How to make money on Linkedin

I wrote previously about "productism" so let me expand on it, I think you will find this concept most fascinating -- and profitable.

There are many blogs and ebooks talking about how to use Linkedin, and that's fine. People need to learn the basics of using Linkedin.

Ultimately, though, you want to make money from Linkedin. I'm often baffled by people who still maintain that "Linkedin is a networking tool and should not be used to sell, etc." This is just a belief and, of course, all beliefs are valid.

If a person doesn't want to make money on Linkedin, that is totally find. It's a choice, a personal choice, and there is no judgment whatsoever.

However, the real issue is not whether one should sell or not on Linkedin in order to make money. The critical question is, "Do you have something to sell?"

If you're only selling your time (whether you're a marketing executive or an administrative assistant), you won't achieve financial freedom any time soon. That's because financial freedom requires time freedom so that you can do what you want every day, such as scouting for business opportunities.

To make significant money on Linkedin, you need to have a product to sell.

(Okay, sorry for using a large font, but I really want to drive home the message that you really, really, really need to have a product to sell IF your goal is to make money on Linkedin).

For example, consider John and Jane.

- John has no product to sell, but has 1,000 connections.
- Jane has a product to sell, but has only 120 connections.

Who do you think will make money from Linkedin?

Let's assume that both John and Jane have a full-time job, and are paid the same salary of $80,000 per year.

Assume also that Jane has a product priced at $50, and it's the kind of product that is useful to most Linkedin users. For example, a "How to use Linkedin to make $20,000 in extra income per year" ebook.

Since Jane has 120 connections, her sales potential is 120 X $50, or $6,000.

If she doubles the number of her connections to 240, she'll have a sales potential of $12,000.

John, for his part, could double the number of his connections to 2,000 and still not make any money. Why? Because he doesn't have a product to sell.

But John is a very clever person, so he contacts Jane and proposes that they strike an agreement: He will sell her ebook to his 2,000 connections for a 30% commission. That is, he would make 0.30 X 2,000 X $50, or $30,000. (Jane would make $70,000, which is much better than $12,000).

They both win. (Thanks to Peter, the wealth mastermind).

Suppose Jane's ebook were priced at $25, then John would "only" make $15,000 from his 2,000 connections while Jane would "only" make $35,000.

Notice, by the way, that John's income is restricted by the number of connections he has, or 2,000.

Jane, who owns the legal rights to her ebook, could potentially sell to 21 million Linkedin users. She only has to find more well connected people like John.

21 million X $35 = $735,000,000

WHOA!

From this example, you can easily understand why I maintain that the first step on the road to wealth is to create a product, preferably a digital product.

Of course, I'm conveniently ignoring many important issues, such as substitutability: Jane's ebook has many substitutes, so it is not at all certain that she can get 21 million buyers.

But the main point is that Jane has economic power because she has a product. She could even decide to reduce the commission from 30% to 20%, and she would still get a lot of well connected Linkedin users interested in becoming an affiliate.

This post is perhaps the most important post I've ever written so far, out of over 400 posts.

Indeed, I submit that the number one challenge for ALL Linkedin users is to be able to create a product.

I will write more about how you can go about creating such a product. I did it myself many times already.

Make $1,000 in one hour

0:06

The above statement might sound crazy, but friends, remember that I made $10,000 in 5 (highly pleasant) hours as well as $1,500 in 15 minutes.

If you're interested in earning $1,000 in one hour, contact me asap at peter@powerknowledge.net. The interesting part is not even the money, but the wealth creation secret that you will learn, which will enable you to make much more money on your own.

Okay, so back to Linkedin.

Here's a tip: In your Linkedin profile, insert a blog like the one I have at Innovatelle.com.

Set up a blog and share your expertise with people. Wordpress blogs enable you to see how many visitors you have, which is a great way to test the effectiveness of your Linkedin profile.

Most Linkedin profiles do NOT invite the reader to perform a specific action like visit a blog or fill out a form or request something by email.

This is a mistake.

Such profiles seem to tell people: "Here, look how great and professional I am. Now, go away!"

The purpose of Linkedin is really to enable you to BUY the trust of hundreds, if not thousands of people. Connection is easy, even a teenager can invite people on Linkedin and "connect" to them.

Earning people's trust is NOT so easy. You've got to offer useful and practical and relevant information to them (like I do on this blog which has about 300 subscribers).

The biggest problem of Linkedin users, part 2

READER: Peter, you wrote previously that "assuming that most people eventually will have more than 500 connections, the real problem will be the following: How do I monetize my connections? In fact, the problem can be more accurately formulated this way: What product do I offer to all my connections?" My question is, I've never created a product before. What chances do I have of creating a product that I could sell to all my Linkedin connections, and possibly to THEIR connections?

PETER: Did you ever walk on two legs before you decided, one day, to do like your parents and walk on two legs instead of crawling? Creating a product is the same, my friend. Everybody THINKS they can't do it until they do it one day. Do you think Bill Gates believed he would become billionaire one day, or the richest man on the planet one day, when he launched Microsoft? My point is that you simply cannot know what you are TRULY capable of doing or creating, until you actually do it!

I believe the overwhelming majority of Linkedin users (that's 30 million people) suffer from 1. a failure of nerve, and 2. a failure of imagination.

Luckily, those two "illnesses" of the mind can easily be cured. Just do it!

After you overcome your failure of nerve, and become bold enough to believe that you can do ANYTHING, then somehow, almost automatically, you will also be cured of your failure of imagination. You will begin to see possibilities that you did not see before (due to a lack of nerve or audacity or boldness).

READER: What product did you create?

PETER: I specialize in information marketing, so I've created in the last 3 years several workshops, one of which is very popular and is being taught in several schools and colleges to first-time entrepreneurs. Details here: http://businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com/.

This "BMW" workshop is now an audio CD that I sell over the Internet. I am planning a marketing campaign via ConstantContact to sell it to the 30 million users of Linkedin so they can launch, perhaps part-time at first, their own business.

READER: Why did you choose to create an information product instead of a "real", physical product?

PETER: The Internet and the increasing connectivity between people, whether on Linkedin or Facebook, dramatically increase the odds of success for information products. The profit margins are high and there is virtually no manufacturing costs, so the risks are very low.

READER: You wrote, "if you do not have a product to sell to your connections, then having 10,000 connections will not help. Indeed, 10,000 X $0 = $0. You could even have 100,000 connections, it still would not help you economically." Okay, I get that. But I'm just using Linkedin to advance my career by networking online and by staying in touch. What's wrong with that?

PETER: Nothing. In fact, if you use Linkedin effectively and efficiently to multiply connections and open doors so you can get better jobs (or at least job offers that you are at leisure to evaluate and decline), then you are ahead of a great number of people since there are only 30 million users of Linkedin -- a relatively small number given the population of professionals in the world.

But here's my point: Linkedin can be MUCH MORE than just an "online networking tool." Sure, it is fundamentally THAT. But the forward-looking people who use Linkedin innovatively and strategically, will win BIG TIME.

Simply put, you CAN make a lot of money by leveraging Linkedin strategically. But you have to learn more about business, marketing and sales. You don't need an MBA, but you need to understand business fundamentals so that you can monetize all your Linkedin assets and connections.

READER: Wait, what's the difference between a Linkedin asset and a Linkedin connection?

PETER: A Linkedin connection is a person you are connected to, while a Linked asset could be the questions you ask or the answers you provide on Linkedin Answers; it could be your profile; it could be the people you chat with using Linkedin's internal messaging system (these folks might NOT be your connections, and they most likely are people whose questions you answered or people who answered your questions). Your professional background, if it is detailed, can also be considered a Linkedin asset: it projects a certain credibility and professionalism, which makes it more likely for others to want to do business with you.

(to be continued)

Generate passive income from Linkedin

Most people on Linkedin are not aware of how they can use Linkedin to generate an interesting source of passive income. So I created a flowchart map to show how it can be done.

This map is worth a FORTUNE, but you can download it for free here: http://linkedinmastermind.wordpress.com. Good luck!

Blogging could advance your career

http://www.blogmastermind.com/video/ The above video explains some of the fundamentals of blogging. I know most Linkedin users won't quit their job tomorrow in order to blog full-time like Yaro Starak, but I do believe that you can gain valuable insights about how to leverage blogging to promote yourself and your career. For instance, you can create a blog and upload past work samples there. Your blog can be promoted in your Linkedin profile. If you package your professional knowledge into an ebook, you could also sell that ebook on your blog (using Payloadz or Lulu). This is, in fact, what I'm doing on my blog: http://peterswork.wordpress.com I'll write more about strategic career blogging. But feel free to create your own account at Wordpress or Blogger, and explore the possibilities. Personally, I use both Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger has the email-to-blog function, meaning that I can send an email to a specific address and it is instantly uploaded on my blog. Wordpress doesn't allow that, but it does track statistics so you know how many visitors you get.

Great news!

I have GREAT NEWS for you.

I'm giving away a course I created in May 2006, called the BMW workshop, which teaches entrepreneurs and professionals how to create value, build wealth and achieve financial independence.

I usually charge $800 to corporate clients, but I decided to give away this valuable course material to anyone who's interested.

I'm doing this because I feel it's my mission to empower people intellectually so they can be liberated economically and financially.

Indeed, three days after creating the workshop, I launched a blog (at http://businessmodelworkout.blogspot.com) where I stated the mission:

Our mission is to increase the business literacy of citizens so they can proactively take control of their economic affairs and achieve financial independence through the correct and practiced application of business principles to their career or business.

To receive this course for FREE, simply send a blank email to bmwcourse@gmail.com. The deadline for registering is September 1st, 2008 so please invite all your friends and Linkedin connections. They will NEVER forget your kindness!

Sure, I'll offer for sale a few reports, diagrams and mind maps here and there, but you don't have to buy anything. The course itself will be free if you register before September 15, 2008.

Most of the 280 subscribers to this blog know me as a blogger writing about Linkedin and networking strategies, but I'm fundamentally a wealth intellectual and instructional innovator.

In plain English, my talent is to be able to extract STRATEGIC and CRITICAL frameworks from books, white papers, workshops, seminars, etc. and to create NEW frameworks so as to empower people intellectually for economic autonomy and financial independence.

In short, I help people to get rich.

The BMW course is truly the best that I can come up with, so I hope it will help you to think clearly and strategically, so you can achieve financial freedom as soon as possible.

Good luck!

I'm giving away $9,000 to my Linkedin connections!

If you have 100 connections on Linkedin, you can easily make $1,000 by working only for 15 minutes. I'm not kidding!

As you can see in the above picture, I give $10 to my affiliates (and I keep a modest $7). But this is only for my Linkedin connections.

The BMW eBook is a 50-page document capturing the principles and techniques I've been teaching since May 2006 (at Tyark.com, CEFQ.ca, McGill University, chambers of commerce, etc.). This BWM workshop has been featured in the Montreal Gazette HERE.

So assuming my 900 connections make $10 each, then it's like me giving away $9,000!

However, an affiliate will usually be able to make much more. If you have 200 connections, then your net profit could be 200 X $10, or $2,000.

It takes only 15 minutes to insert the purchase link in your email signature and on your Linkedin profile or Facebook profile.

Please note that the BMW eBook is just the first of a series of ebooks I'm currently writing (there are 20 more ebooks coming up!).

Contact me asap if you're interested in monetizing your Linkedin connections: peter@careerknowledge.net.

Launch of Linkedin Mastermind

I just created a new Linkedin blogzine here: http://linkedinmastermind.wordpress.com. Feel free to register as a subscriber by clicking on the link at the top righthand corner.

It's an elite version of this blog, and it will contain secrets NOT posted on Linkedin User Manual. Subscription cost will be $200 in a few weeks, so please register as soon as you can!

Acquire LOTS of marketable skills for free!

I've been thinking about an open-source system where highly skilled and knowledgeable people could get together and exchange expertise and skills.

I call it S.E.N.S.E. (for Skills Exchange Network for Strategic Empowerment).

Since I have over 900 connections on Linkedin, perhaps Linkedin is a good place to launch such a promising system, where people can become members and learn from one another.

This would work like those language exchange clubs, where two people get together to learn one another's language. For example, an English native gets together with a Japanese native and for the first half-hour, they speak only in Japanese (this would improve the Japanese conversational skills of the English native). Then, for the second half-hour, they speak only in English (for the learning benefit of the Japanese person).

In the case of S.E.N.S.E., it is not language skills that are learned but all kinds of skills, including:

Project management
Direct marketing
Marketing research
Operations
Quality control and assurance
Leadership
Team management
Finance
Entrepreneurship
Effective written communications
Knowledge management
etc.

The list can be quite exhaustive. The point is that we are all experts at something, and we could all learn from other people who are knowledgeable at something.

S.E.N.S.E. makes sense!

Now WHY would you join such a skill-exchange network?

1. Your employer will ONLY train you on skills that are SPECIFIC to your job. Your market value might not necessarily be increased as a result of such company-specific training. SENSE enables you to pick up valuable skills while networking with knowledgeable people.

2. SENSE leverages the existing connections on Linkedin. For example, you can just invite all your connections to SENSE so that everybody can learn from everybody else.

3. Skype enables worldwide phone communications, so this dramatically expands the number of people you can learn from!

4. SENSE screens applicants so only people who are experts or highly knowledgeable in their field, will be admitted. This guarantees that you will learn useful and practical knowledge.

5. Membership is FREE so SENSE will grow fairly rapidly. Joining gives you benefits, while not joining might cause you to fall behind relative to others in your profession or industry. Note: Membership is FREE but is by invitation only from existing members, and is subject to approval by the SENSE team. That is, ONLY experts and highly knowledgeable people are admitted. Also, all members must buy the SENSE User Guide on Payloadz, which costs $27. This Guide ensures that all SENSE members behave in a way that facilitates knowledge-sharing for the benefit of all.

6. If you work for a small company, the training budget is usually small. So SENSE can help you to acquire valuable skills that will advance your career.

7. Through interactions with other members, you will learn WHICH part of your knowledge is most valuable, so you can focus on developing that knowledge in order to continually increase your market value.

If you are interested in joining the SENSE network, please email me at peter@careerknowledge.net with "Register me for SENSE please" in the subject heading. No need to write anything else. The SENSE team will communicate with you for the next steps. Thanks.

Offer something valuable to all your connections!

I'm currently translating, from French to English, an ebook that will be distributed to all the 21 million users of Linkedin. If you read French, you can download that ebook immediately at www.superquebec.org (password is "superquebec").

The problem, of course, is that I have only 900 connections on Linkedin. So I'll need the collaboration of many Linkedin users in order to distribute that valuable ebook about a revolutionary way to design and develop one's ideal career.

If you wish to participate, the following text will appear on the cover of that ebook: "This special ebook has a regular value of $50 and is being offered free of charge to you, courtesy of (your name here)."

In other words, as a sponsor of this ebook, you will generate a lot of goodwill from all the people in your Linkedin network. For my part, I benefit from your distributing this ebook to your connections. The reader benefits from receiving a valuable ebook for free.

Everybody wins!

This ebook is only the first ebook I'm publishing. I'm planning on publishing more ebooks this way, and I call it "hyperpublishing."

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact me at peter@careerknowledge.net and mention "Request information on ebook sponsorship opportunity." Remember, you are NOT paying anything and you are generating goodwill among your Linkedin connections so they appreciate the fact of being connected to you. This offer ends on June 30, 2008. Thank you.

Professional vs Productional

I coined the word "productional" to refer to talented people who are creating a product, in contrast to talented people -- called professionals -- who are offering a professional service.

Since a product can be sold to almost anyone almost anywhere on the planet, thanks to the Internet and FedEx, there seems to be more economic leverage to be exploited.

That is, productionals could be making much more money than professionals.

Note: I provide a detailed report on this topic to subscribers of this blog. Please register via the top, righthand corner to receive this special report.

But let me share with you now the main differences between a productional and a professional.

A productional focuses on creating more and more products. of increasingly higher quality, to be distributed to all potential clients.

A professional, in contrast, cannot do this since he has to serve clients one at a time (or, in some cases, several at a time. Lawyers, for instance, can handle several cases at any given point).

A productional focuses more on efficiency while a professional focuses more on effectiveness (his employing organization focuses on efficiency).

The question then arises, "Which is better, to be a professional or a productional?"

In a world without Internet, being a professional seems better. In today's world, however, where the Internet enables the quasi-instant distribution worldwide of digital content created by one's intellect and imagination, it seems better to be a productional.

The overwhelming majority of Linkedin users are professionals (and managers, whom I consider to be management professionals), not productionals.

Why? If the concept of a productional is better, financially speaking, why aren't more people productionals?

I guess it's a new idea, so it needs time to catch on. But it will catch on pretty fast given the serious financial payoff involved.

More and more professionals are writing ebooks in order to promote their expertise. There are many tutorials on Youtube about how to create an ebook and sell it over the Internet.

As more and more people realize that the knowledge in their heads is actually GOLD, they will aggressively seek to market their expert knowledge. For some, this will be a second career whose income will complement the income from their daytime job. Note that this second income is PASSIVE income, that is, they make money without having to work. Sites like Payloadz enables them to make money without doing much.

As these productionals become more and more efficient in the marketing of their ebooks (or other kinds of digital content, like DVDs), they will reduce their "professional" activities and concentrate more on their "productional" activities.

Although I foresee a wholesale shift, in the worldwide population of professionals, toward a product-based career, this will not happen overnight, nor will it happen without much toil and hard work and struggling.

But this mega shift will happen nonetheless for the simple reason that people hate to lose. And when they (the professionals) begin to see people around them (the productionals) make lots of money via the commercialization of their expert ebooks, they will want in. Because they definitely do not want to lose out on this huge opportunity to generate passive income from their expert knowledge.

Make $$$ on Linkedin by creating a digital document

Search for Eben Pagan on Google or Youtube, and you'll quickly find out he created a $20 million information business within 6 years. Not bad.

He started by writing, in one week, an ebook to give dating advice to men. That's how it all started for him.

This is proof positive that one can make a fortune with an information product.

Of course, he didn't use Linkedin nor Facebook. So you DO have an edge. But you have to learn how to create a valuable digital document first.

Headhunters make a lot of money from Linkedin, and I'm happy for them. Those who really care about putting talented people in a position where they can shine while contributing to the continued success of the employer, definitely deserve success and recognition.

But what about the rest of us, at Linkedin, who are not headhunters or recruiters? How do we monetize our participation on Linkedin? After all, time is money.

Creating an information product that is valuable to Linkedin users, is one way. There are writers who specialize in helping people to capture their valuable knowledge and expertise in the form of an ebook. I'd be glad to recommend a few if you're interested.

Another way is to create a virtual service, which can be delivered via Skype, regular phone line, email, instant messaging, etc. Consultants and experts are best qualified to make money this way.

But the bottom line is that whether you sell a product or a service, you first have to buy trust. Having 500 connections on Linkedin does not mean that 500 people trust you. And if they don't trust you, they are unlikely to buy anything from you.

Fortunately, there IS a surefire way to buy trust from ALL your connections. It's a secret that few people know.

I will share that secret in my next post.

The key to wealth for Linkedin users

Facts:

1. Everybody wants to make more money
2. To make more money, one must sell more (of one's services and/or products, or of others' services and/or products)
3. To sell more, one must BUY more trust, confidence, goodwill, etc.
4. To buy more trust (from potential buyers), one must GIVE value. Lots of value. Frequently. Without any strings attached.
5. The only thing that one can give away to (thousands of) potential buyers WITHOUT impoverishing oneself, is a digital document (text, video, audio, etc.).

Conclusion:

The key to making more money (possibly a fortune!), is to thoroughly understand point #5 and master it.

The discussion above points to an important insight for all Linkedin users: it doesn't matter whether you have 100 or 10,000 connections.

What matters critically is whether you have a useful, valuable digital document to give away, for free, to all your connections. If you are able to create such a document, then it will be easy to secure people's goodwill and trust.

It will then be easier to sell products and services to them (whether they are your own or somebody else's -- in this case, you would act as an affiliate or reseller).

I will write more about how to create such a super-critical digital document.

Answers to your requests

Several subscribers have selected the following requests from a previous post, so let me briefly address these issues. I will write in greater detail about each question.

LUM 001 - Please write more about how I can make money by using Linkedin

It's important here to understand that making money from one's products, is quite different from making money from one's services. Then, within the services category, one must distinguish between services that can be delivered virtually (i.e. through Skype, email, instant messaging, etc.) vs services that must be delivered in person (i.e. hairdressing, massage, etc.).

It's also important to understand that a network (such as one's network of connections on Linkedin) is different from a market. A market is a homogeneous group of buyers, and they usually share a common characteristic such as age, educational level, income, interest, etc. So because they are homogeneous in at least one dimension, they are likely to respond similarly to a marketing offer.

So it is critical to carefully segment one's connections on Linkedin. For example, I group all the CEOs together, or group all the professional together, or put in a group all the entrepreneurs. This way, I can send a specific marketing offer to EACH group.

LUM 002 - Write about how I can increase the number of connections I have

This request is actually badly formulated, now that I think of it. The strategic consideration should be, "How can I get connected to the specific people that I want to connect to, such as entrepreneurs, CEOs, mothers, etc."

For instance, if you're selling a product that is targeting mothers, then it would make sense for you to find a way to spot mothers on Linkedin.

LUM 004 - Write about how I can find a better job by using Linkedin

LUM 006 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to study my competitors

One way is to ask a question on Linkedin, something like: "I'm launching a service called XYZ. Would you know of direct or indirect competitors in that space?"

LUM 007 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to generate leads for my professional services

Business is war, and war is very much like chess. Sometimes, one must give up one's rook in order to capture the opponent's king.

In plain English, it means you should offer a free service so that your clients can see how good you are, and they would return to you. The lifetime client value will more than compensate for your loss of income during that first free service. For example, if you charge $100 for a service and give it away for free on the first visit, you can make several times that amount after the client has been satisfied and comes back to you.

General principle: to generate leads, give away something valuable for free.

LUM 008 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to generate leads for my products

Same answer as above.

LUM 009 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to become a millionaire

I know several secrets for becoming a millionaire, but if I tell you, I will have to kill you right after. :-)

Here's a tip for now: "Focus on what you do best, AND knock on every door."

In other words, "Excellence opens all doors."

Okay, enough mysterious aphorisms, let me be blunt and direct because there's a lot of money at stake here! You must create value worth $100, then put it in people's hands so they can experience it, and then charge them $10. Do this for a million people and you'll become a millionaire.

Last time I checked, Linkedin has 21 million users. It's not necessary for you to be personally connected to all of them. You can create an affiliate marketing program so that others get 30-40% of the sales. If you're really, really bold, you could also give them 100% of the sales, that is, they net 100% in profit. You can make money by upselling and cross selling to the clients that you get.

LUM 010 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to find affiliate opportunities

Find an author who wrote a book, and propose to him an affiliate deal where you get 30% of the sales to the people in your network. For instance, if a book sells for $50, then you get $15 every time one of your connections orders the book.

LUM 015 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to market my knowledge

This is a very complex, but highly enjoyable process. First, you've got to know what it is that you know that is worth something to someone. Then, find that someone and give it to him/her.

I will write more about this. It's about "monetizing your intellect."

LUM 016 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to refine my knowledge

Participate on Linkedin Answers by asking interesting questions and formulating interesting, helpful answers.

LUM 017 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to acquire new skills

Send an email to all your connections and list the skills you can teach someone, over the phone, and the skills you would like to learn from someone.

In fact, I'm planning to create a Linkedin-wide network where people can exchange skills. Stay tuned!

Tell me what you want me to write about

Below is a list of "codes" that you can use to request an article. For example, email me at peter@careerknowledge.net with the code (ex. "LUM 001") in the subject heading of your email. No need to write anything in the email.

I will then write an article or many articles on the topic you chose.

This is an example of on-demand blogging! I believe I am the first in the world to do this kind of thing.

LUM 001 - Please write more about how I can make money by using Linkedin
LUM 002 - Write about how I can increase the number of connections I have
LUM 003 - Write about how I can find business partners or joint venture partners
LUM 004 - Write about how I can find a better job by using Linkedin
LUM 005 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to find hot dates (just kidding)
LUM 006 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to study my competitors
LUM 007 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to generate leads for my professional services
LUM 008 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to generate leads for my products
LUM 009 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to become a millionaire
LUM 010 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to find affiliate opportunities
LUM 011 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to create new products
LUM 012 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to find (or steal) product ideas
LUM 013 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to learn more about business or management
LUM 014 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to advance my career
LUM 015 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to market my knowledge
LUM 016 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to refine my knowledge
LUM 017 - Write about how I can use Linkedin to acquire new skills

The end of your career

WARNING: After you read this post, you'll think I'm a crazy person. Like one of those white-bearded fellows who think they are prophets and can accurately predict the End of the World while shouting, "It's Judgment Day! Repent! Repent!"

Well, I'll take my chances because I believe this insight could help you to think in new ways and, quite possibly, help you to MAKE A FORTUNE.

Yes, I mean a fortune as in a net worth of US$1 million. 33 million Americans already have such net worth (which, by the way, does not include the value of the residence you live in).

So here's my "prophecy": The end of your career is coming. (But there's no need to repent, you didn't do anything wrong or naughty. At least, not that I'm aware of.)

In fact, your "career" mostly likely never existed. You were just used as a human resource to power the business engine called "the company" or "the corporation."

I know many people might be offended when reading this, and might decide to crucify me. But please, hear me out. Put down the wooden cross, the hammer and the nails. Please.

A career can be defined in so many ways, but the best way is to consider a spectrum with "laborism" on the left end and "productism" on the right end.

If you're working for McDonald's, then you're labor. You're easily replaceable. This doesn't mean the job is not good, because many young or inexperienced people could learn a lot by entering the workforce with a McJob. I myself, at age 16, began working in a fast food restaurant and I learned a great deal.

On the other hand, if you're a graphic designer working for an ad agency, then you're closer to the "productism" end, since you actually do create a product which you may decide to include in your portfolio.

Whether or not you own the product you created, is a complicated matter that I'll discuss in a future post.

But right now, for the sake of discussing how "vulnerable" or "solid" your career is, let's focus on where you are on the laborism-productism spectrum.

My main point is that the more your work focuses on creating a product, the faster or sooner you will achieve financial independence. With the Internet and Fedex, your time to financial freedom is even dramatically shortened if you have a product to sell that has near-universal appeal.

Most Linkedin users are, in fact, facing only one major obstacle to becoming financially free: they do not know how to create a product.

The average Linkedin user is 39 years old, and has a household income of $140,000. That's not a lot. It's about $70,000 per person.

A mid six-figure income would be acceptable.

The best way to earn an income of $500,000, of course, is to create a product and then spam everybody.

I'm just kidding. Create an information product, then sell it to people who could benefit from it.

That's what I mean when I say that everybody's career will end soon. That's because:

1. If your job involves mostly labor (and no creation of new products), then your job will soon be outsourced or automated.

2. If your job involves creating a product, then the employer owns ALL the legal rights to that product, including the intellectual property involved in creating it or resulting from it. In such a case, you will one day realize that you're being unfairly exploited and will quit your job to start your own business. Watch the movie The Spanish Prisoner for an entertaining and suspenseful treatment of this crucial topic of who should own the intellectual property.

In both cases, your career -- as you know it -- will end.

This is why so many people are flocking to Linkedin. They sense that something is wrong in the system, and they want to explore new ways to make a living. They want new economic options.

In my case, I quit corporate America in June 2000 when I was 31 years old. I've launched several successful businesses since then, and will likely retire financially wealthy before I'm 40 years old.

I'm becoming a global wealth consultant who sincerely desires to help people to achieve financial freedom. Read PowerKnowledge.net and subscribe to the free newsletter. You won't regret it.

The first thing I tell clients is, "Consider the possibility that your career is the biggest obstacle to your financial freedom."

Think about that for a while. I will write more on it.

How user-friendly are you? (part 2)

Networking is very much like dating. You've got to know, as precisely as possible, what you're looking for.

Blind dates doesn't work. (Well, if you're really desperate, they might work!).

Online dating sites also do not work. Of course, this does not mean they are completely useless. Sometimes, a shy person can create an account on those online dating sites and interact with others online in order to realize that we're all the same, and this might reduce her or his shyness.

But perhaps the main reason why online dating sites don't work is that they shift the focus to something external. Dating and effective networking is really about focusing on YOURSELF.

On what makes you truly unique or special.

I have 890 connections on Linkedin, and have not invited anyone (except perhaps a few people when I first joined Linkedin three years ago). People invite me, because they read my answers on Linkedin Answers. They know the value I'm bringing to the marketplace.

They know I'm going out of my way to make myself "user-friendly," by sharing my valuable information and knowledge as much as possible (through my blogs and Linkedin answers).

Often, I even share a lot of useful ideas and information in the form of questions I ask on Linkedin Answers!

My point is that in the networking game, you are only as useful as the information you share.

If your information and knowledge are not good or useful, well, don't be surprised if people hesitate to network with you.

The solution is very simple: share what you learn as soon as you learn it. Don't keep your knowledge to yourself. It will not benefit you, nor will it benefit your connections.

Why should you give away your valuable information and knowledge? Because of the universal law that says: "Giving starts the process of receiving."

If you want to receive MORE, all you have to do is give MORE.

I guarantee you that after you adopt the policy of giving away much of your valuable information, you will become very popular. And very connected.

Being well connected on Linkedin and in real life, puts you in the very best position to succeed in your career or business.

How user-friendly are you?

Networking today is dramatically different than it was 10 years ago, yet most people have not realized this.

It's no longer just about meeting people or even building "relationships." What does "relationship" mean anyway?

It's more about maximizing your utility to the members of your network.

In other words, make yourself "user-friendly." Make it EASY and CONVENIENT for people in your network to USE you, your knowledge, your experience, your judgment, etc.

As an aside, some people (especially headhunters and HR professionals) are actually doing the opposite: they spam their entire network with job ads that have absolutely no relevance to any member of their network. These folks are being blacklisted and are getting a bad reputation among the 21 million users of Linkedin, so they should revise their strategy of broadcasting unsolicited job positions.

Indeed, they are being of zero utility to their connections, YET they want to USE their connections. They run the risk of being perceived as unprofessional "peddlers" of untargeted job vacancies. As a headhunter or HR professional, once you lose your reputation, you lose everything.

But back to being "user-friendly." A good way is to send your connections a list of questions that you are qualified to answer. They can then just "copy and paste" the questions whose answers they want, and email them to you.

For instance, I would email the following questions to my connections:

1. What is KM and why should I, as a professional, care?
2. How can I repackage my human capital into solutions, products or services so I can quit the rat race and launch my own business?
3. What is the one secret about entrepreneurship that is not taught in any entrepreneurship program, without which the odds of success in business are dramatically reduced?
4. What is the mysterious process you went through, to create valuable and popular workshops at Talentelle.com?

Then, all my connections have to do is email me with the question number (e.g. 2, 4) in the subject heading of an email. I would then provide them with the answers.

The answers will be different for each connection, because as much as possible, I will customize the answer to the specific situation of the person asking the question.

So just look at your connections on Linkedin. If nobody has asked you any question, then you might not be useful to your connections.

It's not that you CANNOT be useful to your connections. It's just that you are not "user-friendly": that is, your connections do not know HOW to use you or your knowledge or your experience.

"User-friendly optimality" (UFO) must be consciously designed. In other words, you have to create specific systems, like my pre-written, numbered questions above, that enables your connections to use you.

Because the networking game is very simple: if they can't rely on you, you cannot rely on them.

You could have 500 connections, but that's just a fancy number without any practical value behind it if you are not being useful to your connections.

I will write more on UFO later.

Launch of Systematic Wealth newsletter (beta)

My friends, you are looking (above) at the prototype of a millionaire instrument! Indeed, newsletter publishing is one of the ten most common millionaire occupations!

My marketing plan is to offer this newsletter at a nominal fee to all the users of Linkedin (all 21 million of them).

You can subscribe for FREE, for a limited time, by sending me an email at omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com with "Register me for Systematic Wealth please" in the subject heading. No need to write anything else. This offer is valid ONLY for subscribers of this blog.

To your fabulous success!

Should you reveal your connections?

If you're one of my Linkedin connections, you might have noticed that my connections are not viewable publicly.

I chose not to reveal my connections for a very simple reason: I have joint venture plans of a very confidential nature, so an astute competitive intelligence specialist would easily infer, from the CEOs or other executive-level persons I'm connected, what my future plans are.

However, to increase transparency and thus enable everyone to "see" everyone else, I will publish a monthly newsletter soon to share stories about what's going on in my network of 860+ connections.

This way, all my connections can see what other people in my network are doing that is interesting, and can contact them directly and invite them to connect on Linkedin.

In the end, whether you choose to reveal or not reveal your connections is really your decision to make.

Except for a few rare situations, either decision is fine and will not prevent you from fully benefitting from Linkedin.

Your mind determines the scope of opportunities

What you consider to be impossible for you, basically sets the boundaries of your mind.

In other words, if you consider something to be impossible for you to achieve, then your mind will NOT consider opportunities for you to test (and possibly disprove) your assumption.

For instance, if you think it's impossible for you to make $10,000 in 5 hours, then you will naturally avoid or even ignore such opportunities.

In my case, I was able to make $10,000 in 5 hours a few years ago, so that experience has expanded my mind as to what I could achieve.

It's the same principle at work when you use Linkedin.

If you believe it's possible for you to find a five-figure client through Linkedin, then your mind will consciously and subconsciously search for such opportunities until you find it.

In other words, our minds are like "flashlights": opportunities will emerge, from the darkness of the timespacemind abyss, only if we project the light of our mind on them.

I know, this sounds like weird esoteric stuff, but trust me, without this deeper understanding of how reality unfolds and, in particular, how a person's life is totally determined by himself/herself, Linkedin will only remain a sophisticated Rolodex or contact management system.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with Linkedin being used as a virtual Rolodex or a powerful contact management system.

But to create wealth for oneself by using Linkedin will require a more subtle understanding of how we can use our minds to shape certain life experiences that occur within our waking consciousness.

For example, when we sleep, we are absolutely unaware of what is going around us, whether in our bedroom or in any room of the house -- or anywhere in the city, for that matter.

Only by waking up can we begin to see the objects and events happening around us, and to take action based on what we perceive.

Similarly, most users on Linkedin are still asleep and do not yet "see" the real opportunities being offered by Linkedin.

I will write more on how a person can "awaken" and learn to use Linkedin as a vast and expanding pool of economic agents who can work for her, and for whom she can work -- in win-win partnerships.

Linkedin is a tool for financial freedom

Many people use Linkedin for career purposes, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But the minority who use it for business purposes -- to continually build and refine, in a compounding fashion, their competitive advantages while multiplying marketing options and accelerating sales cycles -- those are the ones who get rich.

What do I mean by "continually building and refining one's competitive advantages"?

I mean you have to keep getting better and better at doing what matters most to your clients.

If you're an accountant, and you spend your time on Linkedin Answers answering questions that have little to do with accounting, that's not good.

But suppose you do spend your time answering questions that are related to accounting, the next question is, "Would you be able to gather all your answers into an eBook and offer it to your existing clients? Would they appreciate that eBook?" If the answer is Yes, then your time spent on Linkedin Answers is worth it because it "builds and refines your competitive advantage," which in this case is your accounting expertise.

Ultimately, Linkedin can be a huge black hole into which a person's time will disappear. So we have to learn to use it strategically.

Multiplying connections without having a clear goal, is another example of not using Linkedin strategically. If you don't have a clear product or service to sell, then you could have 10,000 direct connections and it still would not make a difference to your bank account.

Let's take a real example to see how important it is to have a product that you can sell through Linkedin.

Imagine Person A, who has 500 connections but no product to sell. Then imagine Person B, who has only 50 connections, but has an ebook that he sells for $20.

Person B is ahead of the game, since he could easily identify people in his Linkedin network who have 500+ connections, and propose an affiliate deal with them: they can inform their connections of the availability of the ebook, and they get 30% of sales.

Not only will Person B make more money that Person A, he will also be invited by his readers to join their Linkedin network.

In other words, Linkedin can be a powerful tool for achieving financial freedom if it is used strategically.

I've seen many sites talking about how to use Linkedin, but few of them mention any method or technique for making money with Linkedin.

Ultimately, making money is not rocket science nor is it that complicated. You've got to have a product, and you've got to sell it to the people in your network.

The biggest problem of Linkedin users

About 600 people in my Linkedin network have over 500 connections. That's great.

But assuming that most people eventually will have such a great number of connections, the real problem will be the following: How do I monetize my connections?

In fact, the problem can be more accurately formulated this way: What product do I offer to all my connections?

It doesn't even matter at what price you offer a product. For instance, if you offered an ebook priced at $5, then with 500 connections, you'd be making $2,500. And that's not even including the consulting gigs that might come from your readers, who are now (hopefully) convinced that you are the undisputed expert in your field.

However, if you do not have a product to sell to your connections, then having 10,000 connections will not help. Indeed, 10,000 X $0 = $0.

You could even have 100,000 connections, it still would not help you economically.

So why is it that Linkedin users do not sell a product like an ebook capturing their precious knowhow and expertise? Why don't they just hire a ghostwriter to interview them and put down on paper what they actually know, so they can begin to sell their ebook (which can be 20 pages long or 500) to their connections on Linkedin?

Mind conditioning.

People have been conditioned to think that you only earn money by working personally, that is, putting in the hours (whether you work from home or at the office).

We have never thought about the possibility of earning money WITHOUT working (that is, earning passive income through the selling of a document, whether it's an ebook, a DVD, etc.).

It's a bit like what Copernicus discovered, that the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around. Similarly, we will all soon discover that our wealth is based on our knowledge in physical format, NOT on our personal services delivered to an employer.

This is not some fantasy of mine. Just look at the facts: authors like Anthony Robbins, Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Wayne Dyer, etc. became rich because they wrote books.

Personally, I don't know any employee who has become rich. In fact, the friends I have who are rich have created their own business.

So there you have it. The biggest problem of Linkedin users: How to create a product that can be sold through their Linkedin network.

Turn your network into a private army 0:12

Ultimately, we all want our network of connections to work for us.

In other words, I would LOVE IT if I could turn my personal network on Linkedin into my "private army." Since I have 850 connections, that would mean a private army of 850 soldiers and mercenaries working for me.

Is this just some fantasy of mine or could it become a reality some time soon?

I think it could become a reality. Recently, I exported all my contacts into an Excel spreadsheet and began to segment my connections into groups, like:

1. People with more than 500 connections (I've about 600 connections who each have more than 500 connections)
2. People who are CEOs (I've about a dozen)
3. People who are VPs (I've about 30)
4. People who are young, beautiful, single and talented ladies. I'm just kidding.

The next step is probably to contact these people and propose a deal with them. Sort of like "I'll scratch your back if you'll massage my feet" kind of thing.

Actually, let's keep it strictly business. I will do THIS for you if you'll agree to do THAT for me. Fair enough?

This, I believe, is the kind of blunt, candid, honest, down-to-Earth and direct approach most likely to yield business results.

But this requires that you know exactly what you're trying to do in your career, and therefore what you need from your connections; it also requires that you know precisely what you have to offer to others.

Of course, what you offer and what you need, will vary depending on the group you're talking to. In my case, the groups (as listed above) will be able to help me or benefit from me in different ways.

For instance, the VPs can get me into their corporations because I'm selling a valuable, exclusive and revolutionary career management framework that will help them in their war for talent.

The people with 500+ connections, on the other hand, could become affiliates and sell my products via the Web (in which case they make 30% on sales).

My point is that it is possible to turn your network into an army who will work for you IF you will work for them. But to know precisely what you can do for them, and what they can do for you, requires a systematic method of segmenting your "population of connections."

In other words, creating such homogeneous groups will make it easier for you to talk to them and offer them something that they find relevant and useful.

Intellectual employment 0:13

If you had to choose between being employed vs being unemployed, I'm sure you would choose the former. This is because having a job will give you money.

However, the challenge of most Linkedin users is not finding a job; most already have a job.

But not all jobs are equal. For the sake of this discussion, I will distinguish between two types of jobs:

1. A job where you use your brain creatively
2. A job where you do not use your brain creatively

Jobs in category 1 include: graphic designers, architects, engineers (especially those who designs stuff), writers, consultants, high-level and creative sales positions, etc.

Jobs in category 2 include: operational managers, accountants (a "creative" accountant is one that probably will land in jail!), customer service, low-level ("order-taking") sales positions, etc.

Why is it important to distinguish between these two types of jobs? Because one leads to wealth while the other perpetuates economic enslavement.

In other words, people in #1 jobs are able -- if they wish to -- become independent professionals or free agents. They can also launch their own professional practice or business ventures. There are in the U.S. about 21 million such businesses run by a solo owner / operator.

#1 jobs lead to wealth because not only do you make money from doing your job, you also create "intellectual capital" which you normally own if you run your own business, or whose ownership you explicitly transfer to the employer if you're an employee. This transfer of intellectual property rights is not necessarily bad since that's the fair price to pay for having an employer organization that provides you with the tools, resources, working environment and clients so you can practice the art of intellectual capital creation.

Linkedin can be quite useful for a person who currently has a #2 job and wants to find a #1 job, that is, one where he can develop his creative abilities and generate new solutions.

#1 jobs are more secure in the new global economy because most uncreative jobs will be outsourced, automated or handled by expert systems and artificial intelligence.

Secret strategic plan

Have you ever wanted to see the secret strategic plan of a multimillion-dollar Internet startup?

Now you can. At http://pkstrategicplan.wordpress.com. (Password: worlddomination).

I know it sounds crazy that I'm sharing with the world my secret business plan. It does feel like some sort of commercial harakiri.

But this idea is not as crazy as it sounds. Perhaps you can even do something similar to get your Linkedin connections engaged in a mutually beneficial conversation with you.

(By the way, that's another secret on how to use Linkedin effectively: it's not just about connections, it's mainly about conversations. Connection (or agency) is mostly a male thing while conversation is a feminine thing. And a feminine approach to Linkedin might be more effective. Why? Because connection is about the possibility of cashflow while conversation is about the probability of cashflow. I say cashflow but it could be something less liquid yet still useful, like cooperation or collaboration. More on this later.)

Okay, here's how it works: Any person who submits by email a good comment or insight or interesting feedback on the PK strategic plan, will receive the new password (updated on a weekly basis) so he/she can continue to read new versions of the strategic plan.

This makes sense: If a reader is not submitting feedback, he/she is not interested in reading more of the strategic plan. On the other hand, those who submit good feedback are "rewarded" by having access, the following week, to updates of the strategic plan.

Of course, I'm not so crazy as to share trade secrets or any proprietary information in the strategic plan. But it is obviously in my interest to share as much valuable and strategic knowledge as possible with the smart people who submit feedback on my strategic plan.

After all, there are dozens of CEOs and Vice Presidents in my Linkedin network. I'm bound to learn something valuable.

How to become a serial skiller

Employers respect only one word -- skill. And they understand only one language -- capability.

Therefore, to ensure his economic survival and financial success, a Linkedin user has to become a "serial skiller." That is, a person who's capable of learning and acquiring new skills rapidly and efficiently.

Since most people have a limited professional development budget, here's an idea to consider: join a group on Linkedin where people exchange skills with one another.

Better yet, create a group on your own (call it a "skills exchange club" or SEC) and invite your Linked connections to join the club, so everybody can share their skills with everybody else.

To make it fair, a member should talk (on the phone or in person) with another person for one hour. During the first 30 minutes, one person picks the other person's brain, and during the second 30 minutes, it's the other person's turn.

This is a good way to become a serial skiller and ensure your long-term professional success.

For example, if you have 100 people in your SEC, then every person could conceivably learn 99 different skills. Oh, and nobody pays anything!

Plus, every person will gain a greater awareness of what knowledge or skills he/she has which are really useful to others. He/she can then focus efforts on developing those skills or knowledge areas, thus increasing his/her own market value.

Catch 22: No product, no networking; no network, no product development

There are only two ways to get wealthy: do a lot of innovation, or do a lot of marketing.

Of course, the really wealthy people (like Steve Jobs) do both innovation and marketing. In fact, Apple's marketing comes FROM its highly developed innovation capability.

In contrast, Microsoft's innovation comes from its highly developed marketing clout. Indeed, since the very beginning when Bill Gates struck a deal with IBM to develop DOS, he has sought to saturate the market by using and leveraging more established players.

Okay, enough about those multibillionaires, let's talk about ordinary folks like you and me.

The situation faced by most people (and by myself prior to August 2005) is a Catch 22 situation: without a product that you can sell, you don't really have any incentive to network extensively as an Linkedin Open Networker (also called "LION"). So you are likely to have only 2 to 50 connections or, at best, 150. These connections are usually people that you've met in real life, and they come from your personal network or your professional network (coworkers, colleagues, clients, suppliers, etc.).

Since your network of 2 to 150 is relatively small, you don't feel any incentive to develop a product that can be sold and shipped to them. Since you have no product to sell, you have no incentive to develop your network, and so on and so forth.

This is the Catch 22 problem, and the overwhelming majority of Linkedin users are facing that big challenge.

Only a small minority of users on Linkedin make significant money, and that's because they have a liquid product (the job offers or opportunities sold by headhunters and placement counselors are considered as a "liquid product" also because it can be sold "as is.")

How can you, as a hard-working professional, manager or executive, get in on the action and make money too by using Linkedin?

The best way is to liquefy yourself, and then liquidate yourself.

I know it sounds a bit horrible, but here's what I mean by "liquefy yourself": capture your tacit knowledge and expertise into EXPLICIT knowledge and expertise. That is, write a short eBook of 20 pages containing the best of what you know which could be useful to other people.

"Liquidate yourself" means sell that document, via Payloadz, etc. to people that you think might benefit from it. At this point, don't be greedy; just set a price that allows for market penetration.

For example, charge $10-20 for your document. Then, from the feedback you receive from readers/buyers, improve your little eBook. Also, write a second eBook and sell especially to your current customers.

Alternatively, you can also buy many eBooks on the Internet that are sold along with reseller rights, meaning that you can resell the eBook and keep 100% of the profits.

I will write more in detail about those reseller ebooks, but my point for now is that the Catch 22 challenge afflicts perhaps 95% of the 18 million Linkedin users.

A person must honestly and bluntly confront this challenge if she is to overcome it, and be able to leverage Linkedin as an economic platform for creating significant wealth.

Cubicle = value, Classroom = wealth 0:08

Wealth happens when you transition from the cubicle to the classroom.

In other words, employees create value, teachers create wealth.

I don't mean teachers who work for the public education system, but strategic teachers who are able to impart valuable knowledge to millions of people through the Internet (or, in the context of this blogzine, through Linkedin. Facebook, by the way, has 67 users and is growing at a weekly rate of 3%, so it will likely reach 200 million users by the end of this year).

Wealth is superior to value in the same way that a river is superior to the water flowing in it.

So when you're a teacher, you create wealth because not only do you create value (and are paid for it by seminar or workshop participants), but you continually increase the width and depth of your "river" so as to create MORE value (more water flowing) in the future.

This is why Linkedin is so critical: it enables people to connect to thousands of other people so that when, one day, they are ready to teach, there is a global, multinational audience ready to hear what they have to say.

For instance, for over two years, I built a network of over 850 connections on Linkedin, and a few days ago invited them all to subscribe to this blogzine. Tons of people have subscribed already and are reading this blog. I have nearly 300 subscribers. More are coming. Eventually, I expect the 18 million people on Linkedin to subscribe.

In your case, you may not have a blog or even something valuable to teach, but trust me, one day you will. So it's important to prepare for that day by connecting, right now, to as many people as you can.

It is indeed no possible to become rich while working in a cubicle, because you never own the intellectual capital you help to create. But as an independent teacher / trainer, and with the Internet to back you up, you can create enormous wealth as I do right now, using the teaching materials I've developed for over two years at Talentelle.com.

The overwhelming majority of Linkedin users do not yet understand this, so if you do, you are way ahead of everybody else.

My point is that Linkedin can unleash enormous wealth for you, but you've got to use it strategically and start doing it right now. There is a compounding effect at work, so the earlier you start using Linkedin strategically, the greater the financial payoff for you.

Welcome to my Linkedin connections!

If you're connected to me on Linkedin, then you probably received an email inviting you to visit this blogzine.

Welcome!

Please subscribe now so you don't miss any important information since the most valuable posts are deleted within a few days. I do this so that my subscribers get premium content.

This blog is not about the technical aspects of Linkedin; most users are smart enough to figure out how to use the features and functionalities on the site.

This blog is about the strategic issues that, if fully understood and mastered, can make you rich.

Indeed, my cyber-doctrine is that the Internet is "programming space" and that a person can program it so as to massively create value and thus become a financially sovereign individual.

In other words, Linkedin -- which is a very organized and civilized and professional part of the Internet -- is not just a virtual "Rolodex." You CAN use it to create value and wealth for yourself.

This blogzine will teach you how.

Enjoy and let me know if you have questions: omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com

How to use Linkedin Answers to establish your credibility

If you click on the above picture, you'll see my "track record" as an answerer on Linkedin Answers.

When I first started using Linkedin Answers, I indiscriminately answered any question that seemed interesting. This has resulted in my being labeled an "expert" in many areas.

However, it was a mistake to try to cover too many areas.

So I began to answer ONLY questions in the Career Development section. This has resulted in my getting 23 Best Answers and, as far as I know, my being perceived as one of the top advisors on career matters in the Linkedin community.

In fact, many people wrote to me privately asking for career advice. A lot of people also want to connect to me because of the high number of Career Development Best Answers.

So that's one strategy I highly recommend: focus on answering questions in ONE area so that you get better and better at writing answers in that area.

A second strategy is to try to figure out exactly what kind of information the person is asking for. Knowing this will help you to formulate an answer that has a great chance of being voted Best Answer.

Third, try to answer only serious questions. There are a great many questions that are very trivial or, to say the least, not very serious. These questions will not push you to work hard mentally and intellectually, hence they have very little value. (Unless you just want to socialize and write what's off the top of your mind).

In the end, Linkedin Answers is REALLY the place where you show your intellect, your reasoning skills, your expertise and your professionalism. Many people don't know this. For instance, many answers are filled with typos and/or are not even coherent!

Your attitude towards work, life, other people, etc. is also revealed, so don't write something that you would be embarrassed about a few days later. Sadly enough, some people show a very negative attitude (through the tone or style of their writing), not knowing that what they write down cannot be deleted or rescinded.

Fiction kills friction

On my Linkedin home page, it says I have 851 connections, and that they link me to 7,645,400 professionals.

That sounds like a really big number! Maybe I should start my own country and ask these folks to vote for me so I become their duly elected President.

This is not as farfetched as it sounds. Cyberspace is, in many ways, the new frontier. The World Wide Web is the new Wild Wild West.

And Linkedin is like a new town built by people of goodwill right on the edge that separates civilization from wilderness.

In other words, cyberspace is becoming more civilized, and the Internet is becoming more humanized, more socialized.

So I think there's a need to distinguish between the chaotic Internet and the more civilized and socialized area within the Internet. Hence, I've coined a new word to refer to "socialized cyberspace": syberspace.

In other words, if cyberspace is made up of computers linked through networks, syberspace is made up of people linked through relationships, both formal (e.g. Linkedin) and informal (e.g. Facebook).

Obviously, due to the human element, there is more friction in syberspace than in cyberspace. It is indeed easier for computers to connect and talk to one another than for humans to connect and talk to one another.

"Friction" simply refers to a person's inability to network with as many people as he'd like, due to various factors.

For instance, if you have 1 to 50 connections, and are at a loss as to how you can gain more connections, you are indeed facing a "friction" problem.

One solution is based on the idea that "fiction kills friction."

In other words, reinvent yourself and become a more interesting person. Become someone worthy of being connected to.

Be a little daring! And don't worry, you can always change what you write in your profile. It will never be set in stone. Experiment a little bit.

I'm not suggesting that you lie about who you are; just focus on the parts of you that make you stand out.

My point is, if you don't stand out on Linkedin, you're not playing the game right.

Linkedin is a professional / business environment where you get to express your Brand You, as Tom Peters calls it.

It will take a while before you can craft a solid and memorable Brand you, but it's fully worth it. Brainstorm with friends and coworkers if you wish.

The bottom line is that only by being special will you attract others. Only then will they seek you out and want to connect to you.

Are you a millionaire?

Feel free to answer my question regarding wealth on Linkedin Answers HERE.

I provided stats about the mass affluents, millionaires and mega-millionaires.

In the U.S., there are about 33 mass affluents, 8 millionaires and one million mega-millionaires.

Promote your work, not yourself, Part 2

I wrote previously that one should promote one's work, not oneself, on Linkedin. The key to doing that is to capture your knowledge into a physical or digital medium, like a book, an ebook, a podcast, a blog, etc.

That's what I did at http://realtimesuccesssecrets.blogspot.com, http://superparentsnetwork.wordpress.com, etc.

Indeed, make no mistake: Linkedin is mostly a business tool; people want to know what value you offer. They care less about who you are as a person. They care a little bit more about you as a professional. But ultimately, they care the most about you as a business person.

In short, they constantly ask themselves, "What is the value that this person (you) will or could bring me? Can I do business with this person?"

The only way for them to get a satisfactory answer is if you share your work samples or knowledge products that you've created in the past, such as a technical article, a white paper, a seminar, a podcast, a blog, an ebook, a published book, etc.

In other words, promote your work when you network. Don't promote yourself. There are over 18 million users on Linkedin, and the ONLY way to distinguish yourself is to create a knowledge product that effectively establishes you as an expert.

Indeed, if you tell people that you are an expert, they may or may not believe it. Personally, I instantly doubt all such claims.

However, if you give people an ebook you wrote, then that will make it easier for them to believe that you are indeed an authority in your field -- that is, an expert who can be trusted.

In other words, whatever you say to your Linkedin connections, ultimately, is just a promise. But what you've written in the form of a blog, ebook, article, etc. is a performance -- not a promise.

People believe performances, not promises.

Every minute makes money or loses money 0:12

The expression "time is money" is basically correct, but when you seriously seek wealth, there is a need to go deeper and analyze that statement more, shall we say, technically.

The more technical we get about analyzing the nature, source, limits and power of time, the faster we can become wealthy.

This being said, wealth is truly beyond time (or space, for that matter). A person can become wealthy in a few seconds. The actualization of that certain wealth may take a few months or years, but that is just the manifestation in the physical world of the wealth that the person has ALREADY realized in his mind.

But back to the technical analysis of time as a resource to build wealth in the real world.

Think of it this way: Every minute either brings money to you, or takes money (further) away from you. By money, I mean a big pile of money. Something like $10,000,000. U.S. currency, please.

So every minute that you spend on Linkedin will either bring you closer to great wealth, or pull you away or further from wealth.

Take Linkedin Answers, for example.

Many people participate by asking questions or providing answers.

Every question asked, will either help the asker to attract more high-quality people into his network, or will make other people AVOID the asker.

For example, some questions are:

1. full of typos
2. trivial
3. ambiguous
4. badly formulated

Such askers do not realize that whatever they write on Linkedin, is permanently recorded. It's like a credit report. Once you show the kind of person you are (disorderly, incapable of formulating a good question, disorganized, unfocused, etc.), 18 million users on Linkedin then decide to either connect with you or not.

In other words, many people tend to think that Linkedin Answers is an informal environment, therefore they write whatever comes to their mind without making sure that their professional image is protected. This is a huge mistake that may cost them a job, a promotion, a business opportunity, and in general a lot of money for the next few years.

On the other hand, a few people use Linkedin Answers quite expertly in order to subtly and tastefully promote their expertise, their business, their products, their services and their overall professional or commercial "attractiveness."

In other words, every minute that they spend on Linkedin (whether it's writing to other users or asking a question or providing a thoughtful answer) brings them closer to their goal or to wealth. They use Linkedin strategically and verify, in earnest, the return on every minute they spend on the site.

How to print money

Learning how to print money is really the ultimate fantasy. Indeed, as it says in the Bible (Eclesiastes 10:19):

"A party gives laughter, and wine gives happiness; but money gives everything."

Another author wrote that "money is the sixth sense which enables a better use of the other five."

Okay, now that we're all convinced of the value of money, let's examine ways to design and print money.

Wait, don't call the Feds! I'm not about to suggest illegal ways of printing money! Please put that phone down.

First, let's be clear about what "money" really is. It is just evidence, socially agreed upon, that someone owes you something.

That's where the POWER of money comes from: the fact that someone "owes" you something. (Notice, by the way, that "OWE" appears in the word "POWER").

For example, a five-dollar bill is just physical evidence, socially agreed upon in a particular country where the currency's value is enforced institutionally, that someone owes you something worth five dollars.

So if you were to enter a convenience store and pull out your five-dollar bill and show it to the owner, he would say: "Yup, Mister, I can see indeed that I owe you something worth five dollars. Why don't you look around and find something you like that has a price tag of $5.00? I'd be glad to relieve my debt to you, if you please, sir."

Therefore, the key to "printing money" (and thus become obscenely wealthy -- excuse my French) is to print as much "evidence" as possible that other people owe you stuff.

Here's an interesting fact: Billionaire Richard Branson never carries any money with him, nor any credit card. He probably gets a free lunch and any product or service for free no matter where he goes. The business owners who give him free products or services are not crazy. They correctly calculate that whatever they lose in profit by giving free stuff to Mr Branson, can be recuperated many times over by the possibility of starting a social or business relationship with a billionaire.

You might wonder, "Pete, what does all this have to do with Linkedin?"

Linkedin, my friends, is nothing but a money-printing machine. The fact that most Linkedin users have not yet realized this, doesn't change at all the nature of Linkedin as a perfect money-printing machine.

But how do you use Linkedin to print "money"?

As we saw above, money is evidence that someone owes you something.

So first, you have to connect with as many people as possible on Linkedin. I have 845 connections, for instance.

Next, you have to start giving them something of value. ONLY BY DOING THIS CAN YOU BUILD POWER, THAT IS, CREATE EVIDENCE SOCIALLY AGREED UPON THAT SOMEONE OWES YOU SOMETHING.

Of course, you can charge a small amount for the value you're giving away, or you can just give it away for free, as I do at http://realtimesuccesssecrets.blogspot.com. At the following blog, I actually charge some money: http://superpeterliquidation.wordpress.com.

But my point is, some value must be transferred from you to all your connections. Otherwise, your list of connections is just like a page in the Yellow Pages: names and contact information without much value.

Networking Objects can help you to partner incredibly fast!

A Networking Object is something that instantly convinces a stranger that you are worth connecting to. For example:

1. An award that you've won
2. A book you've written and published
3. An executive position (preferably at a large, prestigious organization)
4. A position of power or influence (e.g. headhunter)
5. A popular blog that you write and that attracts thousands of visitors per month
6. A valuable yet FREE white paper or special report or newsletter that you give to all the people in your network
   

The above list is not exhaustive, of course, but it can give you a good idea of how "power networkers" leverage their strategic assets.

In other words, the more Networking Objects you have, the easier and faster your networking will be. You'll be able to partner with practically anybody.

Why? Because the elite is welcome everywhere.

Elite refers to a person or group which is endowed with a superior quality and is, therefore, favored.

How do you become a member of the elite?

Through focus.

Baltasar Gracian says, indeed, that being intensive is more important than being extensive. In other words, it's better to be the best at ONE thing than to be able to do "okay" at many things.

Through intensive efforts focused on ONE particular competency, you can easily become the best.

And when you're the best, everybody wants you. They all want to partner with you and they all want you in their Linkedin network.

Yet, when I look at the Linkedin profile of most users, I notice that very few people actually write down what they're the best at.

And when people send me invitations to connect to them, they never mention what they're really good at or the best at. They often only mention their huge network of contacts.

Yet, having a huge network of contacts is the easy part. The difficult part is to become the BEST at something.

In future posts, I'll explain more about how you can become the very best in your chosen field.

Promote your work, not yourself

Use Linkedin to promote your work, not yourself. “Self-promotion” is a misleading concept. “Work promotion” is better.

In other words, the reason why people seek you out is that they are interested in your work, not in your person. Given this economic truth, it is surprising that more than 98% of Linkedin users do NOT promote their work on Linkedin.

For instance, if you read the profile of most Linkedin users, you will notice the conspicuous absence of blogs or websites where people can download work samples of the person. Work samples include articles, blogs, websites, books, ebooks, white papers, etc.

What I'm saying is this: work precedes network. If you don't have something to show people (e.g. work samples), then networking will be much less effective than it could be.

Concretely speaking, you will introduce yourself to people (online or offline), and they will politely say, “Oh, nice to meet you!” And then, in the next minute, they will completely forget you. You had a unique opportunity to showcase your work to someone else, but you did not have work samples to show them.

Some people try to circumvent that absence of economic substance by highlighting the fact, in their email invitation to others, that they are connected to gazillions of people. Yes, that's nice, but it doesn't compensate for the fact that the person doesn't have any value to offer.

In fact, the more a person mentions his great number of connections, the more loudly he is saying that he, himself, does not offer any economic value.

It pays to know people

• A group of market research consultants came to me: they made $40,000
• A Web development firm came to me: they made $20,000
• A marketing student came to me: she made $250
• Two marketing/information systems students came to me: they made $3,000
• A graphic designer came to me: he made $12,000
• A bookbinder came to me: he made $3,000
• An IT consulting firm came to me: they made $27,000
• A Web designer came to me: he made $3,000
• A training firm came to me: they made $100,000
• An IT professional came to me: she made $40,000

The only person who's not making money is me!

I'm just kidding. In most of the cases above, I made a bit of money via the finder's fee of 10-30%. But my record, honestly, is quite insignificant, especially compared to the professional headhunters out there! And what about the real estate people? These folks make a huge amount of money!

My point is, it really pays to know people and build trust-based relationships.

Am I saying that by multiplying your connections on LinkedIn, you can make extra money too?

Absolutely!

Now I know that most of you do not have a product to sell. If you did, you would promote it on your Linkedin profile the way I promote my products and companies on my Linkedin profile.

But even if you do not currently have a product to sell, it is wise to start multiplying your connections on Linkedin. I've begun over two years ago and today, I have over 800 connections in about 22 countries. (I plan to have a connection in every single one of the 192 countries listed in the United Nations!).

Most people join Linkedin and still view themselves as employees. That's a mistake.

It's a mistake because if your self-concept is that of an employee, then your mind will NOT be open to business opportunities. I'm talking about opportunities that can generate passive income for you, or even turn you into a millionaire.

To change your mindset from "employee" to "entrepreneur", I recommend the two books by Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Cashflow Quadrant.

Networking is either about meeting people or generating leads

Someone asked a very good question on Linkedin about networking, and observed that many people seem to engage in "mindless networking" without having any objective in mind or considering the cost in time and effort.

Here's the answer I gave.

Note: I will write more about Clarity & Execution, two principles for achieving success at anything in life. Let me just observe for now that the overwhelming majority of Linkedin users are unclear about what they want from their career. Indeed, if the Linkedin profile of a person provides any indication as to the person's career goal or objective, then unfortunately, over 90% of people don't know what their career goal is. I know it's not easy to set a goal, but just remember that without a goal, all the hard work you do every day is just helping someone else to reach his goal. The good news is that setting goals can easily be learned, and can even be done slowly, one step at a time. For example, to borrow a traveling metaphor, you might not know exactly in which city of the world you would like to live in, but at least, it would be good to decide on which continent you want to live: Asia, North America, Europe, Africa, etc. Next, you can decide which region or province, then which city, and even which part of that city you'd like to live in.

===

"Networking" is a very ambiguous word and concept.

It's better, I think, if people are clear (at least to themselves) whether networking is, for them, 1. meeting new people or 2. generating leads.

Isn't success at anything in life based on CLARITY and EXECUTION?

That is, by being clear about what the (measurable) objective is, one can execute impeccably in order to hit that target.

Your question is excellent because a great many people, I suspect, will begin to think seriously about WHY they network.

The good news is that every person has something good to offer to the world, so even people who have been "mindlessly networking" did not necessarily waste time. All of one's connections CAN be useful in some way or receive benefits from oneself.

In other words, a person who has networked without a clear goal, is like someone who has built the second, third, fourth floors of a big building.

The only thing missing is the first floor, so that one's network can, so to speak, be grounded in reality and can provide useful benefits.

Peter Nguyen
Principal and Editor in Chief
CareerKnowledge.net
PowerKnowledge.net

Your fortune will come

Great wealth is inevitable and is indeed your destiny, but only if you learn how to use the Internet strategically and with foresight.

For instance, if you believe that you will have a product of your own one day, then you should start right now to multiply connections via Linkedin. 500 connections is a good number to aim for.

It's not that these 500 connections will become clients of yours and buy your product, although that is a good thing. More importantly, they might become resellers and distributors of your product in many countries.

It doesn't even matter how much your product sells for. For example, you could create an eBook selling for $1.00 and you could sell it to thousands of people via the Internet.

Often, a lot of very smart professionals and managers think of a book as something that should be priced at $20 or $50. And they can't imagine themselves writing a book (or eBook) that would have such value.

But that's like people who don't know how to swim, and then go to a swimming pool and refuse to jump in because the water is too deep and, therefore, they will drown.

Yes, there's a part of the swimming pool that is deep, but there's ALSO a part that is shallow. So a person should enter the swimming pool from the shallow end, NOT the deep end.

Next, you start to learn how to float and how to swim. Eventually, you can go swim in the deep end of the pool.

Same thing with writing a book that captures your (valuable and hard-earned) knowledge. Try to write a book that's worth $1.00. Then, sell it. And then try to write a second book (or perhaps a second, beefed up version of the first book). Then a third book, etc.

Bottom line: Linkedin is not useful financially unless you have a product to sell to a critical mass of people. Sure, you can feel great that you have many connections, but money will only come to you if you have a product to sell.

And a real fortune can come to you in the next few years if you start to multiply your connections starting today, and start writing down on paper all the valuable knowledge in your head so you can sell it to the 18+ million users on Linkedin (and this number keeps growing every day).

The Age of Talent

0:07

"We have entered an exciting era where the logic of enterprise will bow to the magic of talent."

A brilliant intellectual wrote the above. Wait, I think I wrote that yesterday!

My supreme point is that companies today are ONLY looking for talent. They can get labor, including virtual labor, from other countries like China or India or Malaysia.

If you've got talent, you will win. If not, companies will spend no more than 5 seconds reading your resume and immediately throw it in the waste basket.

Most Linkedin users seem very smart. They are also very experienced. The average Linkedin user is 39 years old, and has a household income of $140,000.

Unfortunately, most Linkedin users are also unaware of their special talent. This is a risk because without knowing one's talent, then proper career management is not possible.

Companies only love talent. They don't love people per se. If you've got talent, companies (and headhunters) will love you and seek you out.

The clearer your talent, the greater their love for you.

The key therefore is to somehow browse through your connections and find people who can help you to discover or develop your talent.

Think of your talent as a HUGE reserve of oil under the Earth, and your career as the lifelong exploitation of that huge pool of underground "black gold."

Once you find your talent, the world is your oyster. You become the sovereign master of your economic life and your creative career.

I recommend Tom Rath's book, Strength Finder 2.0, if you wish to find your special talent.

A powerful secret to getting ANY job you want

0:10

I'm no longer working in Corporate America since I became a serial entrepreneur on June 20, 2000.

But here's a powerful trick that will land you ANY job that you WANT.

Are you ready to hear this secret which I received from the gods? It almost felt like a biblical revelation to me!

Here it is:

If you WANT a job, START RIGHT NOW to work like as if you had been hired ALREADY and start producing the deliverables expected of you.

Resumes, cover letters (cover what, exactly?), job interviews, etc. Nice, but not really gutsy. Everybody is doing all of that.

The person who gets the job is the person who already got the job. In other words, the winner is always an unstoppable person who has already started to DO the job for which he EXPECTS to be hired.

Another way to put it is, "Don't get dressed for the role you currently have, but for the role you WANT to have."

Why does this ploy work?

That's because of the HUGE difference between a PROMISE and an ASSURANCE.

Most candidates send a resume, a cover letter and go to the job interview. Whatever they say, no matter how well or eloquently they say it, is just a PROMISE. Not a performance.

The smart job seeker, however, delivers a performance and does not just promise.

By delivering a performance -- that is, he produces to the best of his knowledge and ability the deliverables that he would be expected to produce in the job --, he moves from PROMISE to ASSURANCE.

Every HR director wants assurance, but only gets promises from candidates.

The cool thing is this: If you produce the (unsolicited) deliverables before being hired, and the targeted employer STILL doesn't recognize your superiority over other candidates, then that is a sure sign that you do NOT want to work there!

Indeed, in such a case, what is in question is NOT the fact that you are a highly motivated and talented professional. What is in question is the employer's lack of appreciation for a talented person's initiative, drive, determination and focus.

So there you have it. My secret to getting hired every single time. Good luck!

Create a product to get rich on Linkedin

0:11

Here's a little secret that will make a BIG difference in your bank account: If you want to get rich by leveraging the Internet, remember just one thing: create your own product.

Most people are still in "job" mode and that is not good. Economically and financially, that is.

A job does not and will never belong to you. It belongs to the employer.

A product which you create and constantly refine, however, belongs to you. And once you have a product, you can sell it to a huge number of people through Internet and/or Fedex.

A lot of people make a big deal out of China and India emerging as economic powers that offer cheap labor and low-cost knowledge workers to North American or European employers, but this trend (outsourcing knowledge work to other countries) can actually be a blessing in disguise.

For instance, it can create a paradigm shift in the minds of professionals and managers in developed countries. Specifically, it can signal to everyone -- especially the knowledge workers on Linkedin -- that the age of "labor" has come and gone.

We are now entering the age of (creative) talent.

Capitalism, indeed, is slowly but surely morphing into a strange economic system that I call "talentism." I will write more about this phenomenon later.

For now, let me share with you the surprising idea that without a product that you legally own, you will be vulnerable in the knowledge economy.

You will also not be able to profitably leverage social networks like Linkedin.

Indeed, what's the point of having 500 connections on Linkedin if you have nothing to sell to them?

Most people might object that they don't know how to create a new product. It's true that it's not easy, otherwise most Linkedin users would have a product to sell.

However, the good news is that you CAN create a product out of your knowledge and professional experience.

You probably never thought about this, but in your head, there are millions of dollars in unrealized economic value.

The problem -- and this applies to all Linkedin users who are employees -- is that this valuable knowledge only comes out once you are hired by an employer, and you are put in a "working environment" that elicits knowledge and knowhow from you.

In other words, you only make money if you're in an office environment and your name appears on an employer's payroll.

That's ridiculous.

Your value should come out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In other words, you could be 20 times richer than you are today.

The trick is to simply turn your tacit (i.e. in your head) knowledge into explicit (i.e. in the world) knowledge that anybody else -- provided they are literate -- can read, use, implement and get value from.

In fact, they don't even have to be literate since you can produce an audio book!

Stay tuned for more.

Are you king, knight or serf?

0:13

In medieval times, a prince would build an army to levy taxes while also set up trade routes protected by hired mercenaries.

Linkedin enables you to act in such a princely manner. Yet, most people do not know how to do this. They use Linkedin as a virtual Rolodex when it can be so much more.

What is most important, before we even get into how you can economically and financially leverage Linkedin, is how you view yourself.

Who do you think you are?

Usually, this question is meant to challenge a person because he or she seems to have too big a self-concept.

But in fact, you cannot think of yourself highly enough. Your very self-concept is the receptacle of everything that life offers.

If you believe you are a millionaire, you shall become one. If you believe the maximum you can make is $80,000 a year, you will make that amount of money. If you believe you can retire financially rich before age 40 (and this is my belief exactly concerning my esteemed person), then you will retire before age 40 with loads of money and a recurring stream of income enabling you to afford your favorite lifestyle.

Remember the Spanish proverb: "After the game of life is over, both the king and the pawn return to the same box."

Your Linkedin profile shows, rather tellingly, your self-concept. Most people are not aware that the self-image they project onto the world, is also the image (or filtering apparatus) they have of themselves.

By "filtering apparatus," I mean that a person will ONLY perceive information or accept ideas that are congruent with his/her self-concept.

If you think you're a millionaire, you will naturally have ideas popping up in your head about how to make a million dollars. If not, you might still get those ideas but they will be so quickly filtered OUT of your conscious frame of mind that you will never be aware of their existence.

This blog is about Linkedin, so why all this talk about becoming a millionaire?

Because that's what Linkedin ultimately enables you to do.

I have over 700 connections. Yet I never invited anybody. I just created a profile that is interesting enough for people to want to have me in their network.

More and more people also want to become licensed affiliates of my proprietary products and intellectual capital so they can sell them in their home countries. I have 22 countries being targeted on my entrepreneurial dashboard.

The sky's the limit. But first, you have to ask yourself: "Who am I? Am I king, knight or serf?"

Whoever you think you are, you are 100% right.

So be careful before you decide, for decision is destiny.

Do you know what your talent is?

I often receive invitations to join Blue Chip Expert (see their sales pitch below) but I don't join for a very simple reason: my goal is to become the best at what I do so I don't need to network.

I've been featured in several newspapers already and also on national television, so I think I'm on my way to becoming known worldwide. This is not to brag because my ego is quite small, but to drive home the point that the essence of economic security lies in BEING THE BEST -- not in being connected.

For instance, I receive a LOT of invitations from Linkedin users stating bluntly that they have gazillions of connections. I ask myself, "So what?" The person always fails to mention what's so special about him (women never "brag" about their extensive connections because unlike men who focus on "agency," women focus on "relationships").

Linkedin and Blue Chip Expert are just "radio broadcast stations." Success requires MORE than a worldwide radio broadcast station. You've got to have a good song!

In other words, as a professional, executive, entrepreneur, etc. you've got to know what you talent is and how you can use it to benefit your connections or employer or clients.

Developing one's talent is the hard part. Connecting on Linkedin or Facebook or Blue Chip is the easy part.

Do you know what your unique talent is? If not, life will be hard since you will be considered by employers to be a mere "human resource."

Talent is the new name of the game, and in an increasing number of cases, it is even more powerful than capital.

If you have talent, you will earn top dollars (as an employee or free agent). If you don't have talent and only have education and skills, your job might soon be outsourced to other countries like China and India because education and skills are fast becoming cheap commodities.

The best-seller by Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat, tells the whole story in case you want the details.

I will write more on how to use Linkedin to discover your talent and how to ask your connections for help in validating or refining your talent. Indeed, clarity of talent means security of income in the new talent-based economy.

===

Blue Chip Expert is a new kind of networking service - created to connect top-tier executives, professionals and consultants with the most sought-after opportunities from leading companies in every business category.

There are a few unique benefits that make Blue Chip Expert different from any other networking resource you may have tried previously:

* Membership is by invitation only - so it's limited to the best companies and the best people. This makes it a perfect way to expand your network to include top contacts in every field.

* The search technology is cutting-edge. Blue Chip Expert uses a proprietary engine to connect the right specialist to the perfect opportunity. It's the easiest way to build a team on a moment's notice, or locate other professionals to complement your capabilities.

* Members can actually earn recurring fees for introducing professionals - and the potential annual revenues are considerable. Once you register, make sure to check out the Referral Fee Calculator to project potential earnings. I think you may be in for a very pleasant surprise.

There are a lot more member privileges - but the easiest way to get the details is to accept this invitation and register at Blue Chip Expert.

How to make money from Linkedin, Part 2

A novelist once said, "Money is the sixth sense which allows a better use of the other five."

If you don't have religious or cultural prejudice against money (some people people that "money is the root of all evil" or that "rich people are greedy and bad" or that "money doesn't buy happiness"), then the logical question to ask is, "How can I make more and more money while working less and less?"

The only way is to use a system. S.Y.S.T.E.M. actually stands for "Save Your Self Time, Energy & Money."

Linkedin is one such system.

However, most people do NOT know how to use Linkedin profitably. Most people are NOT making any money from Linkedin. They use it as a mere sophisticated Rolodex or as a lazy way to network.

Linkedin is like a powerful sports car, yet most people open the door of that car, sit in the driver's seat, then look at the dashboard (which doesn't change much) and sometimes look through what's in the glove box, then they get out of the car.

They are not going anywhere with Linkedin.

Other people take a different approach. They set a specific goal, such as "I seriously intend to make $50,000 this year from Linkedin." (That's ON TOP of their regular salary from their full-time job).

So what they do is this: They write a personalized letter to EACH and EVERY ONE of their 500 connections and introduce themselves, their services, what they offer to clients, they even sell various knowledge products they have on Lulu.com or Payloadz.

After a few weeks of diligent and customized marketing, they begin to get orders, and they make $100, then $300, then $1,000, etc. Remember: they did not pay anything to be part of Linkedin. Their cost of doing business on Linkedin is zero.

But as I explained in the previous post, you first have to CAPTURE your knowledge in the form of a document, and this document must have at least a price of $1.00.

It is just unbelievable that there are SO MANY highly knowledgeable professionals, executives and entrepreneurs on Linkedin who have NEVER put down in writing all the knowledge they have in their heads! If they did capture their knowledge in the form of an ebook (or even ebooklet of 20 pages) or a blog or a podcast, they would have promoted it in their Linkedin profile.

My point is that if you want to make money from Linkedin, you basically have no choice but to start to diligently document your knowledge so that you can sell it.

I will write more about how this can be done, by using the MAPS framework I created.

It stands for "make it (knowledge), amass it, process it and sell it."

How to make money from Linkedin?

Headhunters certainly make money from Linkedin, which acts like a kind of virtual Rolodex for them.

But how would an ordinary professional or manager make money from Linkedin?

In order to answer that question, we need to step back and understand what business is all about. Business is basically "innovation" and "marketing."

In other words, a business makes money by 1. creating new value and 2. marketing or delivering that value to customers.

With this clear understanding in mind, we can now look at the question "How to make money from Linkedin?"

First, ask yourself: What is the knowledge you have which could be sold to others?
Second, ask yourself: What is the best price for offering that knowledge?

Indeed, making money through Linkedin is easiest if you have valuable knowledge to sell.

This is so because knowledge can be easily captured in a digital format, such as MP3 file, blog, PDF document, video (hosted on Youtube or your own server), etc.

Your valuable knowledge, once digitized, can be sold to ANYONE anywhere on the planet where there is an Internet connection.

The challenge is to package all your knowledge into a digital document (audio, video or text) that you can sell for $1.

You're probably thinking, "How the heck will I become rich if I sell my knowledge for a measly $1?"

Well, I say "$1" because it sounds easy. If you cannot sell your knowledge to someone for $1, then you are in big trouble.

Of course, feel free to sell your knowledge for $50 or even $100 if you want.

But let's start small and then later, we can increase the price.

So that's my challenge to you: package your knowledge into a document that people would pay $1 to download. Or use $5 if you want.

Believe it or not, most people are incapable of creating such a $5 document.

This is not because they are not smart. It's simply because they have never learned how to organize their knowledge in a way that would be useful to other people.

In future posts, I will explain how this can be done.

But for now, realize that once you package your knowledge into a $5 document, you can then sell it to hundreds or even thousands of people.

For instance, if 500 buy your $5 document, then you've just made $2,500.

(To be continued)

Treat every connection like a potential employer or client

The best way to leverage your connections on Linkedin is to treat every person like as if he/she were a potential employer or client.

In other words, communicate ALL the information that is necessary for your connections to understand that you are the BEST person for a particular kind of job.

This requires that you develop a systematic methodology to FULLY CONVEY the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that you are THE PERSON who is MOST QUALIFIED for and MOST MOTIVATED to do the job.

That's the secret that very, very few job seekers know.

Indeed, you should use your imagination and creativity to prove that you are the obviously correct choice for the job or contract.

For instance, imagine a company seeking a Proposal Writer. This person is in charge of managing the writing, editing and production of multimillion-dollar proposals which are submitted to executive buyers after a request for proposal (RFP).

Most candidates applying for such a job would typically send in a resume and cover letter.

The smart job seeker, however, sends in also the typical Proposal (in a neat binder) that he would do if he were really working as a Proposal Writer. In other words, he doesn't just send in "promises" (which is what a resume and cover letter really are), but actual "proof" that he CAN do the job and that he is (very) motivated to do the job.

Here's another metaphor that captures the same idea, so it can be understood clearly and so you can see its power and begin to let it work for you.

Imagine a beautiful woman being "pursued" by 5 males. 4 of them send her a love letter, including promises to do this or that for her. The fifth man encloses a piece of jewelry, with her name inscribed on it.

It's obvious who of the five males will be the lucky one!

The trick -- and this is a powerful trick -- is never to merely "apply for a job," but to "act like as if you had the job already."

Similarly, the trick is to treat EVERY one of your Linkedin connections like an employer or client. So do give them ALL the information they need to make the right decision (which is to hire you or contract you). Once they have ALL the relevant information, even if they are not in a position to hire you, they will at least be in a good position to recommend you to their connections.

What are you saying when you're saying nothing?

Every minute, our conscious brain is aware of 2,000 bits of information, while our unconscious brain is aware of 400 billion bits of information.

So the unconscious is really quite powerful! It regulates ALL the important activities of all important organs in our body.

Same thing with networking. Even when you're saying nothing to your network, you ARE saying something. So it's better to clearly clarify "what you're saying when you're saying nothing."

People who are political prime movers, have long mastered this art of saying something clearly without saying anything specific.

They use body language, gestures, insinuations, hints, facial expressions, choice of clothing, etc.

On Linkedin, it's much harder because everybody is "non-corporeal"!

One solution is to participate on Linkedin Answers by asking questions and providing answers. This is a great way for people to get to know you better.

You could also create a blog in order to share your knowledge, ideas, expertise, etc.

Being silent is definitely NOT recommended. If you are silent, then you simply do not exist in the Linkedin community. Even worse, others will view your silence as your unwillingness to be of service to them.

The solution is not difficult: just browse through the profiles of your connections, and ask them questions about their expertise or about anything that comes to your mind.

In other words, engage in conversation. That's the only way to show that you care, and that you are interested in exploring opportunities for win-win collaboration.

$95 Ideal Career report - FREE for you

I recently released a $95 special report on a special career design and management workshop I created in August 2005. For a limited time, you can download it free of charge at http://www.idealcareerframework.com/ (password: idealcareerisideal). Enjoy!

Feel free to check answers to questions at http://idealcareeranswers.wordpress.com/ (I will keep answering people's questions, so do not hesitate to ask questions!).

Peter Nguyen
Principal & Editor in Chief
CareerKnowledge.net

Networking is like printing money

Money is visible credit. Credit is invisible money.

This is powerful stuff, it might make you rich.

If you have a five-dollar bill, then you KNOW for a fact that someone, somewhere, "owes" you a product or service worth five dollars. For example, if you walk into a convenience store and pull out a five-dollar bill, the person behind the counter will immediately go: "Can I help you?" (Meaning: "Can I suggest a product in our store worth five dollars, so your five-dollar bill can be in MY hand?")

Credit is a bit more subtle. It's when you help someone and so they "owe" you. How much they owe you is harder to evaluate or quantify. But they definitely owe you something.

They owe you something because THAT is the way they feel about it, even though you feel they owe you nothing. In other words, when you give people advice, you do so generously and you don't expect anything in return. That is the correct spirit of networking. However, even though you don't expect anything in return, the person you helped will inevitably feel that he/she should reciprocate in the near future.

Also, when you help people by using your knowledge or expertise, it can actually be quite enjoyable. You can do so quite easily and have a very good time (for example, during the course of a social conversation at a party or reception). Of course, if you drink one drink too many, your knowledge might be of dubious quality!

In other words, the more you share your valuable knowledge (hopefully, it's the kind of knowledge that requires education or experience), the more "invisible money" you get.

This means that the more you network, the more (invisible) money you print!!

This assumes, of course, that you network mostly with people who are likely to benefit from your knowledge, expertise, wisdom. Then again, if your knowledge is specialized, it's a good bet that anyone you meet will be better off after a conversation with you.

For example, I know a significant bit about knowledge management, business and marketing. I'm pretty sure that most people I meet would / might appreciate my insights on these matters.

Unfortunately, we too often only focus on visible money (which most people earn by doing things, NOT sharing knowledge). We don't focus on the invisible money (that is, the credit that we build by helping others through knowledge-sharing).

For people who only focus on visible money, going to work every day and getting a paycheck every two weeks is good enough.

For people who understand the value of invisible money, it's necessary to go out there and network in order to "print" more and more invisible money. That is, they meet new people and try to be useful to them. They know for a fact that other people will reciprocate and try to be useful or helpful to them in turn.

This is why people who make the effort of reaching out to others, will always have a richer and more fulfilling life than people who just stay at home watching TV.

Sure, people are free to choose the lifestyle they want. But one has a profitable consequence for you and helps others to gain knowledge while the other does not.

Knowledge-sharing is the new way to network

The adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is not 100% accurate, especially not in today's knowledge economy where a professional's value lies chiefly in his or her knowledge.

Linkedin, the popular networking site for professionals and managers, has in fact enabled people to share and show their knowledge through the Linkedin Answers service, which is free of charge.

Therefore, since a professional's knowledge will be increasingly visible to the whole wide world (to the extent that he is willing and able to share it), then what a person knows will likely become as important as -- if not more important than -- who he knows.

Indeed, when recruiting new talents, employers don't care so much -- unless it's a sales job -- about a person's number of connections as much as what the candidate knows and what professional capabilities flow from that knowledge.

In short, a connection can only open doors for you; you still have to tap dance, so to speak, in order to prove to the potential employer or client that you can do the job.

The critical importance of one's knowledge and professional capability thus changes the networking game from one of "making connections" to one of "sharing knowledge."

To be more precise, the networking game is no longer about the quantity of one's connections, but the quality of one's knowledge.

It's also about one's willingness and ability to share one's knowledge. As the saying goes, "knowledge shared is power multiplied." Sharing knowledge will empower everyone while encouraging others to share their knowledge in return. This principle of reciprocity never fails because it is part of human nature: the more we receive from others, the more we feel compelled -- if only for moral reasons -- to give back.

This is why participating on Linkedin Answers is so crucial. It's a virtuous cycle where the more one gives, the more one receives.

This sharing and learning can become quite addictive too! But it is a healthy and positive sort of addiction where participants are psychologically and socially motivated to share their valuable knowledge while gaining from the vast pool of wisdom consisting of the collective experience of thousands of other Linkedin users.

Linkedin even offers rewards for people who provide "best answers" (as determined by the person asking the question). Such knowledgeable people are recognized as "experts," although the term is just a recognition of the value and usefulness of their answers and does not really make them true experts in the traditional sense of the word.

The key idea here is that networking will focus more and more on knowledge and knowledge-sharing, not the (often mindless) accumulation of business cards in one's Rolodex or the multiplication of connections on Linkedin.

The challenge for professionals then will be to identify what it is that they know best, and to share their knowledge as fast as possible, with as many people as possible, in order to position themselves as knowledgeable experts in their field who can be relied upon to provide guidance, counsel and solutions.

Free Financial Freedom newsletter (value: $495)

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Enjoy!

Bikini marketing

Bikini Marketing is a marketing doctrine I created, based on the idea that a professional should show as much as possible to excite the imagination of others, without giving away the essential.

For example, take a closer look at your Linkedin profile. Do you feel excited when you read it? If not, other people probably won't feel excited either.

Of course, not everybody looks good in a bikini. For example, I don't! :-)

So you can adopt a Tuxedo Marketing strategy. The idea is to look elegant and attractive.

How can they trust you?

Several Linkedin users have sent me invitation emails starting with "Peter, since you're a person I trust, I would like to connect directly with you."

This sounds really great, the only unfortunate thing is that the invitation rarely comes from a young beautiful woman.

But seriously, I always wondered about something: these invitation emails come from people I have never met, online or offline. So how can they say that they "trust" me?

The key, I think, is to differentiate between "personal" trust and "institutional" trust. Personal trust has to be built through shared history and this often takes time.

Institutional trust, on the other hand, has to do with documented evidence, such as credentials, affiliations, years of employment, etc.

It's possible that people check out my profile on Linkedin, and see that I'm worthy of trust given my academic and entrepreneurial track record.

For instance, they see that the Gazette, a Montreal-based newspaper, has talked about a workshop I created as well as the company (Talentelle) I co-founded with my sister.

They also see that I was valedictorian of my high school and have graduated with Honours from Dawson College and Distinction from McGill University.

My point is that the more documented evidence you have of your success track record, the easier it is for people to trust you. They may not (yet) trust you at the personal level, but at least, they trust your track record as a professional, manager, entrepreneur, etc.

So far, I've more than 500 connections, and 98% of them have invited me. I invited only a few people, about a dozen.

Bottom line: Write your profile carefully so that people can reasonably infer that you are trustworthy. They will then invite you to connect with them, and that's when a world of professional and/or business opportunities will open up to you.

Pros and cons of using Facebook

Facebook is widely regarded as a social networking site for the young growd, aged 12 to 30, whereas Linkedin is for professional, career-oriented folks like good old me.

I've been using Facebook intermittently in the last few weeks, and tried to inject some humor into my profile to stimulate therefore reward (hopefully female) visitors who check out what I'm all about. (Girls, stop wondering, I'm indeed an eligible bachelor but more importantly, I'm a wealth intellectual who's following in the footsteps of the Count of Monte Cristo and is about to explode in wealth and power on the global scene. Oh, did I mention that I love kids? :-)

So far, the main benefit for me has been to see a few sexy bikini pictures of female friends. This kind of sight always plunges me into deep meditation. One insight that came out was a totally revolutionary marketing doctrine which I call "Bikini Marketing." More on this later.

For now, you're wondering if you should be using Facebook. In particular, you might be worried that Facebook's algorithms will criss-cross your personal data gathered on the site against data about you gathered EVERYWHERE on the Web, in order to create an accurate demographic, psychographic and behavioral portrait of you. A rich, detailed, revealing portrait that even you are not in possession of.

Such algorithmically constructed portraits of Facebook users are used, as usual, by the elite to Predict, eXplain and Control the masses. The elite has long mastered what I call PXC technology for predictive purposes. In short, they know what you will think before you even think it.

Your first reaction might be to recoil in horror and decide with great resolve to boycott Facebook. However, one should remember how the Internet was born: as a last-resort communications network to protect the U.S. against foreign attacks. This original purpose did not prevent the Internet from becoming, especially with user-friendly WWW browsers, a global tool for informationally and economically empowering the masses, including billions of people in vast countries like China, India and Russia.

My point is that the benefits from using social networking sites like Facebook or Linkedin come from how a person consciously and, in a premeditated manner, strategically USES the site. It would be premature to let fear control our attitude and behavior concerning Web applications that could, IF used properly, empower us while connecting us meaningfully to thousands of other people.

Yes, the world is dangerous. Yes, there are people out there with secret agendas who will seek to exploit data about people. Yes, there are more deception technologies than verification technologies out there, as intellectual Alvin Toffler has pointed out.

The challenge will be to learn, use and master technologies to our own advantage in order to maximize opportunities, avoid threats and get back home in time for supper.

---

Note: I've created last month a blog (http://facebookusermanual.blogspot.com/) where I'll be sharing tips and procedures on how to use Facebook strategically. Check the site often for upates. A "Subscribe" box will be added shortly.

Linkedin as "talk" medium or "work" medium?

Unlike other social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin has the opportunity to be more than a "talk" medium (where people chat, connect, socialize, etc.). Linkedin can become a "work" medium, where people create (or co-create) actual value and trade economic entities (including knowledge, resources, opportunities, products, services, cash, etc.).

But this shift to a "work" environment requires a strategic mindset. It requires self-discipline. And it requires absolute honesty. In other words, it requires that Linkedin users ask themselves the tough business questions, such as: For every minute that I spend on Linkedin, what is my return on investment? (You can use "For every 15 minutes" instead of "For every minute").

Another important question is: What do you think Linkedin really is? For some people, it's social and professional environment to network. For others, it's a very specific tool to help them achieve very specific career or business objectives.

For me, it's a tool to gain marketing information and gather market research data. It's also a tool to forge partnerships for my various products and businesses. Lastly, it's a marketing tool to generate soft leads.

Ultimately, we all have to decide whether to view Linkedin as a "talk" medium or a "work" medium. What we get out of Linkedin will depend heavily on how we look at it.

Can I give you US$20 for everything you know?

I posted this question on Linkedin Answers and here, I answer some of the concerns (my comments are preceded by ">").

It's a long post, but I think you will appreciate a few key ideas that can help you to MONETIZE (make money) from Linkedin and other social networking sites.

It's all about determining what valuable knowledge you have that can improve people's lives, and then finding people (buyers) who agree with your assessment.

Can I give you US$20 for everything you know?

It seems that the central demographic and occupational model of Linkedin users contains a high proportion of professionals, managers, entrepreneurs, etc. In other words, very smart people.

So I was just wondering, "Would you be able to type, on a single piece of paper, enough valuable knowledge for me to pay you US$20?"

Note: When I mentioned "everything you know" in the question, I mean "everything you know that is of relevance to me and of practical use to me."

Thanks!

Clarification added 15 hours ago:

I should point out that the focus is not the $20, but how "sellable" a person's explicit (not tacit) knowledge is. This is a serious issue for people who have serious knowledge and wish to monetize it. A good author, for instance, can package the best of his / her knowledge into a book and sell it for $20-40 (Don Tapscott, Peter Drucker, Tom Peters, Adrian Slywotzky, etc.).

Also, assuming that a person CAN sell his/her explicit knowledge for $20, the payoff can actually be tens of thousands of dollars, since all you have to do is upload it on the Web (at Payloadz, for instance) and allow people to pay for it and immediately download it.

This is in fact what I do: I sell my knowledge via Payloadz, so I can make money while sleeping!

Clarification added 14 hours ago:

In case you're interested in monetizing your knowledge and automating the sale of such knowledge, here is the sequence I usually propose to clients: Do you have knowledge that is needed and/or wanted by enough people (say 10,000) who would be willing to pay for it?
No; Yes ---> Continue
Are you interested and motivated to package your knowledge into paper or digital format and sell it to make money?
No; Yes --> Continue
Do you have the writing skills to capture such knowledge into an article of 5-20 pages or a book?
Yes ---> Go ahead, start writing!
No ---> Continue
Would you be willing to pay a ghostwriter $500-800 (for an article) or $5,000-10,000 (for a book) to interview you and capture your valuable knowledge in writing?
No; Yes ---> Hire a writer and start the process of capturing and selling your knowledge

==========

ANSWERER: For a mere 20.00 you might get my name on a piece of paper. But that's it.

> This reaction is understandable, but even Bill Clinton's name on a piece of paper is not worth $20 for me, although if he included his personal cell phone, that would be of great value. Many people might be shocked or offended by my unusual offer, and this may only be due to a misunderstanding of the financial value of knowledge. Or, to be more specific, the convertibility of knowledge into money.

> If we forget about the one-page constraint, and I had $20 to spend, who would be the first, out of 11 million users of Linkedin, to convince me to invest $20 and buy his/her knowledge?

> Some people will see the opportunity to make a lot of money and thus they will engage in this mad race toward the true El Dorado of the knowledge economy. Other people will react defensively and use old patterns of thinking to justify inaction, and get back to the old way of working (that is, putting in time in exchange for cash).

ANSWERER: Sorry I don't know nothing.

> Everybody knows something valuable. Although not everybody knows enough about marketing to be able to find the right market for one's knowledge. Indeed, "knowledge" is rarely the problem. It's finding out WHO could benefit from that knowledge and would be willing to pay for it. After that, it gets even better: one only has to develop and format the knowledge in a way that is useful to that target market. Without knowing one's target market, one would keep learning WITHOUT properly documenting one's knowledge in a way that is useful to thousands of other people, thereby one would forfeit a lot of money to be made in selling knowledge.

> This is why consultants and trainers are strategically positioned to make so much more money than their corporate counterparts, who only work for ONE employer. Not only do consultants make TWICE as much money as their corporate counterparts (this was researched and documented by Harvard Business Review -- they compared the salary of a manufacturing consultant with that of a manufacturing plant manager), they are also interacting with hundreds of clients and THIS enables them to keep develop their knowledge in a way that would INCREASE their own market value to their clients.

ANSWERER: And you really think I can get all that on one piece of paper? How small do you think my brain is..............haha!

> It's true that one page is a little extreme. But it could be 20 or 50 pages. It's more about quality than quantity. A book is a long explanation of a few key principles. It's often filled with anecdotes, stats, stories, case studies, etc. I tend to value original principles and frameworks. These can fit nicely onto one piece of paper.

ANSWERER: I don't need the $20. In the spirit of networking, I share whatever I know gratis. However, I don't know what you would consider to be "relevant" or "practical". In truth, many things that I have learned which at the time seemed neither relevant or practical have in time proved to be useful.

ANSWERER: So if you have a question, I'll be glad to answer. (However, correct answers do cost you $20.)

> The business model of charging for answers is not high-leverage, since the person providing the answers has to provide labour every single time. The author of a book, on the other hand, works only ONCE and then sells the work produced thousands of time. Think of J.K. Rowling, the billionaire author of Harry Potter.

> This introduce a new element into the knowledge game: imagination. People assume that a page would contain only text. This is why they feel they can't possibly "pack" their knowledge onto a piece of paper. But what if that piece of paper contained all the secret links to their instructional materials on Youtube (where an instructional video can be uploaded and be viewable ONLY to invited people) or Slideshare.net or Payloadz (where you can set a price of $0)?

ANSWERER: Presuming that a page contains about 1000 words. You are essentially offering 2 cents per word. Most freelance writers charge much more than that.

ANSWERER: On the flip side, if you are looking for mentoring, offering $20 would be an insult to such professionals; right?

> It's not about quantity, it's about the quality of the knowledge written on the piece of paper. And it's not about mentoring, but pure knowledge sharing.

> Nobody has to feel insulted. If nobody is willing to pay $20 for your knowledge, then your knowledge has a market value of zero.

ANSWERER: I and many other LinkedIn users know a lot about many, many subjects. However, what we do not know is what is relevant and of practical use to to you or to any other person that we have not had an indepth discussion with overver a considerable time period. How would we learn "everything you know that is of relevance to me and of practical use to" you. After that, how would we begin to transfer our knowledge? Also, $20.00 would not begin to cover our "opportunity cost" for helping you. Perhaps there would be some other amount you would pay or barter for our information?

> The expression "know a lot about many, many subjects" is the crux of the dilemma for professionals and managers. A more profitable question is, "What is the only subject on which you are the undisputed expert?" Generalists don't become authors or speakers or consultants. Specialists do.

> I'm just a professional and entrepreneur, like many of the 11 million users of Linkedin. I'm university educated, I've worked 10 years in corporate workplaces, etc. Nothing about me that's radically different from other Linkedin users.

ANSWERER: Very interesting topic, thanks for posting! I know of a few developers who would love the opportunity to try out selling their creations, I will be sure to pass this along!

> "Creation" is an interesting work, and quite relevant. Sometimes, a person has valuable knowledge but is only missing the literary creativity to put it into words. Peter Drucker is a brilliant mind, for sure, but would he have been a good management thinker and writer if he did not have the unique literary skill of writing crystal-clear prose that is often penetrating and surprisingly lucid?

ANSWERER: It's all in what you personally value.

ANSWERER: If I look at your example of a book manuscript becoming the next college textbook in Management (citing your examples), one spends a lot of years teaching kids before they get the opportunity from some bright publisher that has interacted with the professor before the opportunity is granted.

> I would add that it's about what the market values. Most professionals can find another person who values their knowledge, but it's much more difficult to define a market (homogeneous group of people) that would value one's knowledge and be willing to pay for it. As usual, it can be a small market where buyers are willing to pay a lot (say, $100+) or a big market where buyers are willing to pay a little (say, $30 for a book).

ANSWERER: Very interesting proposition. I used to sell people ideas every day. I forgot how much fun that was.

> Ideas usually have a bigger payoff than knowledge, but the probability of success is lower (given the fact that ideas by definition are "something new"). Knowledge (the capacity for effective action) usually has wider applicability and a higher chance of being productively used to produce desirable results, but the payoff is usually lower.

ANSWERER: If you're suggesting that we can create monetizable documents and automate their sale, I'm all for that.

> The marketing and sale of monetizable documents is rarely 100% automated, although it may be semi-automatically marketed via blogs, cyber agents, auto-responders, etc. Of course, if you have a blog or website that attracts a lot of traffic, yes I guess one could say that it's automated.

ANSWERER: $20 doesn't buy you much of my time. If I don't think I'm worth it no one else will....

> It's not about buying a person's time, but his knowledge on a piece of paper. The person does NOT have to be present. And the question is not if "you're worth it" but "what is the market value for your knowledge"?

> This is a brutal question, because most people have not thought about selling their knowledge. Why? Probably because they think they have to write a book, which seems like a lot of effort.

ANSWERER: Sorry, I tend to get paid a lot more than $20 per page.

ANSWERER: Of course, not only am I paid for my own specific knowledge, but also for my ability to conceptualize and translate knowledge into a form that can be easily communicated to and understood by others.

> How many people have bought your knowledge and at what price? If 100 people have bought your explicit knowledge (in the form of a report, article, ebook, book, blog subscription, newsletter, etc.) for $30, then the market value for your knowledge concretely is 100 X $30, or $3,000.

> A professional or even executive may know a lot, but if his knowledge is "trapped" in his head,
he won't make money while he's sleeping. He can only make money while he's interacting with a client, but since his time is limited, his revenues will ALSO be limited.

ANSWERER: The business model you are looking for is: write a book!

ANSWERER: The authors you mention make a lot more than $20 a page, and even more if you realize that their books are mere marketing instruments for their lectures and key note presentations. For $20, Tom Peters would write you two lines. I'm willing to do the same.

> The "book business model" has been around for centuries, even since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Surely, in today's Internet age, we can do better! Why keep one's mindset trapped in a model that existed centuries ago?

> Some of the characteristics of the knowledge marketing model I propose, which differentiate it from books, are: instant real-time publishing via the Internet, shorter format (a few pages, not a whole book -- think of the 8-page summaries sold on Summaries.com), ability to interact with the author by email AFTER purchase, online payment (well, okay, Amazon is already doing that), ability to put pictures (color) in the report, etc.

ANSWERER: You don't even have to give me twenty bucks. Everything I know comes down to one thing, and if you know this one thing and always implement it, you'll never fail: Measure twice, and cut once.

> Good advice, but that's just information. To increase the value of information, you have to convert it into instruction, integration, implementation and inspection (there's also innovation in there). This is a proprietary methodology I've created, I will sell it soon on Payloadz.

=======

ANSWERER:

--Do I think there's a nugget (or two - or a dozen) of golden info rolling around in my cranium? *yes*

--Do I think there are enough people in the world who would be willing to pay me ($20US) for that (those) nugget(s) to make selling it (them) a lucrative venture? *Yes* with a caveat that I'll get to in a moment.

--Am I literate enough to record that data in a lucid and comprehendible manner? *Well... with enough lubrication, perhaps*

--Am I willing to pay a much more literate and perhaps vitally more lucid person to do this for me? Uhhh... gosh, I'm not entirely sure my checkbook could handle it but, we'll assume I'm financially fluid and respond *yes*

> You can strike a deal with the writer, and share a percentage of sales with him or her. I know that as a writer, I would go for that deal, IF I believe that the knowledge of the client is valuable AND relevant to a significant number of people.

ANSWERER: Here's the caveat. Is the information trapped in my synapse valuable enough (or unique enough?) to place even a $20 price tag on it? This may come down to how it's marketed. It may come down to hiring someone with enough understanding of my chosen industry(ies) to be able to say which nuggets are largely unknown - and therefore monetarily valuable and worth the time and effort to commit them to record.

> Well, just create a "Table of Contents" of all your nuggets, and start offering it to people. Ask them if they would be willing to pay for your nuggets, and how much? You can even set a price for each nugget, which your clients have to pay in advance before you send them the nugget.

> My point is that you don't have to commit so much time and money into writing a best-seller. Just describe your nuggets (without giving away the secret sauce or secret mechanism etc.) and price them. Then, as more and more people order a particular kind of nugget, then you know where to spend and invest your time to develop those nuggets further.

ANSWERER: My counter question: What information might I (or any of us) have that would be valuable enough to you that you'd pay $20 for it?

> Anything you know that could increase the revenues or profits or customer base of my company (www.talentelle.com) or that would help reduce costs.

ANSWERER:

Peter - Very clear point - Wonderfully conveyed the messages. Bright brains some time even take less than a page to communicate their knowledge –
e.g., E=MC2
P=mf and so on.

I am – work in progress – Knowledge I gather and be rewarded immediately are from the success, and the failures were fermented into wisdom. Some such wisdom is –
To be successful in life and profession – one must (1) be Honest, (2) hardworking and (3) do more and expect less.

ANSWERER: If you do not have all or part of these, you can buy it from me with $20.

> Thanks, but with all due respect, that's just information. It's not instruction, and it does not contain guidelines on how to implement it to get desirable results. Google makes it so easy to get general information.

> To use your last quote, I would be interested in learning how to "do less and get more." Nobody ever became rich without some kind of strategic leverage. This strategic, secret leverage is what I'm looking for.

ANSWERER: Instead of an abstract request, I think you should lead and demonstrate for all of us what you think you know that we would pay you $20 for.

> I've developed in August 2005 a revolutionary strategic career workshop based on the Ideal Career Framwork (ICF), as well as a business workshop called Business Model Workout (BMW) taught in colleges and entrepreneurship centres. I've also developed, as a strategic consultant ("strategic" means I help clients to win), about 32 special workshops. I'm writing an eBook containing all of this valuable material which is actually worth about $5,000 (this is the price a person pays to attend all the workshops). Of course, the eBook will be priced more cheaply, probably around $85. I will let all Linkedin users know when the eBook is ready, some time later this year.

> Would I be able to pack my knowledge into a single page selling for $20? Yes, but I only show this page to select clients because it contains formatting secrets that are proprietary. From the responses of people to my question, I know now that nobody knows of those formatting secrets (or if they know, they are not answering my question, probably to avoid sharing their own secrets).

ANSWERER: Here is a free tip. Asking any expert to guess which drop in the ocean will quench your thirst is very naive.

> Interesting tip, but your metaphor is intellectually flawed: every person has unique knowledge which is like an island. People's knowledge does not mingle with other people's knowledge, as your ocean metaphor implies.

> Second, I'm not thirsty for knowledge. I've read over 800 management and business books. I'm teaching entrepreneurs and coaching careerists. I am, however, looking for data to confirm my various hypotheses and so far, feedback from people has been very illuminating.

> And finally, it's not about guessing. Business is about determining exactly the price that customers would pay for your offering, and then to charge that price. But first, you have to determine what it is that you know that MIGHT be of value. Next, you set a price for it. This price can vary, depending on various market segments you select.

ANSWERER: I think this is an interesting question. I would say that there is a large "void" of knowledge between college curriculum and so called "expert's books" about certain topics (say "Starting a Sales Career", "Starting a Business" dot dot dot).

ANSWERER: IMO- college seems to teach fundamentals and theoretical examples and explanations, whereas business books (at a bookstore) seem to elaborate on one expert's perspective, unless it is an anthology of examples.

> I agree. Colleges offer general information, business books offer specific information (not only "industry-specific" but specific to the author's background and experience).

ANSWERER: The business books that I have bought that have really been helpful to me as an entrepreneur are ones that are designed almost like a handbook, a useful book that can be used once and again for referencing the subject matter and putting it to practical use. Yet (all) many books are written assuming the reader has reached a certain skill and talent level - so these books are only helpful to those with the adequate business (other science) acumen.

> I've reached the same conclusion: all authors assume a uniform skill level in the reader population, and as a result, most readers will read a book, feel good that they understand certain new concepts and principles, then go back to their old way of doing things. No learning has taken place since there is no change in behavior.

ANSWERER: Books impart knowledge and information, yet putting this knowledge and information to work requires the reader(s) to have certain skill levels. IMO most books are written for a certain niche of experienced readers, I could very easily have my mom read books in my library concerning human consciousness, quantum physics, sales letter creation, business development - and the value to her would be minimal - she is not the intended audience and would likely find these "expert's words" confusing and not discernible and certainly not pertinent to her life.

ANSWERER: Books, IMO, all have a very distinct market or audience, therefore they don't appeal to "everyone". If an "expert" really wanted to expand his/her market and audience, I think they would write books (that make talk about the same subject matter) that are intended for different levels of readers.

> Robert Kiyosaki seems to be doing that. From his core Rich Dad Poor Dad book, he has developed other versions targeting teenagers, investors, etc.

> I see a trend away from book publishing to knowledge marketing. Knowledge has been brilliantly defined by Peter Senge as the "capacity for effective action," and so, as you pointed out correctly, a person who is not interested or motivated or skill-equipped to implement the information from a book, won't find it useful and won't derive as much value as another highly targeted reader who has the interest, motivation and skills to implement the information.

ANSWERER: So for "someone" to offer you a one page paper of valuable information and knowledge - they would at first have to understand your background, skill levels, interests, and so forth. Knowing if the information and knowledge they put in a one page paper for you is worth $20 - would be up to you the audience - and not to the writer. IMO - a writer writes a book for a very specific and intentional audience, rather than "everyone".

ANSWERER: So, this marketing and revenue generation of "knowledge and information" (a book) would be confined to those that "find this book/paper tangible and useful" - the audience (niche targets) would define the marketability and value of such a book/paper. Knowing the exact characteristics of the audience (market) and producing "knowledge and information" (the book) to satisfy this "audience's need" would then increase the inherent value of the book (information and knowledge). Is this even coherent now? I tried - Thanks - Brian

> Brian, your thoughtful response shows that you truly understand the intricate issues involved in strategic knowledge management. One metaphor I like is that of books as "ingredients" for cooking, and training or consulting as "cooking a meal for a client."

> People can read books (that is, browse through the ingredients) but if they don't know how to cook, or if the book is NOT in a handbook format (showing clear procedures and "recipes" for mixing and cooking the ingredients), then the book is useless. Yes, you can still touch and smell the aroma of ingredients, but you can't cook a meal that would nourish your mind.

> Consulting or training is better, although it's too labor-intensive.

> So my idea of knowledge marketing is to provide "pre-cooked, pre-prepared" (and health-conscious) foods for people. For instance, the one-page document could just be a procedure for improving one's Linkedin profile, or for using Linkedin Answers for career advancement or business development.

Free preview of the book Systematic Wealth

http://www.slideshare.net/superpeter/preview-of-systematic-wealth

I uploaded a free preview of my book Systematic Wealth at the link above. Enjoy!

Dabbledb.com

I recently discovered the above amazing website for managing databases online and sharing data with one's connections.

You can try it free for 30 days and you can also use it for free (under the Creative Commons agreement).

It's definitely a tool I recommend to proactively and profitably manage one's connections on Linkedin, but also all of one's ideas and resources.

IMPORTANT: Every cashflow begins with...

Before I reveal the powerful insight, let me ask you a question:

Do you think a woman would jump into bed with a guy before talking to him? Would she "give herself away" without first going on a few dates (or at least ONE date) with him?

Women are not "easy." Well, okay, some women are easy and I've known a few, but I really can't talk about it here because I'm too afraid my Mom would stumble upon this blog!

Anyways, my point is that business is the same. People have to trust you before they can do business with you.

Concretely, this means -- okay, here's the insight so please prepare your mind so that you can memorize this powerful insight for life!

This means "Every cashflow begins with a conversation."

A variation could be: "Every cashflow begins with a conversation among friends."

You can apply this insight to Linkedin in order to advance your career or build your business.

Basically, it means that you should START conversations with as many of your connections as possible.

A great way to start a conversation is to participate in the Linkedin Questions & Answers board.

That's where there's a chance people might reveal more information about themselves and, therefore, where you can start a friendly conversation based on common issues, interests, goals, opinions, etc.

The higher your salary or the higher the price for your professional services, the MORE you need to start a business relationship with a sincere, friendly and respectful conversation.

The tone and the quality of prose of people on Linkedin Q&A also reveal their rank and their career stage. More on this later.

CEO needs help

I created a special blog to share with the world my business challenges. If you can help, you could make money! You could even earn the right to buy a business license for as low as $300, so that you can begin to earn passive income (that means you make money while you're sleeping).

Check it out at http://www.ceoneedshelp.blogspot.com/

The ultimate Linkedin strategy!

Okay, folks, I just had my second cup of coffee so here's an amazing caffeine-induced insight:

"The ultimate Linkedin strategy is to tell the world everything you need and everything you got."

This simple strategy will enable you to get the MAXIMUM out of Linkedin. However, "simple strategy" doesn't mean "easy strategy."

To know what you really need in your career or business, requires much self-knowledge and mastery of the business reality you are operating in. To know what you have that is or could be useful to others, also requires much self-knowledge and a solid understanding of your professional or business experience.

I've looked at many Linkedin profiles, and I've yet to find one where the person actually stated what he/she needed to get from Linkedin connections, or what he/she could concretely offer to his/her connections.

Ultimately, Linkedin is like a radio broadcasting station: it's not very valuable if you don't know what you can offer people, and if you don't know what you need from other people.

How to make money with your knowledge

The following is a series of steps to go through if you want to make money by selling your knowledge.

1. You must have valuable, practical knowledge. Often, it comes from books, professional experience, hobbies, etc.
2. You must write down on a piece of paper the "table of contents" of your knowledge. For instance, if you're a marketing professional, you might write a table of content as follows: a) How to segment a market for maximum effectiveness, b) How to design and run a direct marketing program, c) How to recruit a sales force and train / motivate them
3. You must then develop the Table of Contents into an actual document (white paper, ebook, technical article, executive brief, etc.) that you can send to people who are interested in buying your knowledge. This document can be five pages long, or 200 pages. Quality matters more than quantity.
   
4. You must clearly describe the kind of person who would buy your knowledge, in terms of age, educational level, industry, profession, stage of career, benefit sought, etc.
5. You must develop a strategy to reach the market described in #4.
6. You must develop and implement a direct marketing campaign to offer your knowledge (in audio, video or text format) to the target market described in #4 and reached through #5.
7. You must create a Payloadz account so that you can upload your document and enable buyers to conveniently buy your knowledge product online.
   

How to make money with Linkedin

There are only two steps to making money with Linkedin:

1. Create a document (audio, video or text) that contains valuable information or practical knowledge. Price it (ex. $10)
   
2. Offer it to all your Linkedin connections (or to the ones that you know will appreciate the information or knowledge).

Of course, you can offer your document FREE of charge. Even so, you can make money from it. Here's how:

1. One of your connections has been looking for a consultant like you, but has ALSO been approached by your competitor. However, upon reading your document, he feels more confident about your expertise and reliability than he does about your competitor.
2. As a result, he hires you for a project at a fee of $3,000.

Don't multiply connections. Multiply cashflow options.

A character in a movie (I forgot the title) said: "We'll become good friends when we start counting the money together."

Money is like sex: everybody wants more of it, but nobody will publicly admit it. I'm 100% sure YOU want more of it (money, I mean). Nothing to be ashamed of. If you admit you want more money, then you can join the club. A club made up of 6.5 billion people on this little planet.

If you still resist the idea that more money is good for you, your health, your family, your quality of life, etc. then take the time to think about it. You can also stop reading this post as the rest of it is all about making money.

But if you are fine with the idea of making MORE MONEY, keep reading.

Here's my key advice for using Linkedin to make more money: Don't multiply connections. Multiply cashflow options.

By "cashflow option," I mean the secured opportunity to create a cashflow (stream of income) in the near and foreseeable future. It's a bit like call and put options in the stock market, except that -- and here's the GREAT news! -- you do not have to pay for those options.

All you have to do is think. And serve people. Answering questions on Linkedin Answers is a great way to connect to people and create cashflow options. Of course, it's important to ONLY answer questions based on your true expertise. Some people answer all questions and voice their mere opinions. It's a waste of time. People want knowledge, not opinions.

Please note that the cashflow options that you create on Linkedin can either be liquid (financial) or economic. "Economic" means "value" that is not easily or readily converted into cash value. At the same time, economic value could also be strategic value, which can be worth far more than financial value in the long term. For example, you connect with and interact with someone who could become a joint venture partner to develop and distribute a product worldwide.

Linkedin and bathroom stall walls

Someone posted an interesting question, which might reflect how many people feel about the overtly public aspect of Linkedin user information. My answer below.

Question:

I was at a networking event yesterday and as usual was trading business cards and finding out if the other person was on LinkedIn or not. Most were and those that weren't (except for one) asked me to send them an invite. That one person firmly had the impression that joining LinkedIn reminded them of putting their name and phone number on the bathroom stall wall. I am interested in how you would have responded to that impression. Thanks.

Answer:

Well, Linkedin is interactive, so when you post something (such as on this Q&A board), people can respond to you. If you write a message on the bathroom stall wall, you usually do not expect a written, thoughtful reply. Nobody ever goes, "Wait, I gotta go to the bathroom and check my messages!" But seriously, beyond the interactivity, there is also the legitimate credibility or transparency: most people can see your profile, and also WHERE you work. This should reassure people, especially women since in their case, there is the security issue which is rightly at the top of their minds. Thanks for posting this question, it raises a lot of important issues!

Make a living or make a FORTUNE?

A leader once said that "a single idea of genius is more profitable and powerful than a lifetime of meticulous office work."

Jim Rohn, the best-selling author and motivational speaker, put it this way: "Success is something you attract by the person you become. Work hard on your job and you will make a living. Work hard on yourself and you will make a FORTUNE."

This is why I encourage people to use Linkedin proactively and strategically, as if their lives depended on it. Indeed, Linkedin can be an instrument of economic and financial liberation, IF (and this is a big IF) you know HOW to use it strategically.

For example, you can learn AMAZING things and acquire high-value knowledge by reading the answers of top executives and respected authors/consultants in the Answers section of Linkedin.

Of course, you can also answer questions, but it's better to proceed cautiously. Many answers I have read are incomplete, disorganized, or empty of real knowledge. The risk is that it could damage your reputation in the Linkedin community.

So how does Linkedin enable you to heed Rohn's advice of "working hard on yourself"?

Well, for one thing, Linkedin forces you to write a CLEAR description of what your career is all about. A great many people do not write a clear (let alone compelling or memorable) description of who they are in the profile section.

Self-knowledge is critical to effective networking. If you don't know who you are (I mean "professionally," not "existentially"), then you cannot be confident when you network. As a result, others who meet you also CANNOT be confident about you.

Here's something useful to remember, which I tell all my (career and business) coaching clients:

"Clarity does not need charity."

In other words, if you are CLEAR about your unique value proposition (the added value or the strategic solution you provide to employers or clients), then you do not need to sell so much. You don't even need to go out of your way to network with people. Word of mouth will work for you.

Why?

Because you are so unique, memorable and valuable.

However, lack of clarity means you will have to rely on people's goodwill (charity). Charity from others is great if you're homeless or are recovering from a major disaster in your life, but it is NOT a good career foundation, alas!

The good news is that "working hard on yourself" doesn't necessarily mean you have to make a lot of strained effort to acquire new skills or get into evening classes. No, all you have to do is answer the key question that Peter Drucker asks of people who come to him for career advice: "What do you want to contribute?"

The late masterful business intellectual did it again: he phrased, in extremely simple terms, a key problem that if solved would dramatically change a person's career or business!

He also wrote: "Don't think in terms of achievement, think in terms of contribution."

Many Linkedin users write their profile in terms of their achievements, but this is too self-oriented. Writing in terms of what you want to contribute to future clients and employers is much more appealing, and shows that you have a service mentality.

Yes, it's important to mention one's success track record, but it is best to formulate it in terms of how you were able to contribute to the company's success or to the success of your team.

Linkedin Answers

Linnkedin has a new service called Answers. This is really, really great! (People can actually see your answers to other people, on your Profile page -- see picture above).

I use it to show off, oops, I mean, share my (very limited) knowledge on a (very limited) range of topics.

I guess Linkedin saw the success of Yahoo! Answers, and decided to launch a service that would allow users to easily share their knowledge while solidly establishing their expertise within the Linkedin community.

Of course, Linkedin Answers is very different from Yahoo! Answers. For example:

1. Askers and answerers on Linkedin are not anonymous. Their profile is publicly accessible, so this works as an incentive for answerers to write thoughtful and informative answers.
2. On Linkedin, you can decide to network with or email other people after you read their answers. This is not possible with Yahoo! Answers (the best you can do is send them a note via Yahoo! Answers' messaging service.
3. Both the questions and answers on Linkedin are general much more career-relevant and business-oriented than on Yahoo! Answers.

Overall, one could say that Linkedin Answers is the more robust, corporate version of Yahoo! Answers, which seems to be the consumer version of open-source Q&A board.

Make money with Linkedin!

The above is a screenshot of a page from a Mind Map book I'm publishing through Linkedin. This ebook will contain all the contents of this blog as well as mind maps, diagrams, templates, etc. NOT found on this blog.

The purpose is to help Linkedin users to profitably and strategically use Linkedin for career and/or business purposes.

If you have more than 50 connections on Linkedin and would like to become an affiliate and make $$$, please contact me asap. Thanks! (omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com -- mention "Linkedin user manual affiliate" in the subject heading).

Make it happen in a spreadsheet first

In the business world, if it can happen in a spreadsheet, it CAN happen in real life.

That's the point of my uploading, in the previous posting, a screenshot of an actual spreadsheet that I actually use.

I start with the yearly revenue, or one million dollars.

Then, I break it down into 10 cashflow templates (that is, easily replicable business centers -- preferrably Web-based). Each cashflow template is licensed to 5 business managers, who compete to become the best.

Each business manager has 5 product lines, with separate P&L tracking.

In total, there are 50 business managers.

I use Linkedin to find high-potential entrepreneurs who then work with me as Business Managers.

My point is that you first have to make it happen in a spreadsheet first, in order to see the numbers. Only afterwards can Linkedin be used to help realize the vision.

How I make a million dollars

Please write to omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com for explanations regarding this spreadsheet.

I'm printing MONEY!

Well, it's not actually REAL money (I hope the feds won't come after me).

But it is an official document I'm selling on Payloadz. It's called a Consulting Service Certificate, and it allows the buyer (or "holder") to have access to the contents of my brain.

If you sell such a document on Payloadz, then Linkedin will be EXTREMELY useful to you. Linkedin can generate tons of leads for your e-products.

If you are not in business (i.e. you don't have a service or product to sell on the Web), then Linkedin will not be that profitable for you. Sure, you can find job leads, but that's pretty much it. There are tons of other ways to find job leads.

The great thing about Linkedin is that you can read other people's profile, and customize your sales proposal to their situation, goals and priorities.

3 types of networking

The current issue of Harvard Business Review talks about 3 types of networking: operational, where you network with people in the same organization for work purposes; personal, where you network for personal and professional development; and strategic, where you network inside and outside the firm, in order to better understand and appreciate strategic issues, trends, environmental opportunities and threats, etc.

Compared to the other two, strategic networking seems to be the most valuable but also the most difficult. Indeed, it is reserved for leaders and executives. The professionals and managers who do engage in strategic networking are, of course, lavishly rewarded for their effort given the strategic value of such networking.

However, one should proceed with caution when it comes to strategic networking, because one would usually be networking with high-level people.

For instance, in strategic networking, there is always an element of power during social intercourse (or even in non-personal communications such as emails). Politics (or the perceived evolving power of players) plays an important role in strategic networking.

I've noticed, for example, that powerful people I meet (CEOs, millionaires, editors, etc.) are highly sensitive to cues that I emit in regards to such things as acknowledging their elevated status, confirming their eminence (for lack of a better word), etc.

In short, powerful people are quite sensitive. White-glove treatment is always de rigueur.

A book I highly recommend to learn the art of the courtier, so as to be more effective at strategic networking with people in high places, is The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Baltasar Gracian.

Using Linkedin for business purposes

The above map shows the vision I've had since the beginning, in co-founding Talentelle (www.talentelle.com) with my sister Zoonie.

Linkedin is about to play a major role in our search for Country Managers to rapidly deploy our e-learning infrastructure.

This strategic use of Linkedin for business purposes is often missed by employees, who merely see Linkedin as a way to have access to a greater pool of job opportunities.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, if being an employee is what you are aiming for.

However, nobody ever got rich by working for someone else.

This is why I began to write this blogzine: to introduce the idea that Linkedin can be used most strategically for liberating oneself economically and financially.

The very first step in building one's business network, is to look at oneself and ask: "What is it that is so special about me that other people, especially the people I want to network with, will WANT to meet me and get to know me?"

Unfortunately, most of the Linkedin profiles I've read so far show a lack of professional purpose. Nobody writes down their career objective, or their mission, or anything that would show that the person seriously thought about the critical career question: "What do you want to contribute?"

This question is the one Peter Drucker asked of people who came to him for career advice. I find it to be a simple, yet poignant, frank and direct question.

You can have 500 connections on Linkedin, yet it won't help much if you don't know what it is that you are trying to do in your career.

Clarifying one's career objective is not that difficult. At first, you start with a basic sentence like: "I would like to become a marketing professional."

Then, you refine it further: "To become a marketing communications professional working in the IT industry, and use my creativity, leadership and project management skills to ensure the long-term success of my clients."

Once it is clear to you, and to everyone you know, what your career is all about, it then becomes easier to network since you are operating from a solid foundation of self-honesty and vocational clarity.

From then on, it is also easier to develop business contacts if you are running a business on the side, or have plans to launch a business in the future.

Google Groups allows you to share your expertise

Above is a diagram I created to explain to Talentelle members (www.talentelle.com) the value of joining a Google Group created by Talentelle.

Google Groups can be of great benefit to you, and help you to use Linkedin MORE productively.

I really recommend that people get a free account at Gmail and create their own Google Group. A Google Group (GG) is basically a mailing list service, allowing you, the list owner, to email to ALL members of the group. You can invite them by email so that they join your group.

You can decide WHO has permission to post messages to this mailing list.

GG is a great complement to Linkedin, because although Linkedin is great at determining who's who, it doesn't (yet) enable you to know WHO KNOWS WHAT.

Once you create your GG, you can then invite all your Linkedin connections to join your "club" so they can share a bit about who they are, what they do, what their goals are, etc.

A GG is like a virtual party where you invite friends! As the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto have correctly envisioned, the markets of the future are based on conversations, not superficial marketplaces.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with traditional marketplaces. But when it comes to networking, and I assume most Linkedin users are interested in networking, one has to go deeper and get to know other people. The only way is to start a conversation.

With GG, you can not only talk to your connections (by posting a message, a question, an offer, etc.), but you can also enable your connections to talk to one another.

However, to avoid the risk of spamming, you can restrict posting priviledges to a few people only. For example, if you had 200 connections, but you intimately know only 40 of them, then you can give those 40 close collaborators the permission to post a message in your Google Group. Everybody else can receive the emails but will not be able to post.

In conclusion, I would say that with Google Groups, Google has become one of the most powerful career allies you will ever have -- the only question is, will you take advantage of it?

Oh, it's completely free, by the way! :-)

Purpose of this blogzine

The objective of this blogzine is to provide you with ideas, insights and resources that you can use to improve your career or business by leveraging LinkedIn (which already has 4.4 million users). Please note that this is not a technical user manual, but a strategic user manual. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com. Good luck in all your endeavours!

(Peter's bio HERE.)

Mistake #1 of most Linkedin users

From the profile of most Linkedin users, it seems that the most common mistake is failure to specialize.

The more specialized you are, the greater the likelihood that people will want to connect with you, and include you in their network of trusted contacts.

This is so because with virtual networking, it is rarely possible for people to meet you face to face. Hence, the only thing they have to rely on is the quality of your knowledge and expertise.

Second, by writing a profile that CLEARLY shows you specialize in something (an industry, a market, a type of served clients, etc.), you show quality of character. People who don't specialize lack focus and a clear purpose. In the long run, they fail to build sustainable value for themselves and as a result, their own market value goes down relative to other more aggressive professionals and careerists.

How to make money from Payloadz

0:06

Here's something you might not know about how to make money from Payloadz: Sell a PDF document cheaply while offering a free phone consulting session.

Indeed, it is difficult to sell a PDF document as a standalone product, unless you're a great writer and your content is original. Most likely, the case is neither. Therefore, people will not want to pay for information when SO MUCH information is available for free on the Internet.

What people will pay for is "information + instruction." The phone consulting session takes care of the instruction part, where you apply the information to the client's specific situation or just answer questions she may have.

This is great for you as a digital goods seller also because you get to connect to the client, and can therefore sell to him more stuff in the future.

The idea of selling information + instruction is not mine, I got it from Perry Barlow and Esther Dyson. They say that it is the application of knowledge and information that creates value, NOT information or knowledge per se.

I think they're totally right. Especially with Internet telephony (Skype, etc.), it becomes easier than ever to connect with anyone in any country, and offer them the opportunity to learn from you.

It is just a matter of time before Payloadz develops a telephony service, like eBay, where buyers can connect in real-time and voice-to-voice with sellers.

Path to financial freedom, part 2

In the previous posting, I included a map of basic issues to consider if one is to achieve financial freedom.

Linkedin is a nice tool, but ultimately, if it is not used to realize one's dream of financial independence, then it's not much use. It would just be used to get yet another job, but as we all know, a job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem: How to achieve financial independence.

If you have to wait till retirement to become financially independent, then I think you might be waiting your whole life for nothing. Getting a decent pension is not even guaranteed.

This is why I decided to talk about financial freedom and what a person can do to achieve it.

Notice that in the mind map, I used a lot of "You must." Of course, I don't mean to be dictatorial, I only wanted to stress my strong belief in what has to be done to control one's financial destiny.

In future editions of this mind map, I will provide more juicy details as to how you can begin the journey to financial freedom.

It's a long, arduous journey, but it can be a lot of fun if you master a few basic principles and habits.

Path to financial freedom

The Internet is not useful

... if you don't know what it is that you know which is valuable to another person.

You can have a gazillion connections on Linkedin, yet it's worth nothing if you don't know what valuable knowledge you have which can help another human being.

It's not the size of your network, it's the usefulness of your knowledge.

Linkedin users are predominantly male, and I think men tend to focus on numbers: "My network is bigger than yours, buddy!"

So many people invite me to connect with them, and mention the great number of connections they have. I care less about that than I do about whether they actually read my profile and took the time to mention, even briefly, how we can work together or collaborate in the future on projects based on our professional background, interests and values.

The secret of networking, which seems to have been lost in the technological wizardry of social networking software, is that you have to take the time to get to know another person -- individually.

It's the A.I.R.S. framework: effective networkers know that everybody wants to feel Appreciated, Important, Respected and Special.

Unfortunately, most invitations to connect do not meet the above standards. However, it is never too late to learn.

In short, the Internet (and Linkedin) is only useful if you know what knowledge you have which is valuable to another person. But you can only know that if you take the time to know the other person's situation, and can format or couch your knowledge in terms that the other person can understand and appreciate. Only then will he/she become a valuable long-term connection who can rely on you and vice versa.

What is financial freedom?

Would people invest in you?

6:00

Here's a scary question: if you had 10 minutes to present your "career" as an investment opportunity, would people invest in your career? How much would they invest? What return would they expect?

Treating your career like a corporation is not a new idea. Brian Tracy, the super-motivational speaker and author, has been encouraging people, for the last 15 years, to treat themselves as the "CEO of their own personal services corporation."

In my own life, I've always treated myself as a free agent, working on contract (by choice) for corporations in the 90s. I only worked as a "permanent employee" for a publicly traded corporation for 7 months, after which time I promptly quit.

Back to the scary question. If nobody would invest in your career, then that is not necessarily bad news. It just tells you that your career might not be going as well as you THINK it is. There's nothing like an objective opinion to help one get rid of self-delusions.

If people won't invest in your career, don't get mad at them. Ask them "why not?", then calmly listen to what they say. Here are some stuff they might tell you:

• "Well, you don't seem really passionate about it."
• "You don't take charge of your professional development."
• "Your salary hasn't been increasing over the years."
• "I'm afraid your job is a prime target for outsourcing to India."

Once again, don't get mad at them. The truth might hurt a little, but it will help you get back on track to have a great career.

Dangerous: the illusion of communication

3:00

Nothing is more dangerous than the illusion of communication.

In business, it is risky to think that you communicated a message when, in fact, the recipient either did not get the message or completely misunderstood your intention.

A lot of people update their profile on Linkedin and then email the update to hundreds of connections who don't really care to receive such an update.

It's not that people don't care about you, it's just that they're thinking, "What's in it for me?"

A better way is to email them something useful, like a document summarizing your professional expertise or executive knowhow, by using Dropload.com. Once the recipient downloads that document, you are immediately notified by email.

Only then do you KNOW, for sure, that the message went through and, more importantly, you know WHO really cares enough about you to download your document.

Free CRM

3:00

www.freecrm.com is great as a simple tool to manage your Linkedin contact information.

Sure, Salesforce.com is much more powerful, with real-time dashboard metrics and indicators and everything.

But it's quite complicated to use. Freecrm.com is a good place to start, and it can also be used as a PRM application (partner relationship management).

In fact, your Linkedin connections are more like partners than customers.

What's the difference? Partners exchange non-monetary value, whereas customers give up monetary value for a specific product or service that you provide.

Non-monetary value, which Alvin Toffler talks about extensively in his new book Revolutionary Wealth, can be information, goodwill, insight, ideas, opportunities, etc.

Linkedin without RSS is not powerful

In the job market, we are basically paid what we know. Peter Drucker has been saying this since the early 90s. Knowledge is everything.

Yet, Linkedin is not structured for knowledge-sharing. Don't get me wrong, I think the people at Linkedin are doing a great job and it's reallly a great innovation.

But it's up to Linkedin users to find ways to rapidly, instantly, massively share their knowledge with other connections.

The solution is simple: create a blog at Blogger, and use Feedblitz (free of charge) to enable visitors to become subscribers (like what I did at http://realtimesuccesssecrets.blogspot.com).

This powerful technology whereby a blogger can distribute, daily or hourly, his postings to the email boxes of people, is called RSS (real simple syndication).

In my opinion, it is one of the more significant inventions on the Web. In fact, thanks to RSS, the Internet is becoming less characterized by "websites" and begins to resemble a galaxy of "mailsites."

A website is not necessarily visited often. Why should visitors come back, since the content doesn't change?

A mailsite, on the other hand, changes often. Also, you can subscribe and unsubscribe from mailsites by simply clicking a button.

Blogging 101

I created a Blogging 101 workshop for a few clients because I realized there was a need among free agents and careerists for leveraging the Internet to promote their professional services.

However, since millions of people need Blogging 101 and I haven't yet found a way to replicate wonderful me, I created this blog where I share as much of what I know as possible: http://blogyourwaytofortune.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Take 45 seconds to get to know the other person (please)

MICHAEL CORLEONE

No Tom, just listen. All my people are businessmen; their loyalty is based on that. One thing I learned from my father is to try to think as the people around you think... and on that basis, anything is possible.

- The Godfather, part II

---

A lot of Linkedin users have been emailing invitations to strangers and asking them to join their network. The typical invitation letter is blatantly generic and shows no evidence that the person took the time (it just takes 45 seconds) to read the other person's Linkedin profile.

This is a big mistake.

As some of these aggressive networkers build up their network (many have thousands of connections), Linkedin meanwhile decided that "size matters not."

So instead of indicating the precise number of connections, they only put "500+" connections.

You can have 10,000 connections or 501, it's basically the same now.

What does all this have to do with the Godfather?

Michael Corleone learned that you can only trust blood. Outside of the family, you have to trust people's business sense.

Yet most Linkedin users don't seem to have business sense. Business sense means you have to know what's in it for the other person.

It's ultimately about trust, and trust can only be built one step at a time. First, you offer something valuable or at least, something that shows you are making a small investment toward building a relationship.

If a person can't even spend 45 seconds to read the other person's Linkedin profile, then the journey toward mutual trust is already aborted.

Yahoo! Answers is great for establishing professional credibility

http://answers.yahoo.com

This is a new service, free for charge, by Yahoo!

I highly recommend it to professionals, consultants, entrepreneurs, etc. who have expertise and want to share their expertise with others (including clients, partners, collaborators, suppliers, etc.).

In fact, I think that eventually every professional worth his/her salt, and every company that is serious about serving customers, will have a free Q & A section on their site where they answer customers and prospects' questions.

Progressive.com is a good example of a company that truly understands "customer service." They help people who have not even become customers! (By showing competitive rates and offers, which help people save time).

The Support Economy

Shoshana Zuboff wrote an amazing book called The Support Economy (www.thesupporteconomy.com).

It contains principles and insights that could give LinkedIn users a secret edge in maximizing the value they get from LinkedIn or other sociotechnical networking service.

For example, she says transaction-based capitalism is on its way out, and that relationship-based capitalism is the next episode.

She doesn't mean relationship in the sense of "customer relationship management," but in the sense of every consumer becoming the center of a "federated support network" of companies that collaborate in order to provide "deep support" to that customer.

This book is definitely a must-read for anyone who is serious about networking in the new economy/society, and how to profit from the current transformation of capitalism into a more compassionate, humane and people-centered version.

Something is going on!

Tom Friedman wrote the best-seller The World is Flat, in which he says that every worker in North America is now competing against the smart and hungry workers of India and China (and there are roughly 3 billion of them).

His message is so powerful that even the Bush administration is listening to him.

But there's something else going on, which I can't yet put my finger on. It's about the Web 2.0, which enables people to interact DIRECTLY with millions of other people on the other side of the planet and to collaborate in open-source projects.

Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/) is one such example.

Then, there's PayPal, which enables anyone to pay anyone else who has a PayPal account (which is free to create).There's also this RSS thing, which enables a person to subscribe to a blog (like this one) and receive daily emails containing recently uploaded postings.

When I mix all the above trends together, I can't help but conclude that:

1. Knowledge is power
2. Power is money
3. Therefore, in the new economy, smart people will be very rich

The key is to build, RIGHT NOW, the social network through which one can circulate (usually digital) knowledge products.

Yet most people still have the employee mentality. They still think that having a job is security enough. (BCE just laid off 4,000 workers this week, by the way).

I think it is a severe mistake, professionally and economically, not to network seriously.

More later...

Free services offer

I'm offering my professional services as a copywriter free of charge to any LinkedIn user who would like to receive a professional audit of his / her LinkedIn profile.

To benefit from this service free of charge (value of $200), please contact me BEFORE February 3, 2006 at omnidigitalbrain@yahoo.com.

My LinkedIn profile HERE.

LinkedIn for shy people

Networking doesn't come naturally. After all, as kids, we were constantly reminded by Mom and Dad never to speak to strangers.

Yet, when you think about it, all the friends you now have, were once strangers. How did that happen? Well, most likely, you learned more and more about them, and vice versa.

LinkedIn allows people to do just that. By reading someone's profile, you can get to know the essence of the other person. Then, you can decide to connect or not with that person (by sending him / her a properly written email clearly describing areas or topics of mutual interest).

LinkedIn is especially good for people who might be shy about talking to strangers, yet want to network for professional or business reasons.

Master knowledge to network more effectively

Dave Pollard did a great job of capturing the 12 important knowledge activities in the diagram above (full article HERE).

I would say there are 3 major knowledge-related activities: Learn, Master & Share.

LinkedIn is a networking tool, so obviously, it's more about sharing information and knowledge. ---> Blue boxes.

However, it seems difficult (but still doable, for those who are determined) to use LinkedIn effectively and profitably, unless one has expended a fair amount of effort in processing and mastering a certain area of knowledge. ---> Black boxes.

After all, if a person has not mastered a certain area of knowledge, then how useful can such a person be to others? Of course, I'm strictly referring to "intellectual usefulness," since every person can be useful and appreciated for his /her friendship, support, concern and care.

I think the greatest challenge for LinkedIn users will be to think about and determine, after careful and sober analysis, what their most valuable knowledge and experience happen to be. Then, they should clearly mention them on their LinkedIn profile so others can know what it is that they can learn if they connect with the person.

Favorville

Favorville (www.favorville.com) is a site worth visiting. It's where people offer to help, or ask for help.

It's very specific, that's why it seems to work.

It's quite different from LinkedIn in that it's not about who you are, your credentials, how many endorsements or connections you have. It's simply about what you can do to help another person who is humble enough (therefore quite smart) to ask for help.

Linkedin helps people usually about big things, like getting a job or employees or developing business. Favorville helps people about little things -- favors.

Both complement one another quite nicely.

Can't rely on family and friends

It may sound counterintuitive, but in a very important sense, one can seldom rely on friends and family today for career or business purposes.

That's because career management or business development are so technical and require specialized knowledge. For example, would you rely on a friend or relative if you had a tooth ache? More likely, you would go to a professionally trained dentist.

Since there so many challenges in today's competitive economy, it seems strategic, therefore, to build a network of experts, guides, teachers and trainers to help one achieve professional or business goals.

(Of course, one should still rely on, and show appreciation for, close friends and family in the case of sudden catastrophes or moments of deep emotional distress).

Is society cheating you?

The Economics of Innocent Fraud, by John K. Galbraith, is a good book I highly recommend, especially to parents who want to teach their kids about how society REALLY works.

One of the main lessons of the book is that mass institutions will do anything to manage public response to their advantage. Call it mass advertising, political propaganda, PR spin, educational system, etc. -- the result is the same: the citizen's mind is seized, controlled and made to conform to societal standards.

Erich Fromm, in 1976, said the same thing: that the socioeconomic structure of society shapes people's thinking and social character so that they WANT to do what they HAVE to do.

Billionaire Charlie Munger also says the same thing: that there are so many errors of judgment out there, and most of them are reinforced by societal institutions.

I believe that only by networking with one another can we truly inform one another of what is true and what is false. Only then can we empower ourselves, and take charge of our lives.

Honesty is (once again) the best policy

It seems a person can benefit the most from his/her Linkedin connections by simply telling them what he/she needs, and what he/she can offer.

For example, you might want to list the kinds of information you are looking for, and might want to list the kinds of information you currently have (bookmarks, white papers, articles, etc.) so that your connections can more easily "trade" with you.

You might also want to state your career goal, and gently/politely ask people to forward information to you that might help you get closer to that career goal.

Last but not least, you can provide examples of how you were able to help people in the past, so that your connections know what you are able and willing to do for them.

$ H3 turns Linkedin into money-machine

Websites such as H3 (www.h3.com) and Jobkabob (www.jobkabob.com) are beginning to reveal the money-making capabilities of social networking software like Linkedin and Hi5.

Indeed, with H3, you actually get paid a decent "commission" every time you help to put a qualified professional into a vacant job. H3's white paper on Talent Scouts is definitely worth reading, not just literally but also between the lines, where you can almost feel that something new and big is happening; that society is becoming a vast network, and those who know how to play the networking game will win big time -- socially, economically and politically.

$ No security in obscurity

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property." - Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson says sharing ideas and knowledge doesn't impoverish the giver, yet I submit it even ENRICHES the giver in that he can see the market value for his ideas. Indeed, if people express appreciation for his ideas (and the quality of the thinking behind them), then they might hire him for contracts.

This is one of the great opportunities at Linkedin: you can share your valuable knowledge and ideas with all your connections. Only then will they see your professional worth, and only then will they think of you if a contract or job opportunity arises.

Yet this requires that one carefully write one's Linkedin profile to reveal one's best ideas, insights and innovations.

Unfortunately, most of the Linkedin profiles I've seen are carelessly written, revealing lack of professional purpose and career focus. This being said, I realize it is difficult to establish a career goal, so it is quite understandable that most people do not have one. But at the very least, since Linkedin is all about networking (i.e. sharing valuable information), one should make some effort in listing one's valuable information somewhere in one's Linkedin profile in order to benefit others and, of course, oneself.

In the end, Jefferson's brilliantly penned quote is more relevant than ever in today's competitive economy, where "there is no security in obscurity." In other words, if other people don't know you through the ideas and information that you circulate, then they cannot buy from you nor offer you jobs or contracts.

Caring / Competency / Competition

The orange circle represents the circle of friends that we trust. Specifically, we trust that our friends will never HARM us. Whether they can help us professionally or in business is a different matter. The focus is on emotional information-sharing. ("How's Teresa? How are the kids? Did you recover from that ski accident?")

The green circle represents the professional or business contacts, with whom we work or share knowledge in order to mutually increase our respective competencies or market value. The focus is on intellectual information-sharing. ("Did you hear about the Ajax trend? What do you think of RSS and Web 2.0?")

The red circle represents the competitive arena in which we compete.

As you can see, because the red circle is growing rapidly (due to competition from other industries, from automation, from developing countries, etc.), there is a need to grow the green circle by multiply connections through which we can actually learn professionally useful skills and competencies.

How to keep in touch with your connections

Okay, you worked hard at it and now you have 100+ connections on Linkedin.

What should you do next?

How about creating a blog where you share your best professional and/or business knowledge? With RSS, you can even allow your Linkedin connections to subscribe, so that they receive your new postings as soon as they are posted!

It's a marvelous way to keep in touch, while providing useful information to your entire network of contacts.

We 2.0 - beyond Web 2.0

LinkedIn is one of those tools that could be quite useful in creating what I call "We 2.0": the New People, globally connected via Cyberland.

Yup, all Linkedin users are "village people."

We 2.0 is a more powerful concept than the Web 2.0 we hear so much about in cyberpress.

For one thing, it focuses on people, not on technology. It doesn't even focus on "business" in the traditional sense of the word.

Yet am I just playing with words? Isn't the Web (whether 1.0 or 2.0) just a piece of technology or a technology platform?

Well, words are important. For example, if you ask people if they're for or against the war in Iraq, many will say they are against.

But if you ask them if they are FOR or AGAINST the "struggle for democracy in Iraq," then you might find more people to support what the Americans are doing (or trying to do) in that region.

Similarly, "We 2.0" focuses people's attention on the ultimate goal: a united mankind, where everybody freely collaborates and shares what they know, as well as the tools they've built (especially in the case of open-source developer communities).

Linkedin allows people to make the first step toward reaching the ideal of a united mankind, by enabling them to network with others and stay in touch with them.

Important: your Profile

It's so important to create an information-rich profile that I'll borrow an excellent piece of advice from a fellow blogger:

Create a user-friendly profile. Your LinkedIn profile is your virtual business card. Make sure that it represents you the way you want to be viewed by strangers - make that ‘people you haven’t been introduced to, yet.’ A sketchy LinkedIn profile signals that your busy day doesn’t allow you to fill in trivial details like what you’re doing now, what you’ve done in the past, or any other useful information. Such an incomplete profile won’t serve you as you network on LinkedIn, but it’s impolite as well: its message is “I’m going to use this database to find people, but I won’t bother to include enough information about myself to indicate how I might assist anyone else.” Take a few moments to fill in the gaps.

Details HERE.

Numsum is amazing

www.numsum.com is an amazing free Web application enabling you to create, share or copy spreadsheets.

It signals an age where everybody's work, if properly formatted and shared online, can be partly reused by a quasi-infinite number of people!

My secret stash

Click here to see my secret stash of (little-known, I think) Web resources.

Separate your brain from your body

I'm not kidding.

If you can separate your brain from your body, I guarantee you will make 20 times more money than you currently are.

I don't mean your physical brain, but the cognitive processes that you reflexively engage in when you solve problems or design solutions.

Call it "artificial professional intelligence." (API)

More on this later.

What you know vs Who you know

The majority of people believe that "who you know" is more important than "what you know."

This is not accurate.

I believe that "who you know" is important especially at the beginning of one's career, but at one point, "what you know" becomes more important.

In other words, there comes a time when you have enough achievements under your belt to attract the attention of other people. That's the point where you can slow down your networking efforts, and just let people seek you out (assuming you've become really good at what you do).

The true opportunity that LinkedIn presents

LinkedIn is supposed to be a tool for individual empowerment, enabling people to network sincerely in order to help one another.

Unfortunately, so many people use it purely for marketing purposes, in the same way that a company would use a website to promote itself.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course. However, I believe the true opportunity lies in establishing our authentic identity and communicating who we truly are.

Ironically, when you communicate who you truly are and what you really do best, you stand out. You convince. You sell.

It's what I call the Unique Professional Value, or UPV. Your UPV is what you offer to employers and clients. It is the MAIN REASON why they should hire you.

A burden or newfound power?

The new Godfather, Michael Corleone, looks as though he felt the enormous burden that fate had just put on his shoulders. At the same time, he has the look of a man who feels confident and quite capable of handling whatever comes his way.

To manage oneself and one's career may seem like as if a huge burden were suddenly placed on one's shoulders. But self-management is not an option. It is the only way to survive in the new economy, as Peter Drucker has repeatedly said.

The era of cushy permanent jobs is gone forever. Employers today not only do not offer lifetime employment, they actually expect workers to demonstrate lifetime employability ("move up or move out!").

This may seem callous on employers' part, but in fact, they really have no choice given the intensification of competition from countries such as India and China.

Every person's career will have to become a business, and since business is war, the best way to prepare for the career battles ahead is to build, slowly but surely, one's "private army" of social and business connections.

Every connection is a chess piece

A career is like a game of chess. With one big exception: you can make as many moves as you wish!

If your closest career competitor is making ONE career move per week, and you make 50 moves a week, then you are winning the game.

A "move" can be

1. inviting someone to your LinkedIn network
2. improving your LinkedIn profile (content, style, etc.)
3. posting a useful entry on your career blog
4. distributing your business cards
5. creating your Odeo account, so as to record your knowledge (in segments of 3 minutes each) and invite friends/allies to listen to your podcasts. Note: use this super-easy-to-use podcasting service to share your valuable professional knowledge, NOT your life's story -- leave that to your biographer! :-)

Most importantly, every connection you have is a chess piece, and the more you communicate with your connections and find out exactly where they are on the "chessboard", the more you can use them AND help them.

199. Should you hide your connections?

I noticed that some of my connections have hidden their connections. In other words, you can't see the identity of their connections.

Why?

It seems strange, since the very purpose of LinkedIn is to enable people to link in to people they might not have known before.

Of course, there are several good reasons for hiding your connections: you might have extremely political connections, or even diplomatic connections, with whom you can build highly lucrative brokering businesses overseas.

I guess some people have calculated that hiding their connections will yield greater benefits to themselves than revealing their connections.

Perhaps a good compromise is to hide your connections, while continually reviewing your social network and informing the right people of opportunities to connect to one another. At the same time, this seems to be very time-consuming!

Why not let your connections browse through your connections, and find opportunities themselves?

In my opinion, people should show their connections. LinkedIn is all about transparency, helping other people, opening up new horizons and creating new opportunities.

Are your friends helping you?

Friendship is a very subjective concept. Some people rely on friends for emotional support, others rely on friends for their connections. But no matter how you define friendship, the "trust" component is always there.

Yet even "trust" is a broad concept. If you trust a friend, does it means that:

• he/she will never hurt you (or make you feel bad)
• OR he/she will always help you

Sometimes, saying the truth can hurt your friend, yet he/she might desperately need to hear the objective truth in order to know reality and plan effectively for the future.

For example, if you've invited friends to your network, yet you notice that they don't make any effort to invite THEIR friends and co-workers, then how do you tell them the truth? How do you tell them that you've opened up your social network to help them, yet they don't reciprocate?

I think the best (and most compassionate) policy is just to lead by example, and to keep inviting people while also mentioning opportunities to your friends. Eventually, they will see the value of social networking and begin to build their network.

The World is Flat

Thomas Friedman's best-seller, The World is Flat, doesn't mention LinkedIn, yet I think it is social networking software like LinkedIn that will ultimately make the world "flatter."

(Friedman says "flat world" to refer to the fact that any worker from any country can now complete, via Internet and Web-based technologies, with any other worker anywhere on the planet).

It means, concretely, that if you're the best at what you do, you can use LinkedIn to reach ANY employer and get any job (provided you are the best person for the job).

LinkedIn as ideal entrepreneurial platform?

Assuming that people with complementary skills can find each other on LinkedIn and team up to create marketable value that they deliver to worldwide markets, and get paid via PayPal, then perhaps LinkedIn is not so much for finding a job as it is for detecting and profitably developing lucrative entrepreneurial opportunities.

194. Career as a business

If a career is like a business, in the sense that it has:

• a client (the employer)
• a product (whatever you send to you boss regularly, like a report)
• and a payment scheme (the holy paycheck)

then I submit that the more you learn about business, the better equipped you are to manage your career for maximum satisfaction and profitability.

LinkedIn is a highway system

Somebody today asked me a lot of questions about LinkedIn, and at one point, I mentioned that there are only TWO important things to consider to make the best use of LinkedIn:

1. Your unique value proposition (UPV)
2. Your strategy for promoting and delivering it via your LinkedIn connections

(CEOs will instantly notice the similarity to the master business equation: return = profit margin X velocity).

The UPV is basically a crystal-clear statement of WHY a company should hire you. In other words, what is the busines justification for hiring you? How will you impact the bottom line?

Your promotion/delivery strategy basically has to do with how you intend to multiply options that will enable you to APPLY your unique value and skill set to benefit clients and employers.

For example, that strategy might involve determining the 20% of the people you know who will create 80% of the career results you want.

In the end, LinkedIn is like a highway system: you can't use it directly, you have to create "career vehicles" in order to ride on that highway and get to where you want to be.

Who's the best person to connect to?

I'm venturing an educated guess that the best (most useful or valuable) person to connect to is someone:

• that you trust, and who trusts you
• who is very well networked

The best-seller The Tipping Point actually talks about such a person: the Connector. This is the person who seems to be connected to everybody in town.

(The other two important types of people mentioned by Gladwell in his book, is the Salesperson (who can promote effectively a person or a cause) and the Maven (who has lots of detailed information about many topics).

191. LinkedIn as your supportive career IT infrastructure

The "supportive IT strategy" that Don Tapscott talks about (see posting below) can actually be provided by LinkedIn, for managing one's career.

Indeed, it seems that just as corporations have to be honest and truthful about information, people also have to be truthful about their careers.

It's pretty hard to lie on LinkedIn: you can't make up the number of connections you have, or force people to write shining endorsements of your personality and work ethic!

Note: see www.ageoftransparency.com for more info on Tapscott's work.

190. Careers, like corporations, work best when transparent

Why do some people show their email address beside their name?

You're only supposed to see the email address of your first-degree connections. Yet there are people who may be your second- or third-degree connections who actually show their email address.

Why?

It's probable that these people make a living by relying on connections (headhunters, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, etc.).

Should you also display your email beside your name, so that your second- or third-degree connections can contact you directly?

I think so. It's not so much that doing so will help you NOW, but that there are so many opportunities to sell products and services to your connections in the near future.

More about that later.

LinkedIn as World Wide We application!

It means that we can use LinkedIn beyond geographical and national boundaries to work together to achieve our individual goals.

The "WEB", minus the "B" (which stands for "business" or "corporation"), becomes the "WE."

What if the Internet was invented to truly empower people, and not companies?

What if Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff (www.thesupporteconomy.com) was right, that we are indeed shifting from an enterprise-centric economy to a people-centric economy?

We the Connected People

I feel LinkedIn is almost a democratic innovation, because it links people and, as a result, gives them information, opportunity and power.

A revised version of the Constitution might read like this: "We the Connected People..."

Indeed, the more we use LinkedIn, the more we realize that the adage "information is power" should perhaps be updated to "people is power."

People is power, because only people can make decisions. Only people can influence decisions. And only people can recommend other people.

184. Network-Augmented Professionalism (NAP)

This concept refers to the fact that if you build a network, then this network of people can be leveraged profitably to promote your professional services.

This will dramatically reduce your marketing costs.

For example, let's say that I have a good dentist, and that he asked me to refer clients to him if I am satisfied with his service.

I could then just gently mention his clinic to the 28 LinkedIn connections I have, and ask them to forward (as they wish) to their 4300 connections.

In addition to promoting my good dentist, I could also promote myself, as a copywriter.

This would be a "push" promotional approach, as opposed to the "pull" approach whereby you ask a common connection to introduce you to a targeted person.

The key behind NAP is that you REALLY have to be an outstanding professional. Most people are usually happy to promote or recommend a professional who has worked hard to achieve a certain superior level of expertise and capability.

What are you building in your career?

In Post 162, I wrote about the "scariest career question of all."

What are you building in your career?

It's a scary question because most people simply don't have an answer, or a clear answer, to that question.

Most of us just do what our job description says we should do, and we pick up the paycheck. No questions asked.

Very few people actually think about what they are trying to build in their career. Here are some of the things people are trying to build:

• expertise (e.g. a lawyer will try to specialize in a field, like intellectual property)
• experience (e.g. a surgeon will try various patient cases in order to broaden his/her experience)
• reputation (e.g. a consultant will give presentations and seminars to build his reputation)
• credibility and credentials (e.g. a project manager will progressively seek bigger and bigger projects)

In general, it is fair to say that if you produce an important document every now and then, then you can say that you are building a career. For example, if you produce:

• marketing plans
• business plans
• procedures
• methodologies
• quality assurance systems
• new product process documentation
• workflow systems
• databases (Oracle, Access, etc.)
• speeches
• brochures
• websites

Obviously, all these documents should be posted on your career blog, the URL of which should appear on your LinkedIn profile.

Career Power

In his book PowerShift, Alvin Toffler talks about three sources of power:

• force (military, guns, etc.)
• money (GDP, cash, etc.)
• knowledge

He then repeatedly writes that knowledge is the most versatile form of power, since it can often replace the other two. Think of how the CIA, for example, uses information and intelligence to preempt a competitor in political or economic competitions between the U.S. and other nations.

Through LinkedIn and other such software, ordinary people like you and me are about to taste the real power of knowledge.

Indeed, as citizens, we were fairly uninformed and, therefore, did not have power before the arrival of LinkedIn. (Some people may say that they keep informed through TV news or CNN. Oh, please.)

Now, especially for those who use LinkedIn in a premeditated manner and with strategic goals in mind, we can gain power by organizing our network of contacts so that they brief us on matters that matter to us. (Of course, we have to first inform them about what really matters to us and our career/business).

In many ways, this is not different from the news clipping service that most executives subscribe to, at a cost of $10,000 per year. They tell the clipping agency what they want to track, and the agency sends them relevant news articles culled from hundreds of publications.

180. Art of Diplomacy

Most people (including me) have not been trained in the art of diplomacy. This being said, a good book to read is probably The Art of Worldly Wisdom, by Baltasar Gracian. I just love that book. The author writes in such mysterious prose that you never know exactly what he means, but you get the message nevertheless. And every time you read it, it's a different message! It's fantastically weird...

To use LinkedIn well requires diplomatic skills, such as how to initiate and sustain goodwill and friendly relations. The word "diplomatic" here is not too strong, because it is no longer about merely managing one's "social" relations. Diplomatic relations are different from social relations, in that there are political aspects involved, and any LinkedIn power user immediately understands the political nature of all social and professional relations.

Yet diplomatic relations share with social relations certain common aspects, such as being considerate about others and trying to help whenever possible.

It is important to keep in mind that diplomacy is of utmost importance, more important than the mere "information management" aspects of LinkedIn (e.g. number of connections, endorsements, etc.).

Indeed, since LinkedIn is an information technology, there is the risk that users will jump on the bandwagon and start using it like as if it were a huge database that must be populated as fast as possible with connections.

I admit that it does look impressive to see that a person has over 1,000 connections.

But that doesn't mean much if you're not getting exactly what you want out of LinkedIn.

Pursuing one's goals and achieving them requires strategic foresight and execution abilities.

LinkedIn is a fantastic tool, and I'm a big fan, but it's still just a tool to serve a goal.

LinkedIn is useless...

... if you don't know what you want to get, or what you want to give away.

Some people may want to get:

• a job
• a better job
• a very specific job in a specific industry
• a consulting contract with a specific company

Other people may want to give away:

• their experience and wisdom
• their professional expertise
• their political connections

Of course, the above does not preclude benefits that a person can get via serendipity.

But it's always better to have a clear goal, and LinkedIn doesn't seem different from any other tool: success depends on knowing what we want to achieve, and then using the tool specifically to achieve precisely that.

Networking etiquette

It seems that as more and more people use LinkedIn and other such software applications, there will be a need for learning about networking etiquette.

One of Stephen Covey's 7 habits seems appropriate here, namely: First, seek to understand the other person.

I interpret it, in the networking context, as meaning: First, seek to understand what the other person is trying to achieve. That is, find out about his/her career goal.

Covey also offered a piece of advice that sounds good to me: treat a relationship as an "emotional bank account": you have to make deposits before you can withdraw.

If everybody acted thus, I think LinkedIn could become a wonderful place to develop one's career and enrich one's professional life!

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus

Personally, I'm not quite sure which planet I'm on exactly!

But it does seem that the new economy will somehow favor women and the qualities we traditionally associate with femininity: building relationships, verbalizing one's feelings, making sure everyone on the team feels "okay" about a decision, nurturing, etc.

Actually, the more I think about the qualities required to succeed in the new economy, the more I feel like a male dinosaur about to collapse any time now.

Fortunately, since I'm smarter than most males (or at least, that's what I vigorously claim to be, and my mother will back me up on this one), I have partnered with my sister Zoonie and have launched a business while closely observing her use of language and how she kindly treats people.

Should LinkedIn have country managers?

Idea: If LinkedIn appointed a country manager for each country, that person could act as a champion of social networking and help his/her country to multiply socioprofessional connections that help everyone while boosting the country's GDP.

---

I think it would be great if LinkedIn somehow appointed or recruited people to be Country Managers, to serve as advocates who would encourage people from their own country to get "linked in."

Over the years, I've built a network of over 100 people in Canada yet not one of them invited me to LinkedIn. Why? They did not know LinkedIn existed.

It was an American friend of mine who invited me.

I really believe that with country managers (for Canada, France, European countries, or any English-speaking country), LinkedIn can get more members while members can benefit from getting connected to interesting people from other cultures.

LINKEDIN / MACROECONOMIC IMPACT

170. LinkedIn is like the fax system (so invite all the people you know!)

The more people join the network, the more useful it becomes to everyone else who is already using the network.

It's like the story of the fax machine. The first person who bought a fax machine, probably got a bad deal, because he couldn't send a fax nor receive one from anybody!

Yet, as more and more people bought fax machines, then fax communications became an easy, convenient and effective means of communicating with others.

Nothing succeeds like success

I think that adage is true. Companies tend to hire people who have already proven to be successful in the past.

The key, then, is to write a LinkedIn profile that highlights specifically how you succeeded in past positions. The way to do this is to provide numbers and facts, such as how much business you brought in or how you were able to reduce costs for your department, etc.

Just listing previous positions without clearly stating how you actually performed in those positions, might be less convincing and not do you justice.

LINKEDIN / PROFILE WRITING

166. Yearning precedes earning

Yearning precedes earning in the sense that the more you WANT something, the more likely you will GET it.

I think that one of the main messages of the (great) book Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, is that to succeed, you GOTTA WANNA.

You have to WANT to win. Desire must be there, before a man or woman can win, whatever his/her field of competition.

Anyone who joins LinkedIn, I believe, is basically saying: "Yes, I want to see what it can do for me. I want to use all the resources available to help me advance in my career and in life."

If a person can't even take 3 minutes to fill out a form and put his/her name out there, as a reliable and trustworthy professional, well, with all due respect, that seems to me like a severe lack of ambition!

However, I think the real problem is that people have not been educated about the value of networking.

The overwhelming majority of people are involved in a job where they mostly sit in an office, facing a computer. Their daily duties do not involve meeting people and "networking".

At the same time, networking is now so critical to strategic career development that you are sure to fall behind if you don't network and access opportunities available through connections.

165. 9/11 redefines manhood

So much has been written about 9/11 that I can hardly add anything new. But perhaps there is one aspect that deserves further elaboration: what is the net effect of the 9/11 attack on the Western male psyche?

Of course, I can't speak for other men, but personally, I feel that 9/11 redefines manhood.

What does it mean, after 9/11, to be a "man"? Obviously, most men want to do something to stop these atrocities (which have continued with the bombing in Madrid and, more recently, in London).

But what can civilians like us do to help the effort to achieve peace? We can't really go to war, we're not trained for that.

Personally, if you give me a Kalashnikov (the Russian rifle that Osama bin Laden is often seen holding) or any kind of firearm, there will be a high likelihood that I will shoot myself in the foot by accident!

But then, I thought about something. All the people (all 3.2 million of them) who are using LinkedIn, are actually doing something. They are doing the exact OPPOSITE of what terrorists are doing:

• They show themselves and what they stand for; they do not operate in the dark, under the cowardly veil of secrecy
• They invite friends and contacts to join their network and benefit from their social connections
• They state what they've been up to in the last few years, and show the work that they actually did to create value
• Most importantly, they write the truth about themselves

From all the above, we can see clearly that LinkedIn users, whether consciously or not, are basically telling the world that our capitalist system works. That the right way to live is to be honest and sincere, and to ask for help according to one's needs while providing help to others according to one's abilities.

Sure, some readers might say, "Well, Peter, you might be reading too much into what LinkedIn users are doing... Aren't they just doing it for their own sake, out of self-interest?"

I would agree with that, but I would also say that LinkedIn somehow encourages -- actually incentivizes -- honesty and good behavior.

If you weren't honest with people, you wouldn't have many connections. And if you weren't behaving properly and doing good work, you wouldn't have endorsements.

So basically, I'm saying that the more people who use LinkedIn, the more ordinary people like us can promote democracy and, hopefully, show to those who tend to resort to violent means that there IS a way to work together to achieve our goals.

That violence -- and certainly terrorism -- is not the answer. That collaboration and honesty are the answers to create a more peaceful world.

159. Socioprofessional infrastructure

LinkedIn is basically a socioprofessional infrastructure.

It is much more useful than the Internet, because any dumb computer can connect to the Net whereas you have to be a smart and well-connected (that is, trusted) professional to be able to join LinkedIn and get benefits from it.

Some users are obviously very smart; you can see it from their profile and their past work experiences.

Other users are very well connected; you can see it from the number of connections they have.

Success with LinkedIn requires that you be very smart AND very connected. One without the other just won't cut it.

For example, a smart person who's not well connected, is the case of the person who is "all dressed but has nowhere to go."

The user who's not smart, but is very well connected, is the case of the person who goes everywhere without being noticed by anyone important.

The first step, then, is to make sure you are visibly smart. That is, you must make sure other people can CLEARLY SEE how smart you are.

This requires savvy personal knowledge management, which we'll discuss in a future posting.

156. How much would you sell your career for?

In the course of your career, you've accumulated a lot of useful and valuable knowledge.

If you could package all that knowledge onto a CD disk, how much would you sell it for?

More to the point, how much would a junior person starting out in your field, be willing to pay you to get that CD disk?

This is a very tough, complicated yet critical question to answer, I believe.

Because unless you can put a price tag on your current knowledge, there is no way you can begin to effectively manage your career.

CAREER MANAGEMENT / KNOWLEDGE MARKETING

155. Isaac Asimov's secret

He actually wrote and published 300 books, fiction and non-fiction.

(Just thinking about this amount of books written by a single person, makes me feel like feinting!).

But Asimov himself revealed the secret in one of his books. He said that he wrote as simply as possible, the way he thought or talked.

If we apply his "secret" to networking on LinkedIn, what do we get?

Well, for one thing, we might begin to understand that LinkedIn may be for people who are natural writers and can easily create a personal profile that accurately describes who they are and what they do.

Also, LinkedIn may be for people who are natural networkers, so it serves basically as a contact management software.

However, is it possible that one day, LinkedIn and other such software will CHANGE the way we feel about writing or networking?

What would be required for such a wholesale sociological shift in perception and behavior?

Not much, I suspect. It's like the StarBucks story: it's just a matter of providing people with a quick payoff that almost everybody can easily afford ($3).

LINKEDIN / SOCIOLOGICAL IMPACT

153. My hero: Dr. Edward de Bono

It would be a crime for me to hide the fact that Dr. de Bono's books have had a HUGE influence on my thinking and, by extension, on my life.

I discovered his first book, The Mechanism of Mind, by pure accident, in the early 90's. I loved the book so much that I proceeded, soon thereafter, to read ALL of Dr. de Bono's books!

If you've been skipping all my previous postings, don't worry, I forgive you. But for your own sake, PLEASE believe me when I say that anyone who has not read a book by Dr. de Bono is really missing out on the enormous power that his/her brain can unleash, when used properly according to the principles and techniques described by Dr. de Bono.

CAREER MANAGEMENT / CREATIVITY

152. Opportunityisnowhere

There are two ways of reading the above sentence.

Similarly, there are basically two reactions that a person can have, regarding social networking software like LinkedIn: either you think it will really help your career, or you think it won't make much of a difference to your career or earnings.

Henry Ford once said: "Whether you think you can do it or not, you are 100% right."

My point, in case there's a soul out there who's actually reading this blog, is that people who BELIEVE, usually PERCEIVE sooner than other people, and are able to capitalize on opportunities that most other people will miss.

CAREER MANAGEMENT / ATTITUDE MANAGEMENT

151. Career = Ongoing business concern

"Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike." - Benjamin Graham

Those precise 9 words constitute the most important lesson that Benjamin Graham taught Warren Buffett, according to the latter.

Buffett reiterated the same idea when he said that one should not own a piece of paper (share); rather one should own the actual business.

What he meant was, you can only truly own what you truly understand.

If you consider your career as a business (which makes sense, since there are inputs, outputs, a customer, a set of processes, etc.), then perhaps you owe it to yourself to thoroughly understand everything that is going on in your career.

What is going on in your job, is only part of it.

I included a picture of the Balanced Scorecard, which is often used to help companies to better measure their performance.

It can apply also to managing one's career. More in the next posting.

150. Hypothetical (hopefully educational) LinkedIn value ladder

1. You register on LinkedIn following a friend's / colleague's invitation
2. You spend 20 minutes entering your previous jobs (only the titles, no job description)
3. You spend 60 minutes writing a concise summary of your professional status / goal / background
4. You spend 30 inviting close friends and trusted colleagues
5. You suddenly realize it might be a good idea to write a description of your responsibilities in previous jobs, so you spend 60 minutes on it
6. You spend 30 brainstorming about who else to invite to your LinkedIn network
7. You spend about 10 minutes to write a highly customized invitation letter to each new invitee, spelling out the benefits for them

The above is just a hypothetical sequence of activities a person might engage in, to use LinkedIn to his/her advantage. I call it a Value Ladder because the more you go down the list, the higher the likelihood that you will extract value from being "linked in."

The Island

The Island is an interesting movie (starrring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson).

One fascinating element is that the people controlling the living quarters of the "special population", are constantly reminding the inhabitants that their turn may come soon and they may get to "the island."

It keeps them hoping, and this hope presumably eliminates their frustration with an apparently meaningless existence.

Does this sound familiar? Is our society instilling hope in people (about Freedom55-like rewards) to keep them from revolting against the established order of things?

Career pooling

Career pooling is like car pooling: 3-4 people get together, and use the same vehicle to get to the target destination.

The "vehicle" in career pooling, however, is not a car but a career tool or work method or documented strategy etc. that helps everyone involved to get to their ideal career destination.

For example, if you're a graphic designer, you may want to join a "career pool" team composed of a copywriter, a marketing strategic, an illustrator and a photographer.

LinkedIn makes it easier to find the people who can contribute to your career advancement, while enabling you to contribute to their professional progress.

Career checkmate!

Seasoned chess players know that "checkmate" is not a move but a program. That is, the checkmate program begins the minute the game begins. Depending on how the game evolves, the odds of your checkmating your opponent vs his chechmating you, will shift back and forth.

Strategy, then, is simply a matter of carefully calculating those odds, and making the right moves at the right time.

Bruce Pandolfini wrote a marvelous book titled Every Move Must Have a Purpose, which applies the principles of successful chess playing to business and life. Sample advice from the master:

"Be aggressive, but don't take unnecessary chances. Answer all threats with a counterthreat. When exchanging, always get at least as much as you give up."

Competitiveness alert!

The current issue of Fortune magazine has a detailed article on whether America can compete against emerging economic powers like China and India.

It mentions that many American computer programmers paid an annual salary of $100,000 are being fired because their jobs can be done at one fifth the price by Indians or Chinese.

It also reports the McKinsey Global Institute as saying that 52% of engineering jobs in America are amenable to outsourcing, as are 9.6 million service jobs (in accounting, insurance, call centers, etc.).

Finally, it points to the fact that many offshored jobs are gaining in value, such as bond analyst jobs that could cause a company to make or lose millions of dollars, or next-generation chip design and development jobs at Texas Instruments being offshored to India.

Do you have a career strategy?

A magazine ad for IBM's on-demand innovation services shows a senior executive who says: "Good thinking? We don't even have time for bad thinking!"

This may be the predicament many career people find themselves in. They're so busy "doing" things that they never have time to think about what they're doing.

In fact, if you ask your friends, relatives and acquaintances if they currently have a career strategy, most will answer: "Not really."

A career strategy is a plan to get to the point where you earn more and more while working less and less. More coming soon.

What you know vs who you know

"It's not what you know, it's who you know."

"It's all about connections."

People often say and hear the above statements. I think it's more accurate to say that first, it's WHAT you know. It's only afterwards that WHO you know matters.

A professional may have 10-15 years of experience, yet if he's not sure about WHAT he knows and about how his knowledge confers an advantage to his career allies and acquaintances, then he can meet hundreds of people and it would not have a big impact on his career or life.

Most people he meets would quickly forget about him, because his knowledge is not unique enough or valuable enough or useful enough.

That's why the networking adage goes: "You can only rely on people who can rely on you."

In other words, networking only works if you have something useful to offer, and usually it's your expertise or professional knowledge. (This is why doctors are popular in social circles: everyone could use a doctor's advice!)

The challenge for many professionals then will be to position themselves as being VERY knowledgeable in a particular area, so that they become valuable to people in their LinkedIn network.

Who's working for you?

This question is important because if you have lots of people working for you, chances are, your career (or business) will progress faster.

But it's important, I think, to define "work" properly. A person works for you IF the output of his work serves as input for your own work. (It doesn't matter whether he/she is your subordinate or not).

If you're a consultant, for example, then many management authors actually work for you, since their output (books, magazine articles, analytical frameworks, etc.) serves as input for your own work. That is, you use their methodologies to make money with clients.

Invest in your talent or in others' talent

Every day, whether we know it or not, we invest in our talent or we invest in other people's talent. Since talent determines one's career, investing in a talent basically means investing in a career.

If I buy a music CD costing me $30, then I invested exactly $30 in the talent and career of the singer or the band (not to mention the marketing company or recording label, the retail store selling the CD, etc.).

If I watch CSI for an hour, then I invested an hour of my life in the talent and career of the actors, director, screenplay writers of CSI.

If I buy a movie ticket at $8.00, then I invested $8.00 in the talent and career of the director, actors, production designers, etc. involved in the production of the movie.

On the other hand, if I repress my consumerist urges and invest the above dollars on a notepad, a nice fountain pen, a book on copywriting, etc. then I've invested that much money into my own talent and career as a writer.

Or if, instead of watching TV for two hours, I spend it talking to a person in my network who is highly knowledgeable about my field, then I've gained valuable knowledge that will help me in my career.

The question is, Why aren't people thinking about it that way? If our time and our money are limited, why don't we invest it in our own talent or career?

Why? Why? Why?

I think it's because we have been conditioned to think in terms of "jobs." The news media always talks about job creation, the unemployment rate, etc. They never talk about investing in your talent. Heck, the news anchor doesn't even know you exist.

Thinking about jobs is so ingrained in our culture. For example, what is the first thing that a university graduate thinks about, upon graduating? Finding a job.

(If he doesn't, his parents will remind him soon enough).

He/she is not really thinking about finding his/her talent and developing it to commercial adequacy (that is, to a point where he can make money by using his talent).

(I began working full-time for a consulting firm one day after I graduated. I never had any time to think about my talent -- to be honest, I never even thought I had any talent!).

Yet thinking about jobs without thinking seriously about one's talent, may be very dangerous and risky in today's talent economy.

Indeed, companies exist to capture talented people and make them work for the capitalists who own the company.

Companies do not exist to give people jobs. Getting a job is only a natural consequence of having the talent that companies are looking for.

In other words, the strategic mindset should be to "look for one's talent" and not "look for a job out there."

Talent = cause. Job = effect.

Fortunately, with tools like LinkedIn, people can subtly display their talent and make themselves available to decision-makers and companies that are looking for talent. (Of course, this assumes that you have written your profile after much strategic premeditation).

This being said, it is obvious that some people use LinkedIn to find a job, while others use it more strategically to connect with people who will help them develop their talent.

We'll explore this further in an upcoming posting.

My careerist black book

I confess I've always been extremely competitive. I've always wanted to outsmart, outthink, outmaneuver everybody.

Once, in my childhood, someone told me, "Peter, you're very outspoken."

I immediately shot back, "What! By whom?!"

However, over the years, I've calmed down a bit. For example, today, I feel quite charitable, so let me share with you a book that will undoubtedly give my competitors the edge I formerly enjoyed.

(See above pictures)

It's not exactly what Lapham says, because he disguises the operating principles of ruthless careerism very cleverly, in the manner and tradition of a Baltasar Gracian. Rather, it's by studying and understanding the underlying assumptions and insights that you will best learn from him.

Good news and bad news

I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that with LinkedIn, you can check up on your competitors and see what they're plotting.

The bad news is, what you see on LinkedIn is just the tip of the iceberg.

You don't see people's secret tactics and devious machinations.

Example: there are guys on LinkedIn who have over 10,000 connections! What I'd like to know is, how the hell can you know so many people AND remember their names?!

I'm being facetious but I guess these people, although they appear to be happily promiscuous, probably know what they're doing. But we will never know what they're doing to be so connected. Perhaps they send a token gift to every person they meet.

Every networker or business person has a set of secret weapons that they use to secure people's goodwill and to distinctively promote themselves. (Yes, yes, I have my secret weapons too, but I'll only whisper it to you if you look really good in a mini-skirt. Sorry, it's my official policy since the age of 7).

At least, I'll give you a hint: read ANY book by Harvey Mackay (especially Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty).

Salma Hayek naked

I was talking to a gentleman who played a Russian scientist in the movie The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Afleck and Morgan Freeman, when he told me something shocking.

He showed me color pictures of a few BMWs and other sports cars, and said: "I find these more sexy than Salma Hayek naked."

Now I like the guy and I respect him, but between you and me, he's totally crazy! How can anything man-made be more sexy than Salma Hayek without her clothes on?!

I think that's the main problem in our society: we've become so enamored with technology that we forget what true beauty really is.

Speaking of Salma Hayek, I remember a quote she said: "I'm still waiting to meet a man who has more balls than I do!"

(I'm not kidding, she really said that.)

Style, beauty, pizzazz. What a chick!

This reminds me, check out this blog where I compile the best and not-so-good practices on LinkedIn: www.linkedin-benchmarks.blogspot.com

The real Da Vinci Code

There's a lot of talk about the Da Vinci Code, and I think the movie is coming out soon.

To tell you the truth, I think I might be among the very few lucky who knows the REAL Da Vinci Code: the code by which Leonardo Da Vinci lived by, his whole life.

* SECRET / CONFIDENTIAL / FOR YOUR EYES ONLY *

Somebody who belongs to the same secret society I belong to, once gave me a sheep-skin parchment on which, apparently, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote something.

At the time, I asked her why she gave me such an important document. As she stood up and walked away from my bed, she mysteriously said: "Because you amaze me."

In any case, in that parchment, Leonardo recounted the story of how somebody once asked him what his greatest achievement was. He thought about it for a while, then said:

"Leonardo Da Vinci."

And that, my friends, is the REAL story about Leonardo Da Vinci!

There's no mystery after all about Da Vinci's life, because that single reply he once uttered, says it all!

Leonard Da Vinci was a great man, perhaps the only true Renaissance Man of his time and of all time, simply because he considered HIMSELF to be his ultimate work of art.

Given his gentle nature and compassionate disposition, he did not say this in an arrogant way or to raise himself above other men.

He simply meant that to work on improving oneself, like as if one were mere clay in the hands of God, is probably the best way to spend one's life.

Indeed, during his entire life, he worked tirelessly to improve the way his brain worked, the way his senses captured physical reality, and the way to facilitate the blossoming of his genius in art, science and engineering.

Note: the reader has guessed by now, no doubt, that I inject autographical fiction into my writing for literary effect. My life is, alas, not that exciting!

It's not who you know, it's what you know

The adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is mostly false.

Let's look at the facts: who are the richest people?

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, J.K. Rowling. Did it matter WHO they knew? No.

It's WHAT they knew!

The fact is, the smarter you are, the more people will do anything to meet you and connect with you. If you have to network, then you have not yet reached a point in your career where you truly shine.

Does this mean networking is not necessary or that who you know doesn't matter? Of course not.

My point is only that most people just assume that WHO they know is more important than WHAT they know, when it's clear that we live in a "knowledge" economy, not a "connections" economy.

In fact, now that the Internet and social networking software is so ubiquitous, it is more important than ever to focus on developing one's brainpower. That, in my opinion, is the hard part. Networking is easy. (It's just a click away).

Analyzing the quality of your connections

This diagram shows the usual connections "normal" people have. Most people don't have executive or headhunter connections, or are not connected to HR directors.

Yet these are the people who have the power, influence and connections to help most with anyone's career.

This is a major challenge we will address in an upcoming posting.

Career intelligence

You gotta love the guy! He helps so many people.

I confess I'm a big fan of Dr. Phil. Before watching the show at 5 PM, I would just lie down on the couch and... "All right, Doc, give it to me straight!"

His slogan (above) could actually be good advice for anyone who's serious about competing, career-wise, in the new economy.

Notice the sequence: You can't get smart unless you first get real, that is, until you know the facts about yourself and the real needs and requirements of companies and/or clients.

But I wonder how many LinkedIn users are actually using it to gather career intelligence (intelligence is information that enables you to make a better decision; the information that you get from the TV news or newspaper is NOT intelligence since it does NOT enable you to make better decisions).

Peter Drucker actually wrote that we need to become more information literate. In other words, we need to know WHAT it is that we need to know. If we don't know what we're looking for, we will never find it.

It's like looking for a needle in a stack of... needles!

Now, if you really knew WHAT kind of career intelligence you absolutely need to have to make better career decisions, would you describe it on your LinkedIn profile so your connections can forward the intelligence to you if they come across it?

For example, in my case, as a KM consultant, I could put on my LinkedIn profile: "I would appreciate any information on what companies are currently doing in terms of managing their organizational knowledge. In exchange, I'm most willing to share everything I know about KM."

LinkedIn users currently do not, I believe, have this knowledge-sharing reflex. It may take a while, but I think it will make LinkedIn much more useful than if we only use it for discrete transactions like finding a job or candidate.

Can you give a workshop on your career or expertise?

Ideally, a person who has achieved a certain professional status should be able to give a seminar like this.

LinkedIn then would be extremely useful in inviting friends, and asking them to invite their friends (i.e. your second-degree connections).

That way, you don't have to spend anything on marketing your seminar.

If you count the rows and columns in the picture, it's about 10 X 15 = 150.

At $20 a pop, you should be able to make $3,000 in one afternoon.

Seminar topics could be:

1. Project management basics
2. Knowledge management for dummies
3. Marketing 101
4. Business 101
5. New product process development
6. Software engineering - Trends, Tools and Technologies

My point is this: it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, or how much you are able to charge for it. Some people may only be able to charge $5 per head, while others may charge $100.

Either way is fine, as long as you are able to use LinkedIn to get people to come to your workshop or seminar.

From personal experience, I can say that it is really fun and rewarding to share your knowledge with people, be respected by them, and get paid for it!

Idea brokerage services

Social / professional networking is just the tip of the iceberg.

The real potential, I believe, will be when people can sell or trade ideas, such as described in the ad above.

It will pay big time in the near future if you start to build your network now.

If you're a creative who can create and sell ideas, you will have a network of connections that can help you place your ideas in front of the right buyer.

If you're NOT a creative person, you can later use your network to reach and tap people who DO have creative ideas.

B2B or brain-to-brain connections

The above picture appears on Tom Peters' website (www.tompeters.com). I believe that is the future of socioprofessional networking software like LinkedIn, Ryze, etc.

That is, people will connect in order to tap into one another's cognitive resources. This is not a new idea, by the way.

Former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson said: "I use all the brains I have and all I can borrow."

Like all great leaders, he knew how to tap into the brainpower of collaborators and associates.

Right now, tapping into the brainpower of your LinkedIn connections is not possible, unless you sit down one-on-one and talk to them.

Even then, you might not know what it is that they know, so you wouldn't even ask them questions about it.

For example, if you don't know that I've read and have assimilated all the ideas that Dr. Edward de Bono wrote since 1970, then you normally would NOT ask me anything about creativity. Even my friends and family have never asked me anything about creativity techniques, even though I've been mastering a couple of them over the last 10 years.

Bottom line: LinkedIn currently enables people to make their social connections KNOWN to their first-degree connections.

I predict there will be software soon to enable people to make their valuable knowledge KNOWN to their first-degree (or even second-degree) connections.

HR directors: do you have a response?

Dear HR directors:

I was just wondering if you knew that LinkedIn exists, and that it currently has 3.2 million users. Plus, it has only received positive reviews from the trade and general media. It seems LinkedIn is here to stay.