Five tips on publishing books from the guy who knows a thing or two or more about doing so. And finally, did you want to know the title of Alan’s five upcoming books? You have to listen to find out.
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© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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A few of us who have been fortunate enough to reach the heights of keynote speaking periodically chat, and agree that the dumbest questions we are asked are things like, “What should I know about professional speaking?” and “What good advice can you give me?” and “What should I be concerned about?” (Be concerned about whether those poor people on “Lost” every get off that stinking island.)
“What’s the best way to make it as a consultant?”
The best way is not to ask stupid questions.
I’m constantly asked to do or respond to things like this:
“Take a look at my proposal and give me your thoughts.”
“What should I know about book contracts?”
“How should I prepare for a meeting coming up?”
“What do you think I should consult on?”
“Do you think I should be doing anything else?”
For Pete’s sake, how do you think you should prepare for a meeting? Find out something about the buyer, the company, and the industry. Be prepared to follow the other person’s style. Keep the buyer talking until you establish what the needs are, then offer value. Build the relationship through such value. Find a definitive next step that will take you toward a proposal. If you find this is not a buyer, find out who the real buyer is.
The problem is that if I explain all of those obviousities, the same person asks me the same question prior to another meeting two weeks later! If you can’t internalize and learn, then maybe this isn’t the business for you. (Maybe no business is the business for you!) Coaching is about providing pragmatic help toward growth. Dependency is about doing it repeatedly for someone else because they refuse to do it themselves.
No one is expected to know everything. But all of us should be expected to know how to learn. You discuss, practice, apply, get feedback, and improve. Further questions are about further improvement, not the same issue as the original. Sisyphus, where are you when we need you?
There is only one way to find out who may be calling you when the phone rings and there is no caller ID feature. You pick it up and say, “Hello?” (or, “pronto,” which sounds better). Asking me or anyone else who we think it might be won’t help, and the caller—and the opportunity—will disappear.
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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Buddy is all full of himself this morning since a Beagle won at Westminster last night for the first time in history. (Beagles are the only breed continually on the “10 most popular” list since its inception in the early 20th Century.)
I know why this dog won. Because he’s, well, a dog. He’s not poofed up like the aftermath of a blow dryer explosion, or fragile like a rail-thin Supermodel, or skittish as if walking on egg shells over ice.
I direct you to the video on this blog titled, “Beagle Lessons.”
Fortunately, Koufax isn’t upset since he considers beauty competitions beneath him, despite the claim that it’s all about the scholarships.
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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1. Dancing with non-buyers, gatekeepers, and nonentities.
Consider yourself a peer only of the true buyer, the person who can authorize a check. That philosophy is inside your head. If you want to avoid ever having anyone upset with you and need unconditional love all around you, get a dog and never leave the house.
2. Charging by a time unit.
It’s unethical to enter a relationship with a client wherein the client is best served by fast resolution and you are best served by slow resolution. If you can’t understand the value of a speedy improvement, consider whether you’d wait for a cheaper dentist to take care of your next toothache. (The stupidity of dentists’ rates is a subject for another day.)
3. Listening to colossally stupid advice.
I’ve been to meetings of professional associations where the “speakers” and the “experts in the hall” were talking about approaches that are so dumb that I was speechless (e.g., “Get a good mailing list and send out thousands of emails, looking for a one percent positive return”; “Use Linked-In to get leads from your friends.” If you want to learn to ski, make sure the instructor’s rear end is immediately ahead of you on the hill, successfully doing what he claims you should be doing.
4. Adhering to the “can’t”
Please don’t tell me you “can’t write,” or “can’t speak,” or “can’t use technology.” What if your clients told you that they just “can’t”? Learn to write, learn to speak, learn to type, learn to learn. What kind of role model are you for clients (or for yourself) if you can’t manage to shatter your own perceived shortcomings and emerge a changed and better person?
5. Thinking that self-development means reading Good to Great
I’m not picking on this book, which is actually pretty good, but on the notion that reading a best-seller or faddish work on the location of cheese constitutes professional development. Attend programs that are acknowledged to be the best in the field. Find a great coach or mentor. Read extensively in history, biography, and science. If you’re not an object of interest, well, no one will be interested.
6. Failing to establish a definitive next step
Ye gads, when you are talking on the phone, sending an email, or meeting in person (!!), stipulate what the next step is, when it occurs, and who’s responsible for what. Just this morning I had an email from London asking me what I thought of a response to a meeting with a CEO that petered out without another meeting agreed upon. Someone else told me they spent five hours on an airplane chatting up a CEO, but wondered how to get back to them to set up a meeting! What I think is that you have to do a lot better than that. Write it down somewhere: What happens next and when?
7. Forcing the client into your boxes
The client needs results, not necessarily your “program.” Your expertise is valuable in achieving results, but your technology or methodology is merely a transfer mechanism. Give up your insistence on the classroom, or your self-published books, or your 360° assessments, or (heaven forefend) your Myers-Briggs (or worse) personality assessments. The expertise is in your head, the improvement is in the client’s environment. Figure out the best way to get it from Point A to Point B. It’s not always the same road.
8. Negotiating price
Never negotiate price, only value. If you’re talking about fee or price early in the discussion, you’ve lost control of the discussion. All buyers would want to lower fees, but none want to decrease value.
9. Poor use of language
There is a great difference between, “If you don’t pay us in advance, we have to charge you a higher fee,” and, “We’re pleased to offer a courtesy discount for payment in advance.” Language controls discussion; discussion controls relationships; relationships control business. Learn to use persuasive language and compelling metaphors.
10. Stressing you and not them
I really don’t care about your credentials or your schooling, or the fact that you’ve been named to “Who’s Who Among Women Between 41 and 43 in the New England States Close to the Water,” for which you had to buy the book to be included, anyway! I care about how I may benefit from your value. Too many web sites, press kits, collateral, and conversations focus on why you’re good and not why I’ll be better.
11. Taking it personally
If a Tyrannosaur or cheetah got depressed every time it missed making a “kill,” their families would never be fed. Since T. Rex was around for 20 million years or so, I’m confident that depression wasn’t a problem for it. Some buyers fail to buy. We all have bad days. The prey escapes. Learn and improve, but stop moping and whining. Or take the advice I give clients who complain about their fate: “Shut up.”
12. Poor financial planning
The time to start a retirement plan is now, and the time to contribute to it is continually. You need life, health, disability, malpractice, and liability insurance, along with long-term care and umbrella liability. You need a SEP IRA, or 401K, or some equivalents. Pay yourself first, and make sure that you’re building powerful net worth with sufficient liquidity. If you’re taking the risks of this business, you’d better be acquiring the rewards.
13. Failure to reinvent
I don’t care how good you are at whatever you do, it will become stale to you and to others. Life is not about doing the same thing over and over, it’s about becoming so good that you can start doing other things. Jump the “S-Curve” to new heights. Only you can reinvent yourself. That’s how you stay ahead in any economy, technology, or society.
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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How effective are laws that result from a scandal? What is it about these absurd rules and hypocritical regulations and what all of this has to do with getting your social security card and driver license? Listen and stick around to find out.
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© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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Well, Ashley didn’t make the finals, incredibly. But here is the update:
• She won the top award for swimsuit competition in the preliminaries
• She won the Miss Photogenic award out of all 52 competitors
• She won a modeling contract and may be on the cover of a magazine in the near future
• She was a finalist in the quality of life award for her community service work
Thanks to all of you who cast votes for her!
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How to deal with people that constantly complain and what is the danger of such mindset. Listen to Alan in this rare episode complain about complainers.
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© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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My son, Jason, is a sometimes-employed actor and a frequently-employed bartender in New York City. He recently landed the prestigious role of Iago in a play to be produced in Virginia in a couple of months. Dutifully, he headed off to Barnes & Noble to purchase Othello and begin learning his lines. Rather than return home, he decided to begin studying at the store.
The only remaining seat was at a table occupied by a woman. Jason asked permission to share it. She told him to go right ahead.
In a few minutes, she asked if he would watch her possessions while she went to the rest room. He told her to go right ahead.
When she returned she asked why he was highlighting so many passages in the book. He explained he was an actor.
Her: “As an actor, do you learn about stage work, lighting, carpentry, and so on?”
Him: “Sure. It was was a requirement in school and critical in off-Broadway productions.”
Her: “Could you do that in someone’s house?”
Him: “Yes, I’m my sister’s handyman, for her condo, as a matter of fact.”
Her: “Would you mind looking at some work I’d like done and giving me an estimate?”
As Jason agrees and searches for his card, he asks what her profession is.
Her: “Oh, I’m a consultant.”
Him: “What kind of consultant?”
Her: “Management consultant.”
Him: “Have you ever heard of Alan Weiss?”
Her: “Alan Weiss?! Of course. He’s BIG, VERY BIG. I was able to hear him speak once in New York.”
Him: “You know you can buy some of his books downstairs here.”
Her: “I have a lot of them already.”
Him: “He’s my father.”
Her: “You’re KIDDING!”
Jason finds his card at last and hands it over as proof.
Her: “How soon can you come over?”
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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I’ve been asked to comment on how to “make it through” tough economic times. For example, if housing starts are radically down, what do you do when Home Depot suffers and stops using consultants?
Oh, boy.
First, the preventive:
Your clients and prospects should be diversified and analogous to a good stock portfolio. That’s EXACTLY why I’ve never liked the “specialize or die” platitudes, which sound nice but make no business sense. You must develop an expertise, appeal, following, brand, and identity which transcends businesses, industries, and even cultures. Generalize and thrive. Specialize and agonize.
High-end cars, jewelry, and attire are going strong. Airlines are packed to the gills with paying customers. Pet foods and accessories are never going to abate, nor is the health industry, nor the alcohol industry. What’s known as “hospitality” is doing just fine—try to get a good hotel room in New York or San Francisco, or a table at an outstanding restaurant on a weekend. The ferries to Nantucket are already packed with reservations for next summer.
Oh, and hey, there are a couple of high tech firms that seem to be quite strong, some non-profits having great years, and some universities with record endowments. Then there are athletic teams, the travel industry….
My obviousity here is that you need to:
1. Diversify your pipeline through a diversified appeal.
2. Stop being lazy and dealing purely with long-time clients and easy referral business. It’s the Hymenoptera and the Orthoptera story, you know?
Second, contingent:
Okay, so you were the grasshopper, not the ant, and you focused on two large clients in the motorcycle sidecar business who let you go when sidecar insurance went through the roof because of petroleum prices in Estonia where they produce the rubber connection dohickies in farm collectives along the Baden-Flush Estuary.
How could you have known?
Here is what you do now:
1. Call everyone you know, tell them of your current (one hopes, BROAD) value proposition, and ask if you can be of help to them or anyone they know. In other words, ask for business and referrals.
2. Change your web site, collateral, and conversation to reflect the broadest, most diverse application of your services that you are remotely comfortable promoting.
3. Consider new products and services for existing and/or recent customers. Make sure they are value-laden, but don’t be bashful about introducing them. The less labor intense, the better.
4. Speak wherever you can, for free if you have to, in order to get in front of the maximum number of recommenders and buyers.
5. Use unexpected downtime to work on longer range projects, such as book proposals, and/or to relax.
6. Do not beat yourself up. But if you fail to take preventive actions a second time, then have someone else beat the hell out of you.
7. Consider using technology to reach out to overseas prospects and/or alliance partners.
This is a great time to be a consultant. This remains, in the US, a $14 trillion economy. Technology enables us to perform remote work across oceans and continents. The economy is never totally down, there are always bright spots. You have no constraints from a boss or board as to where you go and what you try.
Be bolder than ever. Blow your own horn. Understand that most people are intimidated by bad economic news.
That means it’s easier for you to stand out in a crowd.
If you’re confident enough to stand out there.
You’ve just received $10,000 of coaching advice. Imagine what would happen if you joined my Private Roster Mentor Program? (See, get the idea?)
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
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This is called “An Interview With God.” It is not for everyone. I found the messages to be quite valuable to apply to ourselves. You may find it superficial and judgmental, I don’t know. It’s here if you’re curious and can use five minutes of striking photos and life balance suggestions:
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