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The 5-Point Strategy to a Powerful Network

Filed Under Community, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog | 54 Comments

A Networking Story

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Last Sunday, we released the announcement for SOBcon 07. It’s a relationship bloggers’ event. We lived our message. We reached out to our friends for help in spreading the news — if they believed the event was worth talking about on their blogs. Most everyone we asked to help has blogged about the event. We’re so grateful.

When we reached out to the folks to ask their help, something happened behind the scenes. Certain people I wrote emailed me back almost immediately. A few called or skyped. They had questions about the event. Those people, all friends and colleagues, contacted me for one of these reasons.

  1. They knew the people involved, and offered congratulations.
  2. They asked for more information upon which to make their decision.

In networking terms, their friendship, influence, and credibility and my friendship, influence, and credibility were talking to each other.

The 5-Point Strategy to Building a Powerful Network

Networks of people can be powerful influencers. A network of influencers expands our knowledge and our reach by engaging the power of “WE.” The problem is that networks take time to build and require attention.

You might have heard “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”

That’s not exactly true.

A powerful network requires two qualities: limited size to keep it sleek and easy to interact with, and people of like mind so that their connections and your connections are likely to be of the same quality.

Here is the 5-point strategy to build that powerful network.

  1. What you know is important. Learn as much as you can. Know what you know. Know its value. Don’t over value it. Don’t under value it. Understand how common or rare your knowledge and skill set are.


  2. Networks are built from relationships. Address books are filled with contacts. Relationships grow and expand as they age. They also require time and interaction to be of value. To build a top-notch network of people, choose people you would bet your reputation on — people who have your standards and similar goals. They will always connect to other people that you want to know.


  3. Who knows what you know is important. Read that again. Who knows what you know is important.Do you know the influencers in your market? Find ways to share your expertise with people who have influence. Influencers naturally talk about people who are great at what they do. Influencers are often asked for recommendations. How might you offer them a service that would put you on the edge of their network?


  4. Take an interest and be the first to offer a favor. When you meet someone of quality, ask questions, listen actively, and be the first to give a favor without strings. People remember sincere curiosity and true generosity, especially the first time it happens. Make friendships and relate positively to everyone that you meet.


  5. Listen for when a mentor appears, and welcome him or her gladly. Mentors are hard to find when we’re looking. They find us and show themselves by offering advice or wisdom to see whether we recognize it. Don’t miss (or mistake) the mentors who will come your way, offering their experience and connections. They see something in you.


These five points will lead to a network that is more powerful than most folks develop. It will be a group of people within the larger group of folks we know — a network built from relationships that are thoughtfully matched. Not everyone we meet is a lifelong friend. We already knew that.

Why am I thinking of kissing frogs and a prince?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help you find focus or direction, check out the Personal Virtual Manager on Work with Liz!! page.

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Self-Promotion as Easy as Knowing What You Do
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Are You a Freelancer or a Solo Entrepreneur? Use Guy Kawasaki’s Mantra as He Meant

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5 Reasons People Don’t Get Hired and the Only 3 Questions that Count

Filed Under Branding, Strategy, Successful Blog | 42 Comments

The Best People

Personal Branding logo

It happened to me more often than I liked.
When I was an Executive Editor, it was another Executive Editor.
When I was a Director, it was another Director.
When I was a Vice President, it was another Vice President.

Not that I think there was a pattern. Here’s the scenario.

I’m in my office, finishing up a meeting. One of the people described above calls and asks whether I have time to talk about something.

I say, “Sure, come on down (or up or over wherever my office happened to be.)”

The person arrives; sits across from me; and explains why he or she wants to hire one of the people on my team.

We discuss the opportunity that is on offer. It’s always a great one for the employee. I support it.

At the end of the discussion, I hear some version of this sentence, “You hire the best people.”

As the person leaves, I think, Yeah, I know. Boy, do I know. I get out the most current job listing for the soon-to-be-vacated position and start editing.

I would hire and train.
They would wait and hire from me.
It happened with freelance and vendor help too.

5 Reasons People Don’t Get Hired

An interview or a client presentation is a test. It’s like an oral exam in which the subject is you. When I put it that way, it seems like folks should do better than some folks seem to do, doesn’t it? What it that gets in the way?

Here are 5 Reasons People Don’t Get Hired for that Job or that Contract

  1. Candidates feel self-conscious about putting forward their skills and talents.
  2. Candidates don’t take the job acquisition process seriously.
  3. Candidates miscalculate their value. This could be monetary, ability to fill the skills required, or how common or rare their skill set might be.
  4. Candidates don’t show knowledge or interest in the specifics of the business hiring.
  5. Candidates are arrogant, rude to the receptionist, have no energy, or are just not likeable.

You might know even more than these.

The Only 3 Questions that Count

In any meeting in which a person is deciding whether to offer work to another, only three questions matter. Though the questions never get stated aloud, all conversation really is about the three quesions. It’s best if both parties know what those three questions are.

The Only Three Questions

  1. Can this person do the job? This question is about the job or project description — expertise, skill set, and industry experience — salary is included here.
  2. Will this person do the job? This question is about motivation, energy, and work ethic.
  3. How will this person fit with the team? This question is about interpersonal skills, stress management, and communication.

Prove you are the correct answer to all three and the offer is yours. It’s great branding. It’s great business practice. It’s a service to yourself and your employer/client to know what you’re really talking about when you’re talking.

It stops being a test when you have the answers.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help you focus the direction of your business, check out the Perfect Virtual Manager Service on the Work with Liz!! page.

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Job [and Client] Hunting ala Liz
See the Brand YOU Section on the Successful Series page.

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Self-Promotion as Easy as Knowing What You Do

Filed Under Branding, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 26 Comments

Self Promotion Made Easy

Customer Think Logo

When people asked me why I quit teaching grade school, one of the reasons I offer is that I found myself at parties answering the famous question, What do you do? like this.

I’m a teacher, but not like any teacher you ever met.

What do you do is an opportunity to sell yourself.

I knew enough to know that I was losing the passion for my job. What I didn’t know then was that I had stumbled onto a key part of self-promotion –understanding what people will think of what I’m about to say.

When someone asks What do you do for a living? How do you answer?

If you say the name of your job, butcher, baker, dancer, writer, web developer . . ., you offer them the chance to attach to you all of the preconceived notions they have about folks with that job. You’re walkng right into their box.

Bob Weiss knows. If your answer is: “I’m a lawyer,” you’ve missed a marketing opportunity.

Bob knows that by saying you’re a lawyer, you’ve turned the conversation to the topic of lawyers and away from what you do. No possible clients will be happening. Instead you’re probably going to be hearing what people think about lawyers for the next while. You’ll be up against proving what you’re not or maybe proving what you’re as good as.

Either way,to name a job is to invite comparison.

Of course, I’m no longer a teacher. I’m an entrepreneur. My job depends on the people knowing what I do and that I do it well. So I’ve learned to answer that question with a little finesse.

When folks ask what I do I say I help individuals and small businesses find their vision, focus their business, and layout a strategy that allows them to do what they love and make money meeting their customers’ unexpressed needs and desires better than their competition does.

Yes, I have a shorter version too, but you see where I’m going. I don’t start by saying I’m the Perfect Virtual Manager. I know that would only get me blank stares.

So think for awhile and then tell me . . . what do you do for a living? If you would like to write in the comment box under a code name, please feel free to do so. If you have trouble getting it the way you want, let’s find the right words together. All of us can probably get you to a lovely description of what drives your passion for the reason you work everyday.

When you can answer the question, it won’t feel like self-promotion. It will be you talking about what you do every day.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like to help with your brand or business,check out the Perfect Virtual Manager on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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The Show Is in the Comments

Filed Under Branding, Comments, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog | 4 Comments

Blogging Is Conversation

I’ve heard it said before that the internet has changed the world of news. That the news used to end when it was put into print, now that’s when the news begins. HART said it first, Half the show is inthe comments. Sometimes it’s more than half. Yesterday, 37signals published a small piece by guest poster Ryan Carson teaching bloggers how to use digg.com to market their articles.

The current 46 comments that follow discuss the pros and cons of self-promotion using digg.com and in some ways overpower the original article. It’s also a great demonstration of how a blogger deals with mixed reviews of a posting.

You can access the whole thing by clicking the title shot below.

37signals Small Biz 101: Digg

One truth about blogging is that you can never know for sure where a post might take you.

Thank Ryan for the well-written post that started a fine discussion — one that we should all think through from every angle.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Critical Skill 3: Fluency: with Ideas

Filed Under Branding, Marketing, Motivation/Inspiration, Outside the Box, Strategy, Successful Blog | 7 Comments

Stop Not Having Ideas

Finding Ideas Outside of the Box logo 2

The first part of fluency with ideas is having them–LOTS of them. There she goes again. What is she talking about? She might have lots. Right now I’d be happy with one.

The trick is get to learn how to stop not having lots of ideas.

That’s not a typo. You can stop not having ideas.

Open the Valve

Ideas are being stimulated constantly in your subconscious so often and at such a rate that, if you let them all in, you wouldn’t be able to pay attention to anything else. You would literally be aware of stimuli that you have no need for, such as the feel of your shoes on your feet or the chair that you’re sitting on. That’s why we come equipped–at no extra charge–with a filtering unit, a valve-like screening device at the base of our brains–the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS allows us to filter out most of that unwanted stimuli. It serves as a closed door allowing only life-skill information into our consciouness. Unfortunately with the door closed we don’t have access to some great ideas.

The good news is that the RAS can be trained. Firemen can make it let through the sound of the fire alarm. You can can use it to access things you forget that are still in your brain– great ideas when you put them together again. Ron Daugherty offers some ways to expand and explore your ability to open the RAS in his article, Understanding the Mind: 5 Keys to a Writer’s Creativity.

With Access Comes Fluency

Future Skills

With a little practice you’ll be able to access more and more ideas. Seriously, believe that they’ll come. Relax and make room for them, and they will. Getting them is just the first step toward fluency with ideas. To follow a language metaphor, the ideas are just your vocabulary. Now you have to be able to use them–pull ideas to match three basic scenarios. Here are ways you can practice to build up your fluency.

  • Brainstorming wild lists. When you have a few minutes waiting in traffic, pick an everyday object such as a plate. See whether you can come up with 25 things you might do with that object, silly or otherwise. As blogger, you should be pretty good at this. After all bloggers know a thing or two about making lists. Don’t edit. Be as wild and creative as you can. When you reach 25, try for another 10.
  • Freewriting. When you’ve got a few minutes and some paper and pencil, write without stopping about a simple pleasure, such as drinking coffee or running. Explain all of the impacts and outcomes it’s had on your life. Try to write 15 minutes without stopping.
  • Problem solving. The next time you or your child has a problem don’t begin to address it until you’ve identified at least five solutions. Not every solution needs to be doable or practical, but all of them need to fix some aspect of the problem, using facts that you know. Allow for an outrageous solution or two. Outrageous solutions often lead to extremely solid ones, once the outrageous solutions have been talked about. Think through what the impact of trying every solution would be and name all of the possible outcomes that could occur if you tried each one.

If you want to be truly future skilled, you’ll do each of these things verbally and in writing too.

Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking the Language of Ideas

The more you practice with your vocabulary of ideas. The more fluent in the language of ideas you will be. That means you’ll not only be good at speaking and writing your own ideas. You’ll also be good listening and reading other folks’ ideas too. You’ll get really quick at telling a great idea from a loser when someone else offers one.

Imagine the time and money a business might save when they know you can tell a solid idea from pipe dream that just sounds really good. AND that you can explain in writing how you know. Now there’s a concept on which you could promote your business and yourself. That would be an added value idea plus.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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