Building business relationships means picking up the phone

January 13, 2015

161143948I’ll admit it: I hate talking on the phone. I’m in my early 30s, so I certainly grew up with the phone as my primary means of communication as a child and through my teens, but my professional years have been spent relying on Google, email and social media for any communication I cannot conduct in person. I’m a huge proponent of getting out and meeting people in person, but I absolutely loathe having to talk on the phone.

When I was a practicing attorney, I liked doing things by email so there was always a record. However, when I became a journalist and started writing for Forbes and then ESPN, I had to get over my aversion to the phone in order to interview sources for my stories. Then I joined Reputation Ink, and I was encouraged to pick up the phone to follow up on pitches and get to know editors.

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Even an introvert can learn to create conversation

June 12, 2014

491994991Some people are blessed with the gift of gab. If you’re not one of those people who can walk into a room full of strangers and strike up a conversation, however, you need to master the art of the icebreaker. You can use some visual as an icebreaker – a company logo or perhaps a lapel pin – or you can put in a little time and research your way into an icebreaker.

Some icebreakers are visual

Some icebreakers are visual. Lou Imbriano, President and CEO of TrinityOne, a marketing strategy and business advisory consultancy, has it easy when it comes to icebreakers: he has three Super Bowl rings from his time spent as chief marketing officer of the New England Patriots. They’re big, they easily draw people’s attention, and everyone wants to hold one. He doesn’t have to look for conversation, it finds him.

I lucked into my own visual icebreaker when I created a logo for my work as a sports business reporter and analyst. It was a real photograph taken of me for my book on Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement that a friend with graphic design capabilities turned into my now signature logo.

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The time to embrace Twitter for professional development was yesterday

April 10, 2014

Hand with Hashtag

When my book publisher told me I had to get on Twitter four years ago to “build my platform,” I thought he was crazy. I didn’t have time to sit around reading people’s tweets about what they had for lunch, and no one I knew was even on Twitter to follow me. How was tweeting about my book going to help me eventually sell books if no one was reading my tweets?

Flash forward four years, and I can honestly say Twitter changed my life. It was a key catalyst for me leaving my job as an attorney

to become a sports business reporter at ESPN for the last two years. Twitter has gotten me on national television and radio programs as an expert guest, garnered me speaking invitations for conferences all over the country, and it has indeed helped me sell books. I also happened to meet both my agent and my husband on Twitter, so when I say it has been life changing, I’m not exaggerating.

Convinced but not sure where to start?

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