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The Power of the Strategic Alliance

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After reading this post from Jason Falls – about the ROI of Social Media – I have been thinking a lot about a quote from Jeffrey Gitomer:

“Most people have powerful connections. Very few people have harnessed the power of their connections.”

“Because of”- Not “With”

It occurs to me that there is a lot more to a Strategic Alliance than simply promoting yourself. In fact, Gitomer gives pages and pages of reasons to do it in his Little Black Book of Connections. I would like to suggest that the strongest reason for creating strategic alliances is that you can build your business because of your them, rather than with your strategic alliances.

Just as with all of your other promotional efforts, networking is a way to establish yourself as an authority – the “go-to-person” in your field. Establishing your credibility and creating an emotional bank account with the people that you meet are important tools for building your business, not on the backs of those that you meet, but through their own word of mouth.

Put the Strategic Alliance to Work

The real benefits of creating a network of powerful friends and an alliance of business-people are many. Here are just a few:

  • To make an impression – Meeting new people and asking them about what they do is a great way to make an impression. This is also the time to ask them about what you might be able to do to help them, not your company, you. For free.
  • To get an audience – Attending meetings, after-hours events, and lunch-and-learn events can be a great way to meet new people. You will also discover that these events are nearly always looking for speakers or presenters. Volunteer to speak or give a presentation. You will have the opportunity to put a face with your business. You can do similar things online through guest-posting and forum discussions.
  • To get to the decision-makers – As in the above example, speaking at an event will often get you noticed by the very people that make decisions about your products and services. They may have questions. Networking gives you the opportunity to answer those questions in a safe, non-selling environment. Again, the online forum is a good facsimile.
  • To build business with your existing clients – It is easier to build your business with your existing clients than to get new ones. It is easier to build your business with your existing clients if they know you and if they know other people that know you. Word of mouth is one of (if not the) the most powerful methods of advertising. Becoming known in your industry is your primary goal when networking. When you are known, you will get business.
  • To expand within your industry – There comes a time for every business when it is ready to grow and expand, into new fields or markets. The best way to do this is through networking. Your strategic partners can give you advice and direction, introducing you to new clients and markets. Then it’s time to make an impression again.

What do you use networking for? Which events or functions do you attend in order to interact with new people? Do you do more networking online or off? Why?

Leave a comment.

What Juliann Grant Said … About Creating Futures

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A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

The Faraway Future

We place a goal and set off to our future. But as we travel, questions, roadblocks, and unexpected problems interrupt us. Choices and decisions fork the road, muddle our clear path and diffuse directed our thinking. How do create our futures?

Here’s what Juliann said . . .

. . . somehow I always find the right information from the right person at the right time. Something about being aligned with our purpose, and being a little fearless in our exploration (HT to Richard Reeve) that opens up the right doors. It is very helpful to have a core group of people to trust and get continual feedback on our personal and professional development. What you have laid out is precisely what good leaders must do to build their vision around the future they desire to create.

Juliann Grant from a comment on November 13, 2008

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 11-14-08

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Remarkable Communication is offering an intelligence hack.
In fact, he tended to think of his customers as an annoying necessity. They kept calling with their stupid support questions, keeping him from spending his time adding features no one had asked for.

Brain Based Biz and Brain Based Business are offering an urgency adjustment.
Ever experience tension as you wait and wish the world would move faster?

conflict zen is offering a resolution hack.
Recent research out of the University of Colorado at Boulder suggests that the degree of physical warmth you feel influences the degree of psychological warmth you experience.

Win Extra is offering a hacking story of hacking the definition of hacker.
If California prosecutors have their way, Digg founder Kevin Rose could easily be found guilty of felony computer hacking for widely-reported actions he took yesterday.

Kevin Rose set up a Twitter account Tuesday pretending to be his cold, which amazingly accrued during the previous 24 hours over 787 followers …

Related ala carte selections include

write from home hacks packs …
How about those clones? (You know, those guys who run in packs.)
Or how about the morons on twitter who keep direct-messaging me their free ebooks about How to Lose Weight While Flipping Real Estate?

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

6 Ways to Build Your Own Personal Developmental Network

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Not a Coach, Not a Mentor, a Network

relationships button

I had an exciting conversation Sunday with Debbie Lawrence. She told me via Twitter that she had an idea in need of thoughts. A few minutes later we were on the phone exploring fresh perspectives. She reached out to get input she needed, and I got to know more about her, about her dream, and about how she’s putting into action. Not a bad trade.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I did something similar. I reached out to people in my network to hear their thoughts on what I’m doing.

Every day I touch base with people to tweak what I’m thinking to check on directions I might go. I’ve done this consistently with the most important challenges I’m pursuing. The people I ask are my Personal Developmental Network — a small group of intelligent, incredible people, who help me stay on track with my goals.

6 Ways to Build Your Own Personal Developmental Network

Many folks find a mentor by accident. Some never had one. Some turn to the closest person they meet at a new job or choose to go it alone it. Others work with a coach or a trainer. A few make a commitment to a mastermind team. They’re similar, but not the same as a Personal Developmental Network.

In their Wall Street Journal report Kathy E. Kram and Monica C. Higgins defined a personal developmental networks this way.

A better approach is to create and cultivate a developmental network — a small group of people to whom you can turn for regular mentoring support and who have a genuine interest in your learning and development. Think of it as your personal board of directors

Kram and Higgins’ approach to building a developmental network is career and business focused — pointing out how network composition might change based on where we are professional path: entry level, midcareer, or senior manager. Their suggestions focus on career goals.

Their key steps match my own, but their execution is more narrow.

I need a more holistic approach. I don’t want a professional life that’s divorced from my life as a human. When I face down my hugest goals and quests, I want my whole life — head and heart — focused on the same purpose. So I suggest that we start with their key steps to building a Personal Developmental Network and expand them to include more than what happens under the heading “business / professional.”

For me, the purpose of a Personal Developmental Network is to offer guidance in becoming the best I can be inside and outside the world of business. My approach to building my network is life focused — I want a network that helps me grow as a human meant to achieve something and I believe that a network that grows with me offers depth and insight that are priceless.

Here are the five solid, complete, and intuitive main ideas Kram and Higgins put forward and suggestions after each for building your own Personal Developmental Network.

1. Know Thyself — Start with a foundation of concrete not sand.
— Qualitative Observations: Ask people who know you to describe your strongest traits — those that serve you well and those that get in the way. You’ll recognize the people who know you best by the way that you think, feel, and act in their presence. When we’re with people who know us, we don’t think about our responses or edit our behaviors. Explain why you’re asking and offer them more than one way to give you feedback: directly to you in person, on paper, via an interview by a mutual friend.

— Quantitative Assessment: Go over every test, performance appraisal, and personality measure you’ve taken. Check out others for a fresh view and learn what you can from them. Look for friends who have worked with the tools or tests you choose. You might try a combination of Strengths Finder, the Enneagram, and the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory.

— Personal Reflection: Spend an hour / day for a week thinking about past successes in your life — in personal and business situations. Look for traits and strategies that served you through all of them.

Know what you know and know its value.

2. Know Your Context — Pick your path.
Look three years down the road and visualize where you want to do be. Draw that picture out in as much detail as you possibly can. If you can’t settle your mind on one single path, perhaps that the first task to work on with your network.

3. Enlist Developers — Choose unique and valuable guides.
Choose people you would bet your reputation on — people who share your standards and have similar goals. Take care to choose people who also offer different views. A strong network might include:

— a close friend who knows you and your history, both business and personal.
— someone from your business industry who knows you less well
— two or three someones who are from other industries
— two or three someones you respect and admire, but don’t know well

Decide how you’ll keep them in your life. Will you meet with them when you have questions or meet regularly?

4. Regularly Reassess — Seek opportunities to learn what you’re learning.
Go back to the assessment in Step 1 on a regular basis. Check in with those close friends by asking, “How’ve I changed that you can see?”

5. Develop Others — Return the favor and pay it forward.
Be of service to the people who are helping you. Always reach out for ways to give back more than you receive. When someone teaches you a skill, ask how you might use that skill to help that teacher. Ask questions, listen actively, and be first to offer a favor without strings. People remember sincere curiosity and true generosity.

The best way to seal what we’ve learned is by teaching. Offer to help someone who thinks you’ve already arrived. Take every opportunity to reach out to offer what you’ve learned.

6. AND THE ONE THAT WAS MISSING — Communicate. Let your network know when you need help, when you have questions, or even when you need to vent in a safe venue. A developmental network that doesn’t know where we are can’t help us move ahead.

A developmental network is not made from casual friending or confirming of followers. It’s the people who understand why we’re passionate about our calling. Like a personal board of directors, a true developmental network is people who know us, who value our trust and our reputation, and who are willing to offer their best thinking to move us forward. If we choose them well, we grow in all facets of our life.

Watch for and welcome every wise teacher you encounter. Wisdom and experience are a prize. True teachers show themselves by offering advice, expecting nothing in return. Mentors who come your way, offering experience and connections, see something in you. Let them help you discover what that is and what it could be if you let it grow.

Welcome all wise teachers into a Powerful Developmental Network.

Nobody likes to go it alone, and it’s not a good idea. We need each other for information, insight, and inspiration.

I bet you’ve got some sort of Personal Developmental Network already started. What sort of teacher is missing? How might you more fully engage those important teachers and supporters in the quest you’re on?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help you find focus or direction, check out the Work with Liz!!

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A Barn Raisers Guide: 7 Ways to Leave the Field of Dreams to Build a Thriving Reality

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Field of Dreamers and Barn Raisers

For quite a while, I’ve been working with businesses who have or are preparing to build or expand a web presence or social community. They ask me to help focus their strategy and to help bring people to their communities. They want to attract, impress, and ultimately engage fiercely loyal participants.

If you’ve been online for a while, you’ve probably noticed that a percentage of new arrivals get a key strategic point of community sites out of order. Field of Dreamers are sure if they build their idea their way the people will come. Except the people don’t necessarily see the same thing.

More strategic folks Barn Raisers avoid the risk by building the community as they build the site. They believe that people will help build a powerful idea. Barn Raisers invite collaboration from the people they’ll be serving and so what they build is often a gathering place for people even before it’s fully finished.

A Barn Raisers Guide

Here are 7 ways to leave a field of dreams and get people to help you build a thriving reality.

  • Look for similar dreams and listen to everyone who knows about them.
    Ask, search, and explore to find every reality that has the slightest things in common with your dream. Spend some time at each site you find. Meet the people there and see how they use each site. Hear every other guy’s dreams, wishes, needs, and point of view. Get curious. Ask questions constantly. Wonder about what people think of what’s old, what’s new, what’s in every space in the market. Have some ready questions such as this one: If you were going to build a space for people who like to imitate frogs, what features would consider important to include?
  • Turn your dream into promise to do one thing better than anyone else.
    Be able to articulate exactly what that is, why it’s important, and how fits in to a person’s life. Check back with those you spoke to and tweak your promised offer until the folks you’ll serve say it’s relevant to them and fits their lives.
  • Plan from conception to launch.
    Invite people from your outside usual circle to check in on what you’re doing along the way. Weigh their comments for value, sort them, and remember to put the good one to use. Thank everyone of them.
  • Turn your promise into a space for conversation, interaction, creation, and sharing.
    Build a connection conduit. If your promise becomes a blog, keep it sleek and without barriers. Make it easy to see and interact with you. Offer variety in resources and multimedia. Find ways to interact through events. If you’re building a community site, go easy on bells and whistles, execute your promise clearly, and better than anyone has before. Then use extra resources to find more ways for people to converse, interact, create, and share while on your site.
  • Be obsessed with easy.
    If you think something is easy, make it easier. When you’ve done that all you can, ask your grandmother or someone who’s never seen it to try using it without directions. If they don’t breeze through it, go back to the drawing board to make it easier.yet
  • Ask visitors for feedback and ideas on new ways to use the site.
    Let the rule be that everyone gets to pick their best way to do things. That develops into the kind of space that has the climate for relationships.
  • Build ways into your site to link out to and to celebrate your participants.
    Showcase your heroes. Begin with the folks who help you build the site. Give away five great referrals every morning and five more in the afternoon or evening. People notice folks who appreciate others.

If you invite folks to be part of a powerful idea, you’ll find that you suddenly have a knack for making spaces where people collect, connect, and start conversations. It might have something to do letting people help form the environments that they’re going to inhabit. It’s like painting a house that we’re going to live in — pride of ownership.

Barn raising has always been a brilliant strategy — building the relationships while you’re building a site.

It takes a little practice. And it takes leadership to let go enough to get the good stuff without getting the chaos. The best results always calls for the best from each of us.

I’m hoping as we build barns we might bring some Field of Dreamers to work with Barn Raisers on a community site. I thought maybe they might like the process. Do you think the two together would have a chance of success?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Bridging the Cultural Gap: Use the Values of Social Media to Connect with Offline Customers

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Can You Connect?

The Living Web

A culture gap is forming. Social media business is on one side. Traditional business is on the other.

Our business plans depend on offline folks to be our clients. we’ve let the social media culture become something of an echo chamber. We risk losing sight of folks who spend no time working on the Internet.

Ironically the gap itself is something that folks on both sides can relate to and understand. Cultural gaps are part of the human experience. Here are three examples that Google recognizes as important.

  • Bridging the Gap on the (Nonprofit) Board from Social Edge.org —
    This discussion group takes on the question of helping private sector businesspeople understand the differences in the way non-profits are governed.

    What worked for me in board meetings was to be educated about the topic in the context of non-profit governance. This was always done in a respectful manner, routinely included in addition to describing the topic, issue and relevant questions for the board’s consideration. By contrast, in my experience on for-profit boards, context is frequently set simply by recalling for board members the history of the issue, its current status, and decisions to be wrestled, because board members all share business experience and vocabulary.

  • The Culture Gap From Law.com —
    This article discusses the investment some companies make in cross-cultural training before they go global.
    [Gary P.] Kaplan, from Howard Rice, said large law firms should consider such investments so that American lawyers don’t learn through mistakes.

    “You’re kind of an ambassador of your country every time you go abroad to do work,” he said.

    “We’re considered ignorant, so to try to break that as a stereotype, I think that type of training would be highly appropriate,” he added.

  • Language Is The Door To A Culture from Susie Litts.blogspot.com —
    This article answers the question, How does the cultural gap hurt the Hispanic family? A mother tells the story of her daughter’s “becoming too Americanized.”

    I explained the impact that occurs when a linguistic gap is developed, as children become, that is fluent in English and parents do not. In a similar fashion, a cultural gap may develop as the child develops the ability to navigate [the] culture while their parents remain separated from it. The cultural gap widens when children acquire a [different] education than their parents may have gotten.

    It is nearly impossible to learn a culture if you do not understand the language.

Social media attracts literate, intelligent, curious people — people who like to explore ideas. Seems we use that what other folks have learned to close our own cultural gap.

  • Be sensitive to context.
    That’s what the Non-profit article is saying. What we see as obvious and readily applicable to the concrete world requires more context and explanation. The private sector business people who sit on non-profit boards felt respected when they were offered the appropriate context, stories, and vocabulary to participate fully and with confidence.

    How to do that.
    1. Dress to connect. People hear what you’re saying if you look like a credible source.
    2. Explain the culture in terms of time. Three years in social media is a long time. In the concrete world it’s still entry level.
    3. Outline values of the culture that can serve the audience you’re with. If your network is one that influences the business they’re in say so. Construct your contextual overview to match the person you’re speaking with.
    4. Demonstrate the values of social media — make it easy, make it about them, listen actively before you talk.

  • Give them a concrete reason to listen.
    Make them smart by making it about them. Start with what they know — Use examples from their world not this one: Cross-cultural training in the concrete world for corporate, diplomatic, and relationships in business already have established credibility. Companies that aren’t yet global understand the impact of an insensitive business on a local community.

    How to do that.
    1. Draw correlations between social sites and current roles in the company. Websites often reflect the role of advertising / marketing. Blogs can be related to trade shows and customer outreach.
    2. Discuss cross-cultural and diversity training. Draw from this prior knowledge to explain how to enter the social media space with grace while establishing a successful and powerful presence.
    3. Consider the goals of the client and how they overlap with those of your network and your reach of influence. Use examples of people you know who might be willing to help the client make an easy transition.

  • Identify vocabulary that you need to explain.
    Words, like conversation and community, can mean something different in the concrete world of business. Words like Twitter, Plurk, and FriendFeed, can sound silly or worse, make people feel uncomfortable saying them.

    How to do that.
    1. Introduce new words in context. Bring up a Twitter screen where your friends are talking. Interact act with them. Invite the folks on Twitter to answer a question that the client has about social media or the Twitter application.
    2. If a company is uncertain, use words they find familiar — networking for social sites and for conversation, colleagues for friends and followers, online resume for profile.
    3. Listen to what they’re not saying. Watch their body language and respond to confused looks. Pace the information to their interest levels.

The art of closing a cultural gap is inherently in tune with the values of social media — connecting people with people.

How do you use the values of social media to connect with offline clients?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!