Personal Branding – Sell Yourself the Steve Jobs Way

The Apple CEO is a master of marketing. Use his techniques to polish your personal brand.

By Carmine Gallo

FILED UNDER: Personal branding, Presenting, Value, Steve Jobs, Communications.

At your level, people expect a good presentation — including the interview.

Effective presentation skills will not only help you sell your ideas and products, but it will elevate your personal brand. Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “As you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken and written word.”

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the best presenters in the corporate world today. In my previous article on his lecturing skills and my new book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, I reveal the tactics behind his famed “reality distortion field,” outlining the exact techniques that Jobs uses to engage his audience.

Whether you’re a CEO, manager, consultant, entrepreneur, business owner, professional – or especially, a job seeker – Steve Jobs has something to teach you.

Here are five ways to sell yourself or your brand the Steve Jobs Way.

Sell dreams.

Steve Jobs doesn’t sell computers. He sells “tools to unleash your creativity.” You see, nobody cares about your job search (product ); they care about themselves, their problems and their dreams. Tell them how you can help them reach their dreams, and you’ll have won a customer (or fan) for life.

When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said that music transforms people’s lives and that in its own small way, Apple would be changing the world. Where most people saw an MP3 player, Jobs saw a better world.

How do you make the world a better place? How do you improve the lives of your customers? How will hiring you help a manager fulfill her dreams?

Don’t leave your listeners guessing.

Create Twitter-friendly headlines.

Steve Jobs has a one-sentence description — or vision — for every product he introduces.

• What’s the MacBook Air? “It’s the world’s thinnest notebook.”
• What’s an iPod? “It’s one thousand songs in your pocket.”

If you can’t explain yourself in 140 characters or fewer (a Twitter post), go back to the drawing board.

How would you describe the vision behind your personal brand? Long before I had Fortune 5 clients, I saw myself as “The communications coach for the world’s most admired brands.” In 61 characters, it gave my clients a reference point and gave me a vision to attain. Every product needs a vision — and so does every business professional.

Stick to the rule of three.

Most Steve Jobs presentations are divided into three parts. Neuroscientists are finding that humans think in “chunks” of three or four. Great presenters like Jobs don’t overload the brain with too many points. In media training, we coach executives to do the same: Stick to three main points they want to deliver in the course of an interview.

The same holds true for job interviews — stick to three main points that you want the recruiter to know about you and your experience.

1. Introduce the three points early in the interview.
2. Expand the points as the discussion unfolds.
3. Summarize them at the end.

Strive for simplicity.

According to Steve Jobs, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Not only are Apple’s products simple, so is the way the CEO articulates the vision behind those products. For example, Steve Jobs’ presentation slides are remarkably free from clutter.

Your resume should be as well.

Strive for simplicity in oral communications and in presentation design.

Practice like crazy.

Steve Jobs makes presentations look effortless because he works at it. He spends hours and hours over many, many weeks rehearsing every segment of his keynote presentations. Jobs takes nothing for granted, and neither should you. Practice presentations out loud. Practice for job interviews as well. Have a friend sit across from you and ask you tough questions. Rehearse your responses.

Better yet, record yourself and watch it back. It might a painful exercise but well worth it!

One more thing … Do what you love.

 Steve Jobs revealed the secret to career success in a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. He said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” In this global economic crisis, many people are facing setbacks in their careers. Steve Jobs also faced setbacks but was convinced that the only thing which kept him going was the fact he had found his passion. Jobs once said his goal wasn’t to be the richest man in the cemetery; it was going to bed at night thinking he had done something wonderful.

Do something wonderful, and you’ll know real career success and satisfaction. And that’s the kind of manager employers would die for

Getting Started with Disruptive Business Design

10:20 AM Monday October 19, 2009

John Sviokla The Near Futurist – Harvard Business Review

Oliver Yeh, a first-year Mechanical Engineering student at MIT, just successfully designed, launched and retrieved a camera 17.5 miles into the atmosphere and took 4,000 photos — at a cost of just $150.00! That’s probably less money than he will spend on his celebratory dinner.

Not only is this story inspirational to someone like me, who after millions and millions of miles in the air (no exaggeration) still sits glued to the window when I fly over Manhattan or the Grand Canyon, but it points out how the minimum efficient scale of doing fantastic things is getting orders of magnitude lower in some industries. This lower cost of entry can be magnified and accelerated when you have someone come to the design problem with an entirely new set of expectations.

Craig Newmark’s Craig’s List is estimated to have about $100,000,000 in revenue — with 30 employees. That’s $3.3 million per employee, and even if it costs $70,000,000 to run it (which it can’t), that’s a profit-per-employee of $1,000,000. (Compare that with Amazon’s profit-per-employee of approximately $30,000.) His model is so disruptive because he gives away all the ads except those for jobs, thereby turning what was once newspaper profits into what economists know as consumer surplus.

Now, there’s been a lot of interest in “disruption” ever since Clay Christensen did his pathbreaking work on The Innovator’s Dilemma, which chronicled how incumbent companies were upended by competitors or substitutes who arose from “lower” markets to create a new cost and demand base. Southwest Airlines did it in air travel, and Wal-Mart in retail. You know the story.

So what is the toolkit to create a disruptive design? Here are some ideas:

1. Simultaneously simplify a number of advantages together to create a new cost base. When Southwest Airlines launched they flew only one aircraft — the Boeing 737. Today, they still have one aircraft. They have one class of service. They have simple fare strucutures. They sell direct to end customers. They go to the less frequented, second-tier airports. They have broad job descriptions and cross-train so that one person can do many jobs — including pilots handling luggage. The created radical simplicity by simplifying many dimensions. They are not the only business where complexity has stopped adding value. New, radically simple business models can be created in everything from financial services to healthcare.

2. Give away the other guy’s razor! Craig Newmark garnered dominant market share by giving away almost all the blades. Put more formally, every “two-sided market” has a vulnerability — and if you can enter by aiming at that vulnerability, you can win. In China, Google is now giving away MP3’s and sharing the ad revenue with the artists. Paid music is now all marketing promotion. In addition, at Wired magazine’s Disruptive by Design conference, a featured book was Chris Anderson’s Free.

3. Look for new, radically cheaper ways to do the job. Yeh used run-of-the-mill technology — cell phones, video cameras, and even a styrofoam cooler — to create a much cheaper design. Consumer technologies and on-demand services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk enable new business designs that could have a fraction of the cost to deliver the same services. Imagine a security company that was truly designed around the inexpensive, internet connected, monitoring equipment available today.

4. Think about leveraging a very few individuals with extraordinary talent. It is possible today for a small group of people to make a spectacular movie (think Pixar) or to manage billions in capital (think hedge-funds). Is there a way to create incredible value for your organization by leveraging the power of a small group across millions of consumers or billions of dollars?

One good way to get at these disruptive designs is to do what we at my firm call a “Fiercest Competitor Workshop,” which starts with the premise that you have been fired from your old organization but you have access to ample capital and talent. Your task is to design the fiercest competitor that could take the market from your old firm. In my experience when running these workshops, it takes people about an hour to get out of their old mindset — but when they do, they often design the most wonderfully dangerous potential competitors. No one knows their company’s vulnerability to a disruptive design better than their own employees.

It is the leader’s job to unlock this disruptive design potential so that it can be harnessed to help the incumbent make more money for its current shareholders, employees, and provide better surplus value to customers.

Ways to use Facebook for business

Facebook’s not just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes — it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers.

Here are 32 ways to use Facebook in your business.

Manage Your Profile

1. Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.
2. Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
3. Stay out of trouble by reading the Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
4. Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. (Although you should be careful before integrating your Twitter feed into your Faceboook profile, as a stream of tweets can seem overwhelming to your contacts.)
5. Keep any personal parts of your profile private through Settings

more…

Help Wanted, Social Media Style

From: CNNMoney

Smaller-sized companies have turned to social media as a means of recruiting candidates for job openings. Social media tools offer less expensive, more efficient ways for these companies to find ideal applicants. However, there is still some disagreement over whether social media can supply all that face-to-face communication provides. Read More… Contact me at steve@smallbusinesslouisville.com for more ways to use technology to grow your small business.

Reduce your travel budget with our new web event and online meeting tool

Interactive Media Lab a progressive multimedia laboratory in Louisville Kentucky specializing in the design and development of interactive, video and online solutions for businesses introduces a custom tool for streaming online meetings and web events. Increase your audience size while reducing your overall presentation costs. Make presentations in real time to unlimited customers, prospects and employees – wherever they are.

• Set up Webinars quickly and easily with full support
• Present anything from one locations to unlimited viewers
• Present live with PowerPoint and Video
• Integrated tools for remote audience response and questions

  For a demonstration click here http://demos.interactivemedialab.com/imlspc

IML hopes to link local business people through new social media website!

Linking Louisville is the first interconnected network for professionals focused on the Louisville area. Brought to you by Interactive Media Lab and Big Talk on Small Business Radio. Collaborate and network with professionals that you would like to meet and work with. Let’s face it, most small business is done locally. Why search through the 500 million people listed on the global social networks when the people you need to connect with are right in your own backyard? Join Linking Louisville to connect with co-workers, business prospects, people with similar interests, family and friends, or simply find a new tennis, golf or running partner! Linking Louisville provides a complete communication experience. Get started now. It’s Free. www.LinkingLouisville.com

Trides – We need you to lead!

I am reading this book and would reccomened it to small business owners who are interested in keeping their brand top of mind.

The following are some notes about the book

www.LouisvilleWebDesigners.com

Web Design Louisville

 

Tips for Working with a Web Designer

Get exactly what you want for your business’s website–on time and on budget.

A lot of businesses start with less than ideal websites. A friend of a friend knows a guy who knows a girl who made a site for her brother’s band, and, well, you know the rest. We call them Drive-by programmers. They get your website up and running but if you ever need it changed in the future good luck in getting them to even return your calls let alone update your website.

Every business reaches a point where it needs a professional online appearance. Unfortunately, commissioning a website isn’t as simple as ordering office supplies. Web professionals and businesspeople don’t always speak the same language, and the learning curve for an already beleaguered entrepreneur can be steep. Here, we will explain how to select and collaborate with a designer to create an attractive and effective site that actually meets your needs–on time and on budget.

1. Do your homework
The first step in finding a designer you like is finding designs you like. We recommend that small-business owners start by looking at the sites of their competitors and similar businesses. The key is to find sites that match your own taste.

Ask around when you’re shopping for a designer, and look at their work and their programming platform to make sure that you will get final control over your content so you website stays current. “Don’t just go to Google and pick the first one.

But taste is only one consideration, many designers specialize in creating a particular kind of site, he says. A designer whose previous work includes only small, brochure-style sites might be a poor fit for a large online store, so it’s important to consider the scope of your project as well.

2. Know the basics
Even for web professionals, keeping up with technology is difficult. Fortunately, as a small-business owner, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the latest trends to commission a website, but it does help to understand a few fundamentals.

It’s good to know the difference between a domain name, a web host, and a website.

A domain name is a site’s web address–yoursite.com, for instance. These addresses are rented on a yearly basis from online registrars. A web host, on the other hand, provides server space–the virtual home where the site will live. Finally, there is the website itself–the collection of files that contain the actual design, text and media.

If all of that is unfamiliar, don’t worry; we are happy to recommend reliable domain registrars and hosting companies when we work with clients.

3. Be prepared to collaborate
Once you’re ready to approach a designer, your input is key. Many people don’t realize how much direction they’ll need to provide in order to give their designer a successful starting point.

The fantasy people have a lot of times is that they’re just simply going to be able to call a web designer and say, “Make me a website and show it to me in two weeks when it’s all done.’”

The reality is that the process is a collaboration–from start to finish. In the beginning, designers typically ask for detailed descriptions of what prospective clients needs from their websites, as well as for links to other sites that the client admires. If a designer provides an online questionnaire, potential clients should answer it as thoroughly as possible.

4. Get comfortable
Because collaboration is so important, a shared aesthetic isn’t enough–personalities matter, too. Once prospective clients have contacted us we recommend a brief meeting to determine whether we are a good fit.

It builds a rapport, and it lets us listen to the client and really hear what they want. That first 30-minute meeting right at the beginning is really important to set the tone for your project.

Clients should also take care that a designer doesn’t seem too eager or hurried. Reputable designers tend to be selective in whom they work with, because they understand how important a good match is to a project’s success. We also recommend contacting a designer’s previous clients to ask about their experiences.

5. Know what you’re paying for
Once the match is made, a contract is the next step. And here clients can’t be too careful. Everything that’s meant to be included in the project–from the payment schedule to the number of revisions that a client is allowed to request–should be spelled out. While some designers are flexible about small changes, clients shouldn’t count on it.

Read it thoroughly, because anything that is not in that document is going to cost you extra.

Clients should also be prepared to put down a deposit before any work begins.

6. Be honest, but don’t nitpick
Generally, designers provide clients with a mockup of a proposed design before transforming it into a working site, and this can be the most delicate part of the collaboration. We adamant that clients should be honest if they want to see a different design, but they were equally adamant that wholesale revisions are usually better than a lot of small changes.

If you feel like the design is way off the mark and it doesn’t feel right for your business, speak up. At the same time, understand that requests like ‘put more space on the left and right, and add these 10 things to the sidebar’ may leave you with a design that resembles Frankenstein.

7. Hold up your end
While the designer provides a site’s visual and technical framework, the client is usually responsible for providing the site’s content–most commonly the text. Failing to do so on time can delay completion of the project, sometimes drastically.

If the text isn’t already prepared, we recommend that clients consider hiring a professional copywriter. Aside from taking the burden off the business owner, a copywriter can provide text that’s customized for search engines, which will help potential customers find the site when it’s finished.

8. Be decisive
Content aside, the most common cause of delays or extra costs after the contract is signed are sudden changes or additions.  Many people don’t understand how long certain changes will take to implement, so they’re quick to call and ask for what we call the “just-add.” such misunderstandings are another example of the importance of establishing a good relationship between designer and client.

“A good relationship established before contracts are signed often helps ensure these issues are handled professionally and calmly on both ends.

Do the necessary preparation when making your decisions–and then to stick by those decisions until the project is complete.

 

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Social Networking is for Old People?

I recently found the following article in Time. It is a funny story about how old people are taking over social networking. It says Facebook was designed for college kids. But it took people thier parents age to fulfill its ultimate destiny…

Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies

By Lev Grossman

 

Facebook is five. Maybe you didn’t get it in your news feed, but it was in February 2004 that Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, along with some classmates, launched the social network that ate the world. Did he realize back then in his dorm that he was witnessing merely the larval stage of his creation? For what began with college students has found its fullest, richest expression with us, the middle-aged. Here are 10 reasons Facebook is for old fogies:

1. Facebook is about finding people you’ve lost track of. And, son, we’ve lost track of more people than you’ve ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don’t. We’ve gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. (See the best social-networking applications.)

2. We’re no longer bitter about high school. You’re probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we’re not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we’re all grown up now. We’re bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We’re in therapy, and it’s going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don’t. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)

4. Facebook isn’t just a social network; it’s a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What’s the point of networking with people who can’t hire you? Not that we’d want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession — and the amount of time we spend on Facebook — a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.

5. We’re lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don’t want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.

6. We’re old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.

8. We’re too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can’t remember friends’ e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.

9. We don’t understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)

10. We’re not cool, and we don’t care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it’s way cooler not to be on Facebook. We’ve ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you’re at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

IML help Louisville Science Center Use Social networking website to reach more students

IML developed a social networking website that combines Youtube and a science fair to reach students all around Kentucky. The following story is from the courier-journal. It tells how the science center is using new media developed by Interactive Media Lab.

In a song she wrote last week, Aria Watkins sings about installing a water-efficient shower head and other ways to conserve water.

“Don’t take a shower for an hour,” sang Aria, 14, an eighth-grader at Kammerer Middle School. “Don’t leave water rushing while you’re brushing.”

Her song is among dozens of submissions to the AT&T Virtual Science Challenge, which the Louisville Science Center is holding for the second time this year. The contest is designed to get fifth-through 10th-graders across the state involved in science by creating videos that focus on energy, water and exercise.

“It’s like science fair meets YouTube,” said Danielle Waller, communications manager for the Louisville Science Center.

Kammerer science teacher Dustin Johnstone got most of his eighth-grade students involved in the challenge after learning about it during a field trip to the science center.

He let his students vote on whether to take part in the project and only 12 of 140 opted out. Students could do individual projects or work in groups to develop their science challenge.

With only about two weeks for students to do their projects, “they had to be committed to it,” he said.

One group that completed its video early shared it with the class last week. It focused on muscles and exercise. Students laughed as video of four boys “sweating to the oldies” played on a large-screen projector.

Meanwhile, Grant Teague, 13, compiled a list of healthy foods along with the calorie counts for snacks such as popsicles and fruit smoothies and fast-food items from McDonald’s.

“We’re going to do a Food Network show about it,” he said.

Waller said creativity is a big factor in the contest, and she enjoyed seeing what the students came up with.

“This is not like the Intel Science Fair,” the world’s largest pre-college science competition. “We want them to use video and technology and make it fun,” she said.

Molly Carpenter, life-science coordinator at the Louisville Science Center, visited Johnstone’s class to see how the projects were progressing. She said the group is the first entire grade to participate, and she hopes other schools will follow its lead.

“Teachers can use this as part of their curriculum,” Carpenter said. “It has a lot of different components. We tie it in with the national standards. … This lets the kids apply science to their everyday life in a way that they enjoy.”

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