Saturday, June 24, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Susan Harrow, CEO of Harrow Communications and PRsecrets.com (San Francisco, CA).
about PRsecrets.com
Harrow Communications & PRsecrets.com is a media coaching firm for Fortune 500 CEOs, executives, coaches, successful entrepreneurs, and best-selling authors.
Harrow's clients have appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes, GMA, CNN, MSNBC, and in all the top publications including Parade, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Inc. etc. Harrow is author of Sell Yourself without Selling Your Soul, The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah and Get a 6 Figure Book Advance.
Susan's Top 10 Tips.
Words are the ambassadors of our intentions. Once you open your mouth to speak to anyone anywhere, you are auditioning. You are vying for their attention, for their time, for their commitment to you and whatever you have to promote. Here are 10 ideas you can use today to become a Soundbite Genius...
1. Choose the right words.Soundbites are the lightning flashes of who you are and the message you want to get across. To say what you mean and mean what you say, develop your soundbites word for word. The process of developing your soundbitesis about peeling away the unnecessary to arrive at the essential. But before you peel....
2. Acknowledge 6 of the most important things in stories and life: beauty, poetry, music, timing, truth and nuance.As a coach, I'm immersed in the squeezing down of concepts into a few pithy phrases that catch attention. Recently, I was talking to a client whose stories were already sifted into simplicity. That day I read a quote on the internet that said, "Simplify things to their simplest form, but no simpler." She had. But the result was more like pulp than ripe fruit. I asked for the expanded version so I could taste their full flavor and help her decide how they should be juiced down.
3. Create 6 dynamic soundbites.In order to speak your way to the hearts and minds of people, you should have about six soundbites or talking points. Soundbites are the essential things you want to convey. They are memory nuggets, or blurbable ideas designed to be easy for your audience to digest. You can incorporate these six juicy jewels in any conversation. They can consist of anecdotes, facts, statistics, stories, or something unlikely, unusual, controversial, shocking, funny, humorous, romantic, poignant, emotionally moving, or dramatic. These six things will make your audience get their rear in gear to dash out to buy your product or service, choose you for a project or spokesperson, invest in your company, or pick up the phone right now to order whatever you are selling. More than that, they promise and deliver something worthwhile.
I try to view these soundbites as a new form of language-haiku versus open verse, a Zen fountain versus a mountain stream, flowers in a windowsill box versus a field of poppies ready to take you to a land deep in the opiated imagination. It is important to savor the lushness of nuance and the musical flow of language while shaving off unimportant details.
4. Make potent points.Keeping to your most potent points makes any media, job, or venture capital interview move forward more smoothly. Jane Swigart Ph.D, wrote her book, "The Myth of the Perfect Mother" to help mothers parent without guilt. To convey the difficulty and complexity of motherhood, she came up with some key phrases like, "Being a mother is like asking half the population to do brain surgery without sending them to medical school." And, "There is a myth that women are divinely prepared for care giving." Both phrases are short, to the point and can be spoken in less than 10 seconds.
5. Speak in soundbites to everyone.Getting key phrases for concepts and ideas across clearly is central to all communication. As a fun practice try to shave off any extraneous details during conversation in your everyday life. In Errol Morris' film "Fog of War" former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said, "Never answer the question that is asked. Answer the question you wish were asked." Begin to train yourself to speak only what you want others to hear. In this way you'll be shaping others' perception of you-which is the essence of good media and meetings.
6. Answer the first interview question with your sermonette.In a 1989 interview on the NPR show Fresh Air veteran TV journalist David Brinkley said, "Everyone of them [his guests] will arrive in the studio with some little sermonette in mind, and determined to deliver it. So one thing I do is first ask them a dull, boring question like, what do you think about this. And let them deliver their little sermonette. And then we get to the hard core of what we're here to talk about." Your first and last points have the most impact so plan and deliver your sermonettes no matter what you're asked.
7. Frame your ideas for your audience.One of my clients, Jennifer O'Neil, a film producer and director and author of "Decorating with Funky Shui" explained that when shooting background footage (b-roll) she uses a technique called "grounding." To "ground" the camera must end definitively on an object or scene that signals the viewer that that segment is over. I suggested to her that she probably also used the opening footage to "ground" or shape the beginning of how she wanted a viewer to perceive the scene. In this way you orient your audience to the scene or the material you want them to focus on.
You can apply the same concept to soundbites. Your opening words set the stage for what you want to convey, your final words signify the close, how you want your audience to remember what you've told them. Use your opening and closing statements to anchor your audience to the information you want them to grasp. That way you shape the way they think about your product, service or cause.
8. Tell people what to do.I love mystery, but this isn't the place for it. Don't leave your audience guessing. Be forthright about the action you want them to take by letting them know why your product, service, company or cause is necessary for them to have a complete and happy life now. What gap does what you have to offer fill? Be direct in pointing this out so there is no doubt.
9. Find your own voice.Your voice is as personal as your thumbprint. You may not recognize it as such, but your pets, neighbors, loved ones and colleagues do. You use phrases and have mannerisms that are like the billboards that holler over city highways. Ask your friends and family what your billboards are. They'll be able to tell you right away. Ask yourself which of these patterns should be amplified, and which should be toned down. Do you have a signature story that you tell over and over again? These stories are one way we frame our lives. Begin to notice how you talk about your experiences.
10. Live your words.Get to the point with clarity and insight. The Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer said of composer Astor Piazzolla's music, "I don't think it's [the music] always about embellishment. I don't think it all can be expressed rightly just gliding on the surface of convenient rhythms. This music can't be in fact performed, it has to be lived. And I always can distinguish if someone is flirting with Piazzolla as a convenient item of our commercial industry or if someone really lives the life or the heartbeat of the music of this great composer."
It's the same with you and your soundbites. Are you living the heartbeat of what you're saying, what you're representing? If not, we hear your false notes, your commercial intent. If so, we know in an instant when your music is true.
Contact Information
Susan Harrow
CEO PRsecrets.com
web:
http://www.prsecrets.comblog:
http://www.prsecrets.com/publicityblog.htmlharrowcom@prsecrets.com
415.256.8060
A big thanks to Susan for her wise words.
Share your expertise! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
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Saturday, June 17, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Denise Wakeman, founding partner of The Blog Squad (Los Angeles, CA).
about the Blog Squad™
Blogging experts Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are The Blog Squad™. They have teamed up to help professionals harness the power of blogs, newsletters, and ecommerce systems to make marketing tasks easier and more effective. Between them they have 16 years of Internet know-how and write on 9 blogs. Patsi and Denise have co-authored "Build a Better Blog: The Ultimate Guide to Boosting Your Business with a Professional Blog," "Confessions of a Reluctant Blogger" and "Secrets of Successful Ezines: A Guide to Writing and Publishing an Ezine that Gets Results." They know what works and what doesn't. You can read their popular blog at www.BuildaBetterBlog.com and get their free weekly ezine Savvy eBiz Tips at www.SavvyeBizTips.com. Denise, Blog Squad's founding partner, has more than 20 years experience in small business administration and management. She has specific experience in leveraging Internet marketing strategies to create awareness, build customer loyalty and increase the bottom line.
Denise's Top 10 Reasons Why You Need a Blog.
1. It is perfect for creating a web presence for independent professionals who have something to say and who need people to get to know them and what they can do for them.
2. Having your own business blog gives you credibility and a forum where you can show your expertise.
3. Readers can comment directly onto your blog, thus creating interaction and interest.
4. No more waiting for your web designer to update your web site.
5. You can post to your blog yourself, about any issue, daily if you wish, and get it broadcast into the blogosphere instantly.
6. The search engines love blogs and will pick up your keywords easily, boosting your rankings, making it easier for people to find you on the web.
7. Customers are drawn to the personality behind the business. Human voices convey intimacy. (To read about this topic read The Cluetrain Manifesto. The first chapter is available free online.)
8. You can network and build up a community of like-minded readers. You blog, people comment. Others blog, you comment. Before you know it, more people have heard of you and your business because the buzz gets passed around.
9. You can test out new ideas and get instant feedback. Get your customers and prospects in on the act now and let them help you help them - invite them to talk back! Let them see how you develop your products and services and they can show you how to best to serve them.
10. You can use your blog side-bars to promote your products, your affiliates products, run blog ads, sell books, and any other product or services you have. You don't have to include this in the body or content of your article; therefore your posts - your writing - can remain content rich and free of promotional hype.
Email marketing and electronic newsletters are struggling because of over-crowded inboxes, spam problems and filters.
*On the average, 64.7% of the business e-mail you send is not even opened, let alone read. [source: Q3 2004 Email Trend Report, DoubleClick ]
*E-mail marketers are seeing their open-rates range from only "mid-20s to just over 50 %" [source: ClickZ.com]
*That means that you are losing at least 50% of your prospective buyers or readers. How much does that amount to in losses over the course of the next few years?
*AOL receives roughly 2 billion e-mail messages a day, of which about 75 percent are blocked and another 4 to 7 percent are sent to the bulk folder. [source: ClickZ.com]
Sit up and pay attention. The time to start blogging for your business is now.
Contact Information
Denise Wakeman
Founding Partner, The Blog Squad.
www.BuildaBetterBlog.comwww.FixMyBlog.com888-800-6397
denise@nextlevelpartnership.com
A big thanks to Denise (and her partner Patsi) for her wise words.
Share your expertise! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Kare Anderson, speaker, author and CEO of the Say it Better Center, LLC (Sausalito, CA)
about the Say it Better Center
Publishing the Say it Better newletter with over 38,000 subscribers in 27 countries, the Say it Better Center represents Kare Anderson and eight other speaker/authors and consultants. 
The team is on a mission to help you say it better -- it all comes down to how one speaks, moves, acts, forges profitable partnerships or creates the experiences that serve and/or sell. Kare is a trailblazer in business, politics, and media. This Emmy-winning former NBC TV, Wall Street Journal reporter, and former legislator's chief of staff, is the author of Getting What You Want, SmartPartnering, LikeABILITY, Beauty Inside Out, Resolving Conflict Sooner and Walk Your Talk: Grow Your Business Faster Through Successful Cross-Promotional Partnerships. Kare has spoken at meetings for Google, Virgin Air, Indian Parliament, U.S. Secret Service and Nordstrom.
Kare's Top 10 Tips
1. Know your best and worst sides.You'll be able to demonstrate your best talents and temperament more often when you recognize them - and the flip side, your weaknesses, which are often your blind spots where you self-sabotage. Only with this knowledge can you recognize the people and situations that bring out the best and worst in you. Only then will yoube able to seek out the situations and people where your best sides shine and avoid the opposite.
2. Bring out their best side.In each situation, whether with a stranger, someone you know intimately or someone in between, first bring out that person's better side (temperament) or encourage her to demonstrate or discuss her best talent. Then she naturally sees and supports your
best side. You are off to a good footing to reinforce each other's best talents and temperament to become happier, higher-performing together.
3. Be their trusted, most remembered expert.Speak English like it tastes good. Give verbal snapshots that penetrate the mind and the gut in an instant then linger, leaving a bright after image. When seeking to persuade or be frequently-quoted be the most specific, vivid and authentic describer of the options in a situation. Provide what-if scenarios, with possible near-term consequences to your listener(s) where your approach either avoids a negative consequence and/or leads to a positive outcome.
4. Praise what you want to flourish.Reinforce the behavior you admire and support others' self-confidence around you by praising the specific behavior you value and that benefits that person. Multiply the power of your positive words by sharing your praise with the people who matter to that person. Extra benefit? As you praise those qualities, listeners attribute to you, the very qualities you praise in others.
5. Look to their positive intent, especially when they appear to have one.When you throw mud you get dirty. When you most want to react with a cutting remark, act kindly. In a less-certain, fast-acting world your biggest gift is kindness in the face of rancor. Even and especially when someone else is acting negatively towards you, praise the part of his current or past behavior that you genuinely respect. It's your best chance of reducing the rancor. Regardless of what he chooses to do, others will observe the sharp contrast between your choice of words and actions and his.
6. Problems seldom exist at the level at which they are expressed.If you are engaged in an argument that lasts more than ten minutes then you are probably not discussing the deeper, underlying conflict. You are simply hardening your opposing sides. Either ask for a break, suggesting when you would like to re-meet or say you think there is something deeper going on and, in good will, you wish to resolve it.
7. To establish trust, look for the underlying motivation or fear in that person.We are far more revealing by the questions we ask than the answers we give. To get closer to understanding her strongest motivations, let her take the lead in asking questions. Answer genially, directly but briefly so that she becomes interested in learning more. When she asks a follow-up question, again answer briefly and notice the direction of the questions. By the third, follow-up question, in quick succession you'll have an insight into her underlying concern or wishes - even if she may not be conscious of it herself. Then you have a better chance of alleviating that concern by what you say or do, often without directly addressing it. Notice, as well, where your questions lead, in learning about your own fears and desires.
8. Go slow to go fast.Whenever you push against someone's opposition or press for an answer or ask for something too quickly, others tend to resist rather than agree, even when it is in their best interests. In an often blunt, multi-tasking world, give people time to ask questions their way. The more actions one takes on behalf of exploring an option the more likely one is to take it, talk about it and even defend it.
9. Gain an invaluable, unlikely and treasured ally.More than once in your life, you've been the most neglected person in a social or work situation. You know how awkward it feels. When entering a room where a group is gathered, seek out the most ignored person. Give him your full attention. Ask an open-ended question such as, "What's been one of your favorite moments recently?" Listen to learn and support him. Genuinely reinforce his comments, letting him take the lead. If another person approaches to speak with you, ask that person to join you, not moving away. I've provided communication coaching to several pro basketball players who get "swarmed" when entering a room. This has become one of their favorite "plays" because they've made unexpectedly rich friendships, seen new sides in themselves - and made their world larger.
10. Keep a talisman of goodness near you.A glass prism rests on the window shelf in my study, sending rainbows across the room throughout the day, reminding me there's always a way to nourish, to serve, not sabotage a situation, a relationship. It is my choice to ignore or to look for it.
Next to it is this poem:
Remember the many compartments of the heart, the seed of what is possible. So much of who we are is defined by the places we hold for each other. For it is not our ingenuity that sets us apart, but our capacity for love, the possibility our way will be lit by grace. Our hearts prisms, chiseling out the colors of pure light.
Kare's Top 3 Marketing Resources
1. Discover Your Sales Strengths, by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano
2. A Field Guide to Growing Your Business, by Harry Beckwith
3. Our ebook,
SmartPartnering: How to Attract and Delight More Consumers While Spending Less, by Kare Anderson
Contact Information
Kare Anderson
Author and CEO
The Say it Better Center
www.sayitbetter.com415.331.6336
kare@sayitbetter.com
A big thanks to Kare for her wise words.
Share your expertise! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, Chicago's first female television General Manager - WYCC TV/Channel 20, a PBS affiliate (Chicago, IL).
about Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
Professor Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow is an expert in human communication skills, a motivational speaker, and an executive performance coach. She is best known as Chicago's first female television General Manager -- the founding General Manager of WYCC-TV/Channel 20, a PBS affiliate in Chicago. Presently, she serves as Professor of Communications at Wright College in Chicago. Her essays and articles on human communication and relationships have appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune Newspapers, Innovation Abstracts Journal, the Blog Herald, Chicago Suburban Woman Magazine and several online magazines including Cafe She Ezine. Elynne has been honored with the Wright College's Excellence in Teaching Award, the YWCA Chicago's Outstanding Woman in Communication Leader Luncheon Award, the Phi Theta Kappa Student Honor Society Golden Apple, and the HUG Award for Mentoring by Future Teachers of America. She was recently named the Woman Communicator of the Year by Women's American ORT and was cited by "Today's Chicago Woman Magazine" as one of 100 Women Making a Difference. Elynne received her Master's Degree in Speech from Northwestern University.
Elynne's Top 10 Tips
1. Make footprints in this world and make them original and indelible.
2. Do not be afraid of fear. Walk through it to your destination.
3. Be in love with excellence and help those with whom you work to reach toward it.
4. When offered an opportunity, say yes, do it and make it your moment.
5. Success is in the details.
6. Develop your private self and your public self and keep them in sync.
7. Being the Boss can be lonely. Do not be afraid of management loneliness.
8. Remember, womanhood gets better with each decade.
9. In a loving relationship do not seek your other half but rather find your whole partner.
10. Remember to congratulate others on their accomplishments.
Contact Information
Professor Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
Former Founding General Manager of WYCC-TV/Channel 20 Chicago
blog:
http://LookAroundMe.blogspot.comelynne1@attglobal.net
A big thanks to Elynne for her wise words.
Share your expertise! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
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