Take Your Own Advice

Advice you give freely may be quite valuable, even for yourself.

You probably love to give advice to others. We all have insights on (un)usual business issues and strained relationships, plus tips for gardening, exercise and travel.

Ever get that AHA moment when you realize the suggestions you offered work for your own situation?

In a recent newsletter, I calculated that each of us probably has 5,000 contacts in a variety of places: address book, LinkedIn, subscribers to a newsletter or blog and more. Aggregating those names into a single database:

  • Provides a way to keep in touch with hundreds of them;
  • Evokes opportunities to introduce one to another;
  • Sparks awareness of your own services and products for them as potential referral sources and connectors.

Accordingly, I took my own advice by consolidating my contacts into my address book. Here are a few results:

There were 2,483 names in my address book in August; a month later, I had 4,503, a gain of 2,020 names that were scattered in emails, lists and business cards.

Similarly, my connections on LinkedIn increased from 2,809 to 3,023, an additional 214 and a number that continues to grow.

Clearly, implementing my own suggestion was successful, as it enabled me to re-connect with long-dormant contacts, plus initiate conversations, email exchanges and meetings, not to mention a few subscribers to this newsletter.

This Month’s Tip

Here’s a few resources for hands-on advice and general tips:

Ilise Benun, Marketing Mentor offers tips on marketing for creative professionals that apply to many business owners.

David A. Fields advises consultants who work with companies of all sizes.

Life Hack – Tips for Life features pointers on productivity and getting things done.

Contact

If you’ve followed my advice on this topic of aggregating your contacts – or have a suggestion of your own to share – Contact me at Janet@JanetLFalk.com, set an appointment here or call me at 212.677.5770. Let’s dig for more good ideas in that gold mine of 5,000 contacts, plus we can swap tips and brainstorm together.

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