Geert Conard on the need for Networking in the modern economy.

His book Friends with Benefits was launched at the weekend and can be sourced from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk or from this site.

Have you ever opened a favourite magazine or journal only to find an article by or about your biggest competitor? How did that feel? Not too great, I imagine. Especially when you know that your product or service is superior. Some people just seem to get all the media attention. They also tend to get more business than those with lower profiles. In my experience, media attention and increased business go to those people who have established themselves as the experts

Finding the Needle

In this day of information overload, it is harder to find the needle in the ever-increasing haystack. There are many new businesses entering the arena because of redundancy (layoffs) and the attractiveness of becoming an entrepreneur. These new companies just crowd the market, confusing and diluting the messages from serious players. So, even if your company is the best, you need to shout even louder than before to be heard above the din.

Economic drivers and time pressures cause decision makers to react in ways that may not be ideal. For example, instead of taking the time to read the hundreds of emails, direct mail pieces, magazines and other print and online media, they resort to simpler methods of choosing suppliers.

The vast majority of companies I speak to say that they have seen a tremendous fall in the number of proposals they are asked to generate as well as the number of proposals to which they are being asked to respond. It seems no one wants to spend their time putting together lengthy documents and even fewer people want to read those documents. The nature of business decision making is changing, and it is going back to more old-fashioned values.

People do business with people they like and trust. They get to know about those people by meeting them, reading about them and hearing about them. So, a combination of personal relationships, public relations and word of mouth. The people who stand out are those who write and speak like they know what they are talking about, and the PR serves to validate that perception. And it is always a person who is a leader, by the way, not a company. Companies don’t have opinions, companies don’t sign agreements – people do. If the top executives create the right reputation, the company will do well as a result, and clients will be attracted to you.

Therefore you will be doing your clients a favour and saving them time if you stand head and shoulders above the competition, thus eliminating the need for complicated buying processes.

Someone has to be the expert; it might as well be you

If we look at the market as a pie, we must admit that the pie is a bit smaller than it was before. However, companies still want the same size slice of pie they had last year. Well, that’s simply not going to happen. As a result, the rate of business failure is up while a larger number of businesses than ever before fight over the smaller pie. And the table manners are not always pretty!

In every industry, one person is always going to get his or her slice of the pie, and that person is the obvious expert in the industry. The top person (or company) is the one that stands out in a decision maker’s mind because of their reputation. And, as I mentioned above, that reputation is built by good relationships, good PR and positive word of mouth. If you make yourself visible and share influential views on key topics in your industry, you will become known as the go-to person, a highly valued opinion moulder.

Executives cannot afford to be too busy to write or speak in public

I speak to hundreds of executives every year and one comment I hear consistently is that they are very busy running their businesses, and there is no time to do things like writing or speaking. My argument is that there are always some people who make time to distil their thinking and share their wisdom with the market. I call them the ‘REAL thought leaders’. Their willingness to be visible and vocal as well as bold and opinionated gives them an edge over those who have their heads down, buried in the business. It is not always easy to prioritise these kinds of activities, especially when business pressures intensify.

In fact, it is precisely when times are tough that creative approaches are necessary. The payoff can be more significant since so few are willing to do what it takes to be seen and heard.

Real thought leaders find the time to write and speak about their area of expertise. Steve Glowinkowski, PhD is founder and managing director of Glowinkowski International, a firm of management consultants specialising in organisational and leadership development. For 25 years, the company worked at building their reputation as a leader in this area, with an innovative process and framework, and an impressive client list. However, it was the publication of Steve’s book It’s Behaviour, Stupid! – What Really Drives the Performance of Your Organisation that consolidated the many years of work and established Steve and the firm as the go-to people for people development. The timing could not have been more critical, with the launch of the book taking place in the spring of 2009 when consultancy work began to dip dramatically.

One person is standing out above all the others in your industry. It may be you, or it may be the other guy. Being seen as the expert is no longer a luxury since a shrinking market delivers business deals to the obvious experts or the REAL thought leaders only. The good news is that it is easy to set yourself up as that top expert, if you have the resolve and determination to win. I hope you see your name the next time you open your favourite magazine.

We are very happy to publish Geert Conard’s latest book for several reasons.

The first is that his Girlfriend in Every City was the first book we published in December 2005.

The second is that he is addressing a very topical subject – How to Network in the New Economy.

The third is that he is an excellent networker and a good friend.

So when he approached us with this latest book, we simply said YES.

What is the book about?
Four years after his first book ‘A Girlfriend in Every City’, Geert is back with more stories, examples, quotes and glimpses into his life as a proactive networker. This time his focus is on the changed world in which we live and work today. In this new economy, networking has become more important than ever before … The book is already available to buy both here and on Amazon.

Book Launch
On the evening of Saturday 21st November 2009, the book will be officially launched in Geert’s home town of Diest, Belgium. The presentations will be in Dutch with English powerpoint. The book is in English.

If you are interested in attending the launch, you can request an invitation from the book website.

You can buy the book for £14.99 from Ecademy Press and from Amazon at £14.24 (at time of posting this).

Philip Cox-Hynd, the author of ‘Change by Choice; the art of managing change’, published by Ecademy Press has been asked to deliver a keynote talk, in Holland next week, to senior figures from across Intervet, Europe, on the subject of, ‘Change; agent or victim’?

Intervet, a mainly European based animal health company, was recently acquired by The Schering-Plough Corporation -one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies – as part of its strategy to move further into the animal health space. Further acquisitions are planned.

Schering-Plough realises that acquisitions often mean disruption and uncertainty for it’s people as well as exciting challenges for others. To most people faced with ‘change’ that the individual did not seek, the sense of ‘choice’ regarding change is often a question of attitude. One of Philip’s ‘invitational’ phrases to those he works with is, “within every apparent ‘no-choice’ situation, there is always a choice; finding it is the challenge. This is often a personal ‘choice’, rather than something dependant on the outside world changing”.

Philip will challenge his audience to think more about how to embrace change and make it theirs, rather than change be experienced as an imposition and so the individual feel like a victim of change, rather than a change agent. Philip will draw on his experiences of bringing about and managing change in organisations over the past 20 years.

These experiences formed the basis of his book, ‘Change by Choice’, in which he explores both the psychology and practicalities of delivering change that is sustained and becomes a part of the new norm.

Philip’s web-site has 80 or so short video clips of him answering client questions on managing change. To have Philip speak at your event, contact him at philip at harley-young dot co dot uk

Change by Choice is available from Ecademy Press priced at just £12.99.

Grad Expectations: The essential guide for all graduates entering the workforce by Rob Cross

In these tough economic times, development expert Rob Cross provides invaluable advice to Britain’s desperate graduate workforce to help them achieve their true potential.

Never has the job climate felt so hostile as in this cruel recession, and never have graduates, both newly qualified and established in the workplace, had to fight so hard to win their jobs and then to keep them. In Grad Expectations (published by Ecademy Press), an entirely unique professional guide by business and talent development guru Rob Cross, constructive, inspirational pearls of wisdom are unveiled, enabling readers to recognise the tools and qualities they need to nurture within themselves in order to enjoy successful and rewarding careers.

Grad Expectations wittily combines fact with fiction, as Cross offers his sage instruction through the life experiences of five young university graduates who meet at the induction day of their two year development programme at World-Corp PLC, a company like any other real organisation. Cross allows us to follow their individual journeys, charting their highs and lows, their individual and collective challenges, how they manage the complex hierarchy of office relationships, while establishing a system for success which enables them to fulfil their true potential. Cross was horrified by the inadequacies of UK careers advice programmes which were failing to give students a tangible understanding of life at work. He was shocked to discover how many good graduates were ill-suited to the careers they had worked towards, and were now effectively suffering from a quarter-life crisis. Cross was motivated to write Grad Expectations by the thought that millions of ambitious, talented graduates were trapped in jobs they hated, and that employers were themselves saddled with lacklustre staff.

Grad Expectations enables all young graduates to feel empowered and better equipped to deal with the daunting professional world. It removes any notion of shame that might be attached to those who must chose to resign from it and follow another path of employment. Rob Cross’s priceless advice should be both a comfort and an inspiration for students on the cusp of employment, as well as acting as a brilliant guide for those talent managers who may need to fine tune their own working practices.

About the author: Rob Cross was born in Melton Mowbray but emigrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia as a toddler. He has degrees in both business and engineering. After an influential tenure with the Australian Air Force he returned to Britain in 2004, and was employed to deliver leadership courses to public, private and not-for-profit organisations. He currently works as a business and leadership development consultant focusing on developing tomorrow’s leaders through providing specialist coaching and consultancy, as well as running training seminars and motivational speaking assignments. Rob Cross lives in London.

To find out more about Rob Cross go to:
www.rob-cross.com
www.grad-expectations.com

You can buy the book for £12.99 (excluding delivery) from Ecademy Press or Amazon (UK site linked) on-line or by ordering using the information below at your local bookseller.

Bibliographic Information:
Grad Expectations
Rob Cross
ISBN 978-1-905823-61-1
Published by Ecademy Press Sept 09
Retail Price £12.99

Ecademy Press is a leading publisher of new authors writing on business and life-solutions based titles. Since its launch in December 2005, Ecademy Press has published a number of highly acclaimed titles including Amazon bestseller ‘BusinessWise’ and ‘Property Magic’ by property millionaire Simon Zutshi

For more information about the author or to arrange an interview please email :-info@authoright.com

In his blog today, Geert Conard explains why he published A Girlfriend in Every City with us and why we are working together again to produce Friends with Benefits, his new book on 21st Century Networking.

In general there are two options for publishing a book : Making a bookdeal with a mainstream publisher or self-publishing. For me both these options don’t really work. Getting a bookdeal with a mainstream publishing brand is close to winning the lottery. The odds are against you unless your name is Dan Brown and you have already published a million-selling book before.
If you go for self-publishing, you are choosing for publishing without any backup at all. In fact you have to become a publisher yourself to get your book on the market.
I have chosen for Ecademy Press which is a cooperative publisher, offering packages of services which makes you land somewhere in between both choices I mentioned before. When I wrote my first book in the summer of 2005, I didn’t even have a clue about the processes that were needed to transform my manuscript into a nice paperback book.

Friends with Benefits will be launched in Belgium on November 21st and will be available from Ecademy Press and Amazon before that.

Watch this space …

It’s all very well writing a book or an article for a magazine, but how can you find out whether your message is hitting the right people and having the desired impact? Executive communications strategist Mindy Gibbins-Klein suggests that the first step to successful communication is accepting that writing is very likely to be a one-way approach, at least at first…

A business colleague said something astounding the other day. He said he would rather speak to an audience of ten people than write for an audience of a thousand. I thought that sounded a bit strange, so I challenged him on it. It turned out that he had written an article for a magazine with a good circulation, but he hadn’t had any feedback at all from it. He felt he had spent his time crafting a wonderful, informative piece that no one appreciated. He also felt that if that message had been delivered in person, he could have seen the response from people immediately, in their eyes and their body language.

It’s true, what my colleague said, so how can we justify putting time into writing when we don’t get feedback? That, my friend, is the nature of writing. Sometimes you get to find out what your readers think of your material, and many times you don’t. It’s my view that we have to be OK with the fact that writing is one-way until we get a response, and we must continue to put good material into the market. There are some excellent guidelines for one-way communication that I have seen business experts use to their advantage. Here are my favourites:

1. Keep your outcome in mind at all times.

Hone your message according to what you have to say as well as what your reader needs to hear and decide what kind of information you are imparting. For example, if you need to teach people with your writing, you would probably choose a style which puts your ideas across in a reasonably straightforward way and allows you to get into plenty of detail. You will probably also want to offer the reader a chance to test his or her learning in the form of questions or even exercises. This differs tremendously from writing which aims to influence or persuade. That would need to sound more exciting and compelling; it would possibly use psychological elements to make the key points. Being conscious about your desired outcome will make whatever you write more clear and effective.

2. Deliver your message as passionately and authentically as if you were speaking.

I prefer to see writing as an extension of speaking, and in fact, for people who will not get the opportunity to hear you in person or even on the phone, your writing must do the same job. It has become very trendy to write conversationally, spurred on by the advent of blogging and newsletters. That style can be used effectively in books and articles as well. It’s no secret that one of my favourite authors is marketing guru Seth Godin. I love the in-your-face, direct style he uses. It feels like he’s in my living room talking to me one on one. It seems from his book sales that others also respond to that style. And it happens to be the way I prefer to write, in case you hadn’t noticed!

There is one caveat here which I must stress to you. Delivering your message as if you were speaking does not mean that it is the same as speaking. There are excellent ways of recording material for books and articles by using digital recorders and voice-to-text software. If you choose to use those methods, you really do need to take extra time to get it sounding right. I know some people who record their books take hours to tidy the text up and edit it. That can work and I have even had some of my clients make excellent progress by recording parts of their books. I just think you can be more careful and precise with your wording when you write or type.

3. Get feedback.

That may sound like it contradicts what I said earlier. Actually, there are some clever mechanisms to get people interacting with you, even though you are not there. Starting with the most basic idea, get people in your network to review your book – favourably and honestly. Even though we are all busy, we find time to help friends, don’t we? Once your friends’ reviews are published, it will encourage more readers to post reviews. You can also get readers to go to a web page and complete a survey – with or without an incentive. You can put an email address at the bottom of the piece, asking for comments – again, with or without an incentive. This can work equally well for books. I get a lot of clients excitedly planning to include CDs with their books, until I show them how they can still give away free CDs and capture people contact details and feedback at the same time. Never include bonuses with your book when you could engage with readers and get some indication of how many people read it and liked it at the same time.

That’s plenty for you to be getting on with. If you know your subject and deliver your message well, if you write powerfully and authentically, they will listen. And they may even respond. Let me know all about your success by writing to me at mindy@ bookmidwife. com – I offer lots of fabulous bonuses for my readers.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein is better known as The Book Midwife™. She has helped hundreds of experts get their message out into the market by writing and publishing the best possible books and articles. She is also a founder and director of Ecademy Press, an independent publisher established in 2005 and specialising in business and personal development books. For more information visit www.bookmidwife.com or email info@bookmidwife.com

Why you need to be writing and publishing
Mindy Gibbins Klein

More business books are being written and published than ever before. If we combine Internet publishing, self-publishing and traditional publishing, the total number of non-fiction publications has more than doubled over the past five years, and this trend looks set to continue. So why the big increase and what are the implications to the average CEO?

The main reason we are seeing more books in print is the ease with which they can be published. Print-on-demand technology and cooperative publishing enables books to be printed only as needed, which save the publisher (or the author) from having to make a significant investment to print books up front. There are more publishers out there than ever before (48,000 at last count) so publishing has become a trendy thing to do, and more business leaders see writing a book as a viable activity, compared to years ago when it would have been much more difficult to get the book published. Most of us would love to have a book with our name on it; the only things that usually stop us are lack of information, confidence and clarity and not knowing how to get published. The advent of the Internet, for publishing electronically but more importantly for promoting books, has made a huge impact on independent authors and publishers. All in all, writing is now more attractive because publishing is easier and more accessible.

In a competitive market, the winners are usually those who shout the loudest, or at least those that stand out in our minds. We don’t always like to admit that or believe it; we prefer to think that buyers make their decisions rationally, based on facts, choosing the best products and services. However, research has shown that most people make decisions emotionally and then back them up with logical arguments, after the fact. One professional speaker I know swears that he lost a job because he didn’t have a book and the other guy did. When challenged, he told me that he asked the decision makers what influenced their final choice and they told him “We didn’t like the other guy as much but he must be authority because he’s written a book”. Shocking but true.

You are an authority

I happen to like the word “authority”. I know some people don’t like it, but I think it has a lot of value. What I mean by “authority” is simply being a source of knowledge that people look up to and respect. Contrary to popular belief, it does not mean being the best or offering something completely unique. Too many people worry about being “unique” when what they need to concentrate on is being excellent, reliable and authentic. There are already plenty of books on your subject in the market, and yet there is room for many more. Each new book offers a slightly different perspective and, if the author has been completely authentic and shared his or her own views and perspectives on the subject matter, the book creates a personal relationship with the reader. Thought leadership is not an esoteric label; it means that we are leading by sharing our thoughts.

Although we ultimately want to see full-length books written by our top business leaders, some people prefer to start by publishing articles or being part of a compilation or anthology. It’s all part of a comprehensive writing and publishing strategy, which, executed effectively, puts those executives ahead of the majority of their peers. Journals such as this one are highly respected and books with multiple authors can be more interesting and add more value than books by single authors. I have worked on several anthologies during my career, with the most successful by far being a book called BusinessWise – Words of Wisdom for Small Businesses with Big Ambitions (Ecademy Press, $19.99). The secrets of that book’s success were a good title, stand-out book cover and a team of authors who were absolute authorities on their subject. They all had something to add to the overall content and an interest in using the book to boost their own professional profiles. BusinessWise hit number 2 on Amazon on launch day and continues to sell well, with most of the authors actively using it to build credibility.

In larger organizations, there are opportunities for more than one executive to create writing and publishing strategies and build their own personal profiles while adding to the company’s image. You need to ask yourself who in the executive team should be visible and what they have to add. For example, different members of the team have different skills, experience, and ideas or opinions. The key is ensuring that the individual writing and publishing plans support the overall plan, in terms of messages, format and timing.

It needs to be a printed book

You may have heard of e-books, or electronic books. I would like to differentiate between electronic versions of good, full-length books and the phenomenon of sketchy, overpriced, misleading e-books whose prime purpose is making money. I am in favor of making books available in different formats to suit different readers, but let’s face it: respect is normally reserved for authors whose books or articles are in print. Electronic versions are simply not perceived to be as impressive. For example, I have never heard someone say “He is the author of that important e-book”. Maybe this will change over the next few years, but for now, print books remain the only way to establish that real sense of authority.

How and when to get your message out

Having worked in this area for many years, I am still surprised at the number of executives who do not have personal writing and publishing strategies and plans. They may have marketing and public relations plans and activities, but their own articles, books, blogs and related public speaking are generally not included in those plans.

We have already discussed the fact that if you want to be seen as the leading authority in your area, you need to be writing and publishing books and articles. In a tough market in particular, your customers need clear messages from you that set you up as a true thought leader. What you need to produce depends on several factors, such as where your business is in its life cycle, the competitive state of your market (i.e. what your competitors are doing and saying) and your key product and service messages. For example, in the early stages, when you are not yet known, you need to provide higher level information to introduce people to you and your company. Later on, you can differentiate yourself by providing your unique perspectives on your topic and influencing the market in that direction. If you are in a very competitive sector, it may be necessary to bring in the influencing earlier.

If you have many different ideas, it is more even more important to create a strategy for getting one clear message into the market, supported by several subsidiary ones. I meet a lot of entrepreneurs at networking events who, when asked what they do, talk about at least three or four things and make people totally confused. I also see business leaders dilute their message by writing several unrelated articles or blogs. You want to be known for one thing, and it starts with your perspective on your topic. Taking the time to strategize will make it easier to produce high impact, effective books, articles, blogs and speeches. Those activities will, in turn, set you apart from your competition as a real authority on the subject, which could result in more business, higher fees and the satisfaction of having your name on the cover of an excellent book.

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Mindy Gibbins-Klein is best known as The Book Midwife (TM) an international speaker, writing and publishing strategist and leading book coach who has helped over 100 business experts write and publish books, many of them bestsellers. She is a Director of Ecademy Press.

Financial advisers lacking the trust factor are being given the secrets to a long and successful career thanks to The Trusted Financial Adviser, a new book by leading independent financial adviser Lee Clarke.

Following a recent Which? Test which revealed that only 5 out of 40 advisers passed the ‘good advice’ test, Lee Clarke is a shining example of why trust is so critical in maintaining his longstanding career as a financial adviser. Lee’s primary motivation for writing The Trusted Financial Adviser was to help both existing and new advisers to develop more trusting relationships with their clients.

“Above everything else people are looking for an adviser they can trust. As a financial adviser you must act with integrity in every aspect of your life and especially in your business dealings. Especially in troubled times such as these, clients are looking for advisers who will demonstrate competence and integrity by only acting in their clients’ interest” says Lee.

Lee has been advising business-owners since 1974 and in 1981 discovered and developed his true calling of becoming a Financial Adviser. Having been a founding member of the Institute of Financial Planning and currently serving on the MDRT Ethics Committee, he is now celebrating his 28th year in the industry with the release of The Trusted Financial Adviser (£12.99, Ecademy Press) which Ecademy Press publisher Mindy Gibbins-Klein predicts will be a category bestseller.

“The Trusted Financial Adviser is aimed at people who want to work for themselves and Lee explains clearly how they can build their own business rather than build someone else’s capital value and future. In the current climate, Lee’s advice on how to have a successful career as a financial adviser and how to protect yourself from possible scandal and danger is immensely valuable and a must read for any financial adviser,” says Ms Gibbins-Klein.

Last month, the Financial Services Authority banned and fined two directors of a Yorkshire-based financial group for their misleading promotions and the mismanagement of an investment scheme that put 53 customers at serious risk of losing nearly £10m. It would seem that The Trusted Financial Adviser could not have come at a better time.

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Lee Clarke is a successful independent financial adviser from Cardiff and founder member of the Institute of Financial Planning and Professional Speakers Association. He has served on several committees and task forces for MDRT, the professional association for financial services professionals worldwide with 35,000 members and currently serves on their Constitution, By-Laws and Ethics Committee. The Trusted Financial Adviser shares his 28 years of experience and is his first book.

Lee Clarke blogs at www.finspeak.blogspot.com

The Trusted Financial Adviser is published by Ecademy Press.
Buy it here for £12.99

For press enquiries please contact Jessica Suter on 01603 283 503 or by email.

Audra Lamoon and Sue Gilkes, Partners of Your Impact, a successful business training skills consultancy, with offices in the UK and Dubai, have published a book entitled ‘Blondes in Business’. The official book launch took place on 3 September at London’s newest 5* luxury hotel, The Grange, St. Pauls.

‘Blondes in Business’ details their experience, as women [and blonde to boot!] of setting up their own business in what is a largely male dominated market. In a lively and humorous way the book talks about the struggles and prejudices they have had to overcome and how they have successfully built up a thriving international business. The book also gives practical, no nonsense advice to those thinking of setting up their own business.

Your Impact was set up in 2004 by Audra Lamoon previously of Lamoon Business Solutions and Sue Gilkes of Your Impact. The UK Company has expanded into the Middle East market where they set up a joint venture company, Kawader Impact, based in Dubai. The company, which delivers business and people development training skills, employs over 40 trainers and has worked in over 20 countries worldwide, delivering programmes to the public and private sectors including retail, media, PR, hotel, construction, engineering, government, financial, education, health and rail.

The company works with some of the UK’s major contractors on PFI bids ranging in value from £300m to £1.1bn, including British Schools for the Future. They are involved throughout the whole process of the PFI bid – from presentation, technical content of the bid, team coaching, through to presentation and delivery.

Your Impact is also working with Microsoft where they have designed and implemented the ‘Microsoft Engineers Academy’, and are responsible for running the academy’s worldwide training programme. Since training commenced, Microsoft have seen, on average, an increase of 12% improvement in ‘Satisfied’ customers to ‘Very Satisfied’ customers.

Audra and Sue said that the rationale behind publishing the book was to pass on their knowledge and expertise, in order to encourage other women to set up their own business, particularly in the current recession which has seen many thousands of people lose their jobs.

The book is available to order online at www.blondesinbusiness.com priced £10.99.

For more information contact Michelle Swales on michelle@yourimpact.co.uk or call 0788 798 4107.
For more information on Your Impact log onto www.yourimpact.co.uk