You know what hard work is. You’ve put in the long hours, worked late into the night, done more working than eating during the lunch hour—all to ensure the success of your business.

You may be thinking about what else you can do to get the news of your products or services more broadly known within your target market. Or, you might be brainstorming future steps to expand your business and make it even more successful.

In either case, one immensely valuable marketing strategy can be summed up in two words: get published!

Now, you may be tempted to dismiss this out of hand…after all, you have a profession, and very likely it isn’t “writer.” But there are many ways to be published and each, separately or in combination, can be incalculably valuable in terms of its contribution to your marketing efforts.

We’re talking about:

• Articles written about you, or by you, which are published in newspapers and/or magazines.  They provide great credibility to your position as an expert in your field.

• Op Ed (opinion-editorial) pieces you’ve written that get published.  It’s a great way to take a stance on an issue important to your business and get published, and it positions you as a thought leader.

• A book with you as the author—my favorite!

Getting published opens the door to the media and provides a powerful platform that is magnified a millionfold when you subsequently get invited to appear as a radio or TV guest, or are quoted in the press.

Furthermore, when the press publishes an article about you, it is really a public relations coup! A paid advertisement is always seen for what it is—an attempt to persuade more people to buy your product or service. Don’t get me wrong…there is definitely a place for advertising.  But the power of PR is that when the press writes about you, they are giving a tacit endorsement of you and your business. It lends credibility which is absolutely priceless!

And, let’s face it—being published sets you apart from other CEOs and distinguishes you as a leader in your industry. Not only does it boost your status above that of your peers in the eyes of the public, it also makes them aware of what your company is about, who its leader is and helps them to form a positive opinion about your company and its product.

If you decide to be the author of a book or article but don’t have the time or expertise to write, there are droves of professional writers who freelance as ghostwriters (and are easily found on the Internet).  For many a busy executive this is the best and only way to go. There is no shame in employing a ghostwriter—their job is to translate your own thoughts into an enjoyable and clearly-understood form.  It’s no different than hiring any other professional who helps you run your business more smoothly.

The bottom line is that getting yourself in print can have a very positive impact on the success of your business. You can invest as much or as little of your own personal time to bring it about—it’s entirely up to you. But you will reap great benefits whichever path you take.

Why Everyone Has a Little Celebrity in Them – And What to Do About It

Everyone is a celebrity at something, and by “celebrity” I’m not talking about movie stars, professional athletes or those overnight sensations that are here today, on the cover of People tomorrow and gone by Friday.

True celebrities are experts. In a lot of cases they’re experts at acting, putting a ball in a hoop or looking sexy in next to nothing. But believe it or not, most celebrities these days – the ones that keep auditoriums and hotel conference rooms and even bookstore shelves full – are folks like you and I; people who realized what they are very, very good at and put it to use by celebritizing themselves (or putting their expert status to use as a modern celebrity).

You, too, can become one of these nowadays celebrities, no matter what business you’re in, how big your company is (or isn’t) or even if you don’t think you bring the chops.

The best part is, it’s as simple as 3-F’s:

Find…Yourself

To be a modern day business celebrity you have to know 1) What you’re good at, 2) What are you passionate about and 3) What people need from you. Celebritizing yourself is about knowing all three of the above, not just one or two.

So, what are you a good at? It could be anything: gardening, management, economics, knitting, housecleaning, politics – the works. The experts we all know and recognize and who become celebrities, everyone from Tim Russert to Ty Pennington to Linda Cobb, the Queen of Clean, to George Stephanopoulos, may come from a wide array of backgrounds but all have one thing in common: they know what they’re good at and do it very, very well.

Next, what are you passionate about? Now, being good at something and being passionate about it are two very different things. You can be great at fixing cars but hate talking about it, sharing it with other people. If so, this topic just wouldn’t qualify for the expert celebrity game.  But, if you look a little harder to identify what it specifically about fixing cars that you truly love and you find it’s restoring classic automobiles, now that’s something you could celebritize!

Finally, what do other people need from you? So what if you’re good at fixing cars AND passionate about restoring classics? Is there a market for that? Do people really want to talk about that? And are you the right person for the job? Once upon a time I might have said, “No, there’s no market in celebritizing yourself around restoring classic automobiles.” But that was before Car Talk on NPR made its and co-hosts (and brothers) Tom and Ray Magliozzi famous. That was before Antiques Roadshow captivated the country’s attention and before both the History and Speed channels became cable staples.

Nowadays, truly, if you are an expert at something, passionate about that thing and can find a market for it, you too can become a celebrity!

Focus…On What Works

We all know what’s going to work for us and what doesn’t.

Blink and Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell is a celebrity x 10 but I don’t think you’ll ever hear him screaming into a microphone on some shock jock’s call-in show; it’s not him, it’s not his audience – it doesn’t work.

On the other hand, Guy Fieri, celebrity chef, cookbook author and winner of the Food Network’s first “The Next Food Network Star” contest, IS just the kind of passionate, verbal, excited and outgoing individual who has made a career out of what works for him: using his natural passion and enthusiasm for his expertise – cooking – to create a personal brand that is suddenly dominating the Food Network scene.

Of course, even a profound extrovert like Guy Fieri pales in comparison to pundit, expert, author and popular CNBC host Jim Cramer. Cramer, with his trademark rolled up sleeves and loosened tie, intense eyes and voluble vocabulary, spends every evening shouting his message of the latest stock tips to an adoring and exceedingly loyal fan base on his popular TV show, Mad Money.

With his expertise, proven credibility and solid background, Cramer could have easily been a popular and successful pundit. But by finding his niche on his very own show, Cramer has truly shone and become what most experts crave: a celebrity.

Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Cramer and Guy Fieri are all experts; all are also bona fide celebrities.

And all are doing what works… for them.

Finesse…the Message

Finally, you need finesse; specifically, you need to finesse your message. It needs to be clear, concise and focused. For instance, if you are an absolute miracle worker when it comes to organizing things, it only makes sense that your message is organized as well.

What is that message? Let’s say over time you’ve realize that most people aren’t organized and even fewer people recognize the value of organization. So to make it clear for them just how important it is to be organized, you’ve come up with a simple three-part message that you communicate everywhere you go: your message is that organization saves time, increases productivity and boosts profits.

That message is delivered every time you publish something, hand out a business card or invite someone to read your blog. That message isn’t just the words you use but the graphics you use in your brochures, on your Web site and on your business card.

Let’s say you start a blog to spread your message about how important it is to be organized. You wouldn’t write about sports scores or share holiday recipes or Hollywood gossip, would you?  Hardly.  Your message is that organization saves time, increases productivity and boosts profits.

So every blog post must reiterate that message in articles that have to do with your core expertise. You’ll want to write about how an organized office is a productive office, you’ll want to link to news stories or breaking research that reveals organization boosts effectiveness by 28%, etc. Otherwise you’re just wasting that message, if not ignoring it altogether.

Embrace Your Expertise

So much of expertise is confidence, but we’ve seen how confidence alone isn’t enough to become a celebrity. The bottom line with becoming a celebrity is that once you find… yourself, focus… on what works and finesse… your message, the foundation is already in place for what promises to be a bright and celebritized future.

Becoming a celebrity next becomes a matter of taking all three of these vital core skills and truly embracing your expertise so that you will have the confidence to truly shine in whatever it is you are good at, are passionate about and can find an audience for.

Once all these elements align, the sky truly IS the limit!

It’s one thing to talk about becoming a celebrity in your field. It’s quite another to actually begin the process. To make celebrity an authentic goal, we must first desensitize ourselves to the very word “celebrity.”

The best place to start is to refocus away from Hollywood or the Big Apple and turn it inward, toward yourself, your company, product, service, or expertise, and your industry. Celebritizing yourself from the ground up brings to mind two of my favorite domestic goddesses turned celebrities: Julia Child and Erma Bombeck. I point to these two iconoclastic women because we’re talking about specific industries, and these two virtually created their own.

Julia Child loved two things: French cooking and her husband, Paul (and, I suspect, sometimes in that order). Although Julia’s background was in publicity and advertising, she single-handedly pursued her passion for French cooking with such expertise and zeal that no one around her could ignore.  Julia became one of the first “celebrity chefs,” and also one of the most recognizable women of the last century. Such celebrity chefs as today’s Emeril Lagasse and Rachel Ray owe their television careers to the pioneering efforts of Julia Child.

Truly, Julia is a poster child for how to first become a celebrity in your own field, and then for the world at large. So was Erma Bombeck. Dayton, Ohio born, Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 with a degree in English. She started her career that same year as a reporter for the Ohio Journal Herald, but after marrying school administrator Bill Bombeck, a college friend, she left the job to raise three children.

As her children grew, she wrote “At Wit’s End,” a self-deprecating tale about the life of a housewife. Seen first in the Kettering-Oakwood Times in 1964, Erma was paid a miserly $3 per column. The popularity of “At Wit’s End” brought national syndication in 1965, and eventually it ran twice a week in more than 700 newspapers. The column was collected in many bestselling books, and her fame was such that a television sitcom was based on Erma’s life. A humble $3-a-column gig for the local paper graduated Erma to full celebrity status.

“Celebrity” for these two icons grew not out of ambition or greed – though both women clearly had business savvy and realized the far greater audience fame could bring to them. What they became famous for was what they loved. Their passion turned into “celebrity” which, in turn, added “celebrity” to their passion.

There is a strong lesson in here for all of us. What is it? Simply this: celebrities are made, not born. What’s more, they share four similar qualities that you may already possess:

1. Passion: Julia Child never wavered in her passion for cooking while Erma Bombeck came to her passion for writing only once she discovered the confidence that came from writing – and writing well.
2. Persistence: Both women faced challenges and road blocks on their way to success. In this time of female presidential candidates, CEOs, talk show hosts and cable magnates, it is easy to forget that both Erma and Julia were products of the 50s and 60s, where men were the celebrities and women cared for the home and their children. Julia’s persistence to cook even when no one was watching or Erma’s to write while the kids were sleeping forged expertise in both their industries.
3. Pride: Julia and Erma never came off as egotistical or brash, not even when fame overtook them and created household names of normal women. Still, it was clear – especially in later years – that both women were not only proud of what they’d accomplished but what they stood for and the inspiration they gave other women.
4. Persuasion: Finally, both women used their respective art to persuade; Julia to persuade an entire generation (and even later generations) to discover the “joy of cooking” and Erma to persuade family members to celebrate their family bonds.

The idea that celebrity is only for movie stars should have withered on the vine by now; here we have two shining examples of homegrown women who started where they felt the most passionate and built a career from the inside out.

Neither Julia nor Erma became a “household word” overnight.  They each had their unique path to fame – but they both had this in common.  Both actually put their foot on the path, and took that first step…and then another, and so on.  It is a process; it does not occur in one fell swoop.  As Julie and Erma knew instinctively, to “celebritize yourself” is not about fame and fortune.  It’s about sharing your life experience and hard-won wisdom with others, who may need what you have to offer.  And without a doubt you must take stock of your assets and the resources at your disposal, and use them!  I wrote my book, “Celebritize Yourself,” to be a roadmap down that path, and it is my passion to help you find the path.

Warm Regards,
Marsha