Becky Robinson's Blog, page 73

How Good is Your Name?

Today marks the launch of Alexandra Watkins’ amazing book, Hello My Name is Awesome. Check out our press release announcing the book here.

I first met Alexandra at the Berrett-Koehler book marketing workshop in San Francisco this summer. I had the (challenge? privilege?) of presenting just after her keynote. While she spoke, a myriad of thoughts ran through my head. She is such a great speaker. She has such creative marketing ideas. How on earth will I follow her? I better take good notes — I am going to want to try some of her great tactics. 

Imagine my delight just a few hours later when she sent me an email initiating a conversation about working together. (I was super stoked and honored.)

My team and I are supporting Alexandra’s book marketing and publicity efforts — and it is so much fun! Her creative and energetic approaches to sharing her book with the world are teaching us, as much as we are helping her. Also, her work is a bit outside our usual content area which has been a refreshing change of pace. The book is so fun that my 13 year old daughter read it in one sitting, and keeps referring to the ideas, calling out bad product names when she sees them.

How good is your company, brand, or product name? Explore Alexandra’s to find out.

While I love our company name, it does cause some people to scratch their heads (people hear Weaving and think knitting or yarn). It also does have the five winning qualities Alexandra outlines for great brand names.

Will you help us get the word out about this fantastic book?

Here are some ways to help:

1) If you have read the book, please leave a review on or your favorite online retailer.

2) today! Buy a few copies and share them with your friends. I promise you’ll enjoy the read and laugh out loud.

3) Go to Alexandra’s book marketing microsite and share a graphic or tweet with your online communities.

Tell me something! How good is your name? Does your name pass the test? What is your favorite brand name? How many copies of Alexandra’s book will you buy today?

Featured on Friday: Susan Fowler

You might have noticed – it’s book launch season. Up at the main Weaving Influence HQ (a.k.a. Becky’s home office), books are being delivered on a regular basis… and going right back out again to Team Buzz Builders all over the place.

Sharon Pilaske (meet her on our Team page) works in Operations and is our book shipping expert. It feels like I’m emailing her almost daily with a request to ship a book to a media outlet, a blogger, or to giveaway winners (enter to win a copy of Overcoming Fake Talk this week). Fortunately for me, she’s on top of the ball and handles my every request with kindness and speed. We have a great team!

This week I got an email from Sharon: The Motivation books are in the office! Which can only mean one thing… it’s time to introduce you to their author!

Meet Susan Fowler

Susan has 35-years of experience as a researcher, consultant, and coach in over 30-countries around the globe in the field of self leadership. Pretty cool, right?

As a consultant, coach, and leader in the field of personal empowerment, she’s a developer of The Ken Blanchard Company’s Optimal Motivation product line as well as the creator and lead developer of Situational Self Leadership, their best-of-class self-leadership and personal empowerment program.

As if that wasn’t enough, Susan is also the bestselling co-author of three books with Ken Blanchard: Self Leadership & The One-Minute Manager, Leading At A Higher Level, and Empowerment.

A catalyst for growth, Susan also authored the audio programs Overcoming Procrastination and Mentoring. She is Senior Consulting Partner at The Ken Blanchard Companies, and a professor in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership program at the University of San Diego.

Connect with Susan Online

Find her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

You don’t want to miss out on the new website for her next book, Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work… And What Does. Check out the beautiful graphics, links to buy the book, a free sample chapter, easy to share tweets and more.

Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work – Launching September 30th!

Each of our launches give us an opportunity to get to know talented authors, read great book, and pull together a fantastic team. This launch is no different and we’re honored to be working with Susan as we prepare for the release of Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work… And What Does. The best part? You’re Invited!

Becoming a part of Susan’s team gives you a great opportunity to support a lovely woman as she celebrates the completion of her newest book. You may only have time to send a tweet or two about the book, or you might write a review on Amazon (all authors love that!), or share a graphic on Facebook.

Whatever way you choose to participate is appreciated, so check out her book website and sign up today!

Whether you officially join the launch team or not, do plan on joining us on Tuesday, October 7th at 12 pm (ET) for a FREE webinar, hosted by Becky Robinson. Susan has a great sense of humor – and the title of the webinar alone should make you want to sign up now! Hear Susan and Becky discuss why forced motivation is not the best way to gain employee engagement… and so much more. Register Today!

It’s Never Too Late to Do Something

When I first met John Stoker, he expressed some disappointment about the marketing of  his May 2013 release, Overcoming Fake Talk.

If I had ten bucks for every time someone expressed disappointment about money spent on publicity and marketing, I could take the trip to Hawaii I’ve always dreamed of. (Well, not quite.)

The trouble with hiring a marketing and publicity companies is a lack of clear guarantees. Beyond that, companies offer a large range of services at a huge range of price points.

People may not know what they are paying for and they also may not know what results to reasonably expect.

And underscoring the question of what to invest and with whom is the certainty that without marketing and publicity, authors will not get the results and reach they hope for.

But what works? What activities and initiatives move the needle on sales? What is the highest impact opportunity for investment in marketing and publicity?

Does social media work? Does PR? Television? Radio? Advertising?

How is marketing and publicity money best invested?

Marketing books is not easy. Marketing business books is exceedingly challenging, as thousands are published each year to a shrinking audience of readers.

When people come to my team and me for support in bringing their books into the world, what I most often hear is that people want to share their books with as many people as possible. Most often, this desire is not about making money from their books; it is truly about making as big a difference as possible with their message.

As my friend Kevin Eikenberry once said, what I really sell is hope. People who invest with my company believe and hope that the work we initiate on their behalf will have powerful results in extending the impact of their messages.

This week, I learned, happily, that it is never too late to invest energy, time, and money in marketing a book.

For several months, my team has been laying the groundwork for a renewed effort on behalf of John Stoker and Overcoming Fake Talk.

John wasn’t sure what to expect and we weren’t sure either. What response would we have to our marketing efforts of a book 17 months after its initial release?

What we’ve seen so far is tremendous response to media pitches and our PR Web news release, several new reviews on Amazon, and a big spike in Amazon rank on both Kindle and print versions of the book. This afternoon, we have over 100 people registered for a free webinar (it’s not too late to sign up!). We are seeing people share about the book on social channels.

We created new opportunities and energy around a book months after it’s new release.

The lesson: it’s never to late to do something!

The Magic Happens…

… when you show up.

If you have worked with me at all, you have heard me say this phrase: “The magic happens when you show up.”

If you don’t show up, nothing can happen.

When you show up matters.

Where you show up matters. What you do when you get there matters.

Who you show up with matters. How you show up matters.

But none of it matters if you don’t show up at all.

The magic related to showing up applies to both our offline lives and our online ones.

Jason Seiden posted yesterday on Facebook:  If you don’t look better online than you are in real life, you’re doing it wrong.

While I don’t agree wholeheartedly, I do believe that we need to show up online with intention and in ways that match our in-person impact.

I don’t want to be a big deal online if I am not a big deal in real life.

And if you are a big deal in real life, you are not as big as you think if your online presence doesn’t match who you are online.

If you don’t show up online in a way that matches your real life influence, you are missing a massive opportunity to make a much bigger impact than you’re currently making.

The obvious and most impactful difference we can make in the world happens when we are present with people in real life situations.

Why? Because our in person impact is limited by geography, constrained by our personal limitations. We can only do so much in real life: speak, write, consult, train. As we show up in real life, our influence is limited to the number of people we can talk to and spend time with.

When we show up online, we release ourselves from the constraints; we can influence people anywhere, any time, through content, conversations, and the communities we create.

Showing up online means we can reach an unlimited audience. Showing up online in powerful ways creates the opportunity to make the biggest possible difference for our message and mission.

But when our online lives don’t match our in person impact, our ability to influence others is diminished.

A few years ago, my friend and client Karin Hurt decided to do a search to see how she was showing up online. She discovered that what Google knew about her in 2010 could be summed up by one photo — an image from a local road race.

How she showed up online didn’t match up with who she knew herself to be in real life: her knowledge and experience. It also didn’t coincide with how she wanted to show up: the difference she hoped to make in the world.

If you Google search Karin Hurt’s name today, you’ll find out that she has shown up online in very powerful ways since that day. The impact she is making and the influence she is building far surpasses the difference she made before.

She made a conscious decision to show up online. Through focused, consistent effort, creating content and engaging with others, she made magic happen, for herself and others.

Because the magic happens when you show up!

How do you show up online? Does your online presence match the real life difference you want to make? What does Google know about you?

Featured on Friday: S. Chris Edmonds

Last summer I had the opportunity to meet Becky at the Berrett-Koehler Author Co-Op Book Marketing Workshop in Atlanta. During this two day event, Becky teamed up with today’s featured author to talk about ways to create an active community via social media.

While they were up front sharing examples and talking about what they know best – social communities – I attempted to hide behind my laptop so no one would feel compelled to start a conversation with me. As an INTJ, sitting at the center table in a roomful of strangers is on par with a root canal.

However, while live tweeting the various speakers, someone DID start up a conversation… via Twitter. Tweets and retweets went flying throughout the day, and as I prepared to flee the “mix and mingle” session, my Twitter conversationalist approached to say he had enjoyed my tweeting of the event. That person was today’s featured author, and an all around nice guy – in person, and on Twitter.

Meet S. Chris Edmonds

Chris is the founder and CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group, keynote speaker, and senior consultant with The Ken Blanchard Companies. He spent 15 years leading and managing successful business teams before starting his consulting company in 1990, and is the author or co-author of six books and one manifesto, including his soon-to-be-released book, The Culture Engine.

Over the years Chris has worked for clients in industries including automotive, banking and financial services, government, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, non-profit, pharmaceutical, retail, sales, software, and technology. Under his guidance, culture clients have consistently boosted their customer satisfaction and employee engagement rates by 40 percent or more and their profits by 35 percent or more.

When he’s not busy writing books or boosting engagement and profits for his clients, Chris provides guitars, banjo, mandolin and vocals for the Jones & Raine band. Two singles from the band’s 2009 debut album made the Billboard country charts.

Connect with Chris Online

Find him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Don’t forget to visit the website for his new book, The Culture Engine. There you will find cool graphics to share, links to buy the book (and bulk buy offers), a free sample chapter and more.

The Culture Engine – Launching September 29th!

Our team is excited to be working with Chris, gearing up for the celebration of the September release of The Culture Engine Consider this your official invitation to join us!

Becoming a part of the team gives you various opportunities to be involved, including sending tweets, sharing graphics, writing a book review, interviewing Chris, and generally helping spread the word during the launch week. Interested?

Check out his book website and sign up today!

Whether you plan to be a part of the launch team or not, we do hope you will join us on Wednesday, October 1st at 12 pm (ET) for a FREE webinar, hosted by Becky Robinson and featuring our special guest… Chris! Learn more about how culture drives everything that happens in an organization, and how a great culture can drive great performance. Register Today!

Losing Fitness

After running a full marathon this spring, my discipline disappeared.

With a half marathon (or two) on the calendar this fall, I am running again, although not without moments of regret about all the fitness I’ve lost.

A summer’s worth of neglect — that’s all it takes.

My choices this summer, choices that did not include running, have determined my current (compromised) fitness for running.

My lost fitness is mostly cardio-vascular. My legs are okay. Running six miles isn’t so bad; my legs aren’t sore at the end. But carry on a conversation while I run? Sprint for more than a few paces without being winded? Nope. Nope.

The only way to recover the fitness is to recover the discipline.

While thinking about lost physical fitness, I realized that it’s crazy easy to lose fitness in other areas, as well.

You may be able to identify with these other areas in which I can easily lose fitness/focus.

Without discipline, I can lose my fitness for perspective. My friend and client Linda Freeman is leading a service group to Cambodia. She leaves next weekend. Over lunch last week, we talked about the living conditions of families in Cambodia. She shared the startling fact that many families sell their daughters, as young as age 5, into sex slavery, out of desperation, in order to support other family members. They sell their daughters for as little as $150 US Dollars, less than the price you would pay for a pig. I spent twice that much money yesterday at a back to school shopping trip (a last minute one to pick up a few things!)  Linda and her group will visit and help the folks at She Rescue Home, people who are daily sacrificing to meet the needs of people whose poverty I can only begin to imagine. In order to maintain perspective, I must be disciplined and awake to life outside my comfortable experience.

Without discipline, I can lose my fitness for gratitude. Tim Sanders calls gratitude a muscle, one that must be exercised daily. Without daily exercise of the gratitude, I can easily lose my ability to see and appreciate all that I have.  I have to practice, making a thousand small choices a day to cherish the blessings of my life. I can be grateful for the comfortable bed that I slept in last night, for clean, abundant water in my taps, for a safe community in which to raise my daughters, for free public education, for the 2006 dented minivan that reliably carries me anywhere I want to go.

Without discipline, I can lose my fitness for serving others. It’s far easier to focus on myself than to focus on others. Serving requires disciplined focus on others and their needs. If my wants, needs, and comforts are my primary concern, I will serve myself. If others’ needs are more important to me, I will serve others. Serving others requires, like gratitude, a thousand small choices every day. In the moment, I can choose to serve myself or I can choose to serve others. My choices determine my fitness for future service.

Without discipline, I am not fit to live the life I want to live and run the race I want to run. I must choose to discipline myself, physically and mentally, every day. A thousand small choices every day: perspective, gratitude, service.

photo credit Gemma Styles

Featured on Friday: Mark Babbitt & Ted Coiné

It really is a social world. Back in early 2012, a friend talked me into getting a Twitter account, and my husband forced me into an upgrade to a smartphone. A month later I was tweeting to some woman named @beckyrbnsn and she was asking me what kind of job I was looking for. A few tweets, a couple of DMs, and a Skype call later, I found myself working as a freelance contractor with Weaving Influence.

Becky introduced me to the idea of TWIRL, and I watched as she gathered a virtual team using various avenues: Twitter, Facebook, blog posts, personal recommendations, real life friends. As we grow, our social influence expands and we start opening doors for others. Before you  know it, you’re “friending” people you’ve never met, and developing deeper relationships with strangers online than you do with people in real life. We do live in A World Gone Social, as so well explained by today’s featured authors…

Meet Mark Babbitt & Ted Coiné

If you’ve ever visited Switch & Shift, you may know those names already.  Did you know they’ve written a new book together? Learn more about this great duo, then continue reading to learn more about their book, how you can get a copy, and where you can catch up with them next month.

Mark Babbitt is a keynote speaker, blogger, father of five and a grandfather. In his “spare” time, he’s also the CEO of YouTern, a community that enables those in career transition – from college students to workforce veterans – become highly employable by connecting them to high-impact internships, mentors and contemporary career advice. He also serves as President of SwitchandShift.com, and is CMO and a co-Founder of ForwardHeroes.org, a non-profit that assists military veterans successfully transition into the civilian workforce.

Ted Coiné is a three-time CEO, Chairman and Founder of SwitchandShift.com, and keynote speaker. He’s also one of the most influential business experts on the Web, top-ranked by Forbes, Inc., SAP Business Innovation, and Huffington Post for his leadership, customer experience, and social media influence. In addition to speaking at conferences, Ted consults with owners, CEOs and boards of directors on making their companies more competitive by making them more human-focused. 

Connect with Mark & Ted Online

Mark on Social: Facebook (YouTern), Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+

Ted on Social: Facebook (Switch & Shift), Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+

Get Ready to Get Social - September 22 – 26!

Our team is joining with Mark and Ted to celebrate the September release of A World Gone Social, and we’d love for you to join us! There are many ways to be involved in the launch, including joining Mark and Ted for a FREE webinar, hosted by Becky Robinson. If you don’t have plans, you’re invited to join them on September 19 at 12 pm (ET). Don’t miss this unique opportunity - sign up today! 

Want to get social and share the launch with your friends? Check out the resources found on the book’s website, and start spreading the word. Do you use Pinterest? Don’t forget to pin images directly from the website, so anyone who clicks through to them will also be able to learn more about the book. What are you waiting for? Let’s get SOCIAL!

You Tell Me! What’s your favorite social media channel? Are you on Twitter? Follow me @cgkoens!

 

What Evidence Do Your Choices Create?

Yesterday, I started the morning with a happy discovery. I thought I had my whole day booked with calls.

When I looked at my calendar, I saw, instead, that I had 3 open hours in the middle of my day with 90 minutes blocked to work on a strategy for a client.

Having a block of time for work feels like a gift, but the truth is, I get derailed very easily.

What would I choose during those 3 hours? Would I spend, as intended, 90 minutes focused on my client, as my calendar read?

Or would I get distracted and unconsciously shift to other more urgent/pressing matters as they came into my email? Would I consciously make another choice, depending on the day’s biggest needs?

At the end of each day, looking at the choices I make provides indication of what I value: it’s evidence, data.

Here’s what happened: a meeting with my company’s directors extended nearly 30-minutes beyond the allocated time due to a staffing issue. I needed to make two more phone calls as a result of that team call. That urgent, but important, need, consumed nearly all of the open time on my calendar.

What evidence did my choice create? In my mind, the choice created important evidence about what I value.

I value my team. If someone on the team is hurting, I must attend to that pain. If our company as a whole is suffering, I must attend to the root causes and make powerful steps forward.

Our company’s health and each individual team member’s effectiveness is absolutely primary. Without healthy team members, we will not be able to serve our clients.

Without effective team members, we will fail on our commitments to clients. If we fail in commitments to clients, we will not retain clients for long. Without clients, our company would not exist.

What evidence will you create with your choices today?

How you use your time, both at work and in off times, is evidence of what you value. If there is a mismatch between your stated values and your choices (or if there is a mismatch with mine), it’s time to re-evaluate. The best way to re-evaluate is to go back to your values. What do you value? Do your choices create evidence of those values?

As you live life in general, you want your choices to align with your personal values. Have you ever written them down? In my company, I want to be sure that our choices reflect our company’s values: growth, responsiveness, generosity, partnership, integrity, flexibility.

I am challenged this week as I choose to be mindful of my values, personal and company. I choose to be mindful that my choices create evidence about what I value.

Tell me something! What choices are you making today? What evidence of your values are you creating? How will you be mindful of making choices that align with your values?

Hat tip to Whitney Johnson for quote image.

Featured on Friday: Back to School Webinars!

You’ve probably caught on to the fact that the team members of Weaving Influence are scattered from Michigan to South America, and from California to the Carolinas. As a virtual team, we have a lot of ways we stay in touch. There’s the obvious: emails, phone calls, texting, and the occasional real-life meeting. And then there’s the not-so-obvious: secret Facebook groups, Google Hangouts, Basecamp, and Twitter. The Bottom Line: Communication is key.

I’ve recently been involved in more team and client meetings, and as a self-proclaimed introvert, I’ve been surprised to discover that I prefer video calls to faceless phone meetings. I like to see the reactions (though I have a terrible poker face myself), and I appreciate being able to avoid talking over someone as so often happens on conference calls.

This process of discovering what works best, how people learn, and what I can do to communicate more clearly has been evolving – thanks in part to getting more experience on my resume, but also to the clients that I have the privilege to work with and learn from. And now it’s your turn to hear from them!

We have some amazing FREE webinars coming up this autumn, and I am so excited to share three of them with you today…

September Webinars – 100% FREE to attend!

SPEAKER: John R. Stoker, author of Overcoming Fake Talk

WEBINAR: September 11 @ 12 pm (ET) (SIGN UP)

TOPIC: John Stoker built on his 20 years of training experience to write Overcoming Fake Talk, helping those who read it master the nuances and skills for holding REAL conversations for results. In celebration of his September 8 – 12 Book Buzz Week, you’re invited to join John as he shares principles and ideas found in Overcoming Fake Talk, and what it means to have a R.E.A.L. conversation.

 

SPEAKERS: Mark Babbitt and Ted Coiné, co-authors of A World Gone Social

WEBINAR: September 19 @ 12 pm (ET) (SIGN UP)

TOPIC: 5 Keys to Success in the Social Age. Mark and Ted will spend an hour sharing how many brands are still getting social wrong, and how your organization can avoid (or get out of) that trap. They’ll cover the idea of why size really matters, and how to reach within your organization to identify your brand champions and internal advocates. Discover the “Power of OPEN”, as well as how to become the MVP on any Social Age team – The Social Leader.

 

SPEAKERS: Ken Blanchard & Mark Miller, co-authors of The Secret: 10th Anniversary Edition

WEBINAR: September 29 @ 2 pm (ET) (SIGN UP)

SUMMARY: When Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller collaborated on The Secret, it was based on simple insights that had the potential to make a major impact. Listen in as Ken and Mark join Becky Robinson for an hour long webinar. Discover what inspired them to write The Secret, and how the principles they shared ten years ago are still relevant today.

 

One hour, no cost, Q & A opportunities – come join us!

If you’re looking for ways to continue your education, come to our Weaving Influence FREE Webinars and learn from these amazing “professors”, experts in their fields, and worth spending your lunch hour with. Hope to see you there!

The Big Reveal Isn’t Always Big

He plugs away for countless hours, through discipline and focus, to move things forward.

Early mornings, weekends, late nights, from a vacation beach-side in Aruba, my often-unseen collaborator, John Marcello, executes website development magic for our clients.

Our websites look fantastic, due to the creative designs of the talented Rachel Royer, our head designer. But they function well, with user friendly content management systems, because of John’s painstaking work.

Over the past 15-months, since John joined us at Weaving Influence, we’ve delivered so many websites that I’ve stopped counting. In the past week alone, we’ve launched 4 new book marketing microsites with a 5th one coming by week’s end.

In the midst of completing micro-sites for our busy fall book launch season, John has been attending to the finishing touches on the now-live fully mobile responsive GreatLeadersServe.com, including our first custom e-commerce solution.

The site may not look different from the original site at GreatLeadersServe.Org, but it is vastly different, with a new photo blog and massive functionality which poises our client, Mark Miller, to offer more of his valuable leadership content to the world.

I think I work hard but John matches or exceeds me. He is disciplined and shows up daily, delivering on his commitments.

John is so busy, in fact, that he hasn’t taken the time to add his bio and photo to our team page, despite my kind nagging.

As a result, he may be invisible…we don’t typically unveil our websites with a big reveal. We work virtually, so there are no pizza lunches at crunch time or toasts with bubbly when we complete a project.

But the value John brings in providing competent, caring services to our clients is not unseen by me.

John, I would not be able to do half of what I do without you. Thank you. I look forward to all the great work still ahead of us!

Now, go write your bio and add yourself to the team page, will ya?

Want to see more of John’s great work? Check out this just-launched book marketing micro-site for Hello, My Name is Awesome.

Interested in hiring the Weaving Influence team to design and develop your website? Contact me today!