I sat down with Mitchell Levy, http://AHAthat.com, for a Q&A session about thought leadership and rationale behind his current Kickstarter campaign. Q: You have been helping individuals and companies share their thought leadership for as long as I’ve known you (over a decade). What do you see as the next stage for thought leadership? A:… Continue reading
When you have a truly powerful personal brand, the cost of getting things done becomes very low. Why? Because a lot of people voluntarily want to support you and your causes, initiatives and projects. There is another big advantage. You can just be yourself. No masks. No pretense. Just YOU! Here is a less than… Continue reading
You can distinguish yourself in a number of ways. But, if what you do to distinguish yourself is not relevant to the context, then it is pure noise. For example, you decide to stand out by getting on a punk hairstyle. The next day you will get a lot of attention from colleagues at your… Continue reading
Richard Branson (no introduction needed) shares a story from his early entrepreneur days in his book “Business Stripped Bare.” As most of you know, Richard started his entrepreneurial journey by starting and running the “Student” magazine. One day, Patricia Lambert from the media giant IPC reached out and made an offer to buy the “Student”… Continue reading
Take something very basic – a bookmark. It provides a quick way to continue reading your favorite book from where you left off. It is very basic but provides great utility. The alternative is to dog ear the book or do memory magic and remember the page numbers of all the books that you are… Continue reading
There was no spelling mistake here. Unstallation, as you might have guessed is a made up word. It is the opposite of being in a “stalled” state. Suppose you were in a town where people didn’t know about cars. They had bikes alright but no cars. You come up with an idea of a car… Continue reading
Everyone knows the power of reciprocation – it’s usually a thank you gift as the result of a something received earlier. Reciprocation doesn’t work every time simply because there are too many free riders. Free riders are typically people who feel entitled to receive things for free and take those who help them for granted…. Continue reading
In your heart, you want to stand out from the crowd. There comes the stress right there. The Stress During the process of you transforming yourself to “stand out,” you are still part of the crowd. When you are there and becoming someone that is not one of them, there is a lot of resistance… Continue reading
You already know the need for distinguishing yourself in the marketplace. The opposite of distinguishing yourself is to be a victim of commoditization. The immediate side effect of commoditization is erosion of value – your value. If you offer the same value as hundreds of other available options, then why pay more than one of… Continue reading
A few days ago, I was in Austin for a business trip. I took a cab from the airport to the Driskill hotel in downtown Austin. It was a cold night anti must have rained the previous day. There was some traffic back to the city so it was a longer ride than normal. The… Continue reading