By Michael Port

You want to think big. You want to think bigger about who you are and what you offer the world. You want to think big so that you can accomplish your big dreams. You want to, finally, feel the strength and confidence that comes with big thinking. Of course, you do. Who wouldn’t?

Resources to Help You Think Big

Struggles abound. Challenges are always around the corner. Fierce opposition will push your back up against the wall. That’s why we need each other to think big. We can’t do it alone. We will only think big if we come together as friends and allies to accomplish our big dreams. Let these resources be your guiding light.

• Thinking Big: We Cannot Wait For Other People to Tell Us That We’re Worthwhile
• Kickstart Your Think Big Revolution
• Think Big: Your Dreams Matter to the World
• How Do You Know When You’re Ready to Think Big?
• Think Big: Reject Doom and Gloom and the Double Dip Recession
• Thinking Big Requires a Personal Revolution
• Will You Join Me In A Pledge to Think Big?
• Those Who Think Big Are the Doer of Deeds
• Undercover Boss is Bad for Business and The Secret Millionaire is Bad for Society; They Stop You From Thinking Big
• The Big: You Have the Power to Change (Yourself & The World)
• Give Up, Give in, Get Going and Think Big (Before It’s Too Late)
• I Wasn’t Thinking Big When He Walked Through My Front Door Holding a Gun
• Many Business Problems are Personal Problems in Disguise
• Forget Self-Help. Will Rogers Had the Answers to Life’s Big Questions…
• Top Ten Reasons Thinking Big in Business is Better
• Get Comfortable with Discomfort to Think Big
• How to Play a Big Game
• The Case for Big Thinking
• Something a Little More Inspiring for Big Thinking
• You Big Thinking Beautiful Human You…
• Think Big: Read the Instructions
• Stuck in Overwhelm and How to Shift Out to Think Big

Think Big

keep coming back to my blog and you’ll be the first to get my posts on how to think bigger about who you are and what you offer the world.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

In order to get booked solid, you need to develop strong, confident leadership skills. You probably also want leadership strategies and tactics that are easy to implement. Confident leadership will definitely help you sell more sessions so thinking like a leader and being a leader is the key to your success.

Confident Leadership Skills Resources

Thinking big about who you are and what you offer the world, while running a small business, demands that you can handle a lot of responsibility. Only confident leadership skills give you the tools. I’ve written these posts to help you in your quest to be a servant leader.

• What’s Your Job?
• What Else Does It Take To Be A Great Leader?
• Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid Wisdom
• Confident Leadership: How to Hire to Produce Results
• Making History: The American Dream
• Shared Ambition (Do You Have It?)
• The Future Belongs to the Leaders
• Readers are Leaders
• Power of the Word
• Banking Institutions More Dangerous Than Armies
• How to be a Superhero
• The Best In The World, But Do You Believe It?
• Learning Small Business Success from People You Don’t Like
• There are 3 types of business owners. Which type are you?
• Michael Port speaks out about James Arthur Ray and the tragedy in Sedona
• Right, Left or Center? (No, this is not a political post)
• Entrepreneurship: Dyslexics Do it Better
• Business Partnerships: When 1+1=0

Leadership Skills

This list of leadership skills resources will help you improve your leadership language, use books to lead with knowledge, be the best in the world, discover what type of business owner you are, how to form and maintain great business relationships and how to be a great entrepreneur.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

One of the absolute best ways to get booked solid is to use public speaking for marketing and selling your services. However, public speaking is not easy. You’ve got to be a great speaker to get clients from public speaking.

Public Speaking Resources

Whether you’re just getting started or are an experienced public speaker, this list of public speaking resources and tips will help you give great presentations while creating excitement for your products and services.

• Public Speaking 101-103
• 12 Ways to Use Public Speaking to Get Booked Solid
• 6 Secrets to Conducting Successful Interviews
• Peter Guber’s Storytelling Secrets for Winning
• Keynote Clips of Michael Port
• Michael Port PBS Interview for One-On-One with Steve Adubato
• Don’t be a “Speaker” be an “Experience Maker”

Improve Your Public Speaking

Not only will this list of public speaking resources help you improve your presentations and public speaking, you’ll also learn about the most important success factor when speaking in front of an audience, Peter Guber’s storytelling secrets for winning, 12 ways to use public speaking to get booked solid, how to be an “experience maker” rather than just a speaker, and more.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Sometimes it feels like all you hear people talk about is marketing and more marketing. But, if increasing sales is want you want, then you probably want to do smarter marketing.

Don’t make the typical marketing mistakes that most people make. And, definitely don’t spend all of your time marketing. Instead, do great work with the people you’re meant to serve.

Smarter Marketing Resources

If you’re just getting started and your need more clients or you’ve been in business for years and you need to improve your sales to close more business, this list of smarter marketing resources will help you make the right marketing choices to produce the best marketing results.

• 6 Keys to Marketing Magic
• The Booked Solid Video Marketing Strategy
• How to Talk About What You Do (w/out using an Elevator Speech)
• David Meerman Scott on Social Media Marketing and Real Time Marketing
• Seth Godin on Book Publishing, Taking Initiative, The Tyranny of Being Picked and Much More
• The Simple Way to Network and Get Referrals
• Santa Reveals His Big Business Secrets
• Success with The Book Yourself Solid List of 20
• Newspapers Are a Joke But They Can Teach You Marketing
• Why Most Marketing Doesn’t Work and What to Do About It
• Overcome Insecurities To Develop Your Personal Brand
• I thought you might find this interesting. Love, Dad
• Small Business Marketing: Don’t be so different

Improve Your Marketing and Selling

This list of smarter marketing resources will help you improve your marketing and selling, do great networking, overcome insecurities, develop a personal brand, use video for smarter marketing, get more referrals, take advantage of the latest in social media marketing, and more.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Problem solving is your job. As a small business owner or professional service provider, each day you get up to face new problems. That’s OK, if you accept that problem solving is one of the top line items of the job description of a small business owner.

Of course, you don’t want to spend all your time solving programs. No, you want to book business and do great work. You want to work with ideal clients and get paid handsomely to boot.

Problem Solving Resources

This list of problem solving resources will ignite your passion for solving the problems you face and, as a result, help you accomplish your dreams.

• Don’t Give Up
• I’m Not Your Boyfriend (And How to Deal with Client Breakups)
• Moving On From Ideas That Aren’t Working
• Intimidated by Your Own Ideas
• The Only Person that Likes Change is a Baby with a Wet Diaper
• Finishing is More Important Than Starting
• How to Solve Business Problems
• How to Make a Book a Bestseller (through Change)
• What Are Your Odds for Success?
• One Page Ahead
• How to Take Criticism
• Pay For Results

How To Solve Your Problems

This list of problem solving resources will help you deal with criticism, increase your confidence, move on from ideas that aren’t working, embrace change, start what you finish and more.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

To be booked solid you need to get things done.

You probably need to get more done than you are at the moment — because, man, is there a lot to do. As a small business owner or professional service provider, you only have so many hours in a day. How can you get it all done? The old check list just isn’t cutting it anymore. You’re not sure what software programs to use. You don’t know how to hire others and get help.

Resources to Get More Done

This list of resources to get more done will fire you up. The articles will get you excited about all the things you need to do. They’ll ignite your passion — even for working on the things you hate doing!  Not only will these resources help you get more done,  they’ll also help you accomplish your dreams.

• Free Templates to Get Your Projects Done
• Men and Their Eggs (AKA: How to Be More Productive)
• The Right Process (And The Right People) Leads to the Right Results
• Get More Done with Strategic Alliances and Partnership Success
• The Little Known Secret to Creating Information Products
• Close Your Mouth (You’ll Get More Done)
• 10 Questions You Must Ask When Hiring Assistants and Outsourcing Projects
• How to Have Conversations that Make Things Happen
• 8 Things Everyone Should Know About Email
• 6 Small Business Systems That Will Save Your Life
• How to Get the Job Done and Be More Productive
• Innovation Starts with You
• Project Mastery
• Setting Up Equity Partnerships
• Multi-Task Your Way to Mediocrity
• Small Business Productivity Software That You Can’t Live Without
• Time is Money. Here’s How You Can Use Time to Get More Done

Productivity Resources

This list of productivity and systems resources will help you produce projects, be more productive, get more focused, and even be smarter about how to deal with email.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Of course, finishing projects that you start is the key to success. That’s obvious. But, I’m talking about the way one finishes a professional relationship. Most people start out great, with lots of energy, enthusiasm, drive, commitment and focus. They dig right in and make sure they’re doing their best.

That’s not always the case when leaving a job or discontinuing a professional relationship. You know the feeling. Once you’ve had it, you’ve had it. You’re gone. You’re ready for the next one. I’ve been there myself. And, as a business owner, I’ve had a few team members who gave notice, for one reason or another, and then proceeded to let slip their responsibilities and failed miserably at supporting the new hire in the transition. Even small lapses in your duties can have great, negative, impact, when closing down a professional relationship.

It’s said that people remember the most emotional or intense experience of a relationship and the final experience of a relationship. This is why finishing strong is, likely, more important than the way you start.

I’m reminded of the importance of finishing strong by the way my long-time assistant Samantha Macke is handling her transition to a new position that offers new opportunities. This morning she asked me if I had chosen the person to replace her yet. I said, “No, not yet but we’re getting close.” She responded with, “Let me know as soon as you choose someone. I want to have them ready to support you without you having to spend the hours and hours you had to spend with me.“

Thank you Sam. Thank you for finishing as strongly as you started. Thank you for caring about our work together. And, thank you for caring about the future of, not only my business, but our friendship as well.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Lately I’ve been very inspired by the work of Anne Holland’s Which Test Won, a site about A/B and multivariate testing, and have been compelled to increase and improve the testing of my website pages.

A/B split testing gives you an opportunity to test one version of web page against another version of a web page. “A” refers to the original or baseline version of your page and “B” refers to the alternative or challenger version.

A/B split tests can be conducted on individual page elements such as a call-to-action, an offer, or a headline. They can also be used to compare completely different versions of a web page. The simplest and most cost effective way to start testing your website pages, to increase opt-in conversions and sales, is to test individual or specific elements as I did in the following example.

How the Test Worked

I used Google Website Optimizer (free) to test two different versions of MichaelPort.com which is a one page “Personal Branding” site. Meaning, I created this page to demonstrate who I am, what I do, and what I’ve created. I’m not as concerned with opt-ins on this page, as I might be on another site, but I still want to optimize the page for the best conversion rate I can.

Generally, I think one should consider three questions for every web page on a site:

1. Who is coming to the page?
2. What do you want them to do on the page?
3. How are you going to get them to do it?

I am fully aware that the page in the test does not follow this convention. There are always exceptions. With that said, let’s get to the test.

MichaelPort.com Variation 1

MichaelPort.com Variation 2

Which Test Won?

If you guessed Variation 2, you’d be right. Variation 2 demonstrated a marked improvement over Variation 1. In fact, Variation 2 was proven to have a 97.4% chance of outperforming Variation 1 with an increase in email opt-ins by 76.5%. That’s right, Variation 2 earns me three times as many new subscribers. Over time, that’s a BIG improvement.

It seems that this result would be obvious, given that that Variation 2 puts the opt-in in the top right corner of the page. Your gut may be right, as it probably was with this experiment, but you don’t really know, for sure, until you prove it.

Next, I’ll test another element on the page… maybe a different headshot, and then after that the wording next to the sign up form, then the color of the “click here” button. I’ll make small improvements until I’ve maximized and optimized the potential of this page given my goals.

If you’ve run similar tests, tell me about them in the comments. If you haven’t yet run a split test, let me know what would be the first thing you’d like to test on your site.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Recently, I had the privilege of talking with Peter Guber, one of the most successful and influential Hollywood moguls in history, about his new book, Tell to Win. I recorded the conversation so you could eavesdrop. Essential takeaway: learn how to tell personal, emotionally connected purposeful stories to positively influence others.

When you listen to the recording and actually hear Peter telling me stories, you’ll see just how artful he is at storytelling and, I expect, you will discover how you too can tell to win. I know I did. You’ll also love is heavy Boston accent.

Note #1: Peter called me from a car so his audio quality is not great. Bear with it. It’ll be worth it. Especially the part where he shares his biggest storytelling flop.

Note #2: If you’re not familiar with Peter Guber, here is a little ditty about him: he personally produced or executive produced, Rain Man, Batman, The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, The Witches of Eastwick, Missing, Flashdance and hundreds of others. His films alone, have earned over three billion dollars worldwide and garnering more than 50 Academy Award nominations.

Permalink:

By Michael Port

Please read completely before responding. But, let me say, right off the bat, thank you in advance for considering this position.

I’m looking for an assistant to join my team – you can live anywhere but I may give preference to those on the east coast as I’m an early riser and by 9am Pacific much of my day is done.

This is a part time position that has the potential to develop into a full time position. We would likely start off with an hourly rate for the first 90 days and then re-evaluate at that point. Essentially the first 90 days would be a trial period for both of us. Hey, you never know, you may not like working with me. Hard to imagine, of course, but it has happened before.

Responsibilities

Initially, you will primarily be managing my schedule, appointments, meetings, and travel which means you are managing my life. You must have experience doing this kind of work. It is important and not easy so experience is a prerequisite. I need someone who knows how to execute the following activities not someone who expects me to teach them how. You will be:

• Communicating with my clients, business partners, network, and others on my team so your email etiquette must be outstanding and your written skills top notch. (You’ll even coordinate family plans with my mother – don’t worry, she’s the loveliest person in the world.)
• Organizing my appointments and events so you’ll have to get to know all the oddities of my scheduling preferences.
• Arranging my travel for speaking gigs and creating my itineraries so a knowledge of conference and meeting planner’s protocols is a must.
• Managing the marketing calendar so that we never overdo our communication with our subscribers but also never miss an opportunity.
• Planning the year’s event schedule so the ability to do long-term planning, management and coordination with all parties involved, should be easy for you.
• Documenting procedures and processes sound like a fun way to spend your day.
• Keeping on top of sending gifts and thank you notes gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Personality

• You are deeply passionate about making a powerfully positive difference in the world (because that feels good to you).
• You are hungry to learn the skills and strategies to create a business that makes great money and gives you freedom to travel and enjoy life.
• You are willing to challenge the status quo (that means you aren’t afraid to tell me what to do and when to do it) and do things differently than the norm (even if it means breaking the rules….gasp).
• You are completely open (and excited) to learn new skills, get into challenging conversations, take risks, be bold, and explore new territories.
• You can pull all the necessary and concrete details out of our fast moving, creative team and turn them into tangible steps and structure.

Additional Skills & Personality Traits

• Great technical skills.
• Great writing skills.
• Great conflict resolution skills.
• Great political savvy.
• Great energy and positivity.
• Great spelling (mine sucks)
• Most importantly, you have habits of commitment making and fulfilling.

And, Last But Not Least a Few “Not’s”

• You are not a nut job.
• You do not have lots of drama in your life. (Of course, we all face personal challenges from time-to-time, but you know how to handle it and it rarely effects your work.)
• You do not disappear without notice.

That should do it for now. Of course, there is always potential for advancement with me. If you are entrepreneurial, take initiative, can stand on your own two feet, opportunities abound.

To apply, please submit your resume to michael (at) michaelport.com. I won’t write back write away (I need an assistant to help me with that ) since I expect there will be many applicants, but I promise to review every application that comes in. I’m leaving what you put in your application to you. I’d like to see how you make a first impression. But, do include your requested hourly rate. Go for it!

AND A BIG THANK YOU!

Permalink: