRUST is foundation of all business. Are you somewhat predictable?

32. IF they want you, they’ll find you. What happens when someone googles YOUR name?

33. Who are you, anyway? People don’t want to hire consultants, speakers, trainers or recruiters. They want to hire smart, cool people who happen to consult. Or speak. Or train. Or recruit. Or whatever. Are you smart and cool?

34. People buy people first. Which means: lead with your person; follow with your profession. Values before vocation. Individuality before industry. Humanity before statistics. Personality before position.

1. Pay the price. You won’t become a thought leader overnight. Which doesn’t mean that it takes lots of physical time; but it DOES take experience. Get it any way you can. For example, check out this list called 38 Ways to Speed Up Your Learning Curve.

2. Learn well. Become an expert at learning from your experiences. After all, people don’t care what you know. They don’t care what you did. They only care what you LEARNED. And, how those lessons can help them become better.

3. Write, write and write. Did I say write? Writing is the basis of all wealth. If you’re not capturing your thoughts, ideas, experiences, stories, advice and insights, forget all about this whole thought leader thing. Get a blog and get on www.ezinearticles.com. Today.

4. Read everything. When I first starting giving speeches and writing books, my mentor told me, ‘You have no right to write or speak about any topic unless you’ve read every book ever written on that topic.’ Also, DeBono said, ‘The thinker should be able to look at the thinking used by other people or used in general about a particular subject. Looking at the thinking of others does not mean doing so with the aim of criticizing or attacking it. The intention is to watch what thinking is being applied.’ What about you? Have you read everything else?

5. Read more. Also seek out books such as The Obvious Expert, Thinking for a Change and How to be a Thought Leader. Great advice and easy to read.

6. Read even more. Lastly, read books about lateral thinking and creativity (ahem, DeBono). Explore biographies about the world’s greatest thinkers, i.e., Einstein and da Vinci.

7. Hang with other thought leaders. Start a mastermind group, thinking club or online discussion with other thought leaders. Pick brains often. Stop hanging around people who don’t think thinking is cool.

8. Speak. At every club, meeting, tradeshow, conference, chamber, rotary and street corner you can find. If they pay, great. If not, no biggie. Either way, you need to be fun, fun-ny, informative and entertaining. Talk about ONE THING, and have a little laminated double-sided philosophy card as your handout.

9. Philosophy. Ask yourself this question: ‘If everybody did EXACTLY what I said, what would the world look like?’ You answer(s) = your philosophy. Shout it from the rooftops. Be known for it.

10. Reinvent the wheel. Figure out what everybody else is saying about your area of expertise. Then figure out YOUR unique perspective, spin, paradigm, etc. Find the hole that nobody sees and fill it with your unique expertise. (Hey, wait! That last sentence TOTALLY rhymed. Sweet. I’m writing that one down.)

11. Become a CONFIDENT thinker. In the book A Thinking Course, Edward DeBono said, ‘A thinker should be able to turn on his thinking at will. A thinker should be able to direct his thinking to any subject or any aspect of a subject. A confident thinker does not have to prove himself right and the other person wrong. Thinking is an operating skill, not an ego-achievement. A confident thinker is willing to set out to think about something.” Wow. Talk about a thought leader! WHAT ABOUT YOU: can you speak on your expertise … forever?

12. Content is king. Content drives action. Content replaces selling. Content replaces agents. Content replaces pitching. Content drives transactions. Content replaces advertising. Content replaces cold calling. Content pulls instead of pushes. (Read 16 more reasons why content is king!)

13. Become a media darling. Build relationships with local (and hopefully, national!) press. Offer yourself as a resource and expert. Send them business cards ALREADY stapled to a Rolodex card. Make yourself easily available. REMEMBER: the media is your customer. (Speaking of media darlings, I just did an this article with The Daily Record.)

14. Stay in front of your fans. Blog or no blog, you still need to be writing and publishing SOME form of newsletter. At least once a month. Make it quick, easy to read and packed with practical content. (See #12) Oh, and don’t sell too much. Selling annoys readers.

15. Be open mentally. DeBono also says, ‘A confident thinker is willing to listen to others. He is willing to improve his thinking by acquiring a new idea or a new way of looking at things. He is also able to acknowledge that an answer has not been found. Besides, being right is really boring.’ LESSON LEARNED: be open to other thought leaders’ ideas.

16. Be open physically. On your blog, be sure to leave the ‘comments’ button on. And make them available to anybody, even anonymous readers. Transparency and openness apply online too.

17. Close with value. At the end of every article, blog post, video or piece of content you publish, be sure your sign-off accomplishes a few things. FIRST, tell people what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. SECOND, offer an easy way to get in touch with you. THIRD, have a call to action, i.e., a free report, a video to watch, a link to click, an exercise, a thought-provoking question, an email assignment, free access to your online library or a 15-minute consultation.

1. Are you cloning yourself through teaching others??
2. Are you doing business at the level you want to?
3. Are you growth minded?
4. At what point are you making a living vs. building your business?
5. Does this client represent long-term business potential?
6. How are you being stretched and forced to grow?
7. How are you making sure that everything you do is leading to something else you do?
8. How are you typecasting yourself?
9. How can you duplicate yourself?
10. How can you use this to add more value to yourself?
11. How do you self-renew?
12. How often are you bringing in work that improves your skills and keeps you competitive?
13. In what ways are you currently obsolete?
14. What are the most important things for you to work on that will grow your business the fastest?
15. What are you building?
16. What are you doing in the next five years that’s going to set you up for the next ten years?
17. What are you doing to prepare for the next phase?
18. What can you do differently today to add value to your business?
19. What else does this make possible?
20. What is creeping up on you?
21. What kind of clients would you like to have in three years?
22. What kind of work would you like to be doing in three years?
23. What new markets should you be entering?
24. What percentage of your revenues this year came from products and services you didn’t offer three years ago?
25. What’s next?
26. What’s the movement value of this idea?
27. What’s your sequel?
28. When was the last time you brought new skills to your clients and prospects?
29. When was the last time you created new value?
30. When was the last time you entered a new market?
31. When was the last time you reinvented yourself?
32. When was the last time you upgraded your qualifications?
33. When was the last time your business embraced change and did something innovative?
34. Will it make your company more competitive?