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234 | Making New Choices with Mike Pisciotta

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Mike Pisciotta

We all have times in our lives that force us to question the path we are on. We all have moments that make us choose a new direction. I have seen this for myself. And I have watched it in hundreds of others. This is about reinvention. Our guest today is Mike Pisciotta with Marketing Your Purpose. He shares his moment of reinvention that happened while in jail.

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233 | Be THE Choice, Not Just a Choice with Gene Hammett

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In highly competitive markets, it is getting harder and harder to win the business. I specialize in helping companies grow by making them THE choice, not just a choice. This is about standing out and creating a company that does not have competition. This is a solo episode where I share key parts of my speech: Be THE Choice, Not Just A Choice. I give you 3 areas that allow you to win more business and work with more high-value clients. Don’t miss this one.

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230 | Leadership Communication and Connection with Ron Wallace

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Ron Wallace

Today’s guest and author of Leadership Lessons from a UPS driver is Ron Wallace. Ron emphasized the importance of how true connection is even better than communication. An effective leader does not hold back secrets but rather shares them to gain input and feedback from his team. Ron points out the fundamental principle of giving praise to your team- something that is very simple but has been forgotten. Tune into this episode on the principles of Leadership Connection.  

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229 | What You need to Know About Writing a Book with Tucker Max

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Our Guest today is Tucker Max, CEO and author of Book in a Box. The philosophy at Book in a Box highlights that the best way to get an idea into the world, is through a book. The problem most people face is that books take too much time to write, and the traditional publishing process can be tedious and frustrating. Tucker shares with us the foundational values all authors must have when writing a book.

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Using Facebook Advertising to boost your Thought Leadership

Become a Thought LeaderThought leadership is about showing up with the right message to the right person at the right time. It is about relevancy, value and trust. Deciding to be a thought leader in your market means that you are willing to put your point-of-view (POV) out there on the platforms where your audience hangs out.

Let me share with your an example of using Facebook’s power of paid placements.

Think for a moment about getting a referral from a client. YEAHHH! We love referrals. That client is likely going to look into you by visiting your website. They might click around on a few pages and even watch a video. They are intrigued.

Before they even get a chance to meet you, a short video shows up on their Facebook timeline that gives them another perspective of you. As they watch the video and it addresses a pain they have right now.

They are beginning to add to the trust that they already had. Now every two or three days between the introduction and the first meeting your videos show to give them even more touch points with your brand.

As they watch these videos, they can visit the website again or just smile knowing that you “get them.” Either way you connected with them with your message (aka positioning yourself as a thought leader).

Ok, that story may sound like crazy stalking kind of stuff, but it is not really anything like that. It is a feature of the Facebook ad platform. It gives you the power to bring visitors back to your message with the frequency and trust (when you do it right), you begin to connect with the prospects at deeper levels.

There are 4 important parts to thought leadership you must understand if you want it to work for you.

1. The Right Person

The right person means you have a clear understanding of that person (the prospect). You might even know them better than they know themselves because of the experience with others just like them. This is another way to say you are focused on a specific audience instead trying to cast a wide net to see what you can catch.  

Here is a free training on how to find your ideal client.

2. The Right Message

Delivering the right message to them allows you to connect emotionally and logically. If you have a generic and non-specific message you will likely lose them. Your ability to dive deep into their own thinking to their pains, challenges, opportunities and aspirations is what separates you from the others in the market. Your message connects directly to the person’s journey so that they receive it with a single thought “he gets me”.

3. Valuable

When you have the right person and the right message, it is perceived to have something of value. It is perceived to address a concern they have been stressing over. Value is in the eye of the beholder which means you have to know them so well that your thought leadership is perceived as useful and relevant to them. I add this to stress the importance of this being of real value to those that you want to connect with. Don’t assume it is valuable…be sure by your research and testing your messages with those right people.  There is not a substitution for having conversations with your audience to refine your messages.  Most people are not willing to do this enough and this causes a struggle in finding the “market to message” match.

4. The Right Timing

There was an old adage that someone must be exposed to your brand message 7 times to get their attention. This is the effective frequency of your message. It is also referred to as the Rule of 7.  

Do you know these slogans?   

  • Got milk?
    (used for 21 years, starting in 1993)
  • Just do it.
    (used for over 26 years, starting in 1988)
  • What happens here, stays here.
    (used for 10 over years, starting in 2004)
  • Tastes great, less filling.
    (used since the 1970s)

These have been used for decades to imprint a message to the audience. When you read them, you can probably picture the brand that produced them, right?

What if you had that level of consistency in your market?   You would likely be thought of as a leader just because of the longevity.

The First Step in being a Thought Leader

You must know your ideal client to be a thought leader. Your ideal client is that one client that if you have two dozen of them they would radically change your ability to make money, create systems and even position yourself as a leader in your market to all the others like your ideal client.

Here is a free training on how to find your ideal client.

Facebook is a powerful platform for thought leadership because of its ability to be a vehicle for your images, text, and videos. Facebook allows you to target the exact people you want to see the ad and when you want them to see it.   Here is an interview I did with Valerie Shoopman on my podcast Leaders in the Trenches. Podcast Episode 152 Lead Generation with Facebook Ads.

Additional resources that will help you with your journey to being a thought leader or an authority in your market.

Here is a podcast I did about being an authority that will help you in your journey to thought leadership.   http://leadersinthetrenches.com/105-authority-with-gene-hammett/

167 | How You Show Up Matters with Catherine Cassidy

Catherine CassidyHow are you showing up in the world and in your business? You may think that style and appearance is an insignificant and maybe even a superficial area to focus on. Catherine Cassidy – founder of U Styled says it is everything. In fact, our presence (mostly made up by our style) makes up 55% of our communication. Meanwhile, our verbal communication only makes up 7%! Catherine shares more on how our style is a representation of our inner attitude and thus why it’s important to start making some tweaks to our style. If connecting with others effectively is part of your business strategy, you’ll want to listen carefully to this episode.

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140 | Get the Gig: Series 3 of 3 with Gene Hammett

Gene HammettToday, I share with you the the third episode in this “Get the Gig” series and what personally works for me. I’ll be specifically honing in on “unpaid” gigs that produce big payoffs. Getting on the stage requires that you get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself. I’ll be sharing the common myths and mistakes people make in the process of booking their speaking gigs. And even more importantly how to land your gigs.

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Gene’s Target Audience: Gene works with entrepreneurs who want to find the perfect match between their unique value and the people who will become their best clients and biggest fans.

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138 | Get the Gig – Speaker Series 1 of 3 with Jane Atkinson

Jane AtkinsonSpeaking on stages big or small is a great way to grow your business and position your authority.  If you have a message or just a desire to share your core belief, you can get some great tips inside this episode.  Today’s guest is Jane Atkinson, author of “The Wealthy Speaker 2.0,” helps speakers catapult their business to the next level.  Jane is best known for helping people take big stages and get big money too.  She shares how you can position yourself from commodity to authority.

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Target Audience: Jane specifically serves those who already speak professionally or those who would like to speak more and fit under the umbrella of being an expert.

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118 | Selling the Invisible with Angelique Rewers

Angelique RewersCoaches, creatives and consultants- this episode if for you. You don’t sell a product. You sell a service that might be hard to describe. It is like selling the INVISIBLE. Angelique Rewers is a consultant to the corporate escapee. However, the word “consultant” just does not completely fit Angelique because she is so much more. Angelique is the CEO of The Corporate Agent where she helps other consultants sell more to other businesses. Listen in to this episode to discover a new perspective for your business as Angelique shares her journey of being in the trenches.

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Angelique’s Target Audience: Angelique’s consulting services aims to help people develop their business and bring in more of their ideal clients. Specifically, she provides consultation services to help small businesses sell professional services (not products).

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112 | How To Eliminate The Sales Process with Jack Mize

Jack MizeIf you hate to sell, listen in here to this episode. Positioning yourself prior to the sale allows you to bypass the traditional sales process. Jack Mize, host of Influencers Radio, tells us how being the educator and the advocate allows you to eliminate the sales process. You probably understand what it takes to educate before the sale, but the “advocate” is someone that will really stand up for the success of their customers. Jack talks about positioning yourself as the authority simply by being an educator and advocate. Listen in to this episode to see what this means in your business.

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Jack’s Target Audience: Jack has been in the marketing business for several years serving business owners, coaches, and consultants where he helps them to focus on positioning themselves as educators and advocates for their prospects. Educators and advocates are also known as authorities. Essentially this is the position he helps them to take in their industry.

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106 | The Authority Mindset with Brian Horn

Brian HornBecoming an authority in your marketplace will allow you to stand out from your peers. However, this “authority” thing comes with some limiting beliefs that you have to overcome. Welcome Brian Horn from Authority Alchemy who is going to share with you how to embody the authority mindset. Brian breaks it down into two parts so you can engineer your own authority.

Brian’s company is called Authority Alchemy. The mission of Authority Alchemy is to help clients focus on their mindset above all else by guiding their clients into owning that they are the educators and advocates in their industries.

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Brian’s Target Audience: Includes coaches, speakers, authors and entrepreneurs whom he guides in developing their authority to become experts in their industry and increase their exposure.

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105 | Be the Authority with Gene Hammett

Gene HammettWhat does it take to position yourself before the sale? Who is an AUTHORITY? An individual who embodies the term Authority distinguishes themselves from being A choice to being THE choice. Like so many other podcasts on Leaders in the Trenches, this heavily stems down to having a healthy mindset. It’s also becoming aware of the part of yourself that could be sabotaging you and your business.

An AUTHORITY is perceived as the professional. They are seen as the choice. They embody influence, impact and income (get paid more). Those are three essential elements to an Authority. An Authority is also someone who is not “absolute” in their ways- but someone who is constantly growing and changing.

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Gene’s Target audience: Gene works with entrepreneurs who want to find the perfect match between their unique value and the people who will become their best clients and biggest fans.

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