In order to structure a productive meeting, there are a few steps you can follow. These steps include everything from the planning stage to hosting the meeting.

Planning and Preparation
With appropriate preparation, a meeting can be successful. The planning process should include who is to attend, what is to be discussed in the form of an agenda and the information that is to be presented at the meeting.

It is important that you have an objective for the meeting. What exactly do you want to achieve as a result of holding the meeting? Once you know what you want to achieve, you can outline the actions required. The meeting’s objective could be to discuss a new product, review pricing policies or to conduct a financial review with contract accountants.

Once you have established the meeting’s objectives and what you’d like to get out of it, an agenda can be put together and circulated to those attending. Adhering to an agenda during the course of the meeting will make it more likely that you will keep to an appropriate time schedule and cover the relevant points. Without an agenda, it is easy to go off on a tangent. It also keeps everyone attending the meeting informed and allows them to prepare any questions.

Hosting the Meeting
The first stage in hosting a meeting is ensuring everyone is welcomed. You should then state the purpose of the meeting and let the attendees know how long it is likely to take.

You should make reference to the agenda and commence the meeting as soon as possible. The longer you keep people waiting around, the more likely it is that they will become irritated or bored and you will probably lose their interest.

It is important you establish a strong leadership role in the meeting by efficiently working through the prepared agenda, keeping the conversation relevant and bringing the meeting back to its purpose if anyone goes off on a tangent.

It could be beneficial to have a nominated person keeping time to ensure the meeting is kept on track. Each point on the agenda should be given an appropriate amount of allocated time. If you find you have not provided enough time for a specific agenda point, perhaps it would be sensible to arrange another meeting to discuss that point in more detail. However, if you think discussions are taking up too much time due to unproductive talk, you should curb the conversation and move on to the next point on the agenda.

Bringing the Meeting to a Close
You should be taking notes throughout the meeting or, alternatively, you could nominate someone to do this for you. This means you now have the information required to summarise the meeting, announce actions to be taken and bring the meeting to a close. Action points should be discussed with attendees and deadlines for these set. This is also a good time to ask if anyone has any comments to add. Finally, you should thank everyone for attending and close the meeting.

Author Bio:
Our guest author today is Zoe, an avid blogger and freelance writer who is currently writing for accountant specialists Brookson. Tweet your thoughts on this article to @bloggingstyle.

Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business

Name:  Karl W. Palachuk

Business name: Small Biz Thoughts

Website URL: http://www.smallbizthoughts.com

Social media links:

http://www.facebook.com/karlpalachuk

http://www.twitter.com/karlpalachuk

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlpalachuk

Tell us about your business and what you do:

My business is based on my experience as a technology consultant. I write books, blogs, and newsletters for computer consultants. I also put on seminars and trainings, many of which are sponsored by vendors trying to get visibility within my target market.

As a result of the variety of income streams we have, we are able to sell website advertising, blog posts, and training time. I am also a paid speaker, appearing at 15-20 paid events per year.

Who is your target audience?

My audience consists primarily of small-business technology consultants who want to be better at running their businesses. This audience refers to itself as SMB (small and medium business) consultants. As a successful SMB consultant, I am seen as an “insider” rather than a stranger who wants to sell into this group.

Eventually, I developed a second audience: large companies that want to sell their products and service to (and through) the SMB consultants that made up my existing audience. Three years ago, about 5% of my revenue came from selling advertising to these companies. Now it constitutes 55% of my revenue.

How did you get started in your business?

As with so many entrepreneurs, I started my consulting business when I became disillusioned with working for corporate America. I started with one major contract and gradually transitioned to having several smaller contracts. Eventually, I hired a staff to help me deliver services.

Based on my experience as a consultant, I wrote a book about some specific processes we used to standardize service delivery. Rather than selling it like a “book,” I sold it as a tool to make more money. As a tool, I was able to sell the book for a very high price.

In order to sell the book, I started traveling and speaking to consultants all over the world. After that, I helped develop a new way of delivering technical consulting and made the circuit promoting this view of business. That led to more books, more travel, more speaking, etc. Eventually, I built a large following within the well-connected technical niche.

What are some of the best tactics you have used to build your audience and establish your authority online?

I would say there are three primary tactics that helped me establish myself as an expert in my field.

One of the most successful tactics I used was cooperation: I made friends with a handful of people that I thought were “rising stars” in the community that evolved online. In various combinations of 2-4 people at a time, we appeared on stage together at events. We promoted each other. We sold each other’s products when appropriate.

We were, to be honest, like the Rat Pack for computer consulting. As individuals, and as a group, the combination of activities that we engaged in amplified the expert status of everyone in the group. At one event, six of us put on a show, released six new books at once, and sold more than $30,000 worth of product in two hours.

A second successful tactic was podcasting. I appeared on a friend’s podcast in 2007. His ratings for the podcast tripled that day and I decided that I had a voice in the community. So I started my own podcast, which became very popular. In fact, many people have told me that they make all their new employees listen to my old podcasts.

After two years, I re-branded and re-packaged the podcast. At that point I started charging a monthly fee for members to download the podcast. After a year, I doubled the cost. In January 2012, we changed the format again in order to keep it fresh. It continues to be a money-making venture and has new subscribers every month.

A third successful tactic has been blogging. I started blogging in 2006. At that time, I decided that my blog had to provide information that was not being provided elsewhere. Many blogs and websites offer free technical training and information. Nerds love to show how nerdy they are, so they freely share technical information. My niche had to do with the business side of running a business. I blog about profit and loss statements, hiring practices, service contracts, and other business topics.

One of my favorite blogging strategies is to start a “series” of blog posts that build on one another and refer back to previous posts in the series. It might be a series of three or four, or a much longer series. One series called Managed Services in a Month eventually became the basis for a book. Another series appears every Friday and has become a consistent draw for new blog readers.

How has social media impacted your business? Any success stories you can share?

I primarily use social media as a means of broadcasting content. I’m a firm believer that 95% of the people on social media are primarily consumers of information and 5% are primarily producers of information. I am a producer.

I send out regular posts to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The only forum I actually check in on and post to in real life is Facebook. I post pictures and observations in real time, and I make comments on things I find there.

In the big picture, I believe the social media networks are great for building credibility and getting people onto my mailing list. As an actual sales tool (asking for money), I don’t find them very effective. But I can lure people onto my mailing lists, and then sell from there.

Do you engage in any communities and if so, how has that impacted your business?

I have always participated in online communities. Yahoo Groups are still surprisingly big in the technical communities. I have had good luck participating in the groups. As a frequent contributor, I am once again an “insider” when it comes time to ask people to buy what I’m selling. If I only dropped in to ask for a sale every three months, I would remain an outsider.

What advice would you offer to readers who want to promote their business online?

The most important advice I have is to understand that your online platform is a marketing platform. You need to integrate it into your sales process. You need to use it to promote your sales goals. But please do not think that blogging and social media will do your selling for you. These tools will soften up the prospects, but they will not sell for you.

You will always have to make your own sales by engaging people, making proposals, and asking for money. I recommend that you consider your company’s strategy for moving from the online marketing funnel into the email- and telephone-based sales funnel.

If you were starting your business over today, is there anything you would do differently?

Oh my goodness …

The above interview is an excerpt from Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business by Stephanie Chandler, which includes interviews like this one at the end of each chapter!

Website URL: 
www.ServiceRoundtable.com

Social Media Links:
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/Service_Nation
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ServiceRoundtable
LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/company/service-roundtable

Year Founded
2002

Number of Employees:
12, with two openings

What does your company do?
Our mission is to help service contractors improve their business and financial performance, leading to a profitable exit strategy.  To accomplish this, we operate three business alliances.

The largest is the Service Roundtable, which services air conditioning, plumbing, electric, and solar contractors.  The Service Roundtable provides content (downloadable and customizable sales, marketing, and business tools like consumer newsletters, direct marketing, social media marketing, interview guides, job descriptions, pricing calculators, and everything else necessary to run a contracting company), community (24/7/365 moderated, online peer support groups, and two national conferences per year), and cash (rebates through our buying group for parts, equipment, and supplies contractors use in their business and sell to customers).  Through April, we have already paid members over half a million in rebates.  Our average quarterly rebate check exceeds $700.  Service Roundtable membership is only $50 per month.

The next alliance is the Retail Contractor Coalition, which is a turnkey branding program for HVAC contractors who want to sell their own line of branded heating and air conditioning equipment.

Our highest level alliance is the Service Nation Alliance, which serves air conditioning and plumbing contractors.  The Service Nation Alliance is a best practices group focused on streamlined business operations across the board so that any contractor in our system can operate another contractor’s business, making that business more marketable when the contractor wants to sell and retire.

We also offer a few separate products like books that we publish through Service Nation Press and Service Roundtable Money Mail, our turnkey email marketing program for contractors.

Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level?
There have been a number of turning points.  Generating a positive cash flow was huge.  Breaking past the first million in revenue was also a major milestone.  For me, personally, it was reaching the point where the business could run without me.  This made it a true business where my role was less “doing” and more leading, directing, managing, and reviewing.

Our COO, who has been part of this every step of the way, cites a trade show where we stopped having to recruit vendors and they began seeking us out.

What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company?
We started as a purely Internet based company and invested significant amounts in web applications and solutions to manage and operate the business.  We continue to make investments in web based IT for every aspect of our business.  As a result, we are largely paperless and very scalable.

One process that’s very important is annual goal setting.  We focus on the end result for the year and for five years, which drives everything else.  We set aggressive goals and still blow them away.  When we do, we celebrate as a company and reward everyone.  As a result, we have total buy in.

What are some of the best marketing strategies that have worked for your business?
Long before anyone coined the terms, social media and blogging, I started the Comanche Marketing email newsletter.  In it, I intuitively followed all of the principles of good social media.  I was open, real, and delivered value.  Comanche focused on nuggets of marketing (and the occasional rant) that small business owners could get their arms around and put to use in their business.  Other than member referrals, Comanche has still generated more members than any other single source.

A second area that’s been extremely valuable is public relations and writing.  In addition to Comanche Marketing, I personally write regular, featured columns for Contracting Business Magazine, Contractor Magazine, CB Hotmail, Southern PHC Magazine, and Contracting Canada.  From time to time I also write pieces for vendor newsletters.  It’s a beating, but it’s built the brand.

Are there any ways that you have leveraged the Internet to grow your business?
The better question is, “Are there any ways we have not?”

Well, we don’t spam.  Otherwise, we have made extensive use of the Internet, especially for marketing.  This includes email marketing, blogs, microsites, webinars, social media, mobile apps, SEO, SEM, paid search, banner ads, banner exchanges, and so on.  We will continue to explore and test new avenues.

Recently, we’ve moved our development site to the cloud, are now backing up all local computers in the cloud, and are using the cloud for internal company collaboration and file sharing.  We’ve also added a new VOIP phone system, which allows telecommuters to plug in a handset at home.

Eventually, we will move all of our websites to the cloud.

What is most rewarding about running your business?
Building a team of extremely talented, highly motivated people who I struggle to keep up with is a daily joy.

It’s also rewarding to encounter our members at trade shows and other events express appreciation for our company.  In some cases we are credited us with saving their businesses!  While I think they’re giving us too much credit, it’s still incredibly rewarding to hear.  And, with all modesty, we are assisting people change their lives for the better.

I’ve got to admit, I take pleasure in proving skeptics wrong.  These are the people who doubted our business model, doubted me, or doubted decisions we’ve made along the way.

Egotistically, it’s incredibly rewarding  seeing a multi-million dollar, significant business arise as the product of my imagination.

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
I don’t think our challenges are unique.  Regardless of the challenge, the approach has been to seek the perspectives and insights of others, stay calm, develop a plan, and execute it.  Resist the urge to panic.  Resist the gut instinct to overreact.  Remember that every challenge is an opportunity to grow and that the only businesses without challenges are out of business.

If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?
Trust my instincts more than my intellect regarding people.

What advice do you have for other business owners?
Watch your cash.  The number one reason small businesses fail is lack of cash.

Hire above yourself.

Join lots of networking groups and organizations.  The more people you know, the more opportunities you will encounter.

Business is all about relationships.  It’s all about people.  No matter what the business, it comes down to relationships between people.

Put financial controls in place early to minimize the potential for fraud down the road.

As soon as you can, make yourself unnecessary.  If your business can’t operate without you, you don’t own a business, you own a job.

Celebrate success.  Cherish it.

Bad days will occur.  They help you recognize good days.  If every day was great, how would you know?

No matter what, do the right thing.  Even if it costs, do the right thing.  Your reputation matters more than you know.

Market, market, market!

Invest in your people, but don’t forget to invest in yourself.

Set goals.  Track results.  Reward success.

Don’t forget the family, family vacations, exercise, and life away from work.

Pray for your people and your company.  Give thanks daily.

Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others:
Michael Gerber’s classic, “The E-Myth” should be required reading for starting a business.

Anyone who wants to understand the culture of the Internet should read “The Cluetrain Manifesto,” which captured how people interact with social media before there was social media.

Small business owners should read all of the Jay Conrad Levinson books on marketing.

To help gain an understanding of the way markets work, read Milton Friedman’s dated, but excellent work, “Free to Choose.”

For personal motivation and reminders, read Mark Matteson’s “Freedom From Fear” and Og Mandino’s classic “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”

Two other classics on wealth creation are “The Richest Man in Babylon” and “The Wealthy Barber.”

What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
In high school, I dreamed of winning a Texas state championship.  No one would have believed it would come from cooking…

My salsa has won first place for the State Fair of Texas three times (each with a completely different recipe, which is unprecedented on two levels – first for three wins and second for three different recipes).

I also have a second place for picante sauce and a third for BBQ sauce at the State Fair of Texas, plus numerous chili cookoff championships.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
For 2011, we were ranked 43rd in the Aggie 100 list of fastest growing companies owned, led, or founded by Texas A&M graduates.

Within the Lone Star State, the Aggie 100 is a big deal.

Book Title:

Website URL: 
http://elmstreeteconomy.com

Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/paulofelmstreet

LinkedIn: 
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-robert-edwards/3/612/15a

What is your book about?

The Working From Home Encyclopedia provides the most comprehensive current advice on everything you need to know to live and work under the same roof including setting up a home office, insurance, legal matters, money, tax, and time management, family issues, avoiding loneliness, and getting plenty of business to come to you. Whether you’re looking for what kind of work you can do to secure an income, already know what you want to do to use your home as a workplace to do, or just use it as a base because smart phones and tablets enable you to work anywhere, the Working From Home Encyclopedia will give you the information and access to the resources you need.  Prior to evolving into an Encyclopedia, Working From Home was published in five print editions and sold over half a million copies. The Encyclopedia integrates other of the Edwards’ print books to create a complete compendium.

What inspired you to write your book? 

Sarah began our experience working from home after she went to a meeting in a consultant’s office, which turned out to be his home. This inspired her to think about opening a counseling practice in our home. At the same time, I started a consulting practice, having both a downtown and a home office. I then  combined the offices and work at home, too. People were curious both about our both working at home and how we did it. Since both of us had wanted to write a book since childhood, we decided to write our first book Working From Home, which was the first book of its kind from a commercial publisher.

How did you come to do what you’re doing today?

I (Paul) have always been intrigued with encyclopedic references and when I was eight years old, I began reading an encyclopedia page by page. So after Sarah and I wrote more than 17 books, I decided to combine them into an encyclopedia reference. Sarah has always been curious, which is one of the things that attracted us to one another. So, we support one another’s efforts and for many years have worked together.

Can you describe a typical day in your life?

Our day begins with breakfast in the kitchen of our home. After breakfast, I go to our home office on the lower level of our home. Sarah either goes to her counseling office where she sees clients or goes into our home office to do administrative work. During the day, I see or talk on the phone with several consulting clients and do research and writing. We work until dinner after which we watch a few TV shows, exercise, and then read novels to one another.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?

Both of us are intrigued with both learning and then sharing what we know with others. We have done this in many forms – face to face, speaking, teaching, writing, having our own radio and TV shows.

Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?

Many of the people we have interviewed – some people are well known like Victor Frankl, Norman Cousins, Al Reis, Olympic Gymnast Tim Daggett, Steve Allen, and many more. We read many books and eBooks – both fiction and non-fiction. Some of the non-fiction writers that I have found great value in reading include Malcolm Gladwell, William Strauss and Neil Howe, James Gleick, Al Reis, and Jack Trout, and many more.

 Can you share some business tips for our readers?

These tips are tailored to people who want to work from home:

• If devoting full-time, expect to work 50+hours week
• If part-time schedule weekday hours not just weekends
• Set up a firm schedule – firm for you and others
• Begin each workday the same way such as by checking e-mail
• End each workday the same way such as by planning the next day
• To be more productive  take mini-breaks each hour
• Put family and free time on your schedule
• Know yourself – Do you work better under pressure or relaxed?
• Offer a customer a discount if the customer will link to your web site or include your brochure in a mailing.
• Have a separate telephone line for your business.  Always answer the telephone with a pleasant greeting
• Line up a lawyer, accountant, and computer consultant before you need them.
• Let technology save you time and money

What’s next for you?

We’re interested in localization – being able to work from home is key to people having enough time to be involved locally. So Sarah and I established a non-profit, Let’s Live Local, whose purpose is to help our community remain viable by making it possible for more people to earn their livelihoods, shop, play, as well as live in the community.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We now teach workshops and webinars on Finding a Sustainable Livelihood and training for communities and organizations in how to encourage localization. 

We are taking our content into onto online education venues.

Book Title:

Website URL:
www.PublicDynamics.com

Social Media Links:
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/miloshapiro
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IMPROVentures
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/miloshapiro

What is your book about?
Simple steps and tips that can help make you more engaging and dynamic when speaking while avoiding the pitfalls that can leads to awkward moments or bored audiences.

What inspired you to write your book?
Quite honestly, I was looking for a good book on the topic to recommend to my own public speaking coaching clients and everything I picked up was just plain boring. I love that subject, but if I couldn’t get through the books, how could I recommend them? I wanted to write something that would be such fun to read that people would actually read it all and get the value throughout.

How did you come to do what you’re doing today?
I had been doing team building and motivational speaking since 2000 but around 2004 people started coming up to me and saying, “I need to be more lively like you in front of the groups that I speak in front of…would you be willing to work with me?” At first I said no, but when the fourth person asked me, I finally said, “Let’s try this!” And now I love working to help others as much as I do doing it myself.

Can you describe a typical day in your life?
Nope. Haven’t had one of those since my last career! I could be working with an author or a doctor or a salesperson on their message, delivery, or PowerPoint. I could be flying to or giving a motivation speech or one about presentation skills. I could be customizing and rehearsing a speech. I could be working with groups from 10 to 50 using my improv work in a team building course. I could be optimizing my website to bring in more business. I could be at a networking meeting to get more feet in the door.

And the next day could be something completely new. The only thing that’s typical is working a lot more than the eight hours I did in my previous career.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
When I see the light bulbs going off. Whether it’s a self-realization or something you just figured out about how your co-worker processes information or seeing someone ace a section of a speech, that smile that comes with it lights up my whole day. Not to mention how good it feels getting notes later on how something went better than expected after working with me.

Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?
Sarita Maybin, motivational speaker, taught me that keynoting can be interactive. That made me realize I could do that, then. Doug Stevenson’s materials solidified what I already knew and share with clients about the power of “story” when speaking…so much more important than the data that people will glaze over during and can always read later.

Can you share some business tips for our readers?
Don’t underestimate the importance of SEO. For all of my marketing efforts, I’ve gotten more business from people hitting my website than everything else put together. And then responding fast and personally when they do write! Get those recommendations onto Yelp, Google Places, and the others as well.

Can you share something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
Despite my 20+ years of improv, my previous career was 15 years as a computer programmer. I did great work, but never quite fit into the mold.

Where I scored bonus points was in finding way more creative solutions than others did. But in the long run, I needed to work with people, not machines. No regrets! It gave me the understanding of the business world that allows me to speak to, work with, and coach the business community because I lived that world for so long.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The fear of public speaking comes from the misunderstanding that you are significant to that audience. You’re not. Your message is. When we stop focusing on ourselves and focus on delivering the message in the best possible way, it’s a lot easier to do really good work…and then you just happen to look good for having do that. So how are you going to work on making your material great and your delivery of it interesting?

So if your business earned $60k last year, you should budget up to $6k for marketing this year.

If that sounds like a lot, consider the consequences of not making this investment. Marketing is the fuel for your engine. Without it, the car can’t run—and the business will be much harder to grow. You may instead choose to run your business on a shoestring, investing your TIME instead of dollars in marketing efforts. But there are two main problems with shoestring marketing:

1. Time still costs money. Your personal labor should be factored into the equation. If you earn $75 per hour and spend 10 hours per week on marketing, you’re technically spending $39k per  year on marketing! Are you getting great results from those efforts because you should be at those rates! And by the way, every hour spent on your own marketing is an hour of lost revenue.
2. You limit your growth. When your marketing plan is based solely on your efforts, you miss out on tactics that could be getting a lot more mileage. You can’t compensate for a well-placed ad in an industry publication or a pay-per-click campaign that converts leads daily. Trying to do all of your own marketing is like trying to build your own house with no previous experience. Sure you can find ideas and figure a lot of things out, but it would get done a lot faster and the foundation would likely be more stable if you invested in some expertise.

So consider what you’re missing out on by failing to invest in marketing your business, and what your business could look like if you invested 10% of your revenues to get the marketing wheels cranking.  Soon your small business might not be so small after all.

iPhone vs. Android in the Smartphone Market

As smartphone platforms, it is difficult to compare the iPhone and Android when considering that one is an actual phone, and the other is an operating system that is installed in mobile devices made by various manufacturers. What is clear is the Android’s dominance in the smartphone market. According to the latest data from research firm comScore, Android currently has 46.9% of the market share. This is in comparison to just 28.7% for the iPhone, which it surpassed in 2010 and never looked back. Ranked number one and two, both have a comfortable lead on competitors like RIM, Microsoft, and Symbian.

App Downloads

While the Android OS may have wrestled the top spot in the smartphone market away from iPhone, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the platform a small business should pour all their efforts into. In fact, app usage may be a better way to make the determination. According to Apple itself, there are currently over 500,000 applications available in its App Store, which has reportedly help the company generate more than 15 billion app downloads from roughly 200 million users worldwide. This is compared to over 7 billion downloads for Android apps, a number that was tallied up by Androlib, a site that focuses on all things Android Market. So while the iPhone has a sizeable lead in the downloads department, Google’s platform is catching up fast.

Where’s the Money At?

If a small business really wants to know which platform they should create an app for, revenue is probably the best area to examine. Unlike the above comparisons, which were at least somewhat competitive, the battle is not even close here. According to data recently compiled by analytics company Distimo, the Apple App Store brings home six times as much revenue than Google’s Android Marketplace for the top 200 best selling apps. Experts believe the reason for this is the fact that Apple’s store offers far fewer free applications than Google’s version. In any event, the numbers clearly indicate that consumers are spending much more money on iPhone apps.

Enjoying the Best of Both Worlds

When it comes to creating an app, choosing between the iPhone and Android is anything but easy. Considering that they are arguably the two biggest platforms in the smartphone space, small businesses would probably be better off targeting both. After all, they are pretty comparable with the exception of the revenue department, and even that could get more balanced as the Android Marketplace continues to grow. The small business that realizes what dominant forces the iPhone and Android are in the mobile arena will be in position to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Author Bio:
Francis Santos is a writer for Benchmark Email, an email marketing software company.

Stories have a very important place in our society – the human brain has evolved in such a way that logical narratives help us quickly and efficiently understand the world around us. It is our brain’s way of organizing the torrent of information that we experience every day. If what you are conveying amounts to a few of loosely related experiences and somewhat vague goals, you need to give your “story” some serious thought.

Constructing a good narrative will require you to do some serous thinking about your long-term goals and how your past experiences – personal or professional – will bridge your unique background with your goals. Your story should be brief yet informative enough to neatly show how everything ties together. And it should be tailored in length to every type of situation, from a ten second “elevator pitch” to a five minute interview presentation, and everything in between.

No matter how you present yourself, you must always – always – come across as positive and confident. We are drawn to confident, optimistic people – it is very easy for us to picture them succeeding in reaching their goals. We want to associate with confident people because it makes us feel more confident about our own goals. Even if you were rejected on the last ten job interviews, and are not feeling particularly positive, your story must always resonate with confidence.

Having a well-developed story accomplishes two things: first, you will make a memorably positive first impression. Second, you will be able to effectively demonstrate how your contact (or interviewer, or colleague, etc.) can potentially help you, without coming across as being overly aggressive or pushy in your request. Ideally, you won’t even need to directly ask for help – if your story is good enough, others will be compelled to help you fill in the blanks. And, if you are asking for an introduction, it will be simple for that person to convey your story to others.

Whether you are meeting someone for the first time in a casual setting, a networking event, or during an interview, having a brief narrative that encapsulates your professional motivations, experiences, and goals can lead to surprisingly positive results.

Author Bio:
Konstantin Danilov is the author of “Networking: A Strategy Guide” a practical how-to guide for building and developing a strong professional network. While most books on this topic offer generic advice, his book presents detailed, practical strategies that any student, professional, or entrepreneur can use to achieve his or her goals.

You can find out more at www.NetworkingStrategyGuide.com, and by following him on Twitter @NetworkingStrat.

Book Title:

Website URL:
www.xtho.com

Social Media Links:
Facebook: listeningimpact
LinkedIn: mjthier

What is your book about?
COACHING C.L.U.E.S. delivers real stories of real people successfully mastering tough business challenges. This practical guide is packed with coaching dialogues, skill-building exercises, and 12 unique, field-tested tools–everything you need to learn how to apply the subtle power of coaching to solve actual workplace problems and stretch skills.

What inspired you to write your book?
So many of my coaching clients asked me how they could learn to coach their employees that I decided to take my years of experience and share it with others.

How did you come to do what you’re doing today?
This anecdote is a partial explanation. I was facilitating a multi-week leadership program for a major car manufacturer. The head of learning and development said, “We have an executive team that’s a mess and you seem to be good with people so maybe you can work with them. Don’t work, you can’t make them any worse than they are.” That team improved dramatically and it launched that part of my leadership development practice.

Can you describe a typical day in your life?
I have two different kinds of life–in the road and in the office. When I’m in the office about a third of my day is spent coaching clients on the phone or via the computer (like Skype), another third is responding to emails and other inquiries, and the final third is spent writing, doing research, and marketing.

What do you most enjoy about what you do?
Seeing the growth in my clients. It is amazingly satisfying to be a catalyst for change in people who are earnest about stretching to new, dynamic and challenging heights.

Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?
Dr. William Messner, the academic dean of the college where I taught saw my potential and inspired, goaded, supported me to go for it. The book, Things Fall Apart by Achebe made me want to realize I wanted to devote my career to helping people see the consequences (intended and unintended of their actions in forging the future.

Can you share some business tips for our readers?
1. Find your niche, no matter the size, and be relentless in filling it.
2. Don’t even think about balance-life has different requirements at different stages–don’t beat yourself up when the balance shifts.
3. Reward yourself and others when something goes well.
4. Ask for help.

Can you share something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
After saying I’d never write another book, I’m working on a novel and ruminating about one on listening–workplace related.  Oh, and I have a 1965 Austin Healey that brings great joy to my driving and exploring life.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Having an adult relationship with offspring at any age makes life easier and richer for all. I could never be who I am without their insights, honesty and guidance, and I imagine they’d say the same.

I am honored to be part of the Hiscox Author Series for Entrepreneurs and look forward to delivering this webinar and answering questions from participants. Register for the free webinar here.

P.S. Hiscox is the first insurer offering U.S. small businesses the ability to obtain quotes and buy small business insurance direct, online and in real-time.  Make sure you get the right insurance protection for your business.