Mindshare - a controlling or predominant hold of one's attention....

-Merriam Webster-

Would you believe that you are a brand? Well, it is true. Everything that you are and do as a service professional is developing your brand in the marketplace. It does not matter if you are a lawyer, accountant, banker, consultant or one of many other disciplines. We all need two critical success factors to be valued; (1) we must do great work for our clients (2) we must be able to bring in business to our firms.

If you are like most professionals, you have invested heavily in your education and probably have excellent technical skills. But, like many professionals, you are challenged to get a consistent flow of referrals and your business is inconsistent. It is what I call “The Yoyo Principle”. It is up and down with significant valleys.

The key for all of us is to mak...

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1. You recognize that you and you alone are responsible for your results.

2. You are committed to doing great work for your clients.

3. You understand that people do not buy what you do – they buy “WHY” you do it.

4.  You have the PIP- you are Purposeful, you are Intentional, and you are Passionate about your business.

5. You are important to your firm and have complete CLARITY of what you want and how you will accomplish it.

6. You are building a strong relationship system with the right people and you manage it well so that you can make your competition irrelevant.

7. You are developing a solid brand and presence in your marketplace.

1.    Social Style  - The key to connecting with others is having a clear understanding of your social style and how to interact with other social styles. "Chemistry" is an important element in any relationship. None of us are ever going to refer anyone unless we feel good about that individual.

2.    Lack of Clarity – Others can only help you if they understand what the clients look like who can benefit from your services. If you are trying to be a "catch all” generalist who cannot offer specifics about market and market segments you have little chance of someone thinking of you if the opportunity presents itself.

3.    Poor Value Proposition – You do not have a succinct value proposition positioning statement that clearly lays out the reasons how clients wi...

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Mark Goulston M.D., a friend and highly respected psychiatrist and author of the best-selling book, “Get Out Of Your Own Way has shared many insightful thoughts with me on dealing with people and situations.

Mark identified three values that he says are consistently present for people who are successful or aspire to be successful.  They are: (a) Clarity (b) Preparation (c) Integrity. As I thought about it, it was clear to me that those who have been successful in our coaching program over the years have developed a high “CPI Index©”.

Individuals who have clarity are neither confused nor confusing when it comes to who they are and what they want.  They are very clear in the goals they have set for themselves and understand what they need to do in order to make those goals a reality. If you have ever had the chance to...

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As you come upon the second half of 2013, it is a good time to reflect on the results you achieved so far this year. Are you on track to reach your goals for the year? Have you captured the right clients? Are you generating the revenue you expected?

As a service professional, you are a business and ultimately, clients will primarily always work with you because of you. As a business, your goal is to generate revenue and income by virtue of the services you perform. Whether you work for a large organization or are a solo practitioner, you must create value and are responsible for the results you achieve.

It is very easy to get caught up in how “busy” you are each day. The question is, are those activities that are keeping you busy “productive”? Being busy does not make money. Being productive is the only way to make money. Too many service professionals mistake busyness for productivity and as a result, they aren'...

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No question the economic cycle we have been through has shaken things up. We have had to toil through a few life-changing years. Ten years prior, most of us had plenty of business as there were more clients than we could even handle. Every discipline from lawyers to insurance brokers saw huge increases of professionals within their ranks. Today, we continue to have too many professionals chasing a much smaller pool of potential clients.

Whether or not you get left behind is going to depend on you and your attitude. It does not matter if you are a “seasoned” professional or in the early stages of your career. Some have already resigned themselves that this is larger than they can handle. They will hang on as long as someone pays them. Others have decided to see this as an opportunity to take advantage of a period of disruption. They are building their stable of clients by finding a way to combine out of the box thinking with hard work to ma...

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