In this episode of “Accelerating Progress,” I interview Gail Bower, president of Bower & Co. Consulting LLC. Her firm assists clients with dramatically raising their visibility, revenue, and impact. Gail is a professional consultant, writer, and speaker, with nearly 25 years of experience managing some of the country’s most important events, festivals, and sponsorships and implementing marketing programs for clients. Launched in 1987, today Bower & Co. improves the effectiveness and results of clients’ marketing strategies, events, and corporate sponsorship programs.

A regular speaker about sponsorship, marketing, and events, Gail is also a trusted source for the media, quoted in Time, Meeting Professional International’s One+ magazine, Direct Marketing News, and online at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, among others. She’s the author of a guidebook for sponsorship sellers, titled How to Jump-start Your Sponsorship Strategy in Tough Times. For information, visit http://www.GailBower.com.

and now also on iTunes

© Pam Harper 2009. All rights reserved.

 

 Standard Podcast [25:34m]: Play Now | Download

In this episode of “Accelerating Progress,” I interview
Phil Symchych CA, MBA of Symchych Consulting Inc.
( http://www.symchychconsulting.com) Phil is known as the The Entrepreneur’s Architect ™, and has over 20 years experience helping entrepreneurs in a variety of industries to grow their businesses and improve the quality of their lives. He consults, coaches, speaks and writes about entrepreneurial success.

Phil has has been published or quoted in the National Post, Globe and Mail, Leader Post, Star Phoenix and Western Producer. Phil’s holds a Bachelor of Commerce and M.B.A. degrees. He is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Management Consultant.

Most recently, Phil was nominated to the Million Dollar Consultan® Hall of Fame for his contributions to the profession and his client results. He is one of only 20 consultants in the world to hold this designation. He also won the timed slalom competition at BMW’s Advanced Driving Program.



 

 Standard Podcast [14:31m]: Play Now | Download


and now also on iTunes

© Pam Harper 2009. All rights reserved.

While I see numerous debates going on about the usefulness of Twitter in business, there are plenty of companies that are already finding ways to make Twitter work for them. In fact, the website MarketingProfs now offers a complimentary report to subscribers about the ways in which 11 companies are successfully using Twitter.

However, companies are not the only ones using Twitter to get messages to stakeholders; a variety of government agencies, most notably the SEC has been Tweeting as well. Communicating by headlines makes sense in a world that demands immediacy and is saturated by information.

So the issue is not whether Twitter is useful. It definitely serves a serious purpose. However, I’ve identified three main challenges:
1) Taking the time to learn how to use Twitter effectively (there are entire podcasts dedicated to the nuances and etiquette of the Twittersphere)
2) Understanding how many ways it can be applied to meet your communication objectives
3) Making the commitment to keep showing up and experimenting

We’re all learning together. Do you have examples of how Twitter has helped you in business? If so, please post them below.

Are you an entrepreneur or business leader who is serious about growing your business? Are you looking for ways to turbo-charge progress toward your goals and dreams? Often times there are more opportunities to do this than may seem possible.

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 11am ET / 10am CT / 9am MT / 8am PT. , I’m offering a customized teleconference for qualified attendees. You’ll gain tips you can immediately use to:
* Uncover the most common (but mistaken) assumption that can get in the way of finding new opportunities
* Gain wide-spread support of your ideas
* Use others’ resistance to change to your advantage
* Maintain credible communication - even when things don’t go well
* Minimize risk and maximize success of any new opportunity

The first ten qualified attendees will be eligible for a drawing to receive a complimentary autographed copy of my book “Preventing Strategic Gridlock.” Registration fee is $99/attendee. For more information contact us.

For testimonials, click here

Shattering the Myths About What Works and What Doesn’t

In this episode of “Accelerating Progress,” I interview Linda J. Popky. Recently named one of the top women of influence in Silicon Valley, Linda is the founder and president of L2M Associates, Inc., ( http://www.L2massociates.com/), a strategic marketing company that helps organizations dramatically improve their bottom line by more effectively leveraging their investments in marketing programs, processes, and people. L2M enables a wide range of organizations from startups and small business to Fortune 500 companies to use their existing marketing resources as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Linda is a member of the Million Dollar Consultant ® Hall of Fame, as well as president of Women in Consulting (WIC), a collaborative organization of more than 400 seasoned business professionals in more than 30 consulting specialties.  She is a consultant, speaker, and educator, as well as the author of Marketing Your Career: Positioning, Packaging, and Promoting Yourself for Success  and the host of the Marketing Thought Leadership podcast series.

 

 Standard Podcast [17:48m]: Play Now | Download

and now also on iTunes

© Pam Harper 2009. All rights reserved.

If you are making changes in your organization, it’s likely that many people may resist doing things differently – even if they agree that the changes are necessary.

In this 3-minute audio clip, I describe three of the most effective ways to break through resistance and get more of the results you need.

 

 Three Keys to Overcoming Resistance to Change [3:11m]: Play Now | Download

and now also on iTunes

© Pam Harper 2009. All rights reserved.

In my experiences consulting to companies that are going through extraordinary growth and/or upheaval, chronic “firefighting” (juggling a series of unexpected and urgent issues) is an issue that almost always comes up.

In this 3-minute audio clip, I provide guidelines for addressing for extinguish “fires” so your company can achieve even better results on a sustained basis.

 

 Firefighting [3:53m]: Play Now | Download

and now also on iTunes

© Pam Harper 2009. All rights reserved.

It’s never great to arrive somewhere totally jet lagged. Unfortunately, having gotten all of four hours of sleep the night before and having endured an eleven hour trip from Newark to Las Vegas (that’s another story), I was totally exhausted by the time I entered the crush of humanity at the airport waiting for a cab.

By the time I snaked around six lines of tired and cranky people, I didn’t even care where I was. Finally, I dragged myself to my assigned space on the taxi line to catch a legitimate ride to my hotel. However, as I crawled into the back seat of the car, the driver asked a question for which I was totally unprepared: “Do you want the most direct route or do you want the fastest route?”

For those of you who don’t know me, I travel extensively as a consultant and speaker, and I travel extensively in my personal life. I pride myself on being fairly savvy about airplanes, trains, and cabs. In fact, I’ve been to Las Vegas a number of times. But somehow this question had never come up before. “Just get me to my hotel!” I moaned. So the driver took me on what I came to find out was the “fastest route.” As we wove on and off the expressway and circled around the Strip, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was not going to be cheap. How much did I spend? Let’s just say I had to get more cash when I arrived at my destination.

The next day when I followed up with the cab company, the dispatcher explained the rationale for the question: The fastest route to the Strip isn’t necessarily the most direct route and it’s always more expensive. But the most direct route to the Strip is likely to take longer despite the cheapest fare. So it may be worth more money to get there faster. Got that?

Once I slept off the jet lag, I had to admit that the logic really does make sense. It all comes down to what we value most: our time or our money. It’s not the driver’s responsibility or accountability to decide this, yet we often push tough decisions in business or in life onto someone else, and then blame the other person (manager, coworker, spouse, consultant, driver, etc.) when the decision doesn’t work out as planned.

The truth is we can and should accept advice from knowledgeable people. That’s smart. But ultimately each one of us is responsible and accountable for making the tough calls in our businesses and in our lives. It may not be easy, especially when we’re tired and cranky, but it’s the most ethical route to travel.

I’ve decided that it’s time to join Twitter in addition to blogging and publishing my complimentary ezine, The Harper Report. Why? Because I’m convinced that communicating by headlines consisting of 140 characters or less is only going to increase in popularity as uncertainty increases in response to unrelenting and unprecedented changes.

The fact is the more uncertainty we face, the more we crave information. And Twitter definately delivers. Coincidentally, the moment I finished sending out my first Tweet, I noticed that The Ann Arbor News (the daily from the city where I grew up) had just announced the end of its print edition, which will be replaced with an online newspaper.

While the end of a print newspaper is sad, what makes this story especially significant is there’s no other print newspaper that serves Ann Arbor. Online media has been supplementing print for awhile, however it now appears that we’ve reached the point where Twitter, blog posts, and other online publications can totally replace hard copy newspapers and magazines. Or can it? There are still many people who don’t go online for local news. I wonder how their communication needs will be served.

Could print media finally be going the way of horse and buggy? I hope not. Even though we save natural resources by going online, there’s nothing like the smell and feel of a print newspaper when relaxing over coffee on a Sunday morning. Get it while it lasts.

Recently, I was a guest on Marketing Thought Leadership, hosted by Linda Popky of L2M Associates.  In this 11 minute interview,  I define the “Art of Corporate Resilience,” the critical role of marketing, and three steps that marketing executives can take to increase the resilience of their organizations.

During the interview, I also refer people to my Special Report ”Three Steps To Shape Your Business Culture and Improve Business Results“