Becky Robinson's Blog, page 78

Featured on Friday: Beau Sides

If you’ve been following the book launches that Weaving Influence has had the privilege to be a part of since we started back in 2012, you’ll probably have picked up on the fact that we tend to work with those in the leadership community.

This week we were involved in the launch of Lead Positive, coming up on the 31st we’ll be talking about The Idea-Driven Organization. In the past we’ve promoted Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, Leadership and the Art of Struggle, Leaders Open Doors, The Heart of Leadership, and a host of others.

Today’s author has written a slightly different book, based on his own travels and experience and told in the style of a parable. While it’s not a leadership book, per se, the author is most definitely someone that you would want to listen to and learn from. He has a lot of wisdom to share when it comes to spending time outside of the U.S., handling cultural differences, teaching English as a Second Language (ESL),  and learning that our way is not the only way.

Meet Beau Sides

After more than 40 trips to China, Beau says it feels like a second home. Building cultural awareness and fostering cross-cultural relationships are high on his list of reasons for writing this new book, Lessons from China (launching April 7). In addition to being an author, businessman, teacher, humanitarian, and husband, Beau is also the founder and CEO of Global Partners in Life. GPiL is a non-profit organization that focuses specifically on  orphaned children (including those with special needs) and disadvantaged youth in China, assisting them with their educational, humanitarian, and medical needs.

Connect with Beau Online

Like his page on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Mark It On Your Calendar (April 7 – 11, 2014)

Now that you have joined forces with Beau through social media (you did click through all those links up there, right?), I would love to invite you to join us as we promote Beau’s book during the second week of April. We’re looking for people who are willing to tweet, share, pin, and review Lessons from China. Do you know someone who is interested in China? Perhaps a friend who is thinking about teaching English as a Second Language? Send a tweet now and share the Amazon link with them. If you want to help during launch week, there’s a page of resources to make sharing easy, so check them out and bookmark the page.

Will you help us spread the word?

 

Say Something Meaningful: Crowdsourced on Facebook and Twitter

Our words are powerful.

When we compliment others in specific and meaningful ways, our words can have tremendous impact.

To demonstrate this truth, I asked my friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter to share meaningful compliments they’ve received.

Here are the responses I received:

From @ApopkaDeb: “Thank you for sharing yourself and a part of your story with us.”

From @JaneAnderson: “You’re like an inspirational greeting card” and “You’re our go-to person.”

From David: “They can’t fire you, you are the only one who tells us the truth.”

From @JenniferVMiller: “I’m so glad you’re in this world, Jennifer.”

From @StratLearner: “You are a learning machine!”

From @fab_angie “I can depend on you.”

From @johnsonwhitney: “You are smart!” (She is!)

From Jennifer: Your kids are well-behaved.

From @MegEWallace: “Meg worked magical feats of wonder… spinning straw into something approaching gold.”

From @GianaConsulting: “You’re such an Einstein, brilliant one minute and a ditz the next.”

From @ConnellLessons: “During a coaching session, an executive told me I had found my calling.”

From @brendakenasonwe: “God gave you the most compassionate heart and soul.”

From @BKneuer: “You are a good listener; thank you for being there.”

From @shermanspeaks: “You are a great dad.”

Why did these compliments resonate? Likely they connected in some deep way to the recipients values and beliefs about themselves.

Here’s a compliment that resonated with me today, from my friend @17jamie. He wrote to me, “You are a woman after my heart.” And yesterday, from @djgreer, a compliment for both me and my friend @thehrgoddess, “Like you, Jane, Becky is always worth listening to.”

“Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body” ~Proverbs 16:24.

If you have the breath to speak, why not say something meaningful, today, something that will resonate deeply with the people around you? Your heartfelt compliments will be sweet to others.

This blog post is inspired by Dr. Kathy Cramer’s book, Lead Positive, launching this week. If you have not already, buy a copy today! 

I also wrote three other posts inspired by Kathy’s book, graciously hosted around the web: How Will You Show Up Today?, The Worst Things Become the Best Things, and Use the A-S-A Framework to Lead Positive. I dare you to click through and read all three.

Tell me something! What is a meaningful compliment you’ve received?

I’m Contagious!

Our words are powerful.

If we use words that focus on the negative, that negative perspective and attitude will infuse our conversations and infect others.

If, instead, we choose to use positive, uplifting words, our positive perspective will permeate our interactions with others.

On a day that marks the beginning of launch week for Dr. Kathy Cramer’s new book, Lead Positive:What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say, and Do, I must admit, I find it challenging, at times, to follow her advice to focus on what’s working instead of what isn’t working, to see possibilities instead of problems.

Because my attitude is contagious, I must be careful what I say and do, as a leader, as mother, as a friend — in every interaction.

For example, my kids and my team are sometimes grumpy on Monday mornings. I can choose to be grumpy and join in complaining about Monday, or I can choose positive words that focus on the possibilities of a new week and the good things we can look forward to together.

What do people catch from you?

Are your words positive, focused on what’s working and what’s possible?

Or do you tend to talk about problems and what’s not working?

Reading Kathy’s book has given me a new awareness of how my own words and attitudes and their effect on others. I am committed to becoming a #leadpositive leader. I hope it catches on!

I am happy to support Kathy Cramer’s book launch this week. I encourage you to buy the book today to learn more about how you can become a #leadpositive leader. 

 

Featured on Friday: Alan Robinson & Dean Schroeder

Not every week can be a banner week, but I think most of the people on our team are really happy today is Friday. I know I am! But even during the bad weeks, each day we come back, partly because we like having money to pay the bills, but also because we love the people that we have the honor to support. Authors and thought leaders who are pouring their lives and energy into writing books and sharing their hard-earned wisdom.

While we get to help them celebrate book successes and media spotlights, we also love learning from them as we read their work and get to know them through the launch process. Today’s authors are no exception. They have an amazing new book coming out the end of this month and you are not going to want to miss being a part of their launch!

Meet Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder

Although this is our first book launch with Alan and Dean, it is not their first book together. In 2004 they published Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations. On March 31, 2014, they will celebrate the launch of their second book together, The Idea-Driven Organization. While juggling busy lives and careers, Robinson and Schroeder have managed to write what just might be one of the best business books of the year, and we can’t wait to have you join us in promoting it!

Dr. Alan G. Robinson specializes in lean production, managing continuous improvement, creativity, ideas and innovation, not to mention the six books he has co-authored which have been translated into over 20 languages. Dr. Dean M. Schroeder is an award-winning author, consultant and scholar, widely respected for his work helping organizations improve management outcomes. Together they are a dynamic team who have written a book that you will not want to miss.

Connect with Alan and Dean Online

Connect with them on Twitter (Alan) (Dean), LinkedIn (Alan) (Dean), and Facebook. Once you’ve liked them, invite your friends to do the same!

Celebrate Launch Week!

Put a big circle around the week of March 31 – April 4 as we get ready to celebrate the launch of The Idea-Driven Organization. On Wednesday, April 2 @ 1 pm (ET), Dean and Alan will be spending one hour with Becky as they share how the best managers and organizations encourage, collect, and implement large numbers of employee ideas. It’s FREE to attend the webinar, so REGISTER NOW, and then INVITE A FRIEND!

Of course there are all kinds of ways to be involved in the launch: pre-order the book from Amazon, leave a review, or help us spread the word on social media using the easy-share tools found HERE. Oh, and if you’re interested in winning a FREE copy of the book, you can always enter the Goodreads giveaway!

From all of us to you… Happy Friday!

Keep Your Book in the Conversation

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that one of my favorite aspects of my work is developing long term partnership with clients.

One of the benefits of a long term partnership with our clients is that enables us to support our authors in keeping their books in the conversation: weeks, months, and even years after their launch weeks.

In order to create sustained sales for your book, you have to continue to share valuable content from the book, on your website and around the web. When you do this, you create awareness of and interest in your book. Alternatively, you need others (other bloggers, influencers) to join you in sharing your book.

As I have shared before, when you write a book, you need to be prepared to marry your message. Promoting your book is a long-term commitment!

Content you share + buzz your content creates + buzz others share = your book in the conversation = book sales.

Time and time again, our work with clients proves this equation. It also reinforces my strongly held belief that if you do nothing to promote your book and its message, you will not sell books.

Focused, consistent execution of a clearly defined promotion strategy is the only way you can sell books and reach your bigger picture goals.

Just this week, we sought to bring a great book back into the conversation. One year ago today, we launched Steven Snyder’s acclaimed book, Leadership and the Art of Struggle. Because we have an ongoing relationship with Steven, we used this anniversary week as motivation to share the book again. We asked bloggers who helped launch the book to tweet and share again. They did! (Thank you!)

As a result, Steven’s book is ranked again in its categories on Amazon. Keeping the book in the conversation = book sales.

We saw the same effect when we celebrated the anniversary of the launch of Bev Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni’s book Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go. 

It’s not complicated — in fact, this strategy could not be simpler. Keep your book in the conversation. Use whatever tactics you’d like and let me know if you see results. I am confident you will!

Will you join us in keeping Steven’s book in the conversation? Or, if you have not already, buy the book!

Celebrating one year since the launch of #artofstruggle by @Steven_J_Snyder Buy Now! http://bit.ly/ArtofStruggle Click to Tweet Now!

Living Our Core Values: Partnership

As a company, we’re a toddler: I’ve been working this new business full time not-quite-two years.

I remember my daughters at not-quite-two. They didn’t sleep through the night yet; they weren’t potty trained completely; they spoke in single words and short phrases, with lots of gestures. We had a lot of whining in the house.

When I remember that we are young and new as a company, I feel less worried about the fact that we don’t (or didn’t, until now) have an established vision, purpose, and values to hang on our virtual walls.

That changes now. Or starts to.

I have been working at defining our core values as a company and have identified six. I sent them off to some trusted advisers and shared with my team. There is (at least) one missing and I will likely refine over time.

Before I share the first value, I will share our mission statement:

As a company, Weaving Influence exists to make a positive difference by creating and optimizing opportunities:

For our clients, by sharing their ideas effectively to grow their influence and accomplish their big picture goals through the use of online tools.
For our team members, by offering meaningful, flexible work.
For our online communities, by sharing and promoting helpful, inspirational, educational, and life-changing content.

The mission is also a work in progress but encapsulates our mission as succinctly as I can, for now.

Our Core Values 

Our values guide our behavior, decisions, and choices. They highlight our differentiation from others. They are both actual and aspirational, describing how we operate as well as how we most aspire to operate.

One of our values is to partnership.

We relate to our clients as partners. To work with our clients effectively, we must develop strong relationships based in mutual trust and respect as well as effective collaboration every step of the way.  In most cases, we operate as an extension of our client’s internal teams, not as true vendors/suppliers.

Operating as partners, we are committed to our clients’ success and satisfaction.  We focus on staying in communication, anticipating needs and opportunities. We work to fix breakdowns quickly, by communicating openly about what is working and what is not as well as challenging each other’s thinking and expectations.

One of the most gratifying experiences for me so far in this business has been developing long-term partnerships with our clients. We have several clients that we have been serving for longer than 18 months. Most clients who work with us beyond an initial book launch will continue their contracts with no clear plan for ending our work together because of our strong partnership and commitment to their success.

We relate to our subcontractors as partners. Since we are a non-traditional, virtual company, and because we are moving fast, our team relationships are essential. We relate to one another as partners, committed to each other’s success and the success of our company as a whole. We relate to each other with kindness, respect, concern, understanding, and patience. We welcome newcomers warmly.

We develop strategic relationships/partnerships with our blogger community (Team Buzz Builder) and beyond. We would not be successful without the bloggers and other influencers who join us in sharing our authors’ work. As often as possible, we seek to forge new collaborative possibilities with the press, radio hosts, conference organizers, communities (Lead Change, Linked2Leadership, Lead With Giants), publishing companies, and more. We are grateful for opportunities to collaborate with these partners.

Tell me something! If you have worked with us as a client, subcontractor, or other partner, how do you see us living out the value of partnership? What could we do to improve in living out this value?

Featured on Friday: Book Launch Specials

Spring and fall tend to be some of our busiest book launch seasons, and we love  working together as a team to create a positive and successful outcome for our clients. As the company has grown, we have extended our services to include webinars and special book launch-centered opportunities, like bulk buy and pre-order offers.

If you are a part of Team Buzz Builder (and if you’re not – why not sign up today?), you’ve  been receiving emails about upcoming events and special opportunities to be involved in our spring launches. I hope you scan each email when it comes in because there’s always exciting news, notice of events, and book launch information contained within. So just in case you’ve missed it, here are a few dates to mark on your calendar, and some great opportunities to take advantage of in the coming weeks.

Get Ready to Lead Positive!

March 12 @ 1 pm (ET): Join us for a FREE webinar with special guest Dr. Kathy Cramer, author of Lead Positive and founder of Asset-Based Thinking. It should be a really interesting hour of discussion surrounding the ideas found within her newest book, as well as learning from the examples from real life leaders. Sign Up Now!

March 17 – 21: Dr. Kathy Cramer will be celebrating the official launch of her new book, Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say, and Do. Use these social media tools for sharing about the book with your online communities.

If you are interested in  ordering larger numbers of Lead Positive for your team, we recommend checking out some of the special offers that Dr. Cramer is offering, including free coaching sessions and seminars. 

And finally, as a free gift to you for ordering a copy of Lead Positive, Dr. Cramer would like to send you an iBook code, good for a copy of her bestseller, Change the Way You See Everything. If you pre-ordered the book or plan on ordering during the launch week, don’t forget to take advantage of this special offer. Click HERE to find out how to claim your free iBook offer code!

It’s Time for an Idea-Driven Organization!

March 31 – April 4: Get ready to build the buzz for one of the best business books of 2014 and second co-authored book by Dean Schroeder and Alan Robinson, The Idea-Driven Organization. Read a sample chapter now – Click Here.

April 2 @ 1 pm (ET): Join the FREE webinar with Dean and Alan as they discuss the ideas and research that went into The Idea-Driven Organization. Learn how to avoid some major pitfalls and collect and implement employee ideas. Sign Up Today!

If you enjoy what you read from the sample and learn on the webinar, you might be interested in bulk buy options that Dean and Alan have made available to those who would like to use The Idea-Driven Organization with their team. Based on the number of books purchased, you have the opportunity to take advantage of the expertise of Dean and/or Alan for webinars, conference calls, workshops and more. Click through to learn more.

Thank YOU!

It’s so much fun to learn from these amazing authors and leaders as we support their work. Thank you for joining with us in the promotion and helping us spread the word. It amazes all of us what incredible people we have in our base at Team Buzz Builder and beyond, and we love hearing from each and every one of you. Thanks for being a part of our team!

What Threatens to Derail Your Dreams?

I just laced up my shoes for 2 mile run, my first run in two weeks.

I had to stop running for nearly two weeks even though I’m training for a marathon because I pulled a muscle and it hurt to walk . Today I am nearly pain free so it’s time to run.

The marathon is in less than two months and I’ve nearly allowed the injury to the derail my dream of a marathon this year.

What do you allowed to derail your dreams?

I recently shared my book idea with a few friends, including my friends who work at a publisher. One friend recommended that she connect me to her agent. Then she wrote back and mentioned that he related that many of the mainstream publishers have plenty of social media box in the pipeline.

And discouragement. I feel deflated. And I could let that comment, in passing, derail my dream. (Note: my friend believes in my idea and is encouraging me to move forward.)

About a year ago, filled with excitement, I wanted to create a new service offering for my company. And I remember: well-meaning subcontractors encouraged me to simplify and abandon the idea. They felt strongly that last year was not the right time to embark on something new.

In retrospect, their advice was good. But saying not now is not the same as saying not ever. I don’t want to let that “not now derail” my dream forever.

What does it take to derail a dream? Can an injury derail a dream? It could. I could decide to give up after missing two weeks of training. Or, I could rest. I could take time to heal. And I can try again.

Is hearing that there are others are writing books enough to derail my dreams? No way! I have an idea that can make a difference. It’s my idea. I’m only one who can write my book.

Is bad timing a good reason to talk a dream a side forever? No way! A dream deferred is a dream ready to be reborn.

Though there may be pain in running after an injury, I never expected training for a marathon to be pain-free.

Though I may have to advocate for my book to find the right publisher, I will persevere.

And though now may not be the perfect time to execute my dream related to creating a service that can scale, I can keep thinking, keep planning, and wait until it’s clear that the time is right.

My dreams will not be derailed. I may be running more slowly but I am still running.

Tell me something! What threatens to derail your dreams?

Note: I dictated this blog post via voice to text while running one mile. After a mile, I could feel the twinge returning, so I stopped, hoping that tomorrow I may be strong enough to run two instead of one. 

Book Marketing: Why Blogger Reviews are Essential

Marketing in the 21st century is evolving fast. The digital revolution has changed the way people consume the news, pick up on new ideas and purchase goods.

This is great news for smaller organizations (and authors) as, whilst a big budget is still helpful to purchase advertising space, it is no longer a requirement. The age of “interruption marketing” is past. Consumers want to be fed relevant, contextual information when it suits them. And it is possible to do this without a big budget using the World Wide Web, as every organization, no matter what size, can be a publisher.

The latest buzz-word in marketing is influencer marketing.

Tapping into the people that have reach into your target audience to talk about your product. And it is only going to grow as the move to researching every purchase on the Web grows. To the younger generation – “digital natives” – it is all they know.

So, as an author, how do you tap into this huge opportunity?

Well, you need great content in the first place (your book and associated promotional material), and if you are growing your own social media presence (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) that can get you so far, but you need to reach a broader audience.

Which is where blogs come in. But why blogs?

Consumers trust bloggers – they are seen as independent, reliable commentators;
Bloggers are the experts in their field and you can laser target the relevant ones;
The blogosphere is growing in importance with over 2 million new blog posts every day; and
Google loves blogs for their changing content and active engagement.

Nowhere is this a more obvious opportunity than in the arts world, where a fragmented industry can now reach its target audience directly.

The film world has picked up on it with an exploding number of online reviewers and clever software apps like Distrify enabling immediate viewing and purchasing of films. And the book industry is following suit as reviewing, purchasing and reading are all digitized. Having your book reviewed on the Web has never been more important.

If you are unfamiliar with “blogger outreach” as a concept, it’s worth checking out this best practice guide. It’s a valuable strategy that requires a commitment, not an overnight win; but done right, it pays back in spades; and you’ve got a great starting point – a book to send to your bloggers!

So if you are ready to get going, how do you find the bloggers in your niche? Blog databases like Technorati are out-dated and Google blog search is a time-consuming minefield.

Which is why Inkybee was created.

Inkybee finds relevant bloggers using sophisticated keyword and tag-based searches. It then tells you which blogs are the most important by displaying a selection of key metrics, for instance:

You can search by any particular genre, niche or subject matter and filter by various criteria including location. And once you’ve got your bloggers sorted out, Inkybee also tracks your relationships with them and measures the impact of your outreach.

Is it time to get some rubber on your digital outreach road?

You can get started below:

Simple, smart blogger outreach

Find relevant blogs, rate them and manage your outreach.

Click below to create a free account and take Inkybee for a test run.

Start free trial

Hugh Anderson is a web entrepreneur and the Co-founder of Inkybee , a tool for smarter blogger outreach and influencer identification. He can be found on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

 

 Photo Credit: Bastografie / photocase.com

 

Training for LinkedIn Success: Contribute to Groups

My good friend Maria has a fail-safe support system for her fitness training: The Running Buds. This group of women (numbering 127 in a secret Facebook group), regularly plans and meets for long runs, even in the worst weather. They provide accountability for each other and encouragement for the journey. They share helpful articles, post inspiring quotes, and cheer each other on, daily. Though I am a member of the group, I don’t benefit because I don’t participate or contribute. I have yet to join even one of their runs.

When you join a group for marathon training, you increase your likelihood for success. I have not joined a group, but have a defacto one including my friend Maria, my husband, my running partner, Laura, and my friend Sharon. All are encouraging me in my training.

If you hope to use LinkedIn to increase your influence, groups can help. However, joining several groups will not benefit you at all, unless you devote time to participating in the groups. What will benefit you is choosing one or two groups that are relevant to the ways you want to make a difference in the world. Once you have determined that a group is a good fit, you can begin to connect with others and contribute to the group.

Here are 5 ways you can contribute to LinkedIn groups to grow your connections and influence:

Answer questions. Often people will use LinkedIn groups as a place to find mentoring and advice. If you are able to help and add value, don’t hesitate to answer questions posted in your LinkedIn groups.
Offer help. Always seek to add value before you extract value. If there are ways you can help someone in a group, do it! One of the most powerful connections I’ve made online started in a LinkedIn group. Jesse Lyn Stoner was planning to launch a blog. Our friendship began when I offered to help.
Comment on others’ content. If you want others to read and interact with your content, you need to go first! Read and interact with the content others are posting. Be encouraging. Share thoughtful comments.
Share your own content, when appropriate . Instead of using LinkedIn groups as just one more place to drop your links, consider whether your content will be useful to your group. If so, share and invite interaction.
As you have meaningful conversations, send connection request to members of the group. A LinkedIn group can be a great place to find and cultivate new relationships. If you see potential for a deeper relationship, send a connection request. Give a specific reason why you’d like to connect and follow-up as appropriate.

As with any initiative, the most important factor is consistent participation. To find success in networking through LinkedIn groups, you must show up consistently. That’s when the magic happens.

Tell me something! How have you found valuable and meaningful connections through LinkedIn groups?