Successful Blog

8 Powerfully Subtle Ways to Let Your Work Show Your Expertise

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It’s the Work We Do that Adds Value

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The Internet is fast being filled with people with skills and talent for hire. Some have worked online and off for years to attain experience and expertise. Some are using the Internet to re-career and reinvent themselves and us as a chance to prove themselves. Most folks who can afford it want to connect with the people who’ve got real expertise, not those who hope to practice until they do.

There’s no question that to be an expert, we have to be knowledgeable, authentic, and hardworking. Everyone pays dues to get to the top, but knowing what to work at helps a lot too, because …

For the rest of us, it’s hard to tell the guy with a professional camera from a professional photographer unless you share what you know with the rest of us in the right way.

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To be recognized as a expert requires communication skills and social skills as well as technical expertise.

8 Subtle, Powerful Ways to Let Your Work Show Your Expertise

A true expert isn’t a preacher or even a teacher. He or she is a guide who cares about and understands the folks he or she serves. Lead me value to your work and know its quality, then help me understand how it can be relevant and useful to the customers, clients, and people I value and serve.

A true expert, like a truly rich man, doesn’t need to tell you he is one … his value shows in his confidence, competence, consistency, generosity, humility, and his work.

Here are 8 often powerfully subtle ways to being recognized as a true expert.

  1. Be the expert you are, not the expert someone else is. You are the only you the world has. That differentiates what you offer from the start. Play to your strengths. Let your work demonstrate your strengths. When people ask about what you do … point to something you’ve done well and talk about it.
  2. Get known first as an expert in ONE thing. Decide what sort of problems you solve quickly and well. Find ONE niche or one vertical and solve that problem there. People look for a “go to” person for a specific need. You’ll grow a following faster if you solve one problem well. It’s easier to refer the expert who can prove one great solution than the one who can’t be pinned down. Once folks learn about you as a master one skill, they can find out about the other wonderful things you do.
  3. Write expert content in the language of the folks you want to serve. Readers want top-notch, quality, relevant content — information, answers, AND analysis. Your market can get news anywhere. Add your expert opinion, analysis, evaluation, synthesis, or predictions — in words and thoughts they can relate to and apply immediately..
  4. Be an expert at keeping track of your niche. Don’t overwhelm yourself … but don’t live in your own head and don’t live online only. Look for great ideas and innovation everywhere. Follow Alltop to get the latest news. Read print magazines, blogs, and news that cover the topics you cover. Pre-select it for people interested in what you do. Add value by explaining why you’re passing it on.
  5. Be an expert at specialized search and information mining. Make finding interesting content tidbits your expert quest. Get to be friends with Google Alerts and similar services. Follow terms around the Internet.
  6. Be an expert at sharing your work where your customers are. Be where your potential customers are. Don’t just Tweet a great photo. Say something about it. Tell a story about it. Not every great client is on Twitter. Not every great mind is either. Go to conferences; meet local businesses; visit universities; get to know the other experts and authors in your niche. Ask everyone for their stories and tell anyone who cares about the stories you’ve collected. Tweet, speak, visit, and comment on blogs. Get opinions and think about what people say. Talk about your work like you to talk to your friends about what you do.
  7. Be an expert at thinking deeply. Saturate yourself in the trends, and think about how they influence your work. Go deeper too. Find out what researchers are thinking so that you can offer your readers how you think the highest quality and most relevant information might change what you’re doing today and in the future. Always tie it back to them in real and relevant ways. It’s your field be interested in it and they’ll be interested in you.
  8. Have an opinion. Don’t just pass on information. What the Internet is missing is your informed expertise and unique point of view. You’ve learned and earned something. Show us how you got there and why you care about it. Share your passion for your expertise. Nothing is more appealing than an expert who loves what he or she does.

Awards are nice, but they’re not something our customers can use. Quality is important, but if my customers can’t see or at least feel the fine lighting, perfect composition, or the artfullness of that photograph … then the time it took to add it … to them will be just cost. Some folks need basic transportation to get to work not a Ferrari this time around — an expert recognizes that too.

When we do the work, invest, and offer what we learn freely and care about those we serve, our true expertise shines through. People need what we know and sharing it isn’t shameless promotion, it’s contributing value to the community.

Are you an expert? How do you let your work speak for you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Social Media Book List: Social Media for Nonprofits and is Talent really overated?

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book author I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. This week I will be highlighting ‘#SOCIALMEDIANONPROFIT: 140 Bite Sized for Nonprofit Social Media Engagement’. and ‘Talent is Overrated’ by Geoff Colvin. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing, self development and inspiration.

#SOCIALMEDIANONPROFITtweet

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#SOCIALMEDIANONPROFITtweet is written by Janet Fouts & Beth Kanter.

Social Media has taken the world by storm, however, some non profit organizations have not figured out how to use social media to there best benefit. This book shares with those who work with and in these organizations, the ideas, tools and resources available to them through social media.

Here are few of the tweets from #SOCIALMEDIANONPROFIT:

~You already communicate, campaign, fund raise, serve, and build community locally. With social media, you can do that with the world!

~Is there another way to connect with thousands of people instantly and regularly for free?

~Social media IS the next business revolution—if an organization is not engaged they will look dated and out
of touch in no time.

~What do you measure now? Measure that before and after using socialmedia. See if it improves. If not,
change how you use it. Repeat.

~People WANT to become engaged in your venture. LET THEM! Help others become invested in
your mission.

~The most important part of social media is the “social.” Personalize everything—your beaming face is
better than any logo!

About the Authors:

Janet Fouts, is a social media coach, teacher and speaker. She helps individuals and corporations understand how to use social media tools and work efficiently in this emerging field, and conducts in house and virtual training sessions on social media tools and strategy.

Janet has been working with small businesses to develop their on-line presence and working with online community for 13 years. She is partner in the award winning web design and development firm Tatu Digital Media. She freely shares her knowledge on several social media platforms including her blog at JanetFouts.com

Beth Kanter, is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits. She is co-author of the forthcoming book, ‘The Networked Nonprofit,’ to be published by J. Wiley in 2010.

Beth is the CEO of Zoetica, a company that serves nonprofits and socially conscious companies with top-tier, online marketing services. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week’s ‘Voices of Innovation for Social Media.’ She is the 2009 Visiting Scholar for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation.

You can purchase a copy of #SOCIALMEDIANONPROFITtweet online at ThinkAha books or at Amazon.

This blog post is part of a virtual book tour by Key Business Partners and I have received a complimentary copy of #SOCIALMEDIANONPROFITtweet by the author.

Talent is Overrated

Now I would like to highlight a book on my reading list–Talent is Overrated.
I have to admit before I go any further. I have read some of this book and I enjoyed what I have read so far.

In this book, the author brings up a very interesting point about what talent really is and how we in the world define it.

He starts out the book with this quote,”Great performance is more valuable than ever–but where does it really come from?”

Colvin brings up those who are perceived to have “natural talent” and is it really natural and are you born with these talents OR is it that because Venus and Serena Williams, or Michael Jordan, or Tiger Woods practiced the skills in their chosen profession more than anyone else may have is that the reason they are as good as they are playing their sport.

About the Author:

Geoff Colvin, is Fortune’s senior editor-at-large and has written hundred of articles for the magazine including its popular column Value Driven. He lectures widely and is the regular lead moderator for the Fortune Global Forum. Colvin graduated Harvard cum laude with a B.A. in economics, and received his M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School. His first book, Talent Is Overrated, earned global acclaim and was a Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and New York Times business bestseller. www.GeoffColvin.com *courtesy of Amazon.com

You can purchase a copy of Talent is Overrated on Amazon.

I truly hope you will check out these books and please comment and let me know your thoughts on them.

Do You Know Your Blog’s BIG IDEA?

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What’s Your Goal?

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Blogging is like paper and pencil, like an answering machine, like an email or text message to the world. It’s meant to carry information from a writer to a reader. It’s more than Twitter. It allows for a longer thought and a deeper conversation. And well, … the url sets up a certain expectation with readers and search engines that you might add more to it that will be useful and valuable at a future date.

A blog can be text, audio, video or the format can be mixed. Most important is that add value, reaches out, connects, and offers some sort of expertise, especially now that the social web is providing us with so many places to gather and discuss.

It takes a strategy for fitting a blog into all of this.

and it takes an idea …

What’s Your Big Idea

Whether we’re writing a single blog post, planning a calendar for a week or a month, or setting out to start a new blog, we have to know what we’re planning to communicate and the direction we want that communication to go.

Knowing your BIG IDEA makes every other decision about your blog easier.

Decide these two elements:

  • know your goal and message — what your blog is all about in 25 words or less. Filter that down to less than 6 or so words and you have a tagline.
  • name your audience of readers you want to reach — who wants to hear what you have to say?

Determine how to address both of the above with a great mind.

  • What quality content and questions can you bring?
  • What great thinking and value can you add to that?
  • What other quality thinkers and content producers can you preselect and promote?

Figure out how to weave your values in.

  • What passion drives you talk about this?
  • How will you let your humanity come through?
  • How will you celebrate and honor people who do good things in the areas you care about?

Your message, your audience, and how you’ll blend great thinking with great humanity together they add up to your BIG IDEA. The BIG IDEA shows itself in your blog’s design, your writing style, your frequency of updating, even the words you use to name parts of your blog. When a choice confronts you; just hold it up to your BIG IDEA to see if it belongs.

The blogger who fully thinks through a BIG Idea enjoys success, readership, and a community filled with engaging, relevant conversation.

Whether your blog is new or five years old, do you know your blog’s BIG Idea? Can you write it in just a few words?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Social Media Book List: Life, Death and how to live life best

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book author I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. This week I will be highlighting ‘#DEATHtweet: A well lived life through 140 perspectives on death and its teachings’ by Tim Tosta and ‘Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, PhD. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing, self development and inspiration.

#DEATHtweet

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#DEATHtweet is written by Tim Tosta, an environmental lawyer, career coach, cancer survivor and hospice volunteer.

You may be wondering why would I bring up a book about death. Well, Tim sums it up nicely here:

“From my experiences with death, I’ve learned that it is actually possible to develop and maintain a thriving and even aggressive career, while fully experiencing all that life has to offer. #DEATHtweet and my seminars deal with these issues.” Tosta explains.

Here are few of the tweets from #Deathtweet to help understand what the book is about:

~Truly living your life is the best preparation for death.
~Underneath all of its noise and chatter, every life has its meaning. Look for your meaning. It may be great or humble.
~As you explore your life’s meaning an amazing thing happens- your life comes into balance.
~Death teaches you to live in profound change and to accept its inevitability.
~Observe your fear. Make it the subject of your curiosity. The more you inquire into it, the less
power it retains.

About the Author:
Timothy Tosta, a partner at Luce Forward, is recognized as one of California’s leading land use and environmental attorneys. He also is a cancer survivor, a seasoned hospice volunteer, an evocative lecturer and writer. In 2007, Tim enrolled with New Ventures West and was certified as an Integral Coach in 2008. Tim is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B., 1971) and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (J.D., 1974). Tim welcomes your inquiries about Coaching Counsel and its programs.

You can purchase a copy of #DEATHtweet online at ThinkAha books or Amazon.

This blog post is part of a virtual book tour by Key Business Partners and I have received a complimentary copy of #Deathtweet by the author.

Now, Discover your Strengths

Now I would like to highlight a book on my reading list–Now, Discover your Strengths.
A strength is defined as consistent near perfect performance in an activity.

In this book, it describes three revolutionary tools (to help discover our strengths) as follows:
1) The first revolutionary tool is understanding how to distinguish your natural talents from things you can learn.
2) The secondary revolutionary tool is a system to identify your dominant talents.
3) The third revolutionary tool is a common language to describe your talents.

I am ready to read more because this books does bring up some interesting points. What are those things you can learn to be good at over time and what are those traits (or strengths) you already have within you.

About the Author:

In a world where efficiency and competency rule the workplace, where do personal strengths fit in?

It’s a complex question, one that intrigued Cambridge-educated Marcus Buckingham so greatly, he set out to answer it by challenging years of social theory and utilizing his nearly two decades of research experience as a Sr. Researcher at The Gallup Organization to break through the preconceptions about achievement and get to the core of what drives success.

The result of his persistence, and arguably the definitive answer to the strengths question, can be found in Buckingham’s trio of best-selling books, First, Break All the Rules (coauthored with Curt Coffman, Simon & Schuster, 1999); Now, Discover Your Strengths (coauthored with Donald O. Clifton, The Free Press, 2001); and The One Thing You Need to Know (The Free Press, 2005), in which the author gives important insights to maximizing strengths, understanding the crucial differences between leadership and management, and fulfilling the quest for long-lasting personal success.

What would happen if men and women spent more than 75% of each day on the job using their strongest skills and engaged in their favorite tasks, basically doing exactly what they wanted to do?

According to Marcus Buckingham (who spent years interviewing thousands of employees at every career stage and who is widely considered one of the world’s leading authorities on employee productivity and the practices of leading and managing), companies that focus on cultivating employees’ strengths rather than simply improving their weaknesses stand to dramatically increase efficiency while allowing for maximum personal growth and success.

If such a theory sounds revolutionary, that’s because it is. Marcus Buckingham calls it the “strengths revolution.”

As he addresses more than 250,000 audiences around the globe each year, Buckingham touts this strengths revolution as the key to finding the most effective route to personal success — and the missing link to the efficiency, competency, and success for which many companies constantly strive.

To kick-start the strengths revolution, Buckingham and Gallup developed the StrengthsFinder exam, which identifies signature themes that help employees quantify their personal strengths in the workplace and at home. Since the StrengthsFinder debuted in 2001, more than 1 million people have discovered their strengths with this useful and important tool.

In his role as author, independent consultant and speaker, Marcus Buckingham has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, USA Today and is routinely lauded by such corporations as Toyota, Coca-Cola, Master Foods, Wells Fargo, and Disney as an invaluable resource in informing, challenging, mentoring and inspiring people to find their strengths and obtain and sustain long-lasting personal success.

Marcus Buckingham holds a master’s degree in social and political science from Cambridge University and is a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Leadership and Management. He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles, CA.
*courtesy of Amazon.com

You can purchase a copy of Now, Discover your Strengths on Amazon.

Both of these books talk about life and living it with passion, dedication and using your time living your best life. I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think about these books. I welcome your comments.

Thanks to Week 232 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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michelle-lamar
one-manns-opinion
revenews
the-small-business-united-blog
vehicle-vibes

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Social Media List: Interview with Marshall Goldsmith, Author of #MOJOtweet

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job, as an online promotion manager, I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!).
This week my offer for a weekly post is an interview with Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got you Here Won’t Get you There, and more recently, MOJO and #MOJOtweet.

Please share with the readers a bit about yourself.
I teach executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and frequently speak at leading business schools. I am a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources (America’s top HR honor). In 2006 Alliant International University honored me by naming their schools of business and organizational studies – the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management. I earned my Ph.D. from UCLA. I currently live in CA with my wife Lydia.

What is your most recent book? Please share with our readers about your latest book.
Currently I have two books that came out on the same day. One is ‘MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It’ published by Hyperion. The other is its companion called ‘#MOJOtweet’ is part of the THINKaha series by Happy About, whose 100-page books contain 140 well-thought-out quotes (tweets/ahas) celebrating how to define and keep your MOJO.

For you, what is the definition of Mojo?
Mojo is that moment when we do something powerful, purposeful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. To me, Mojo is about achieving two simple goals–loving what you do and showing it, and it plays a vital role in our pursuit of happiness and meaning. These goals are what govern my operational definition, which is: Mojo is that positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside. Our Mojo is evident when the good feelings we have toward what we are doing come from inside us and our apparent for everyone else to see. There is no gap between the positive way we perceive ourselves—what we are doing—and how we are perceived by others.

What is one important aspect of this book you would like to share with our readers?
One of the key insights in the book says, “The only person who can define meaning and happiness for you is YOU!” This book will make you think, this book will make you act, this book can help you develop better Mojo and become a better YOU. Goldmsith says that “our general tendency is to continue to do what we are already doing,” but the paradox is that “this might not be sufficient for getting and keeping Mojo.” So, do something different–something powerful, something purposeful, something positive–and get and keep ‘#MOJOtweet’ today.


Will you share a few #MOJOtweets with the readers?
Certainly!
~Mojo is that positive spirit toward what you are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside.
~Mojo is infectious. When people pass their positive spirit to us, we feel like passing it back.
~Professional Mojo is a measure o the skills and attitude you bring to any activity. Personal Mojo by the benefits that a particular activity gives back to you.
~To change your mojo, you either create a new identity for yourself or rediscover an identity that you have lost.

How important does having a positive attitude play in finding your MOJO?
You won’t get to the top without it; to build it, you have to believe in yourself. You can’t worry about being perfect—you just have to put up a brave front and do the best you can. The building blocks of Mojo, which I discuss thoroughly in my book, are not self-esteem they are identity, achievement, reputation, and acceptance. Learning about finding your Mojo is what the book is about and those who want to find it, keep it, or get it back if they’ve lost it will get much from MOJO: for those who don’t want to change, this book can’t help!

What inspired you to write this book, #MOJOtweet?
In my work, the most frequent question I hear is: What is the one quality that differentiates truly successful people from everyone else. My answer is always the same: Successful people spend a large part of their lives engaging in activities that simultaneously provide meaning and happiness. In other words, and in terms of my book, truly successful people have Mojo. Because the only person who can define meaning and happiness for you is you, that’s what this book is about. It is to help people to define and achieve Mojo.

What did you learn from writing this book?
It may be the most vital piece of advice within these pages: You should not feel obligated do any of this alone! If you want to improve your performance at almost anything, your odds of success improve considerably the moment you enlist someone else to help you.

Where can readers learn more about you and your book?
First, I want to say thank you for allowing me to share with you and your readers about my books.
You can pick up a copy of #MOJOtweet at ThinkAha website.
Or on my website Marshall Goldsmith Library.

Special Note: April 1, 2010 Marshall Goldsmith will be conducting a FREE webinar to discuss the vital elements of MOJO as described in his book #MOJOtweet at 2pmET/11amPT. You can join in by phone: 218-339-4300 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              218-339-4300      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Participant code: 715975#.