We’ll be gathering at The Georgian Club in Atlanta on Friday, September 24, and I’ll be speaking about dialogue-based business and marketing strategies for mediators, conflict coaches, dispute resolution trainers, arbitrators and other conflict management professionals.

Registration details will be available at ACR-Georgia’s site.

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at ConflictZen.Lenski.com.

He goes on, “The point is to develop meaningful conversations with your clients about issues relevant to them–not to sell your product. That happens naturally, from the context of conversations. There is no shortage of leads, because there is no shortage of problems. [emphasis added] There is a shortage of trust-driven conversations about needs that lead to solutions to real problems. The issue isn’t lead shortage, it’s personal courage and creativity.”

It was thinking like this that made Amanda and I sure we wanted Charlie as one of our featured speakers when we were hatching the idea that ultimately became the Mediation Business Summit. With two popular books on building trusted relationships with the marketplace and now a major name in the professional services field, Charlie’s in high demand around the world and we count our lucky stars he agreed to speak at the Summit.

In anticipation of this post, I asked Charlie two questions to whet your appetite for his session at the Summit:

What trust-related mistake do you see small and solo business owners make most frequently in the marketing and sales process? The number one mistake is to focus too much on promotion – promoting their products, view or expertise. Even listening is too often turned into just listening for opportunities, magic cue phrases, which signal opportunity for the seller to pounce and once again inject their product, view or expertise.

What warning signs would suggest to you that a trust relationship isn’t sufficiently developed yet in the sales process? It’s hard to tell how other people feel; it’s easy to tell how we ourselves feel (or learn to tell). Therefore it’s not easy to look at the other party to find out if a trust relationship exists – it’s easier to look within ourselves. If you’re feeling embarrassed, or angry, or annoyed at the other party then probably you haven’t yet got a trust thing going.

Join us at the Mediation Business Summit, where Charlie will talk about how to address these problems and more.

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

• What persistent myths most vex us and why?
• What do those myths, individually or collectively, do to public understanding of our work?
• What should mediators and other ADR professionals do when they hear these myths perpetuated?

You can get the podcast in any of these ways:

• Stream or download it from the Cafe Mediate site
• Subscribe via iTunes (By the way, if you use iTunes, we’d love you to leave a brief review of the podcast there
• Subscribe to get notification automatically in your email inbox

Enjoy!

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

Well, we want to address those wonderings and give you a chance to have your key ADR business questions get to the top of the question list for our speakers. Since the Summit is the first and only ADR conference you can attend from the comfort of your own home or office, we know that some of you want to be sure it’s going to work easily for you before you register.

So we’ve organized a Mediation Business Summit Demo Session for you. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve registered for the live event in September – you can join the demo session in either case.

During the session we’ll answer your questions about the Summit event and gather your top business questions to share in advance with the speakers.

Register for free (you won’t be registered for the full Summit, just for the demo session) at the link above. Hope to “see” you there!

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

As of July 20, .co domains are available for sale in the U.S. (maybe elsewhere too). While not the same cheap annual price as .com (about $23 per year as compared to $8 or $9), the price won’t break the bank, either.

The upside of .co?

• You may be able to land a version of the domain name you’ve been wanting.
• It’s recognized as being associated with “company,” “corporation” and “commerce.”
• You get to protect your name or brand by owning .co before someone else does.

The downside? Unless they’re paying attention, someone typing in your URL may assume .com – and land on someone else’s site.

I’m using Namecheap these days and have been well-served by them.

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

In Color As Branding Element, John interviews color expert Kate Smith, editor of color advice site Sensational Color, about the meanings associated with certain colors, how to use color effectively in print and online collateral, and companies that use color well.

If you’re re-working your ADR business image or in the first stages of creating it, this is a podcast worth your time. Listen directly from Color As Branding Element or get it on iTunes.

For a bit more on the use of color in your ADR business branding efforts, here are a couple of past posts on the topic:

• Color, Consumer Decisions and Business Branding
• How to Choose Your Website’s Colors

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

Char Polanosky

People like influential business blogger Liz Strauss (also a Mediation Business Summit speaker, I hasten to add). Social media authority and successful web entrepreneur Wendy Piersall. Edinburgh-based identity designer and author David Airey (who I was lucky enough to get to design my logo).

So we’re extraordinarily lucky to have Char in the lineup of Mediation Business Summit speakers. Char, who’s the first name I give anyone who wants expert help with their website, will be talking about Website Essentials:

What elements make a truly effective small business website? How do you find a trustworthy and talented web professional and what price range should you expect to pay? What’s the difference between a web designer and web developer? How much of it can and should you do yourself? Should you have a “static” website and a blog, existing separately? Should you ever pay someone to do search engine optimization for you and what the heck is “blackhat” anyway?

Char Polanosky is a a web designer and web/social media strategy consultant. Merging her background in technical writing, teaching design and technology, and her experience building websites for a wide range of small and large businesses, Char guides clients in the strategic use of online platforms to promote their businesses and in communicating effectively with their markets.

In this session, Char will address the above questions and more, taking the unknown out of building or rebuilding a vibrant, effective online hub for your ADR marketing activities.

If you haven’t seen the other Mediation Business Summit speaker profiles Amanda and I have done so far this summer, check these out:

• Michael Port, keynote, “Book Yourself Solid”
• Denise Wakeman, “Three Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success”
• Carol Roth, “I Want to Be a Mediator But Woke Up an Entrepreneur!”

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

Then I’ve got two resources you should bookmark for future use:

1. Get copyright permissions the easy peasy way we academics have known about for years (and you don’t need to be a prof to use the service). When I’m doing a training and want to use portions of a book or journal article, I turn to the Copyright Clearance Center, an online service for checking on, requesting, and obtaining copyright permissions for a small fee per-use fee or annual license (which I just build into my training fee).
2. In addition to CCC’s online information about fair use, I also like American University’s Center for Social Media, which has resources for understanding fair use in print and digital media, including video.

Happy training,

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

Someone told me I should be careful to make sure my website looks good on other people’s computers too. Can you give me tips for how to do that?

Websites don’t render, or display, the same way across all browsers.

If you’re on a PC, you probably don’t know what your site looks like in the standard Apple browser, Safari. Likewise, if you’re on a Mac, you may not have any idea if your site looks the way you expect it to in Internet Explorer. And some of the less experienced or credible website designers may not bother to check before invoicing you for their work.

But you can check for yourself, for free. In my reply to Aimee, I told her that there’s a good little online service that’ll visit your site and take screenshots of a chosen page as viewed in various browsers.

BroswerShots lets you choose from a multitude of browsers to check; the most important ones are the popular Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome because most of your visitors are using those. Tick the check boxes for the most recent version of each, as well as a prior version or two, since a lot of folks don’t update to current versions of their favorite browser.

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.

Michael Port

Do you ever meet someone and wonder how it is that the gods smile so completely on a single being? Michael Port is one of those people and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that he’s agreed to keynote for the Mediation Business Summit.

Yes, he’s got incredible credentials: New York Times bestselling author of four business books for solopreneurs and small business owners like us. Featured in numerous major media outlets, including MSNBC, the Boston Globe, Entrepreneur magazine, the Wall Street Journal (which dubbed him a small business marketing guru) and CNBC. A sought-after professional speaker for audiences worldwide.

Yes, he’s got savvy and creativity: Creator of the Think Big Revolution, an online space for small business owners who want to think bigger about what they can achieve and do for the world. Founder of Booked Solid U, an online learning platform helping solopreneurs learn and implement the ideas from his bestseller, Book Yourself Solid.

And yes, he’s accessible and generous and kind. He’s been unfailingly delightful to work with in organizing the Summit and his keynote, where he’ll talk about how to “Book Yourself Solid: Getting More Clients Even If You Hate Marketing.” Amanda and I couldn’t ask for a speaker more lovely to collaborate with. We’ve heard him interviewed in numerous other places and know he’ll be as generous with you as he has been with us.

In short, Michael’s the kind of speaker every small business owner should be lucky enough to have access to. Still not convinced you should head straight to the Mediation Business Summit site and buy your ticket immediately? Here’s a sample of Michael’s savvy at work, in this video titled How to Talk About What You Do.

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You can find more clips featuring Michael at MichaelPort.com.

See you at the Summit,

© 2010 by Tammy Lenski. Work originally published at MakingMediationYourDayJob.Lenski.com.