10 Secrets to success in the "consultant" business.

AAAH! You’ve made the decision to leave the safety of a steady paycheck and venture into the world of consulting:

1. Treat It Like a Business – Repeat after me: consulting is not a hobby, nor is it a transition step as you look for a new job. It must be your focused, long-term decision. Trust me, if you want to be accepted as a consultant, it is imperative that you treat it as a business from the get-go. Immediately create the line of demarcation between your business life and personal life. Necessities include a separate checking account, business credit cards, and detailed bookkeeping.

2. Create A Network of Trusted Advisors – Building a strong business requires laying a solid foundation. Having a team of experts assisting you at the outset with legal requirements, possible liability issues, overdraft protection, financial guidance, and IT (an expert who makes “mouse calls”), will help you deal with real-world problems as they arise.

3. Charge Appropriately – Most newbie consultants underestimate the amount of time it will take to get the business, get paid for the business, and actually do the business. Do not simply take your former annual salary and divide by the number of hours worked in order to determine your hourly rate. You are selling value that is a culmination of your years of experience and you should be rewarded accordingly. Furthermore, maintain fee integrity: do not lower your fee unless there is an alternate form of compensation.

4. Never Stop Marketing – Even if the foreseeable future is packed to the gills with clients, do not stop your marketing efforts. If you do, you will feel the effects in six to 12 months and will literally have to build momentum all over again. Marketing today prevents famine tomorrow. And, of course, your efforts afford you the opportunity to trade up your client base and focus on the most profitable business.

5. Don’t Print in Bulk – With today’s rich media and constantly changing environment, it makes no sense to print hundreds of brochures, biographies, or even client lists. Instead, spend wisely on business cards, the one printed item critical to first impressions. And even there, limit quantities based on realistic expectations, not lofty dreams. Make sure to load your website with easily printable data. In electronic communication, you can simply attach necessary PDFs or in the case of proposals, custom create and color print only what you need.

6. Always Have a Signed Contract – Although many business deals may be concluded over a handshake, I insist on signed contracts and so should you. A solid contract clearly spells out deliverables and helps to manage expectations so that you can exceed them.

7. Don’t Nickel and Dime Your Clients – Create a policy now for how you will deal with travel expenditures, overnight delivery, messengers, fee-based online research, and other incidentals. I make it a policy to never charge for postage, copying, or other minutiae. These types of bill-backs to your client tend to cause more ill will than you can ever recover. Having a clause in your contract that all expenses over $100.00 will be approved in advance by your client also ensures that there will be no surprises at the end of a billing cycle.

8. Volunteer for One Philanthropic Effort – Pick a group or cause that you are passionate about and donate your expertise to the board. If, for example, you are an accountant, offering to handle the books for a charity is a great way to give in-kind. It also demonstrates your core competency to high level board members. If you can perform your task so brilliantly for free, the organization can easily imagine what you can accomplish when you are actually hired for an assignment!

9. No “Picking Your Brain” Allowed – You’ll get this request often: “Please, can I pick your brain?” The answer is always “No," Your most valuable and limited inventory is your time and intellectual property; giving it away is giving away your profits. You can, however, give away a small, free sample (similar to offering a small taste of Mrs. Fields' cookies, but in order to get the baker’s dozen, a purchase of 12 is required).

10. Be Cautious With Meals – Wining and dining can initially seem like a great idea for establishing a firm relationship. However, it also can be tricky. If you are taking out a client, establish the rules: you can charge for your time, you can expense the meal or you can charge for both. And, there are occasions when your time and meal are your gift to the client as a special thank you. Remember, when networking with colleagues, the last thing you want to do is continue to pay for expensive lunches; the net result might be gaining weight while losing money!

Harry Potter newspapers soon to become a reality

Harry Potter show us the way with his "Daily Prophet" newspaper edition.

It seamed impossible at that time but today with the new iPad it seams more than possible.

It's reality. To prove it WIRED magazine is creating this App that shows the way to this future.

For magazines to ignore it is like keep defending that the world is flat.

What consumers want?

Consumers want marketers to engage, not advertise.

Listen more, react intelligently. Incorporate social media insights into your marketing. Hyundai responded to customer needs by using the Hyundai Think Tank to understand customer needs. Thanks to the Think Tank, Hyundai introduced a gas lock program promising consumers more efficient performance from their cars. And Hyundai sales grew during a recession. Meantime, Razorfish client Mercedes-Benz adapted its brand to stress innovation instead of the Mercedes-Benz heritage.

Target people, not statistics. Focus on consumer behaviors, not demographic data.

So what can marketers do today?

Adapt your approach to new ideas. Watch for, and be ready to adapt to, major groundswell events (like the emergence of Foursquare occurring now).

2. Adapt the roles of your team. Brand managers need to consider the role of brand advocates, or people who share your brand every day on multiple platforms and communities — invaluable sources of customer insight for the brand strategist.

3. Adapt your process. Plan iteratively and frequently. Don’t think of planning as a one-time process. Partner for creativity, not durability. Use predictive metrics in addition to descriptive ones.

4. Adapt your mix of media. Think in terms of owned media for the portable brand and paid media as a brand catalyst.

In summary . . . remember that customers always evolve. Be ready to innovate on their terms as CNN has done. And marketers need to change the pace at which we learn and adapt. We must constantly learn — and quickly.

What makes it a GOOD brand?

Being a genuinely good brand takes more than a widely used product and an ubiquitous global presence. Though there is no precise formula, what the ten good brands on our list have in common is a penchant for imagination, innovation, environmental responsibility and social consciousness.

Their products and services don’t just serve a basic need, but instead help as a tool to improve people’s lives. Several companies have stayed strong, maintaining their positions from last year with continued innovation, while others on the list have jumped into prominence through offering creative solutions and ground breaking new business models.

How does a "BIG AD agency" look like?

"An advertising agency is not an office. It's not even from this world. It's a place of culture, arts and good taste where details are food for the brain"

Clients go to agencies to get more. More arms, more hands, more ears, more brains, more talent, more solutions as apposed to stress and headaches. On other words clients want greatness. For this reason an agency must make sure it’s up to standards to achieve this goal.

There are some great agencies a little around the world like JWT New York, McCann London but i propose you to see TBWA Los Angeles for the single reason that the dream is some how there. ENJOY.

Look also at this twitter post to see some pictures of big beautiful agencies: http://yfrog.com/4i383ij

How to motivate the ADagency team?

Advertising as I often tell my team is a job for masochists.

Not many jobs in the world have to face as many "NO" as in the advertising world. (Even if I think I found a way to combat that problem... I will talk about it in another post.)

To face the "NO" that make part of our business a team "must" be motivated to arrive come back over and over again with great work.

To fight this reality i found out that happiness makes wonders so i created some internal events that keep everybody in the expectation for what will happen next.

Let me give you some examples of this events i do in regular bases (every week):

1# I have a wall that from time to time i post the pictures of everybody in the agency. I chose a subject and people must come to the studio to pose under that same subject.

The next week i will use the nike application: http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/becomemars/

It will be fun ;-D

2# Take the pet for a walk. I take balloons and i draw animals on it. After everybody goes around taking the pet for a walk. Very often we finish in the restaurant with our "pets" (the best moments ever). Look at the last pet alive :-P

3# Star academy in the agency it's a classic i can't live with out. I assure you we are very good advertisers but very bad singers and we love it. The drill is simple a song will be chosen and people must memorize the lyrics. A day will be schedule and during one hour or so the people that applied will do the best... possible. The rest of the agency will be there to vote. Memorable every-time.

4# I got this movie from a friend of mine that works at Ogilvy. I'm planning to do something like this to present the team on the next pitch. Enjoy

/// All this seems crazy and stupid, I know. But i assure you it work wonders on the team moral.

Back to new media.

We have been looking out for new media since ever.
The problem is that this industry (advertising) is so fast that we don't even realize that new medias become old the very next day after coming out.

It's important to have fresh new medias to work with and this digital era is really exciting and i am in-loved by it but, as i continue saying to my team, it's the experience you pass to your consumer that matters. Important is to be able to provide a sensation on the artwork you do. If it is with old media or new media i don't care. The thing is to call the attention and if possible to make them react.

There's a small exercise I use:

Imagine you are alone in the middle of a crowd. Now, shout the message you are working on. If the reaction is: "Tell me more!" than you are in the good way. If not... you need to go back to pen & paper.

Keep it simple guys and focus on what is really important.
In the end-of-the-day it's our client product that matters.

Personal branding will change your career.

It's funny how most advertisers can promote a brand but they can't take care of their promotion. Well and if I tell you that you are a brand? I am talking about personal branding. YOU.

Personal branding is nothing more than just the idea people you know have of you.

I'm going to give you some tips that can change your professional life.

Step #1

Write down your 5 strengths. (Skills & talents)

Step #2

What are the reasons for wanting to promote yourself?

What really excites you there? Write 5 of the primary ones.

Step #3

Write the one thing you would like to achieve?

Have a realistic goal.

Step #4

Write the self-promotional activities that will lead you to success.

Write it step-by-step. (I will help you on this further on)

Step #5

Just do it

PROMOTION MEDIAS/WAYS

# Online:

Youtube / vimeo / twitter / start a well- maintained blog / facebook / slideshare / monthly email update (keep your mails short and catchy) / personal website / online portfolio /

# Offline:

- Speak publicly (workshops, seminars)

- Start having "breakfast" with whomever you can. Can be a long lost colleague or an old client. You'll be surprised what potential opportunities and realizations can arise.

WHAT AND HOW TO SAY IT

Professionalism is about much more than manners. It is about the expectations you set, the standards you maintain, and how make decisions and manage conflicts. Online or offline it's your "tone-of-voice", your "personality" and your "look and feel" that will mark you. Most of the day2day situations you only have one opportunity to get it right sometimes is even just some minutes to get it or loose it.

Let’s start with a simple situation. You are about to interview for a gig, meet a new potential client, or tell someone about your project. Do you have a clear objective of what you want? Sounds simple: You want the work. You want the business. You want someone to be engaged by your work. While these are all noble objectives to have in mind, they are unlikely to help you during the meeting. After some consideration, you may realize that the most important outcome from the meeting is to be remembered. Or maybe you need to address some obvious risks that may concern people? Perhaps you have a few strengths or claims of credibility that you need to get across?

Presenting yourself professionally requires a communications strategy!

Be Notable! Identify the components that differentiate you. How do you stand out amidst the other options? Incorporate the elements that make you unique in your story. Whether it is your introduction or the pitch for your project, make yourself memorable.

Identify your relevant strengths, especially the ones that come from labor-intensive experiences (as these are the most credible). So many artists will pitch a project and fail to even mention their years of apprenticeship with another well-known artist. Put your strengths out there, and share the story behind them.

Do a candid assessment of the risks someone might find in working with you (especially those that are obvious). Then identify the strengths and differentiating characteristics that best minimize the risk. For example: If you’re new on the scene (risk: unprofessional, unreliable), you’ll want to highlight the past projects you’ve been involved with (albeit unrelated) that demonstrate your dependability.

Once you identify the components of your communications strategy, your job is to emphasize them. Every introduction and pitch that you make is an opportunity to put your "communications strategy" to work.

The Presentation Secrets Of Steve Jobs

"A person can have the greatest idea in the world.

But if that person can't convince enough other people,

it doesn't matter" - Gregory Berns

Let's take as example the best of the bests. Steve Jobs.

For him a presentation is composed by 3 parts:

1# Create the story

2# Deliver the experience

3# Refine and rehearse

Take a look at this (not so beautiful ) presentation but full of valuable information.

Where ideas come from?

It’s incredible how many people came to me asking:

“How do you do to have ideas?”

I used to tell them:

“It’s like a small voice that come from no where and whispers in my ear”

In reality I had no idea from where it came from until I start noticing that ideas had a pattern. Every time a campaign came out on TV, outdoors on the street, a conversation we had some days ago or even a joke told during lunchtime were inevitably going to be used in a advertising campaign. Well I tell you no more, just look at the movie I posted and we will continue the conversation.

At this point what I want to tell you is:

“An idea is the combination of old and new elements engraved in your brain”

I am sure at this moment you understand the process. So on this case you can do something about your levels of creativity just by surrounding your self with interesting people, interesting places, interesting TV shows, interesting books, interesting movies, interesting music. In other words: the better your surroundings the better you will be.

Just to make you think:

Have you ever seen a very rich person passing his/hers days surrounded by pour people?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

But let us get practical here.

How can we use/control all this subliminal messages and transform them in an outstanding creative work? There's a technique composed by 5 steps that I want to propose you.

#1 Gather as much raw information as possible.

#2 Chew it over and get your first ideas out of your system

#3 Stop thinking about the subject and let your subconscious go to work.

#4 Be ready for the ideas to flow at any time.

#5 Shape and develop the idea for practical usefulness.

If you are going to use this technique do not stop on the second step (where most creative people stop because "there’s no time to chew what so ever". If you have that problem I propose you to jump between briefs in give time

One last tip:
A creative idea to be impact-full must be “single-minded” & “unexpected”