Archive for the 'Influence' Category

This has been an exciting week for me. I had the privilege of attending a very engaging seminar by professional speaker, Sheryl Roush. She took many different subjects and wove them together into a wonderful 90 minute presentation. Her secret was her energy. I have never seen anyone muster up so much energy on stage and be able to transfer that energy to her audience.

I am still energized days after seeing the presentation and some of my co-workers who were there are still talking about it. This energy is contagious. This type of energy is what creates customer evangelists and product loyalists.

When I took a minute to analyze what made her presentation so engaging, I realized it was focused energy. Her entire focus was on her audiences’ needs. She had really done her homework before hand. She had people wear nametags and called everyone by name. She had included some pictures of people she knew would be in the audience in her slide show. Her entire focus was WIIFT (What’s in It For Them).

Tenet 1. Engage your audience by focusing on THEM.

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I have always been a big fan of Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba and their popular Church of the Customer blog. Their 6 Tenets of Customer Evangelism from their popular book, Creating Customer Evangelists, have been a driving force in many of my speeches and presentations. Their forth tenet, “Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.” to me is what blogging is all about.

And creating a community is what they have done. Their popular blog has over 175,000 subscribers and their Society For Word Of Mouth is now a thriving online community. The forums on the site offer book reviews, personal experiences, and offer a great way to get the word out about your product or service.

Tenet 2. Engage your audience by creating COMMUNITY

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Yaro Starak is the master of online marketing and entrepreneurship. His popular blog, Entrepreneurs Journey has helped literally thousands of people from around the world to create their own online presence. What sets Yaro apart from many other web marketers is that he offers many significant tools and tips for free.

By just logging into his web site you can spend hours with some of the best web optimization tips online. He’ll help you get a successful domain name, set up a blog, and give you the know how to write compelling content.

On of his popular articles is about The Magic of Engagement, which gives you the secrets of engaging an online audience. As I read through this article I was amazed at how in-depth it went. He offered testimonials from students of his Blog Mastermind program as well as some advanced tips to engage your readers and keep them coming back. His secret…

Tenet 3. Engage people by offering SOMETHING of SIGNIFICANT VALUE

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In conclusion, engaging an audience is about changing your focus and putting yourself in your audiences’ seat. Sitting in their seat, ask yourself what you want to get out of the presentation, book, or web site. Write down what you see, hear and feel. This will be the basis of your presentation. Go from there and create a masterpiece!

Additional Resources:

Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba Read more about this book…

Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force by Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba Read more about this book…

Heart of a Mother by Sheryl L. Roush Read more about this book…

The year 2007 is coming to a close and I would like to share with you my annual list of the top five bloggers who have impacted my life this year. 2007 seemed to be the year of the blog, with many great new blogs popping up in March and April.

I think that the blogging tools finally matured enough this year that you didn’t need to be a web guru (or know one) to create a powerful blog presence. With the addition of Widgets to Wordpress, and a proliferation of wider blog templates, the average blog grew from 800 pixels wide to over a 1000. This made for a much more compelling experience as the number of new interactive elements increased.

Someone who took full advantage of the new technology with a complete blog redesign as well as a whole new blogging genre is our top award winner this year. Congratulations to…

1. Brian Clark of Copyblogger

Brian is an amazing guy. He has taken the science of copywriting and applied it to blogging. His traffic truly soared this year with his subscriber base now over 28,000 people. He also teamed up with Blogger Tony Clark of Success From The Nest and created TeachingSells, an online learning site for creating Interactive Learning web experiences.

What I personally like about Copyblogger is the friendly atmosphere and the great tips. Brian speaks to you like a friend and offers some incredible insight from his many years in the print publishing copywriting business.

Some of his top posts include…

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write?

Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques

Be sure to sign up as a subscriber. I’m sure he would like to hit 30,000 subscribers in 2008.

2. Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog

Liz is a repeat winner this year. She teamed up with master relationship blogger, Phil Gerbyshak and other popular bloggers from around the Chicago area and put together SOBCON 2007. This was one of the best blogging meet-ups of the year with attendees from all over the world.

If you blog, Liz is one person you want to meet. She is one of the most helpful people on the net and she will make you right at home on her Tuesday night interactive comment sessions.

Be sure to get on her subscriber/e-mail list and she’ll notify you each week of the upcoming topic. It’s not uncommon for her to have over 300 comments on her blog in one night.

3. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits

In an amazing rise to prominence this year, Leo has taken the personal development community by storm. His blog grew from a few hundred subscribers in February 2007 to over 26,000 as of this writing. This is an amazing feat and his blog currently ranks almost as high as Personal development guru Steve Pavlina on the Alexa charts.

What makes Leo different, is that he is an achiever (ran a marathon, quit smoking, got organized) yet he writes like a coach and good friend. Leo is a regular guy, a father of 6 kids, and he works as a freelance writer. He writes about his successes and his failures which makes his writing come to life.

He just changed over to a new and wider blog template and has organized his content by subject in his interactive footer. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with this amazing writer!

4. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs Journey

Like winner Brian Clark above, Yaro has been busy this year creating an interactive online learning community. His Blog Mastermind program really took off this year with hundreds of people signing up for the inaugural launch. Yaro is a true rarity in the blog optimization business as he speaks from a true insiders perspective to the outside world.

Yaro has personally helped me in many different ways from blog optimization tips to search engine strategies. He also added video previews and interactive learning clips to help all blogger’s improve their sites.

He is currently working on a new blog template and has a current post to help you improve your blogs visibility so that your readers will stay longer. Be sure to sign up for his helpful newsletter.

5. Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Workweek

As a follow up to his insightful book, The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss always has unbelieveable things on his blog. At 30 years old, this world traveling entrepreneur has amassed quite a portfolio of accomplishments.

They Include….

1. First American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango
2. National Chinese kickboxing champion
3. MTV breakdancer in Taiwan
4. Hurling competitor in Ireland
5. Actor on hit TV series in mainland China and Hong Kong

What I like about Tim’s blog is that he gives detailed instructions how he managed these incredible feats of human accomplishment. He includes pictures, timelines, and step by step guidance for anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps.

If you want to escape from the 9 to 5, travel the world, and experience amazing things, this is the blog for you. Be sure to subscribe to his blog so you’ll be onboard for his next amazing adventure.

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There are so many other incredible blogs it would be hard to list them. Want to learn something new in 2007? Be sure to check out Joyful, Jubilant Learning, Genuine Curiosity, and Managing with Aloha, for some of the best educational sites on the net.

This has been a great year for blogging. Hundreds of unique new blogs came on the scene in 2007. Here at Success Begins Today, we have a lot of new things in store for 2008 including some exciting new productivity tools. Be sure to subscribe to our feed and sign up for our newsletter so you’ll be among the first to download them.

Thank you to all of you who visited here in 2007. Have a great New Year!

Thanksgiving is always a special day for me. It’s a time of reflection about what is truly important in life. It’s a time to think of those special people that make a difference in the world and the lives of others. (It’s so ironic that Thanksgiving comes the day before one of the most commercial and crazy days of the year, Black Friday.)

Here are some of the things I’m very thankful for this year.

• I’m thankful that I live in a free country.
• I’m thankful I can freely worship God and that he has a presence in my life.
• I’m thankful for my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, along with the rest of our families, who make life worth living.
• I’m thankful for my friends and co-workers, that put up with me.
• I’m thankful to have two amazing and loving dogs who are always there for me no matter what.
• I’m thankful for the 100’s of blogger’s that brighten my day, challenge me to be a better person, and encourage me to reach for the stars. (Here is a short list of blogger’s you should definitely visit. Here is another group I’m very thankful to be associated with.)
• I’m thankful for all of the support and encouragement from our local Toastmaster clubs
• I’m thankful for turkey, bread stuffing, and corn pudding (I can’t wait!)
• I’m thankful for parades, football games, and the family time that make this day special.
• I’m thankful for all of you that stop by from time to time and make this blog a community. Thank you for your support; your comments; and most of all your encouragement to keep this thing called blogging going…

Happy Thanksgiving!

John Richardson

In our final look at the book Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell, I would like to look at the last two chapters. Chapter 9 is entitled empowering people and chapter 10 is reproducing other influencers. John lists four qualifications of an empowerer. They are…

1. Position

2. Relationship

3. Respect

4. Commitment

To empower people you must be in a position of leadership. Others can encourage, but permission comes only from an authority figure such as a parent, boss, or spiritual leader. To empower people you have to be in a position of power over them.

To engage people to  help them reach their potential you need to evaluate them on their knowledge, skill, and desire. When you know where they are, you can model for them a direction to excel in. Using the analogy of a mother bird and her babies, people need to know what it looks like to fly. As a mentor, you have the best opportunity to show them.

Model the flight and work ethic you would like them to embrace. Expect people to succeed! Be sure to verbalize it and reinforce it. Once people understand that you genuinely want them to succeed, they will begin to believe that they can accomplish what you want them to do.

Once they are ready to proceed, transfer authority to them. That includes sharing both your authority and influence with the people you are mentoring and developing. When you begin to empower other people, give them challenges you know they can rise to. This will help them be confident and give them a chance to experience their new authority and learn to use it more effectively.

Once they have taken the reins and they have shown you their ability to complete the task, publicly show your confidence in them. Give them the credit for a job well done. Be sure to give them positive feedback. Don’t dwell on the negative and be sure to include constructive ideas along the way.

Once they have taken flight, release them to continue in their own. Give them as much freedom as possible. In conclusion give authority, responsibility, and offer needed assistance along the way.

John makes the point that the benefits of empowerment are very high. Empowerment helps people become more confident, energetic, and productive. It also has the ability to improve your life, giving you additional freedom to promote the growth of your organization.

One of the most incredible stories of empowerment that I have witnessed is the story of Kathy Gaulton. Kathy worked in the business world for over 30 years in retail management. In 1998 she took a short term missions trip to Tanzania, Africa, where she witnessed poverty and a community of people who desperately needed help.

Kathy had the idea of having the local people make drawstring bags from local fabrics. She took 5 treadle sewing machines which were idle and gave the local people training on them. Soon the machines were whirring away and within two days there were 300 completed bags that could be sold.

The people were really excited and Kathy realized how far a little training and some local materials could go to empower the local people to become self sufficient. Through this simple beginning came Heavenly Treasures, an organization that empowers impoverished people and communities all over the world to break the cycle of poverty through micro enterprises.

From the Kip Karen Krafters in Kenya to the Dorcas Design Team in China, Kathy’s seeds have sprouted in a big way. Amazing products are being turned out by the thousands and people’s lives are being changed.

These livelihood projects help reproduce other influencers. Once people become self sufficient they can teach other people the same skills. Soon the more skilled workers become leaders and the process repeats itself. Some of these onsite leaders have gone on to create new enterprises in other areas of the world.

Organizations like Toastmasters and Rotary International can help you learn the skill of empowerment. In Toastmasters it is not uncommon to see amazing transformations. All it takes is a caring person with a vision along with an unselfish passion to help others succeed.

I’ve been in a public speaking organization called Toastmasters for years. During this time, I have been a part of many Toastmasters clubs and have seen many people come and go. With all of the great things Toastmasters offers… speaking skills, leadership training, and a great networking atmosphere, I have always wondered why some people come to a few meetings and then you never see them again.

In studying John Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, I have discovered that we need to dig a little under the surface to truly understand people.

One of the things John brings up in his book is that…

Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

This is so true with almost any club or organization. If people come to a meeting and no one talks to them, they are probably not going to return. If their first experience is one that excludes them rather than including them, they probably will feel that they don’t fit in and will find it awfully hard to come back.

John brings up four questions in his book that can help us get to know new people whether they be visitors, new employees, or the new client you met at Starbucks.

When we ask them…

1. Where did they come from?
2. Where do they want to go?
3. What is their need now?
4. How can I help?

We will get a much better picture of how we can include them in our club, our workplace, or most importantly… our lives.

When we take the time to really focus on the other persons needs, their lives and ours can truly change.

Listening is a skill that we develop. Done well it can increase knowledge, build relationships, and generate ideas. Done poorly it can lead to a breakdown in loyalty and respect. We are all in situations everyday where we must listen to others. It may be our spouse or kids, it might be a boss or co-worker, or it may be an important customer or supplier.

John Maxwell, in his book Becoming A Person of Influence, gives us 9 things we can do to become more accomplished listeners.

1. Look At The Speaker: True listening is giving the other person your undivided attention. It means turning off the TV, putting down the newspaper, and focusing on what the other person is saying.

2. Don’t Interrupt: Show respect to the other person by not interrupting. Most people react poorly to being interrupted in the middle of what they are saying. If you step on their ideas it’s like stepping on their toes.

3. Focus On Understanding: Listen with your eyes to pick up both content and feelings. Show empathy and acceptance and focus on the message and a possible message behind the message.

4. Determine The Need At The Moment: Is the other person sharing with you to receive comfort or do they want you to solve the problem? Are they just venting or are they trying to persuade you to do something? You may find the other person’s needs may not match your expectations. Finding the person’s current need will help you put the conversation in the proper context.

5. Check Your Emotions: Do you become highly emotional during certain conversations? If so, check your emotions and let the other person finish explaining their point of view or ideas before you respond. By taking a deep breath or counting to ten before responding, will let you more clearly express your ideas.

6. Suspend Your Judgment: As John says… you can’t jump to conclusions and be a good listener at the same time. Take the time to hear the whole story or you may miss an important point.

7. Sum Up At Major Intervals: Comment on what is being said and craft the response in a personal way. Sum up what is being said at regular intervals. As the speaker finishes a subject replay their major points before going on to the next one and make sure you understand the message.

8. Ask Questions For Clarity: In your conversations ask follow up questions and seek clarification. Become a good reporter. If you ask in a caring and non-threatening way, you’ll find the other person will open up and share their experiences with you.

9. Always Make Listening Your Priority: No matter how busy you become, remember the importance of being a good listener. Focus on what the other person is saying and hear them out.

In my years that I spent in sales I quickly discovered the key to increasing sales was to become a better listener. When I would listen and ask follow up questions I could find out what my customer truly needed. It was then much easier to offer products and services that matched their needs.

In our early years of marriage my wife and I attended a weekend marriage conference. In those three days I learned to truly listen to my wife. By becoming a better listener I became a better husband. I can truly say that heartfelt and focused listening is the key to a happy marriage.

Focus on these tips in your next conversation. You’ll be amazed at the results.

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