Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Shut Down Harvard - Increase U.S. Competitiveness

It starts at Harvard and elite joints like it: The mindset of entitlement, faith in knowledge learned, and a default against failure.  I know.  I attended Harvard Law School.  Had I stayed I never would have been able to put together the number of new careers I have had to in order to make a good living in a global technology-driven economy.  Seemingly everything Harvard touches, from people to publications like THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, it might risk ruining.

That Complimentary Consultation - You want to sell, not give away the store

Even my electrician friend knows that approaching a potentially lucrative prospect with the offer of a "complimentary consultation" is the most effective selling technique.  It gets us in the door, provides an opportunity to listen to the prospect's needs and concerns, permits us to screen if we want to work with this person or organization, and allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition.  The problem is: Too often we wind up giving away the store - without closing the sale. 

Here's how to use the complimentary consultation to close sales.

The Magic of a Kiss: Lip Lock Selling

There's that old saying:  Either you can sell or you can't.  That happens to be true.  That's because either you can get out of yourself and reach the heart of the customer or you can't.  Most can't.  I could when I was a kid in the family businesses and hawking Wallace Brown Christmas cards and its special of the four years I was doing that: Rhinestone Christian crosses.  Then the magic disappeared with too much education, too much psychotherapy about my "deprived" childhood, and too much success doing other things, e.g. speechwriting/ghostwriting.

How I'm Getting Business: One Client At A Time

The one-step-at-a-time thinking works with tough things like addictions because it's simple, it's doable, and all those one steps eventually add up to a leap to where we want to be.  An Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] Baby - my uncles took me to meetings where I inhaled chocolate marshmallow cookies - I saw miracles happen one-something-at-a-time.  Naturally, when I hit a wall during this lousy economy, I reached back into those meeting rooms.  Business came.  Tonight I pulled in $11,500 of new projects.

Long Legs or 20 Points More IQ

We say we value intelligence.  But what we pay the most for is beauty, particularly the young leggy female kind.  Former DC blogger and Manhattan hottie Jessica Cutler has no current ceilings on her earnings.  Yet, female attorneys, reports the American Bar Association, are losing earning power.  In 2006, they earned 70.5 percent of what their male counterparts make, down from 77.5 percent in 2005.  So much for intelligence.

Geezer Alert - Don't let anyone see us with newspapers

It's the little things which get us labeled as over-the-hill, not so much our age in years.  And one of those things is getting caught reading a newspaper.  In THE NEW YORKER article "Out of Print," Eric Alterman points out, "The average age of the American newspaper reader is fifty-five and rising."  What we should be seen doing is surfing news sites on our iPhone or wireless laptop. 

Talk SalesSpeak, not the language of your profession

Lawyer, doctor, Indian chief or, me, a writer.  Whether our profession, using the language of it in applying for jobs or assignments won't help much.  The exception, of course, is when it's necessary to refer to technical or specialized skills.  What will help a lot is the language of sales.  Once I picked that up in an eight-week seminar in marketing/sales, I closed on tons more business.

Chief Marketing Officer - Appoint Yourself CMO of Your Life, Career

There's a glut of just about every kind of human being and professional.  If we want something in 2008, we have to go out there and market/sell.  That's what winners have been doing forever.  That's what we now have to start doing - becoming our own Chief Marketing Officer [CMO] even if we want one loyal friend, one job, our business to get going and maybe even grow. Actually, when I relocated to a small community and when my business tanked I had to get a jump on being the CMO of my life and career.  Here are some of the things I have learned.  My hunch is that they are must-do for you, too.

Turning Around Victoria's Secret - Cotton Panties, Plus Size, Make-Believe Butt Tatoo

The sexual fantasy that Victoria's Secret has been selling has lost its heart and soul. For example, it's put on the shelves undies which are, well, too sexy and whose sizing ignore us porked-up females, particularly aging Baby Boomers. Where are romance and feeling good about our bods as they are? So, as Amy Merrick reports in today's THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, the brand is re-thinking its identity and merchandise.  Its sales are down about eight percent.

Global Fashion World in Play - Anna Wintour May Have to Bone Up on Emotional Intelligence

The fashion world was always a brutal arena.  But things are getting worse because that peculiar industry has become as vulnerable as all the rest to the volatility and uncertainty of a global marketplace.  A sign of that is the right-out-there attack by Giorgio Armani on Anna Wintour during Milan fashion week.  Wintour was in the audience and the audience gasped at the unexpected candor.