Are you a trusted source who moves people with innovative ideas?

If so, then you’re a Thought Leader.

You don’t need a PhD.
You don’t need to be Tom Peters.
You don’t need to manage some huge consulting company.

You just need to think.

AND: You need to capture, organize, deploy and build a following around your thinking.

Consider this collection of tools for increasing your perception as a Thought Leader:

1. Create a Visibility Plan. When attention is currency, anonymity is bankruptcy. As the book On Being a Thought Leader explained, “It’s impossible to change minds or challenge hearts unless you own SOME of the spotlight.”

Remember: Nobody will be inspired BY you until they’ve heard OF you. Stop winking in the dark and start commandeering attention. Because the more attention you attract the more people your thoughts can touch. How much more visible are you than you were a year ago?

2. Create enduring content. Anchor your expertise in that which is timeless. Democratize and genericize your thoughts so they outlast you. Always be on the lookout for ways to increase the shelf life of your material. Ask questions like, “In five years, will this idea still be irrelevant?” “Is this a fad, a trend or an evergreen?” and “What is a bigger, more stable theory of the universe that I can attach this idea to?”

Remember: If you’re not current, you’re not credible. Always run your expertise through the wringer of WHEN. How stable is your philosophy?

3. Dedicate yourself to building a HOT body. It’s not about writing one book. Or one article. Or one blog post. You’re a thinker. And as such, your goal is to constantly add to and strengthen your body of work. Don’t be a One Hit Wonder, One Trick Pony or One Anything Anything.

As Julia Cameron said in The Artist’s Way, “Each day’s work is part of a larger body of work, and that body of work is the work of a lifetime. Unless we are able to take this long view, we will be derailed by rejection.” Edison registered 1,800 patents. The Grateful Dead played 2,318 shows. Stephen King published 480 books. How hot is YOUR body of work?

4. Develop an ongoing relationship with your market. Combine outreach with attraction. Make it easy for readers, subscribers and audience members to engage with you, every day. Ask for their feedback. Take heed. Take notes. They will tell you how to serve them better. They will also tell you how to sell to them better. What’s your listening platform?

5. Everything you already know about “leadership” still applies. You’re still attracting followers. You’re still a perpetrator of inspiration. You’re still superior article. And you’re still a composite of all you’ve experienced. The only difference is, the medium through which these attributes are experienced by your constituency is your brainstuff. Your thoughts. Your words. Your philosophies. Your writings. Your presentations.

You don’t need a title, a corporation or a gavel to be a leader. There is no leadership. Leadership, shmeadership. There is only being and expressing yourself truthfully and passionately. Does that describe you?

6. Have a paper memory. Your brain is a moron. And if you don’t write it down, it never happened. So, the secret is simple: Take a serious inventory of your thoughts. Chronicle your thinking. Make sure everything you know is written down somewhere. Develop a unique process for entertaining ideas. What’s your Content Management System?

7. Make your ideas more accessible. Accessibility doesn’t just apply to interpersonal communication. Ideas can be accessible too. Here are four examples along with a helpful article on each one:

a. Don’t just tell a story. Stick the landing.
b. Don’t just write a blog. Be a great date for your reader.
c. Don’t just deliver a presentation. Engage every audience instantly.
d. Don’t just give an interview. Craft a listenable, unforgettable telepresence.

Remember: Accessible means easy. Open. Relaxed. Attainable. Understandable. Relatable. Is that an accurate description of your ideas?

8. Mold a beautiful thought atmosphere for yourself. This space looks different for everyone. For example, my thought atmosphere includes hot tea, a rising sun, sticky notes, dry erase boards, flip charts, note cards on the floor, instant access to my content management system and hours of relaxing music by All India Radio, Marc Cohn and The Buddha Lounge. What does yours look like?

9. Smart is overrated – be an intellectual. My mentor, Bill Jenkins, is one of the great intellectuals I know. He explained the difference between the two as follows: “Smart people study content for the purposes of memorization. Intellectuals entertain ideas for the purpose of democratization.”

Look: The world has too many smart people and not enough intellectuals. So, stop accumulating knowledge and start becoming an explorer of ideas who can extract universal truths from his experiences and apply them to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Are you an intellectual or just really smart?

10. Syndicate your expertise. Deploy, deploy, deploy! Go public with your words, ideas, philosophies, expertise and School of Thought. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever. And considering the sheer volume of diverse social media tools available, there is NO excuse for not getting your ideas out there and creating more opportunities for people to say YES to your expertise.

Remember: Be out IN the marketplace with your ideas or be out OF the marketplace completely. What’s your system for shipping your idea off to battle?

REMEMBER: You don’t have to be Tom Peters to be a Thought Leader.

Think. Capture. Organize. Deploy. Listen. Repeat.

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How strong is your Thought Leadership Platform?

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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Need to build your Thought Leadership Platform?

Perhaps my monthly (or yearly) coaching program would help.

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

You can’t make people ask you questions.

You CAN, however, increase the probability that people will approach you with their concerns by becoming more ASKABLE.

So, whether you’re a teacher, leader, parent or office manager, here’s a list of eight ways to do so:

1. Begin with a willingness to find answers. Sadly, not everybody does. Not everybody is interested in taking the time to find answers to the questions they’ve been asked. Mainly because their ego won’t let them. So, there’s an attitude of curiosity and openness that MUST underscore your askability.

Otherwise people will perceive you as someone who isn’t interested in expanding his worldview. Someone who’s too set in his ways. Never willing to change. Never willing to let new ideas enter his mind. And rarely interested in considering questions that challenge his point of view.

This perception stops questions in their tracks, preventing you from uncovering the key issues in the lives of those you serve. And if you set aside your ego and opened yourself to being changed, how much stronger would your organization become?

2. Dare to be asked more. If you’ve ever done Q & A during a presentation, TV spot, radio interviews, or a public press conference, you certainly recognize the risk in making yourself more askable. After all, it IS a form of sticking yourself out there. And so, notwithstanding the discomfort that’s required, being askable begins with your attitude. It’s about opening yourself to the possibility of being vulnerable, being wrong, and, in some cases, looking like a complete idiot.

Speaking of idiots, take Sarah Palin. During the 2008 Presidential Election, she was reluctant to do almost ANY public interview. Meanwhile, opposing VP Candidate Joe Biden was everywhere. TV. Radio. Print. Town Hall Meetings. If you had a question, Joe would be happy to answer. Palin, on the other hand, was completely unaskable. And I wasn’t surprised that the Obama campaign crushed her and John McCain.

Now, I’m no political analyst, so I’m not going to make any gross assumptions. But if I had to make an educated guess as to what made Sarah Palin such an unaskable person, I’d say it’s because she’s never “dared to be asked more.” Either that, or the fact that she was a colossal redneck bimbo moron. Do you dare to be asked more?

3. An answer for one is an answer for all. People – especially students – will shy away from asking questions because they don’t want to hold up the discussion. (Especially if recess, pizza or the end of class is rapidly approaching.) Students also don’t ask because they assume everyone else in the room already understands everything. However, in many classroom settings, this isn’t always the case.

My mentor and former high school English teacher, Mr. Jenkins, practiced an effective strategy for overcoming this fear. “I always encouraged my students NOT to approach my desk with questions, but rather, to ask me from their seats. That way, ALL the students in the class would hear the answer – including the ones who were too shy to raise their hand.”

What’s more, this approach also helped saved time since multiple students usually pose similar questions. As my yoga instructor always says, “An answer for one is a an answer for all.” How much time would you save if you addressed questions communally?

4. Disarm immediate preoccupations. The challenge is, many people associate question asking with conflict. So, the silent dialogue becomes: “Asking questions means rocking the boat, which means questioning the status quo, which means making a big mess, which means getting in trouble. Better keep quiet during the meeting…”

For that reason, your goal is to make sure your people know that their answers won’t be used against them. That anytime is the right time to ask. That asking questions isn’t a threat to formality or a violation of the chain of command. And that when you ARE asked questions, that you don’t feel like you’re being interrogated. When is the feeling of formality preventing your people from communicating freely and honestly?

5. Have a positive track record of listening. Otherwise people won’t take the time to ask you a question in the first place. It’s only after you have proved yourself as open, trustworthy, non-judgmental and willing to listen that someone starts to think to herself, “I feel like I can ask him anything.”

Like my askable dad, Mark, who reminds me, “It’s about playing the averages. Aggregating trust and building openness by making small, frequent deposits in people’s emotional bank accounts.” What deposits in people’s emotional bank accounts have you made in the past 24 hours to foster greater askability?

6. Be a good answerer. People ask questions to people who give good answers. Period. Creative answers. Unexpected answers. Counterintuitive answers. And the best part is, answering in these kinds of way leads to higher levels of thinking. Which elevates the conversation. Which enables people to discover individual truths. Which yields more compelling results. Here’s a list of ways to become a better answerer:

o “Actually, that question doesn’t matter.”
o “Well, let’s take that question in pieces…”
o “Well, that depends on how you define the word…”
o “Well, there are a couple of answers to that question.”
o “There are three reasons my answer to that question is no. Number one…”

Ultimately, the point of answering questions in these creative, counterintuitive and unexpected ways is NOT to dodge the truth; nor is to appear brilliant. It’s about achieving a higher level of thinking for both parties. What’s your answering style?

7. Be more informative. Without overwhelming people with your knowledge, provide as much information as you can give AND as much as the context will allow. Think meat, not carbs. And if your asker is taking notes, that means you’re doing something right. If your asker is checking their text messages or flipping through pictures of their pet ferret, you’re doing something wrong. Are your messages low-carb?

8. Help people process their questions. My mentor, Arthur, is an expert at this practice. He’s a consummate counterintuitive thinker. So, when you ask HIM a question, he often responds (not) with an answer, but with a challenge to your question itself. Common responses include, “Are you sure that’s the right question to ask?” “What’s the question behind that question?” and, “I’m not sure that question is relevant – instead, what about asking yourself this…?”

That’s the cool part. By helping you process your own question, he opens up new worlds and new answers that you never would have discovered otherwise. What unexpected answers could you give people to challenge their thinking?

REMEMBER: If you want people to ask you questions, you don’t have to be a Tibetan Mountain Guru.

Just try being more askable.

Stick yourself out there today.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How are you increasing your askability?

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* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

The Sanskrit word namaste translates to, “The sprit within me honors the spirit within you.”

The cool part is, namaste isn’t just about honoring people – it’s about honoring everything.

So, if you want to make a name for yourself, consider this list of twelve ideas to be more honorable:

1. Honor all energies. Good. Bad. Ugly. In fact, stop labeling the energies as Good, Bad or Ugly. Attachment to words reduces the reality of something. When you use words, you label. When you label, you judge. When you judge, you react. When you react, you’re unconscious. And being unconscious is unhealthy. Judge nothing; accept everything. Say yes to what is. What is coming into you, right now, at this moment?

<2. Honor the practice. First, by invoking your Muse through prayers, rituals or incantations. Second, by maintaining integrity – that is, the foundation – of your own practice. Third, by respecting the flow, style and artistic idiosyncrasies of others’ practices. What are you practicing?

3. Honor nature’s rhythms. Nature never lies. Nature respects purpose. So, experience it fully. Yield to it. Explore it. Acquaint yourself with it. Wonder how nature would solve this problem. Wonder what truths in nature are applicable in non-nature domains. What would the trees do?

4. Honor the process. That means journey, not destination. That means flow, not output. That means completely immersing yourself in the practice, releasing your expectations about what a “good” result is. What result do you need to let go of?

5. Honor the truth-tellers. Like nature. Like your kids. Like your body. Like your dog. Like your experiences. Like what people remember about you. All of these things around grounded in truth. We need to be looking to them more often. Whom (or what) is your final arbiter of truth?

6. Honor thy tingles. They’re trying to tell you something. Hints. Clues. Omens. Signs. That’s what tingles are. When the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, be sure your awareness stands up as well. Erect your carriage and figure out what it is you’re supposed to be noticing. What am I supposed to be learning from this?

7. Honor your artist. You heard me: Your Artist. Because you ARE an artist. And I don’t want to hear your bullshite excuses like, “I can’t even draw a straight line!” or “I couldn’t write if my life depended on it.” Let it go. Everyone is an artist. Everyone has music inside of them that yearns to be sung. And if that beauty is never released, we’ll never be able fully realize our Truth. What art inside of you wants to be – NEEDS to be – written, painted, sung or danced?

8. Honor your body. Your Temple. Your sanctuary. Your engine. It’s where you’ll find the answer to every question you’ll ever ask. And the best part is, all you have to do is get quiet, relax and listen. Wisdom WILL arrive. There is nothing in the world louder than the sound of your inner voice. How many days did you meditate last week?

9. Honor your discomfort. It’s the single greatest teacher you’ll ever learn from. Comfort zones are overrated, anyway. The secret is to purposely put yourself into situations that S-T-R-E-T-C-H your mind, body and soul. Then, the secret is NOT to fight it; but rather, to embrace, welcome, honor and cherish those moments when you feel like you’re going to (1) Freak out, (2) Die of embarrassment, or (3) Yuke all over the floor. How will you step out of your comfort zone today?

10. Honor unintentional music. In Lane Ayre’s book, Unintentional Music, he says, “The unintentional aspects of the music we make contain more wisdom that we think. Unintentional signals the appearance of God. Unintentional appears at the moment when something ineffable is trying to express itself through us. So, love whatever happens, stay with it and trust that it will lead you to where you ultimately want to go.” Wow. How much accidental brilliance have you ignored recently?

11. Honor your gift. If it’s true that each of us possesses some God-given gift or talent or genius, it’s also must be true that our gift BACK to God is to use that gift in the service of others. Every day. Because usefulness IS worship. How have you validated your existence today?

12. Honor your Truth. Your Being. Your independent identity. Your essential, highest nature. That which cannot be stripped from you. That which cannot be argued about you. The first-rate version of yourself. The inviolable core from which your greatest performances draw their strength. How would the person you’re trying to become do what you’re about to do?

Good luck. Honest Abe’s got nuthin’ on you.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How will you become more honorable?

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For the list called, “29 Pieces of Simple, Easy Advice That Will Change Your Business Forever,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

New website go live this week?

Tune in to The Entrepreneur Channel on NametagTV.com!

Watch video lessons on spreading the word!

1. Advance the conversation. Stop the bloodsucking and start the billing. Otherwise move on. Your time is too expensive. Are people picking your brain or renting it?

2. Assault the minute. Optimize your time. Ask yourself, “What are you wasting your time and energy on that isn’t making you any money?” That’ll change your agenda pretty quickly. Is what you’re doing right now consistent with your #1 goal?

3. Ban the bland. Fact: Nobody notices normal, nobody buys boring and nobody pays for average. So, stop waiting for permission to be remarkable and start becoming a living brochure of your own awesomeness. Are you the echo or the origin?

4. Buy the domain. The word “domain” comes from the Latin dominium, which means “property.” Thus: Owning the domain = Own the idea. How many million-dollar ideas are you sacrificing by not registering domains?

5. Discard the irrelevancies. If you assume people care about you, you lose. But, if you deliver your message with meaningful concrete immediacy, people will listen. And you will win. Are you willing to explore the negative space around your idea?

6. Dispel the stereotype. Prove to people that you’re the exact opposite OF, and the one exception TO, everyone else who does what you do. They’ll never work with anyone else again. How much money are you losing by perpetuating people’s prejudices?

7. Gain the nod. As in, “I like it, I get it and I’d like to try it.” As in, “This guy is good.” As in, “We should hire him.” Otherwise, the alternative is for customers to yell, “Next!” Are you unnextable?

8. Lose the fads. Anchor your expertise in that which is timeless. Your Thought Leadership position will be stronger, more relevant, more credible and more sustainable. Will your intellectual asset become an endangered species?

9. Spend the money. Don’t cheap out. It will be worth the cost when people start to call it beautiful. Is your teenage daughter (really) the best person to be redesigning your website?

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What small business secrets are your overlooking?

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For the list called, “11 Ways to Out MARKET Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Need to build your Thought Leadership Platform?

Perhaps my monthly (or yearly) coaching program would help.

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

When my publishing/consulting company was just starting out, I worked nights & weekends at The Ritz Carlton to make ends meet.

My job was s a valet crasher parker.

AND HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED You don’t have to be The Ritz Carlton to provide unforgettable service.

Consider incorporating these nine practices into your customer interactions:

1. Decide how you want customers to describe their experience with you. Have each employee write down his top three words. Tally them up. Vote on the three most popular. Then print them on posters, wallet cards and inner-office materials. This will keep the service philosophy in front of people’s faces, thus holding them accountable TO and giving them ownership IN to a decision they contributed to. What’s your service philosophy?

2. I’m sure we can find a way. This sentence will put upset customers at ease. It’s solution oriented, positive and flexible. And even if you don’t know off the top of your head what the heck you’re going to do, say it anyway. You’ll think of something. Will you find a way?

3. In a commoditized world, the key differentiator is service. That’s why you’re reading this article. Because you KNOW that it ain’t the products, it ain’t the website, it ain’t the warranty and it ain’t the commercials. It’s YOU. Your service. Your people. Your culture. That’s what customers are buying. And the more unique it is, the more of it they will buy. Otherwise they have about a zillion other choices in the click of a mouse. How are you branding your service?

4. Increase customer pride. Create an exclusive club, special level or elite status. Enable people to become card-carrying members of SOMETHING. Then, your customers will take pride in the fact that they’re your customers. Hopefully by showing that card to their friends. My friends @ Brains On Fire did this in a cool way. They designed a special website for people who weren’t exactly customers, but whom they loved anyway. These people were called “Kindred Spirits.” And BOF even handed out little business cards (selectively) that thanked certain people for being special. Totally awesome. How are you making your customers prouder?

5. Friendliness isn’t enough. You need to be (specifically) friendly. See, the word is defined as “Favorably disposed; inclined to approve, help, or support.” So, your frontline needs to be idea friendly. Question friendly. Emotion friendly. Complaint friendly. User friendly. Employee friendly. Get the picture? How friendly are you?

6. Reveal your authentic self in your service. As you’ve already discovered, customers don’t like robots. They like people who are uniquely imperfect, just like them. They like people who aren’t afraid to exert their distinctiveness, even in mundane moments like answering the phone or replying to a tech support email. How are you integrating your humanity into your profession?

7. What are they going do wrong next? This is the standard issue posture of 80% of the customers who walk into your hotel. Or restaurant. Or club. Or wherever you work. This exists because people are SO used to getting crappy service from dishonest, unreliable businesses, they now expect it from everybody. As such, you’re starting with a negative balance with ALL of your customers. Fortunately, this preoccupation is the PEFECT opportunity for you to prove them wrong by delivering unforgettable service. Are you going to be unexpected or just like everyone else?

8. What else can I help you learn? Try asking this question in place of, “Is there anything else?” or “How else may I be of assistance?” It’s unexpected, thought provoking and revolves around your ability to educate your customers. Try it. I triple dog dare you. Are you teaching?

9. Your company. Your company = YOU! Your company = The words you use. Your company = The words you OWN. Your company = What Google says about it. Your company = The person who answers the phone. Your company = The stories you tell. Your company = The stories customers tell about you. What’s YOUR company?

REMEMBER: Anyone can provide unforgettable service.

Even if you’re not The Ritz.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How unforgettable are you?

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For the list called, “12 Ways to Out SERVICE Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

Doors are for amateurs.

Approachable leaders need to have open MINDS.

Because even if you surgically remove the door from your wall, that might not reduce the psychological distance between you and your people.

Here are four little known ways for implementing and Open Mind Policy at your office:

1. Create an environment of openness. People need to feel they’ve been given PERMISSION to (1) come up to, (2) feel relaxed around, (3) open up with, (4) comfortably walk away from, and (5) confidently return to you.

Don’t be too busy to explain anything. If that’s the perception people maintain of you, you’ve communicated two dangerous messages: (1) Your time is more valuable than theirs, and (2) Their question is not important. Suggestion: Stop whatever you’re doing and give yourself fully to the other person.

Or, if people catch you off guard, book “blank time” in your schedule so people know for certain when they can get you. Another suggestion is to post a “Lunch with Mark” sign-up sheet outside your office or on your door. Let people choose the day that best fits their schedule. That way they can come shoot the breeze with you on an informal, unstructured, non-threatening, one-on-one basis. They WILL open up. How do you initiate movement toward people?

2. Be someone who can be trusted with sensitive information. Becoming someone that anyone can tell anything will reduce the likelihood of your company kicking you to the curb.

Exercise confidentiality when dealing with sensitive issues. Create a Question Friendly Environment (QFE.) A safe space. A non-threatening atmosphere where people (1) feel comfortable, and (2) feel like they have permission to ask anything that’s on their minds.

Consider trashing your “Suggestion Box” and replace it with a “Question Box.” People will open up. Honesty will flourish. Feedback will flow like wine. Especially if people don’t have to sign their names. Do people feel safe around you?

3. Engage in more “What if?” discussions. Approachable leaders are giant question marks.

There are only two possible responses to a “What if?” discussion: Either you pause and openly consider the question with an attitude of curiosity and enthusiasm — or you reflexively launch into a defensive routine of “Yeah, but…” backpedaling in order to preserve your precious ego.

And the challenge is, ONE of those response patterns draws people TO you, while the other repels people FROM you. I wonder which one YOU practice. Perhaps a sticky note with a giant X through the words, “Yeah, but…” would reinforce this behavior. What words govern your questions?

4. Eagerly pursue new knowledge, skills, and methods. Approachability is a function of teachability.

In the book Beyond Counterfeit Leadership, Ken Shelton explains, “Continuous learning is the best protection against pride. A person who is vigorously learning can’t be egotistical about what he or she knows, because each increase in understanding reveals a larger area of ignorance.”

The secret to being teachable is daring to be dumm. Demonstrating a willingness to put your ego on the shelf and approach everyone and everything as your teacher, mentor and resource. Without such mental flexibility and openness, here’s what happens: You stop learning, which means you stop growing, which means you start dying. Yikes. Not good for business. How many books did you read last month?

REMEMBER: Nobody cares if your door is open – they only care if your mind is open.

That’s what being an approachable leader is all about.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your company’s Open Mind Policy?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “33 Daily Practices for Boosting Your Managerial Magnetism, ” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

“A trusted source who moves people with innovative ideas.”

That’s the definition of a Thought Leader.

Let’s unpack the six elements of that definition:

TRUSTED
Which means you become a Thought Leader because the marketplace recognizes you as such – not because you just decide to be one. Remember: Trust requires evidence. What are you known for knowing?

SOURCE
Which means you have to be The Origin, not The Echo. The Initiator, not The Imitator. What long-term dialogue are you leading in your marketplace?

MOVES
Which means your job is to inspire, influence, challenge and disturb. How are you spurring people to purposeful action?

PEOPLE
Which means you are responsible to the individuals that comprise your constituency, regardless of who, where and how many there are. How are you building a following?

INNOVATIVE
Which means you deliver actionable lessons that passed through the test of your personal experience; not regurgitated wisdom or plagiarized insight. Are you speaking with Meaningful Concrete Immediacy?

IDEAS
Which means your mission isn’t just idea generation – but idea proliferation and idea execution. What did you create, manage or deploy today?

“A trusted source who moves people with innovative ideas.”

I hope that describes you.

Because you have the choice to be in the Thought Leadership business.

Or, you have the choice to BE ignored and, therefore, BE broke.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Do you fulfill this six-part definition of a thought leader?

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For the list called, “17 Reasons to Write a Free Ebook,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Need to build your Thought Leadership Platform?

Perhaps my monthly (or yearly) coaching program would help.

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

Halfway through a recent business coaching session, my client stopped mid-sentence, laughed to himself and confessed the following:

“You know Scott, I didn’t realize how much I sucked until you told me!”

We had a good laugh about it.

Now, I WILL say that although my coaching style has never been to “give people a breakdown so they can achieve a breakthrough,” Patrick’s comment WAS a valuable insight.

He demonstrated that he felt safe enough in the space that we’d created together to share his vulnerability.
feel that he did suck, either.

Rather, my job as his coach was to disturb him into action.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How many insights from clients or employees are you missing out on because you’re not giving them permission to feel dumb and vulnerable in front of you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “33 Daily Practices for Boosting Your Managerial Magnetism, ” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Never the same speech twice.
Always about approachability.

Watch The Nametag Guy in action here!

You could be the greatest salesperson in the world.

But if you’re trying to sell an unsellable product, that doesn’t matter.

Any number multiplied by zero is still zero.

The real issue isn’t, “How can I get people to buy?” but rather, “What could I do to make my business more sellable?”

Let’s explore five strategies for boosting sellability:

1. Be picture perfect. In an article called, “How to Make Your Car More Sellable” on www.autotrader.com, I learned an interesting factoid: “Online car buyers like photos. Very rarely does a person spend a consistent amount of time viewing a listing without them. If they’re willing to drop several thousand dollars, they will want to see what they’re putting their money into.”

Lesson learned: Buyers need proof. No matter what industry you’re a part of. We live in a sales resistant culture that demands you show people your bonafides. Secure the legitimacy of your product by proving you’ve got nothing to hide. Pictures, pictures, pictures. Is your product camera friendly?

2. Post your fee publicly. I’ve been doing so since I started my company in 2002, and I’ve NEVER regretted it. For several reasons. First, posting your fee demonstrates transparency. It helps you brand your honesty in a low-trust environment. For example, instead of just quoting your fee spontaneously (and running the risk of prospects wondering if you just pulled that number out of your ass), just email them a link to your fee schedule page.

Second, public fees qualify your leads and cut out no-money prospects you don’t want to waste your time talking on the phone with anyway. It’s a great time saver AND saves you from rejecting prospects in person, which nobody likes. Finally, posting your price helps you maintain fee integrity when someone asks you for a discount. For example, “Come on Scott! Can’t you do it for less?” a customer asks. And you respond with this:

“As you know, Mr. Jackson, my fee is posted on my website. So, in order to be fair to everyone – and to maintain the integrity of my value – I cannot offer you a lower price. I hope you understand my position.”

So, I’m not suggesting you NEVER negotiate. I certainly do. The secret is setting a precedent of value. Are you willing to stick yourself (and your fee) out there?

3. Make your product a blank canvas. Sellability is crucial in the real estate industry – especially for residential properties. British real estate columnist Serena Cowdy explained in a recent article on Wallet Pop UK, “One person’s ‘eclectic chic’ is another person’s ‘big old mess’. Viewings aren’t the time to display your quirky set of African burial relics or your enormous collection of comedy mugs.”

Lesson learned: In our highly individualized, “customer first” culture, buyers seek permission to stamp their own personalities on a new product. Your challenge is to make it easier for them to imagine doing so by presenting a blank canvas. Sellable equals customizable. How are helping your customers make it THEIRS?

4. An Apple a day keeps the bankruptcy away. According to a survey by www.Engaget.com, when the first version of the iPhone was released in January of 2007, it took seventy-five days to sell one million units. When the new iPhone 3G came out eighteen months later, it only took four days.

What happened? Increased sellability. And Apple accomplished that by offering faster data speeds, assisted GPS, boosted the camera megapixel rate, added video capability and enabled voice control. I know that’s why I bought one. What new features and benefits would skyrocket your sales?

5. Unsellable art. In February of 2008, three masked men pulled off one of the largest art heists in decades. According to the article in The Washington Post, they stole four paintings by impressionist and post-impressionist masters Cezanne, Degas, Monet and Van Gogh. The art was worth an estimated $163 million.

Interestingly, museum director Lukas Gloor explained, “The stolen paintings were so well-known that, on the open market, these pictures are unsellable.”

Wow. Maybe getting known and being famous (in certain contexts) can work against your sellability. Maybe being TOO good and TOO perfect and TOO rare scares buyers away. Is your status your enemy?

REMEMBER: You can’t make people buy.

All you can do is increase the probability of a sale by becoming more sellable.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How sellable are you?

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For the list called, “11 Ways to Out MARKET Your Competitors,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Need to build your Thought Leadership Platform?

Perhaps my monthly (or yearly) coaching program would help.

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

Businesses that get talked about GET more business.

Period.

And if people aren’t actively telling their friends about you, your products and your services, they don’t exist.

Period.

Enter “spreadability.”

No, this has nothing to do with Ritz Crackers.

THE SECRET IS: You can’t “go viral” or “get people to start talking about you.”

What you CAN do is create an environment in which word of mouth is most likely to occur.

And you do that by making your message more spreadable.

Here are eight ways to do so:

1. Sell without selling. Spreadability is the result of subtly pitching your product in SUCH an entertaining way that customers never feel like they’re being sold. Joe Pulizzi from The Content Marketing Revolution wrote, “Stop thinking about pushing your product and start thinking about what your customers would do after engaging in your marketing. If the inclination is to spread the message, then you’ve done something right.” Are you SO good that people will voluntarily sign up to watch your marketing?

2. Think like a doctor. Marketers should hang out with doctors. Not because marketers are sick (even though some people might argue otherwise), but because there’s some overlap between the two disciplines. For example: “You can’t spread a disease that’s dormant.” That’s a medical truth. Interestingly, the word “dormant” comes from the Latin dormire, which means, “to sleep.”

Here are my questions: Which of your marketing efforts are asleep? Which of your marketing efforts are putting customers TO sleep? And who in your marketing department needs to wake up FROM their sleep? “Paging Dr. Bankruptcy, Dr. Bankruptcy. You have a patient waiting in Surgery 2.” How dormant is the disease you’re trying to spread?

3. The flu has feelings too. As cyberculture journalist Douglas Rushkoff suggested, “People don’t engage with each other to exchange viruses; people exchange viruses as an excuse to engage with each other.” And often times, they do so unintentionally.

And, as social networking blogger Izzie Neis explained, “From a marketers perspective, if you can engineer the perfect viral campaign, the people will be powerless to resist. They’ll be diffusing your ideas before they know what hit them.” How could you spread your virus to people without them even knowing, but without them even caring that they have it?

4. Reward the spreaders. Provide an incentive for users, customers, readers and viewers to spread your content. Give away freebies. Offer samples. Maybe even allow customers to tally a scorecard for every time they spread your idea. You could even structure an incentive system based on the customer’s number of “spread points,” much like airlines miles. Whatever it takes to ensure people truly believe they have something to gain by spreading the message. Because if they don’t, they won’t. What carrot can you dangle in front of your spreaders noses?

5. Sticky is for suckers. Sticky doesn’t necessarily mean viable. Spreadable, on the other hand, is powerful AND profitable. Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, wrote a fantastic article on spreadability in 2009. He explained: “In the era of convergence culture, spreadable content is designed in a way to be circulated by grassroots intermediaries who pass it along to their friends or circulate it through larger communities.”

Lesson learned: Surrender control. Enable people to take YOUR idea into THEIR own hands. Openly embrace a “fan” mentality and transfer ownership to the customer. Find people that have big mouths, market to them – give them megaphones – then get out of the way. That’s how spreadability becomes long-term viability. Are you (truly) spreadable, or just sticky?

6. Unspreadable is the enemy. Ever tried to spread refrigerated butter? It’s near impossible. You almost always puncture a hole in the bread, right? Not exactly an efficient way to make a sandwich. Interestingly, in my research on spreadability, I came across an article from the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry. It’s called, Melting Properties of Butter Fat, The Consistency of Butter and The Effect of Modification of Cream Ripening and Fatty Acid Composition.

Fascinating stuff. According to the Hungarian professors who wrote the piece, there is a close relationship between the consistency of butter and its product characteristics:

“The cold, unspreadable consistency of butter after taking it out of the refrigerator is a rightful objection on behalf of consumers. And it can only be improved by the combination of the heat-step cream ripening and enrichment with low melting point triglycerides to achieve stable consistency at room temperature.”

Now, if you’re like me, you probably have no idea what the hell that means. But stay with me here. Because this article proves, scientifically, that spreadability is directly related to high quality ingredients. And that doesn’t just go for butter. In marketing, the same principle applies:

Shtick isn’t enough – you’ve got to support remarkability with substance.

Otherwise customers aren’t going to tell their friends about you. What does your product have going for it that surpasses baseline remarkability?

7. Medium AND message. As Duncan Watts says in the bestselling Six Degrees, “The structure of the network is perhaps more important in predicting the spread of content than the nature of the content.” Lesson learned: Viral marketing is a social animal. So, whatever message you’re spreading, don’t just focus on the content – but on the needs of the people you’re asking to spread that content. What do your followers crave?

8. Propagation planning. “Plan not for the people you reach, but for the people they reach,” says Griffin Farley, noted spreadability thought leader. That’s the central idea behind propagation planning, something I recently learned about from reading Griffin’s blog.

I also learned about propagation planning from Ivan Pollard, who said:

“Plant the message or bits of the message in various places in such a way that people pull the entire message or components of the message down. Let them play with the stuff you give them. Get involved with it. Package it back up again in a way that reflects their take on it (even if it is just adding a comment), then pass it on to people in their network or circle.”

In the process of doing this, says Ivan, the message gets stronger and more powerful as it moves on – not weaker and more fragmented. Think mash-up. Think parody videos. Are you forgetting about your customer’s customer?

REMEMBER: If you don’t spread – you’re dead.

Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk about being spreadable is making me hungry.

I see a box of Ritz Crackers in my future.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How are you boosting your spreadability?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “123 Questions Every Salesperson Should Ask,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur
scott@hellomynameisscott.com

Need to build your Thought Leadership Platform?

Perhaps my monthly (or yearly) coaching program would help.

Rent Scott’s Brain today!

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