Author: ACEC

  • Is Remarketing The New Free?

    Let’s face it, we’ve become increasingly numb to the lead capture bait for email address exchange. In fact, I think it’s become so bad that while people still sign up for the free thing, they often don’t even bother to download, rarely if ever actually read it or watch it, and unfortunately, don’t represent the opportunity for marketers that they once did.

    The bar for starting a relationship with a prospect has evolved, and the stakes are higher.

    Today, we have to create awareness before a prospect understands they have a problem or certainly before they are seeking a transformation.

    In my opinion, this is still done by offering the right content, in the right context, but with the right delivery mechanism.[tweetthis]To reach the greatest number of prospects in your market, the first contact can’t be an ask.[/tweetthis]

    Creating awareness through targeted content

    People still want to find answers to their challenges and will probably always seek information in many forms. Smart marketers are grouping and personalizing content by specific category or problem-solving advice and offering that content without strings in targeted advertising environments such as Facebook.

    The content may be a short video or series of video, a group of blog posts or even a series of templates and checklists.

    The key is that this is bite-sized, useful, easy to access and easy to consume. It’s the start of a relationship without commitment.

    Building trust before the ask

    So, how does totally free content create a lead? It does so by giving and giving and giving before asking anything. High-quality content without strings attached builds trust and authority – two of the primary objectives of all marketing today.

    The key to making this work as lead generation tactic is something called remarketing or retargeting.

    Now, you may be familiar with retargeting if you’ve ever reviewed a product you were researching online.

    A few years ago I wanted to get standup desk and looked around at a variety of products before finally settling on one made by Varidesk.

    I did my research one day and visited the manufacture’s site and sure enough everywhere else I went I started seeing ads for Varidesk.

    In fact, even after I had purchased the desk from Amazon I continued to see the ads on many news type sites I visited.

    This is retargeting not so much at its finest.

    Or perhaps you downloaded a free report on a site and when you returned to get the next one in the series they already knew your name and email and automatically completed it in the form. This is another type of very useful retargeting in a way.

    Essentially what retargeting involves is placing a cookie on a visitor’s browser that indicates they have come to your site. This cookie then allows ad networks to show certain ads when you visit one of their sites.

    Many people dislike this technology, and you can manage it by changing your privacy settings to disable it. Of course, a lot of things you do like, such as a website you frequent remembering your settings is activated using this same approach.

    One of the more effective ways to use retargeting in a gentle lead nurturing sense is by using Facebook’s retargeting tool.

    You simply run sponsored ads at highly targeted, useful content or a series of content and let Facebook tell you who visits and consumes the content. Once this mechanism is in place, you can start building custom audiences of the people that visited your free content with the knowledge that they may indeed be interested in a more substantial version of the content in exchange for an email address or opt-in.

    This approach, while requiring more patience, opens up a much larger potential audience and will likely make your list conversions triple or quadruple.

    Here’s a nice little tutorial on Facebook retargeting from Social Media Examiner

    And another, more technical one from WPCurve with specifics for WordPress users

    And, you might want to look for retargeting services outside of the Facebook walls, so take a look at PerfectAudience for a super easy approach or one of the pioneers of retargeting, AdRoll.

    Hyper segmentation for relationship building

    One of the beautiful things about this approach is that it not only allows you to nurture people who visit your website, but it also allows you to create segmented campaigns for people based on what they visited.

    For example, I attract many small business owners who are interested in tips and tactics for growing their business, but I also serve a growing network of independent marketing consultants who are interested in ways to grow a more profitable practice and serve more customers.

    Using a retargeting approach, I can create a highly personalized experience for these radically different audiences based on an understanding of the content they visited.

    Now, understand that this approach is certainly not limited to Facebook – Facebook just offers a nice way to use it to build awareness and trust.

    This is essentially the same technology that powers inbound marketing tools such as Hubspot or many CRM and marketing automation tools. It’s the same technology that powers many of the more sophisticated lead tracking tools such as ClickMagick or Kissmetrics.

    The real lesson in this is that marketers today must understand that as brands big and small continue to take advantage of the technology to serve more personalized, useful and relevant experiences the more our prospects will come to hunger for and expect the same from any business they engage – whether they know it or not.

    Content Originally Created by Duct Tape Marketing

    Author: John Jantsch

  • People Buy Stories Before They Buy Stuff

    I’ve been writing about the use of story in marketing for years. I remember when I first started telling people over a decade ago to make their clients the hero of their stories and to use their personal stories as foundational marketing elements they were dubious at best.

    Today, every marketer understands the value of story as a way to sell just about anything. But, still, few understand the right way to use story and narrative as a way to guide people on the perfect journey.

    This is due in large part to the fact that it takes some skill, a bit of hard work and perhaps, more importantly, patience. A great story has many significant elements and to have the greatest impact each element must be built in a certain order – much like the foundation of a house must be laid before the walls and roof have a place to stand.

    The good news is that I believe there’s a framework that any business can adopt and that framework is evident in just about every great story told throughout time.

    Any screenwriter making a living today uses this same framework to draw us in and take us along with them on a journey.

    After you read this post, you’ll also have the tools to build this same framework for your business and use it as the basis for just about every marketing decision you make.

    Your core story and the narrative technique described below will work to help cement your brand in the mind of your ideal client, but it is equally effective as a framework for a product launch or email autoresponder campaign.

    The framework relies on the three key elements: The ideal client persona, the core story and the journey goal map (based on the Marketing Hourglass.)

    The ideal client persona

    The term persona is borrowed from the theater. An actor may receive a script, and the persona is the description of the character played by the part. If an actor is to understand the character they must know a little about what drives them, what they believe, what they fear, and what they desire.

    Audience Audit, Inc did research on small business personas for Infusionsoft and created some great examples of how you might describe a segment of your marketing.

    They give the segment a name and then describe them with a handful of core words as well as some background on what they believe.

    “Passionate creators – Creativity, optimism, service

    This segment believes that passion is one of the most important qualities of a small business owner. They are proud of the job-creation engine that small businesses represent, and value having the ability to serve a customer well.

    Passionate Creators are interested in creating something unique, making a difference in the world, and driving economic growth. They are dramatically more optimistic than other segments, and the most likely to report that small business ownership has contributed to improvements in their overall attitude, time availability and financial security (versus if they had a corporate job).”

    You can read the entire small business market survey here

    Another resource I often point to when discussing the topic of personas is Adele Revella’s Buyer Persona Institute. http://www.buyerpersona.com/ Revella is a past guest on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast – you can listen to that episode here. https://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/customer-personas/

    How to craft the right story

    As stated above, there are elements that make a story both a good story and the right story. For most businesses this isn’t about telling some riveting tale that makes for good entertainment, it’s about demonstrating you are the right person to help the reader achieve what they want to achieve.

    Make them the hero

    First and foremost, if you intend to create a story that your prospects care about you must position them as the hero of the story. Most businesses go on and on about how great their business, product or service is, and frankly, that’s the last thing a customer cares about.

    Think about every great story you’ve read, you love the story because you connect with the story’s main character. For your story, the main character must be your ideal customer persona and not your business.

    Your customer or prospect has problems, and it’s your job to guide them on a journey to solve that problem and achieve their ultimate destiny.

    I know that may sound a bit dramatic, but doesn’t that sound a lot nobler than just selling them stuff?

    I work with small business owners, and I can tell you that no one wants the world’s greatest marketing consulting – the hero of our story wants freedom, control, growth, and creativity and it’s our job to guide them down the path to leads to just that.

    Help them understand their problem

    One of the first tasks is to help the hero understand the real problem they face as it’s often not what they think it is.

    Now, sometimes this can pose a real challenge as selling a solution to a problem people don’t even know they have is a tough path to trod.

    The real key lies in the persona. So often what people want in life can be achieved once they let go of many of the symptoms of what’s holding them back.

    Often we have to show prospects what letting go and refocusing on what matters looks like before they start to see that as the answer.

    Our story must both reveal the real enemy and prove that we know who and what it is. You build a great deal of trust through empathy.

    In our case, the real enemy is time, focus and fear. When we address these elements, we can start to reveal what a solution could look like in the context of the real problem.

    Reveal the authority to guide them

    Of course, once your story connects with their real problem you must be able to reveal you and your business as the one who can guide them to where they want to go.

    Every great hero meets a mentor or guide along the journey that gives them the knowledge, tools and confidence to take up the journey.

    Think

    • Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber
    • Gandalf and Mithril armor
    • Dumbledore and Harry Potter’s wand

    Admit it, the idea of playing the role of Obi-Wan for your prospects has to be a lot more fun that just being the head of marketing.

    Paint a better picture

    One of the keys to moving your prospects down the path is to inspire them by painting a picture of what it could look like if they had the real problem handled.

    A vivid picture of what a small business owner’s day could look like if they installed a marketing system – right down to how they would feel on that day is a great way to lead your prospects to make a change.

    Challenge them to succeed

    Finally, you must be able to challenge them to take action. This part of the story might be referred to by marketers as the call to action, but for it to be powerful, you must also help them understand the cost of not taking action.

    Generally, people are more motivated by what they might lose than what they might gain and when you can help them see the true cost of not acting as well as the value of succeeding when they do act, you can start to position what you do as an investment rather than a cost.

    Marketing is almost always seen as a cost – when it’s seen as an investment the dynamic of the sales conversation changes dramatically.

    How to craft the right journey

    Once you understand the hero of your story and the challenge you can help them solve you have to move to understanding the journey itself.

    As a prospect searches for solutions to questions, problems and challenges known and yet unidentified you have to use your marketing to address the questions and goals they are bound to have during each stage of the journey.

    You must get involved in their journey as early as possible, and you can only do this by addressing them where they are. If you simply jump to promoting what you sell before they’ve even concluded that you address their challenges, you’ll be forced to hard sell.

    But, if you wait until they’ve concluded on their own that your category of solution is that answer to their prayers, you’ll be forced to compete against everyone else who says they do what you do.

    When you understand the goals and questions your prospects are facing during each phase of their buying journey you can create content and campaigns aimed at these specific desires.

    For example, here’s what the journey goals for a small business looking to grow more profit by working with a tax advisor might look like.

    • Know – To learn the best, most profitable ways to run and grow their business
    • Like – To better understand what other people are doing to lower expenses
    • Trust – To understand what’s possible and legal
    • Try – To see if any of the proposed savings apply to their situation
    • Buy – To experience a process that feels very professional and give hope of substantial savings
    • Repeat – Understand other ways they can gain wealth and possibly set up business to sell
    • Refer – To feel proud telling another business owner about a very smart decision they made

    As you can plainly see the idea of cutting taxes doesn’t even appear until about midway through this journey. The consultant selling tax consulting, however, must look to become the guide first by building trust teaching ways to run and grow a business.

    Understand your customers, make your prospects the hero of your marketing story and then guide them to success. That’s how you build a business that both succeeds and matters.

    If you’re an overachiever I also suggest that you read the following:

    • Save the Cat – Blake Snyder (Storytelling from a screenwriting perspective)
    • The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell (The classic academic tomb that reveals why we like Star Wars so much)
    • The Writer’s Journey – Christopher Vogler (A very practical text for understanding the role of mythology in story)
    • resonate – Nancy Duarte (A presentation framework based on the hero’s journey)
    • Storytelling with Data – Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic (Sometimes you must use numbers to tell a story! – Edward Tufte for the Internet age)

    Content Originally Created by Duct Tape Marketing

    Author:  John Jantsch

  • 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success

    Practiced effectively, marketing is simply a system. While this may be hard for some business owners to come grips with, like those who feel that “marketing is a strange form of creative voodoo thinking,” marketing is not only a system—it may be the most important system in any business.

    To understand how to approach marketing for a business, it may be helpful to understand the Duct Tape Marketing System definition of marketing. Marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you.

    One could argue about what “like” or “trust” is in any given industry, but now more than ever, this definition gets at the heart of the game. Here are the 7 core steps that make up the simple, effective, and affordable Duct Tape Marketing System. Businesses that appreciate and implement this approach to marketing grow in a consistent and predictable
    manner.

    To read the entire ebook written by John Jantsch, click HERE

  • Content is No Longer King – It’s Air

    No matter how you plan to grow your business content has become the entry point and catalyst for effective growth in most every channel. No, content is no longer king – that’s so last decade, but more on that in a bit.

    I’ve been writing a great deal about growth of late because I’ve become fascinated with the struggle it presents.

    One of my core beliefs about growth is that it comes from doing less instead of more.

    While that may sound a bit counterintuitive it springs from the fact that marketers today have something like sixteen channels to choose from in order to create awareness and ultimately grow their businesses. (I outline all channels in this Lead Generation System post)

    Terms like social media marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing and search engine marketing entered the marketing conversation in the last decade.

    While this may seem to present a golden opportunity for some businesses, it has created frustration for others. It is simply impossible to effectively create a meaningful presence everywhere and attempting to do so creates so much fragmentation that the message is often lost completely.

    The key to succeeding in the current environment is to master two or three channels at the most and commit to going deeply there. In my experience, most businesses already have one or two channels that produce the bulk of their business, yet they do little to amplify that effort. (I’ve written more on this idea of Channel Leverage here)

    For example, many businesses derive a significant percentage of their business through referrals and word of mouth recommendation but have no formal referral program in place.

    My contention is that business should focus on building multiple referral programs and explore ways to use advertising, strategic partnering and even content to amplify their referral channel – less is more!

    And now to the real point of this post (Sorry I had as one of my editors called it a lot throat clearing to do to get to the point.)

    No matter what growth channels you decide to pursue, content is your ticket to entry. Now, before I go much further let me say that by content I mean, long, deep, dramatic, useful, dare I say epic, educational content.

    Again, in this regard – less is more.

    The days of writing 500-word wispy blog posts three times a week are over. They certainly served a purpose four or five years ago (hello SEO) but no longer.

    Today you are better off writing one or two epic posts a month and using them as a tool to power every channel. (That’s good news, right?)

    Your approach to content as an asset still needs to be based on an editorial calendar that serves your business, but creating that plan is even easier if you start to think about ways to use your content for multiple channels.

    When we work with businesses today content development is the place we must start. There’s little hope in expanding the reach of a business without a substantial content asset to draw from. There are few channels that don’t run on content.

    Let me give you an example of how this could play out.

    Let’s say you commit to 12 epic blog posts per year – something in the 1500-2000 word range with lots of deep useful advice, some nice design elements, maybe a dash of data and even a bit of drama.

    If you’ve done your keyword research and spent a little time using a tool like BuzzSumo to drill down into specific post ideas you have the makings of an annual editorial calendar. (Here’s a post on how I use BuzzSumo)

    Now, let’s make this content pay.

    In one sense you already have. Your post will most certainly help your SEO efforts the chosen topic and set the table for shares and links. (By far my most shared content is over 1,500 words)

    Let’s say one of your posts describes the sixteen most awesome ways to do X. It’s long and it’s meaty and people devour it, but you know what would be cool – if you added a one-page checklist with all sixteen points.

    And what the heck, let’s use a tool like Thrive Leads to create a two-step opt-in box for people who want that checklist. (There’s an example of a content upgrade in this post)

    Wow, people are actually opting-in at a pretty high rate, why don’t we see what happens if we buy some targeted Facebook ads to drive some cold traffic to the post. All of a sudden content is making our advertising pay off.

    If all these new people are going to opt-in we should make sure that our email follow-up directs them to last month’s epic post so they begin to realize how glad they are that they know us.

    Now, let’s amp things up a bit.

    Our blog post on the sixteen most awesome ways to do X would actually make a nice presentation. We could simply promote it to our audience and hold a webinar, but why not reach out to some potential strategic partners and offer to do it free of charge for their audience instead.

    This is a great way to extend the reach of your content, but more than that it’s a great way to get referred by a trusted source and potentially meet some very qualified prospects.
    The key to making channels pay is a commitment to producing the most useful content possible.

    • Content makes your advertising more effective
    • Content makes your selling efforts more effective
    • Content makes your referral outreach more effective
    • Content makes your SEO efforts more effective
    • Content makes your influencer outreach more effective
    • Content makes your email marketing efforts more effective
    • Content makes your social media efforts more effective
    • Content makes your PR efforts more effective

    Much has been written about the need for great content, but I believe it’s more than king or queen, it’s more than a channel, it’s air – we need it survive. It is the catalyst and enabler for every other channel we use for growth.

    This isn’t a call to write more, better content – it’s a suggestion that you must change your view of what content has become and what it must mean to your ability to grow.

    Put epic content at the center of your marketing efforts – do less, but do better – and you’ll find that you have far greater opportunities to expand in every direction.

    Article Originally Created by Duct Tape Marketing

    Author: John Jantsch

  • What Great Listeners Actually Do

    Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks.

    Chances are you think you’re a good listener. People’s appraisal of their listening ability is much like their assessment of their driving skills, in that the great bulk of adults think they’re above average.

    In our experience, most people think good listening comes down to doing three things:

    • Not talking when others are speaking
    • Letting others know you’re listening through facial expressions and verbal sounds (“Mmm-hmm”)
    • Being able to repeat what others have said, practically word-for-word

    In fact, much management advice on listening suggests doing these very things – encouraging listeners to remain quiet, nod and “mm-hmm” encouragingly, and then repeat back to the talker something like, “So, let me make sure I understand. What you’re saying is…” However, recent research that we conducted suggests that these behaviors fall far short of describing good listening skills.

    We analyzed data describing the behavior of 3,492 participants in a development program designed to help managers become better coaches. As part of this program, their coaching skills were assessed by others in 360-degree assessments. We identified those who were perceived as being the most effective listeners (the top 5%). We then compared the best listeners to the average of all other people in the data set and identified the 20 items showing the largest significant difference. With those results in hand we identified the differences between great and average listeners and analyzed the data to determine what characteristics their colleagues identified as the behaviors that made them outstanding listeners.

    We found some surprising conclusions, along with some qualities we expected to hear. We grouped them into four main findings:

    • Good listening is much more than being silent while the other person talks. To the contrary, people perceive the best listeners to be those who periodically ask questions that promote discovery and insight. These questions gently challenge old assumptions, but do so in a constructive way. Sitting there silently nodding does not provide sure evidence that a person is listening, but asking a good question tells the speaker the listener has not only heard what was said, but that they comprehended it well enough to want additional information. Good listening was consistently seen as a two-way dialog, rather than a one-way “speaker versus hearer” interaction. The best conversations were active.
    • Good listening included interactions that build a person’s self-esteem. The best listeners made the conversation a positive experience for the other party, which doesn’t happen when the listener is passive (or, for that matter, critical!). Good listeners made the other person feel supported and conveyed confidence in them. Good listening was characterized by the creation of a safe environment in which issues and differences could be discussed openly.
    • Good listening was seen as a cooperative conversation. In these interactions, feedback flowed smoothly in both directions with neither party becoming defensive about comments the other made. By contrast, poor listeners were seen as competitive — as listening only to identify errors in reasoning or logic, using their silence as a chance to prepare their next response. That might make you an excellent debater, but it doesn’t make you a good listener. Good listeners may challenge assumptions and disagree, but the person being listened to feels the listener is trying to help, not wanting to win an argument.
    • Good listeners tended to make suggestions. Good listening invariably included some feedback provided in a way others would accept and that opened up alternative paths to consider. This finding somewhat surprised us, since it’s not uncommon to hear complaints that “So-and-so didn’t listen, he just jumped in and tried to solve the problem.” Perhaps what the data is telling us is that making suggestions is not itself the problem; it may be the skill with which those suggestions are made. Another possibility is that we’re more likely to accept suggestions from people we already think are good listeners. (Someone who is silent for the whole conversation and then jumps in with a suggestion may not be seen as credible. Someone who seems combative or critical and then tries to give advice may not be seen as trustworthy.)

    While many of us have thought of being a good listener being like a sponge that accurately absorbs what the other person is saying, instead, what these findings show is that good listeners are like trampolines. They are someone you can bounce ideas off of — and rather than absorbing your ideas and energy, they amplify, energize, and clarify your thinking. They make you feel better not merely passively absorbing, but by actively supporting. This lets you gain energy and height, just like someone jumping on a trampoline.

    Of course, there are different levels of listening. Not every conversation requires the highest levels of listening, but many conversations would benefit from greater focus and listening skill. Consider which level of listening you’d like to aim for:

    Level 1: The listener creates a safe environment in which difficult, complex, or emotional issues can be discussed.

    Level 2: The listener clears away distractions like phones and laptops, focusing attention on the other person and making appropriate eye-contact. (This behavior not only affects how you are perceived as the listener; it immediately influences the listener’s own attitudes and inner feelings. Acting the part changes how you feel inside. This in turn makes you a better listener.)

    Level 3: The listener seeks to understand the substance of what the other person is saying. They capture ideas, ask questions, and restate issues to confirm that their understanding is correct.

    Level 4: The listener observes nonbverbal cues, such as facial expressions, perspiration, respiration rates, gestures, posture, and numerous other subtle body language signals. It is estimated that 80% of what we communicate comes from these signals. It sounds strange to some, but you listen with your eyes as well as your ears.

    Level 5: The listener increasingly understands the other person’s emotions and feelings about the topic at hand, and identifies and acknowledges them. The listener empathizes with and validates those feelings in a supportive, nonjudgmental way.

    Level 6: The listener asks questions that clarify assumptions the other person holds and helps the other person to see the issue in a new light. This could include the listener injecting some thoughts and ideas about the topic that could be useful to the other person. However, good listeners never highjack the conversation so that they or their issues become the subject of the discussion.

    Each of the levels builds on the others; thus, if you’ve been criticized (for example) for offering solutions rather than listening, it may mean you need to attend to some of the other levels (such as clearing away distractions or empathizing) before your proffered suggestions can be appreciated.

    We suspect that in being a good listener, most of us are more likely to stop short rather than go too far. Our hope is that this research will help by providing a new perspective on listening. We hope those who labor under an illusion of superiority about their listening skills will see where they really stand. We also hope the common perception that good listening is mainly about acting like an absorbent sponge will wane. Finally, we hope all will see that the highest and best form of listening comes in playing the same role for the other person that a trampoline plays for a child. It gives energy, acceleration, height and amplification. These are the hallmarks of great listening.

    Authors: Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman

    Original Content Published by Harvard Business Review

  • Symphony: A New Language for Diversity & Inclusion

    WATCH Speech by Oshoke Pamela Abalu: TEDxBroadway

  • Guide To CEO Peer Networks

    Interchangeably called CEO peer groups or networks, these organizations generally arrange regular meetings in confidential environments where CEOs can share ideas, best practices, experiences and advice. High performing executives value the perspective of other leaders, as well as the wisdom that comes from the practical experiences learned by others in similar circumstances.

    To read this 2020 Report by Chief Executive Research, LLC., please click HERE

  • CEO and Senior Executive Compensation in Private Companies 2019-20

    Chief Executive Research surveyed 1,668 companies in April thru June of 2019 about their 2018 fiscal year compensation levels and practices, as well as their expected compensation levels for the remainder of 2019.

    We’ve received detailed data about compensation packages for CEOs and nine other senior executive positions, as well as comprehensive information about each company’s executive compensation policies and practices. The substantial response provided meaningful data for companies across revenue ranges, industries, regions, ownership types and levels of profitability.

    Detailed data from this survey is analyzed and presented in our acclaimed 2019-20 CEO & Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private Companies, for which we are happy to provide you, as a survey respondent, this executive summary.

    While most data sources on CEO compensation focus on large public companies, our research brings real-world insight into the compensation of CEOs of the approximately 6 million private companies in the U.S., not just the S&P 500. We invite you to consult the full report for complete compensation data broken down by company demographics and performance.

    To read this Executive Summary by Chief Executive Research, click HERE

  • Becoming a Recognized Expert

    Nowadays, it’s possible for virtually anyone to get their message out into the world. As a result, we’re often overwhelmed with an endless stream of information and noise.

    So if you’re a professional who wants to become known for your expertise, how do you stand out from the crowd?

    Ron Carucci is a fellow Harvard Business Review author and member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, a partner in the consulting company Navalent, and a member of my Recognized Expert course and community. In a recent #LinkedInLive session that I had with Ron, we discussed what it really means to be a recognized expert in business today.

    To ensure you can join me for my next LinkedIn Live interview, follow me on LinkedIn. Click this link to my profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec/ – and then click “follow.”

    Here are five pieces of advice from Ron about how you can start your journey as a recognized expert:

    Expand your audience. A few years ago, at the start of his journey, Ron realized he needed to grow his network – because as it stood, he was mostly in dialogue with people who already knew him, and he needed to get known by new audiences. He therefore doubled down on content creation, and actively began writing for Forbes and the Harvard Business Review.

    Create content to attract your ideal clients. One can’t simply create content and expect to go viral or suddenly gain a massive following. Ron says, “It’s not enough to write or put ideas out there, even if they’re brilliant. They have to be the brilliant ideas you want to represent you. That’s how you invite the kind of people into your life whom you want in your life.”

    Swim against the stream. Right now, consider what everyone in the news is writing about. Sometimes, it pays to do the opposite, such as Ron’s successful recent piece in the Harvard Business Review talking about ambition (at a time when almost everyone else was focused on writing about the pandemic).

    Get proactive with your social media engagement. We all appreciate the fanfare of a well-liked post, picture, or article, but every single reaction to your content is a potential opportunity, as Ron suggests. “Every one of those reactions, tweets, LinkedIn follows, the comments on the article, is a new relationship,” he says. “Just responding something like, ‘Hey, thanks for your engagement’ or ‘Hey, interesting question- what do you think?’ grows both your recognition and potential business down the road. I would leverage every one of those interactions far more aggressively. In terms of just being diligent and engaging, try to start a conversation with them.“

    Play the long game. Everyone envisions a “break-out” moment on their journey to success. The truth is, you don’t reach your goal by taking just one really good step. As Ron says, “We all think that maybe this article, maybe this video, maybe this TED talk, maybe this podcast will be the one – that breakout moment. There’s no such thing. Each of those moments becomes a diligent step on the journey to advance the cause. Be diligent in your content idea sharing, in your strategies, how you create content, whom you talk to, and what you talk about. That’s all really important. But prepare yourself for the psychological and emotional journey of resilience. This is a long game. The recognition part of the recognized expert is a long game. Don’t keep looking to your left and right and getting into the ‘Well, how come them and not me?’ It’s not about meritocracy. Don’t be looking for the merits of your ideas to stand above somebody else’s or not. That’s not what this is about. It’s about people getting to know you better.”

    By following the steps Ron suggests above, you can advance much further on the journey to becoming a Recognized Expert.

    To watch the video replay of my interview with Ron, click this link here.

    And if you’d like to see how far along you are in the recognized expert journey, sign up to receive a free PDF download of my Recognized Expert Self-Evaluation Toolkit.

    Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter! Make sure to comment below, share your questions and ideas, and click “share” so your colleagues can join in on the discussion, as well.

    Author: Dorie Clark

  • Evolving Forward: The Indivisible System

    How systems thinking, focused intention and trust are essential for our future

    Meatpacking plants are a microcosm of what we are all experiencing right now—the indivisible system. As the contextual environment more aggressively imposes itself into our everyday world, the resources we used to call upon, while necessary, are insufficient to get us through this real crisis. The leaders at meatpacking plants must operate on all cylinders and become agile sense-makers of their environment to address the needs of their workforce, the needs of the communities they operate in, and the needs of the world’s food supply. This is not the time to think about themselves, their professional development or their personal assessment results. They are in chaos and complexity, and the leadership strategies previously applied will no longer work. There is no going back, there is only evolving forward.

    “The concept of emotional intelligence (EI) is a 101 course for leadership right now.” This spot-on statement was made this past week at CCI Consulting’s monthly virtual Executive Coach Café— something that has been taking place for much longer than the pandemic. We were, like so many others in the industry, discussing coaching strategies that are particularly important to help leaders right now; some of whom are dealing with bottom-line crises resulting in their businesses precariously perched on the brink of insolvency. Other leaders are navigating the needs of virtual staff and the mechanics of returning to a face-to-face office environment while simultaneously adjusting to the legal issues involved with protecting their employees. Whatever the particular situation, the workforce is in dire need of help and support.

    But the statement made about Emotional Intelligence, or EI or EQ, has never rung truer than it does today because EI is not new. Most leaders already know about the 1995 book, “Emotional Intelligence,” by Daniel Goleman even if they haven’t read it or put its guidance into practice. Some are even aware of the 1990 John Mayer and Peter Salovey article that first used the term emotional intelligence, or the seminal work of Howard Gardner and Reuven Bar-On in the 1980s that dug into multiple intelligences and the psychological well-being and drivers of success outside of IQ and academic or hard-skill proficiencies.

    One does not turn on the EI switch and suddenly develop the capacity to marry self-awareness and the awareness of others any more than after one reads a book or listens to a TED talk and suddenly becomes attuned to the needs of psychological safety, authenticity or courage. All of these concepts require leaders—and all of us for that matter—to zero in on the foundation that allows these concepts to turn into everyday actions that move the needle on interpersonal effectiveness and leadership strength.

    Our society needs interpersonal effectiveness and leadership strength now more than ever. But, more important than that, we need to shift our perspective to the indivisible system we live in. To do that, we need to turn up the volume on the foundational skills of systems thinking, focused intention and trust.

    Consider these scenarios:

    Pre-pandemic: The office reception area was always sparkling, but the building scheduled individual offices and cubicles to be cleaned on a bi-monthly basis.

    Upon reopening: Your direct report walks into the office environment and wonders privately if the building manager allocated the proper resources to procure the ethanol or cleaning solutions necessary to disinfect their cubicle space or thinks that perhaps they diluted materials in favor of cost savings. They say nothing because at least they still have a job.

    Pre-pandemic: Your Asian American lab manager received an award for facilitating a successful clinical trial.

    Upon reopening: On her way to work, your Asian American lab manager was harassed and called names for bringing the novel coronavirus to America. When she came into the office, she said nothing and moved quietly to her workstation wondering if anyone at work felt the same way.

    Pre-pandemic: A key member of the senior leadership team launched a new initiative, setting the stage to acquire a competitor.

    Upon reopening: With schools still closed and summer camp postponed, that same key member was distracted by family concerns and schedules, as well as figuring out coverage for staff, and the acquisition opportunity was not only missed but they experienced a hostile takeover.

    If we peel back the surface…if we move deeper than the mechanical needs of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social distancing, work schedules and remote technology, we will see that these things are simply tools. And who uses the tools? People. It is the experience of people that matter more right now than ever before.

    The three foundational concepts that can help to move all of us forward require strategies that involve:

    Systems Thinking – None of us likes to think of ourselves as living in a bubble and now, more than ever, we see how siloed thinking causes unnecessary conflicts and contributes to misinformation and delayed decision-making. Systems thinking is not new, but its perspective is enjoying a resurgence. People everywhere are noticing its value when addressing complexity and the VUCA environment. As we move through the current pandemic, it is critical to call on a systems perspective to help organizations and people adapt to change. Russell Ackoff defined a system as, “a whole, which cannot be divided into independent parts…the essential properties of any system, the properties that define a system, are properties of the whole which none of its parts have.” When adopting a systems mindset, we see that our internal or operating environment (yes, our bubble or our organization) exists within a transactional or stakeholder environment where we act and interact with those around us, beyond which exists in our contextual or global environment.

    To be a true systems thinker requires consideration that the changes taking place in this contextual environment place pressures that cause changes in behavior of the stakeholders in the transactional environment. And, as changes in the transactional environment take place, they naturally place pressures on the internal and operational environment of the organization.

    Ah…the pandemic. But not just the pandemic.

    Change is not linear, and we are seeing in real time that what we are experiencing around the globe requires us to address the contextual environment of the pandemic and the economy but, more importantly, the changes we need to make FOR people. Leaders must accelerate considerations for how technology and digital productivity can enhance and not replace workers. Leaders must address shifting ways of generating business value through agility, innovation and new customer strategies. And how about where our employees come from? Entire categories of people are impacted when geopolitical and economic powers shift, but more so when the well-being of people and purpose of work dramatically change.

    Re-envisioning work as opposed to returning “back” to the way things once were is the new mission- critical competency leaders must embrace now.

    Focused Intention – The game has changed and our global existence has come into sharp focus because we now understand that even if we work hard, develop ourselves to be at our best, provide opportunities for others, and focus on our mission and values, there are still things we cannot control. The word intention often brings to mind a goal or target, such as we find when we have good intentions. However, our good intentions don’t always have the intended impact with either people or outcomes. There has never been a better time to take a step back and think about the kind of person you want to be…how you want to show up as a leader, friend, colleague, parent and citizen. Then, if you are honest with yourself and solicit feedback from others, is this the person you are today? Is there a gap you can fill?

    There are those who choose activities that quiet the mind or activate the soul. Whatever you choose is not really at issue. What is at issue is that you place focused attention on your intentions and exercise behaviors that support them, reflect on how you did, and adjust where needed. Hopefully, your intentions are supportive to those around you.

    Trust – At the core of everything is trusting the “other” person, but also ensuring they trust you. Without trust, we cannot communicate; without communication, there is no trust. If we choose to widen our perspective and allow greater transparency in the system, we must open ourselves up to the ideas of others and fill the gaps of understanding to make sense of our global system. During times of uncertainty and fear, people need to feel grounded that their leaders and organization are reliable and have one another’s back. Recognizing our own assumptions and biases are a good start here. Are we making assumptions that those around us are not interested in remaining healthy and alive? Are others making the right assumptions about us? In a way, it is the same as wearing masks right now: I wear a mask because I care about you and want you to wear one as an expression of how much you care about me.

    Begin by treating everyone—and I mean everyone—with complete positive regard. And, if you can’t, ask yourself how to approach the other with curiosity and kindness. Learn how they are experiencing everything right now. Learn how they are struggling and laughing and tell them about how you are experiencing things right now. Together, and through courageous and caring conversations, it will be easier to build an environment where people reconnect with one another after we reduce our distance, where we all begin to challenge our own limiting beliefs, and where we can co-create whatever our future has in store.

    There are many important leadership tools out there, but without thinking in systems, intention and trust, everything else falls flat. Together we lead.

    Author: Adena Johnston, D. Mgt. MCEC Vice President and Practice Leader, Talent Development