Radio Show and Book Review: My Interview With Michael McLaughlin

This week’s Indie Business Radio, show features Michael McLaughlin, author of Winning the Professional Services Sale: Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain Your Sanity. Michael is a management consultant and speaker with more than twenty years in the professional services industry. He is the founder and a principle of MindShare…

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Eye Contact: Optimizing The I to Eye Connection

This is a guest post by Luci Weston of Here We Are With Luci, sharing topics and solutions to make your life better, brighter, and easier. If you would like to submit a guest post for my blog, please read the guidelines here. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook offer new ways to socialize that are simple,…

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Why You Don't Have To Be Smart To Be Successful

In his new book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell says that psychologist Daniel Willingham conducted a set of experiments designed to test how quickly people become efficient at a task. For the experiment, he told people in Group A in what specific sequence a pattern of x’s would appear on a…

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FTC To Host Workshops On "Journalism and the Internet Age"

On December 1 and 2, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold two days of workshops on how the Internet has affected journalism. The workshops come in the wake of the release last month of the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which become effective on the first day of…

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Vault Episode #172: Michael McLaughlin [Podcast]

The Vault is an archive of my first podcasts so there is a record for you to enjoy. Welcome to the Vault Episode 172 featuring my interview with Michael McLaughlin, the author of “Winning The Professional Services Sale: Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain Your Sanity.” With years of experience…

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My Remarks At Indie Business Revolution: Portland

These are my prepared remarks for tonight’s event. I wish everyone reading this could be here, but since that’s not possible, I wanted to give you a flavor for what fun we are going to have and let you know that I hope to see you at a future event when I come to a…

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The Social Media Revolution

The brains behind this video is Erik Qualman of Socialnomics. Erik is a seasoned social media expert who was a guest on Indie Business Radio a few weeks ago. On the show (you can read a summary, watch a video and stream the audio of the whole show here), Erik shared lots of tips and…

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Announcing Products Liability Insurance For Your Sweets and Confectionery Products

When I launched IBN in 2000, there was a small but growing number of people making soaps, cosmetics and other consumer products in very small quantities. With the explosion of the Internet and the availability to everyone of multiple e-commerce opportunities, micro-manufacturing in many markets has grown tremendously. Up until 2005, Illinois-based RLI Corp. provided…

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Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, A La Mamma Mohs

I usually don’t blog about baking, but I do love to bake. I don’t get to do it often because I’m such a busy Indie, but I like to make time for baking during the holidays because it seems to enrich my family life to do so. My kids love me for it and my…

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Six Strategies For Being An Effective Media Outlet For Your Small Business

In order to be an effective media outlet for your business, you should abide by some basic journalistic principles. While the technologies that support journalistic endeavors are constantly changing, the basic tenets of good journalism have remained constant for hundreds of years. The challenge for you is to use those principles to establish the branded…

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Announcing The Beauty-Fall Bath & Body Recipe Contest!

As you may know, I am the founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network, a trade organization representing small and independent manufacturers of cosmetics, candles, aromatherapy products, soaps, jewelry, confectionery products and other health, beauty and lifestyle accessories. My members manufacture products on a micro-scale, often by hand from scratch. In addition to manufacturers,…

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Twitter List Widgets Use RSS To Help Small Business Owners Expand Their Reach

If you enjoyed my article containing 10 ways small business owners can use Twitter Lists to expand their sphere of influence and build trust and credibility, then you’ll be happy to know about this new Twitter widget creator allowing you to quickly and easily aggregate specific List content into a widget that can be displayed…

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Proof That Social Media Is Killing Print Magazines

When I quit my corporate job to start my business, the first thing I did was call the vice president of public relations at the company I was leaving and ask her how to get good PR. She referred me to a veteran in the industry who broke the devastating news that my business was…

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FDA Social Media Hearings: Day 1 Wrap Up

Today, I attended via webcast the FDA’s hearings on the use of social media to promote medical devices and drugs. The hearings started at 8:00 this morning and I listened uninterrupted until around 3:00, and then off and on after that. The speakers included drug companies (including some that also make cosmetics, such as Johnson…

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