A friend sent me this beautiful short film, “Historia de un letrero” (The story of a sign). It poignantly demonstrates the power of words.

The movie touched me. As did the comment in his email. “You have this gift,” he said.

Thank you.

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For credibility and distribution, depending on your industry, a name brand “Simon & Schuster Free Press” is kind of like getting into Harvard. BUT if you self-publish and it gets hot enough, a name brand may want to pick it up.

Publishing. Content. The message is coming out over and over again, in every session here at BizJam. If you aren’t generating content, it feels like a “must” to me.

Lisa recommends lulu.com. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but helps build your credibility.

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(This article originally appeared on July 1 on Biznik.com)

If you’ve never met Karrie, do. Go to her Biznik page, see where she’ll be and go. If it’s a sit down, sit next to her. If it’s a mixer, hover. She’s smart, delightful and, if you’re lucky enough to hire her, she can shower you with practical ideas to help build your business.

In her recent article, “16 Ways,” Karrie seized upon a problem and offered practical solutions that Biznik needed. In one week, the article had 500+ views and a Biznik-record-breaking 61 comments. Joe Shirley wrote,

“Now that you’ve got three articles with an average rating approaching nine points, it’s about time for you to write an article about how to write a kick-ass article.”

I suspect Karrie is too modest to reply. But in Joe-Hage-speak, she clearly understood her positioning, objective, strategy, and tactics before she began. What follows are my words, not hers.

Karrie’s positioning:

To members of the Biznik community frustrated by low attendance rates, Karrie Kohlhaas is the unorthodox (and successful) business cultivator who can help you reduce event attrition because she offers 16 practical tips she’s used to build her – and her Fortune 500 clients’ – business and because you know her from other highly-rated and popular articles on this site.

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Seth Godin is a friggin genius, in my humble opinion. And I told him so back in 1999. Had I not read his first book, Permission Marketing, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge and jargon I needed to secure a job with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM that got me started online. (He was very courteous in his reply; I have it laying here around somewhere.)

This little ten-page missive changed the way I approach PowerPoint. You must download it. It’s really good, and a quick read.

Here’s my take on it:
* A picture trumps a word every time. Upload a photo. Use the whole page. Talk about the photo and what it means.

* Do NOT write a “deck” so that anyone who missed the meeting can just read the deck and understand everything that went on during your presentation. They didn’t make it? Tough! They want the presentation; they get the presenter because no piece of paper will sell as well as you do.

* Do NOT use clip art or any installed Microsoft background. It shouts, “I’m lazy, I have no sense of style, and I don’t know how to use PowerPoint.”

* You don’t need whole sentences. PowerPoint is just a visual tracking device for those who need something to see while you present. In fact, unless there is a picture, I prefer the slide to be borderline boring. I’d rather have them looking at me than the screen anyhow.

Great pointers. Go ahead and download it now.

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