Helping entrepreneurs build thought leadership expertise
Considering Self-Publishing? Don’t Bother (Unless You Follow Guy Kawasaki’s Advice) ….If you’re writing a book simply as a means to an end – to get rich, or to get the word out about your expertise, or to attract more consulting or coaching business – forget it. Stop what you’re doing right now. If you’re thinking just…
If you’re a woman entrepreneur, your time is now. In Part 1 of this two-part post, I talked to Andrea Guendelman and Fran Maier about the challenges facing women entrepreneurs. Female tech entrepreneurs, in particular, are few and far between, and they get funded far less often than men. Part of the reason is that angel investors and venture capitalists are…
My thanks go out to Andrea Guendelman and Fran Maier for taking the time to share their thoughts on an important subject: women entrepreneurs and startups. Here is the first of two articles I wrote as a result: Building a business is never easy, but do women entrepreneurs have an extra hurdle to overcome? “Only…
I wrote the following on my website and also my LinkedIn page and felt it was important enough to reiterate it here. Story = Value The old ways of advertising and selling are disappearing fast. Today, selling is all about telling the customer’s story, not the seller’s. Relevant, useful, findable content has replaced glitter and…
“It’s the narrative, stupid” “Despite Steve Job’s aversion to selling by PowerPoint, pitch decks have become the preferred option, and for early stage startups, narrative is more important than hard data. Identifying a secular trend is the key. Maybe it’s the Zuckerberg effect.” In Silicon Valley, for example, most venture capitalists (and entrepreneurs) have foregone…
Ever wondered if your business plans are as compelling and persuasive as they could be? For many top executives and entrepreneurs, a business plan is the most important document they will ever write. Yet business plans are seldom written as persuasively as they could be. Why? It’s often because the executive summary (the only part…
When interviewed by the Harvard Business Review a while ago, the interviewer asked media mogul Peter Guber a very pertinent question: Why does a regional manager at a branch plant need to understand and practice storytelling for business? Guber certainly has the chops to talk about storytelling. For years, a major studio head in Hollywood,…
The very short video (below) touches on the most compelling reason why businesses of all sizes should concentrate their efforts on to writing stories that are relevant to their customers and prospects. The reason? All buyers — yes, that includes business buyers — make their purchasing decisions based on emotion, not reason. Only after their…
Elmore Leonard is one of the most gifted writers of dialogue of this or any generation. He has 10 pieces of advice for writers, which can be seen in the graphic above. I especially love #10. If you can solve that one, you will be happy, wealthy and wise. Elmore Leonard’s advice to writers
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