by Annie Jackson | Apr 16, 2015 | General
New eBook, EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE, with a roundup of notable interviews from our #MakingChange series, available for free download (at AKeynoteSpeaker.com/Leadershipguide). What’s stopping you from living the life you want to lead or pursuing the career you’ve always dreamed of? That’s the question today’s most celebrated business experts ask in, EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE: 7 Rules for Career, Life and Business Success From Today’s Top Influencers. In this free eBook training guide, we take another look at some of the the world’s most renowned entrepreneurs and online thought leaders featured in our #MakingChange series, who offer simple, practical strategies for finding personal and professional success in record time. Chris Brogan – CEO, Owner Media Group Ann Handley – CEO of MarketingProfs Guy Kawasaki – Chief Evangelist of Canva Dave Kerpen – CEO, Likeable Local Mari Smith – Social Media Thought Leader Brian Solis – Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group Gary Vaynerchuk – CEO of VaynerMedia Inside EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE – new from Scott Steinberg, author of Make Change Work for You: 10 Ways to Future-Proof Yourself, Fearlessly Innovate, and Succeed Despite Uncertainty readers will discover their personal stories and insights, along with hints, tips and strategies that anyone can use to drive ongoing success and achievement. To learn more about or download your free copy of EVERYTHING MUSTCHANGE: 7 Rules For Career, Life and Business Success From Today’s Top Influencers, please visit www.AKeynoteSpeaker.com/LeadershipGuide. Read back on the blog for other inspiring interviews with industry innovators on makechangeworkforyou.com/blog and share your stories of innovation and how you’ve made change work for you on your socials with #MakingChange....
by Annie Jackson | Mar 25, 2015 | General
On January 5th, we launched #MakingChange, a campaign to explore each of the rules of my book, Make Change Work For You, through a weekly series of interviews with influential field leaders, influencers, and innovators. As we’ve successfully navigated our way through all of the book’s lessons, the campaign now draws to a close. 10 weeks, 19 interviews, and amazing involvement from you, the readers. Tremendous! I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed gleaning tips and insights throughout. In particular, it was truly amazing to see where you were #MakingChange and what mantras kept you going through your work process. Our friends at RebelMouse have cleverly compiled all of your #MakingChange responses on our very own Rebelmouse page. It’s amazing to browse through and see the collective experience we’ve had over the course of the campaign. Again, thank you to our influencers and innovators for sharing their time, expertise, and knowledge and especially to you for participating and making this so great! VIEW THE MAKE CHANGE WORK FOR YOU REBELMOUSE HERE ————————————————————————– To reread any of the any of the influencer interviews, click through the links below: Rule 1 – Be Courageous: Chris Brogan | Sara Zucker | Mari Smith Rule 2 – Make Fear Your Friend: Jason Falls Rule 3 – Turn Anxiety into Awareness: Dave Kerpen Rule 4 – Transform Failure into Success: Jaclyn Johnson Rule 5 – Master the Art of Improvisation: Ann Handley Rule 6 – Playing the Odds: Jen Rubio Rule 7 – Experiment Constantly: Steve Rubel Rule 8 – Pick your Battles: Seth Porges Rule 9 – Keep Forging Ahead: Guy Kawasaki Rule 10 – Stay Relevant: Erica Cerulo & Claire Mazur | Gary Vaynerchuk ————————————————————————–...
by Annie Jackson | Mar 12, 2015 | General
Finding the courage to embrace change and take chances is the only way to succeed. We’ve asked some of our favorite industry power players and business innovators to share stories of how #MakingChange worked for them, as it relates to the ’10 Rules to Future-Proof yourself, fearlessly innovate, and succeed despite uncertainty’. Rule #10 Stay Relevant with Gary Vaynerchuk – CEO of VaynerMedia, New York Times’ Bestselling Author and Technology Investor Q: Social media mavens didn’t exist when you first parlayed yourself into becoming one. What qualifies someone for the job? Gary Vaynerchuk: I think that qualifying yourself has a funny way of working itself out. The question, “why me” is predicated on this enormous cultural shift; now we have platforms that allow people to break through and opportunities they would never have before. If you were to ask me, “why you?” Ten or twenty years ago, I would have said, “because somebody decided so.” An editor or producer. There’s less serendipity of breaking out than ever before because as people become educated on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter it becomes more of their own initiative to have the perseverance of putting out the content that can change their lives. For me, why me is because I have a gene that makes me think about the long term and not worry about the short term ROI which enabled me to step away from my wine retail business and start creating content that takes chances without having a clear ROI in front of me. Q: Why do you think more people don’t think several steps ahead? How was your business growing at that...
by Annie Jackson | Mar 10, 2015 | General
Finding the courage to embrace change and take chances is the only way to succeed. We’ve asked some of our favorite industry power players and business innovators to share stories of how #MakingChange worked for them, as it relates to the ’10 Rules to Future-Proof yourself, fearlessly innovate, and succeed despite uncertainty.’ Rule #10 Stay Relevant with Erica Cerulo & Claire Mazur – Co-founders, Of a Kind Question: Tell us a little bit about Of a Kind. How did you get where you are today – and what tips would you give others hoping to follow in your footsteps? Claire Mazur: Of a Kind introduces the products and stories of the most promising up-and-coming makers in the United States. In doing so, we expose audiences to the thrill of discovery and the sense of connection and intimacy that comes with being an early supporter of a young maker. We’ve been friends since 2002 when we met as undergraduates at the University of Chicago. We founded Of a Kind in 2010 after coming up with the idea for it over a rapid-fire, back-and-forth chain of 20-something emails in one night. We were so excited about it that it felt like we had no choice but to pursue it further. For months, we would meet after work in coffee shops and empty conference rooms and plot out our plan. We told everyone we knew what we were doing and asked everyone for help and advice. Our willingness to put ourselves out there and be bold when it came to asking for things was a big part of our early success. You...
by Annie Jackson | Mar 5, 2015 | General
BUSINESS INNOVATOR Philipp Skogstad – Senior Director, Global Design and Innovation Culture at SAP Q: We operate in a highly unpredictable and disruptive business world. What attributes define current market leaders? Which will define tomorrow’s market leaders as well, and why so? Philipp Skogstad: We used to design and build to maximize reliability and predictability. Current market leaders rose to their position over many years by offering stability. These market leaders created loyal customers who depended on them and were held captive by high switching costs. Increasingly ubiquitous information access shortens economic, technology, and communication cycles. In this environment, change is the norm and switching costs drop. Future market leaders will rise (and likely fall) quickly by addressing transient needs. Companies that can change rapidly and continuously, while keeping customers loyal, will be the most successful. The relationship will shift, with future market leaders loyal to their customers who they depend on and who must be kept to reduce high acquisition costs. Q: What should organizations and working professionals be doing today to change and innovate if they want to ensure that they’ll continue to maintain success and relevancy tomorrow? PS: Embrace change. Organizations must redesign structures and processes for change – the structure or process AND it’s load. Professionals must create an efficient and effective way to learn about change as early as possible in this era of information overload. Q: In a fast-changing business world, what strategies and solutions do you and your organization utilize to continually stay ahead of the curve? PS: Study your customer rather than the competition. You will never get ahead of the competition by playing...
by Annie Jackson | Mar 3, 2015 | General
Finding the courage to embrace change and take chances is the only way to succeed. We’ve asked some of our favorite industry power players and business innovators to share stories of how #MakingChange worked for them, as it relates to the ’10 Rules to Future-Proof yourself, fearlessly innovate, and succeed despite uncertainty’. Rule #9 Keep Forging Ahead with Guy Kawasaki – Chief Evangelist, Canva Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of The Art of Social Media, The Art of the Start, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. Question: How did you get where you are today – and what tips would you give others hoping to follow in your footsteps? Guy Kawasaki: I got where I am today by willing to grind out work. That’s my secret. I’m not a visionary or anything like that. I am simply willing to out-work my competition. Q: What’s one simple change an individual or organization can make to help them achieve their goals faster or more effectively this very moment? GK: One simple change is to stop reading blogs and get to work. Q: The surest way to innovate and stay ahead of the curve whether you’re a working professional, business, or even renowned thought leader is? GK: Create the product that you would like to use. This is the...