To Be Known, Or Unknown
by Keith Ferrazzi
You should be writing this column.

Few things can have greater impact on your personal brand and your organization's brand recognition than developing and sharing your expertise with the world. Whether you call it becoming a thought leader or a public expert, or, as marketing guru Steven Yoder's book espouses, Getting Slightly Famous, you should do it. Trust me. I'm living proof that it works.

My first job was with Imperial Chemical Industries. I was fresh out of college at Yale, and like all new graduates, I didn't know much. But when I noticed that Total Quality Management was the consultant-driven business trend du jour, I decided to make that my expertise. I studied all the texts that were available, interviewed experts at conferences, and endlessly discussed and debated the issues with my colleagues. Soon, I was writing articles, contributing to a self-published book, teaching inside the company, and speaking at conferences. And when it was clear I was one of ICI's three go-to guys for TQM knowledge, the company crafted a new position for me as one of the leaders of TQM in North America, a promotion that certainly bolstered my application to Harvard Business School.

This simple formula -- 1) Build expertise, 2) Get people to recognize it -- is one I have used throughout my career. At Deloitte Consulting, my rise from post-MBA consultant to chief marketing officer was accelerated by my "getting slightly famous" in the fields of re-engineering and customer relationship management. Then it was sharing my marketing acumen that helped me land jobs as CMO of Starwood Hotels and CEO of a computer games startup, as well as founding my own sales and marketing consultancy, Ferrazzi Greenlight.

Even today, it's that simple one-two formula that we help large sales forces, marketing departments, and senior executives implement through Ferrazzi Greenlight coaching and training.

For our purposes now, we'll assume that you already have an area of expertise. Here are the five steps to getting people to recognize it (originally taught to me at Deloitte by Bo Manning, who is now CEO of Orchestria).

1. Talk about your expertise, with everyone you meet. Your clients, colleagues, superiors, everyone. Even in social settings, it also makes for the perfect, confident response to the inevitable question: "What exactly do you do?" Hey, if you can explain it to your in-laws, you can explain it to anyone..... READ AL 5 STEPS HERE<http://www.strategicbusinessnetwork.com/Article10?id=74277>

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