In part one of this two-part series, I introduced the concept that your particular “behavioral style” can directly affect your business. As I mentioned at the end of the piece, in this part I will explore the four main behavioral styles so that you can begin to identify which one (or ones; they are fluid) you might be!

First, a bit of history…

In 1928, psychologist William Moulton Marston conceived, developed and wrote about a modern take on behavior profiles. Behavior profiles have undergone many transformations since then, with the most important transformations in the tools used to measure people according to Marston’s original model.

In his book, Emotions of Normal People, Marston exhibited his keen interest in the ways a person’s emotions can affect or be visible in physical symptoms or expressions. He categorized emotional expression into the following types:

• Dominance (D)
• Inducement (I)
• Submission (S)
• Compliance (C)

After realizing how powerful to referral marketing the concept of behavioral styles is, I worked with some business partners to identify and categorize four major behavioral styles that would relate to the DiSC. There are certainly many different ways to “title” the four major styles.

A colleague of mine, Dawn Lyons, spearheaded this effort to create titles that would speak to our target audience and have credibility in the business world. In crafting the four different behavioral styles, we have strived to do several things:

• Inspire positivity
• Ensure clarity between the four styles
• Make the styles instantly understandable to anyone
• Create a picture of the person described
• Have the titles be congruent with people’s actions while networking

Once we selected the titles, our next step was to get validation from an expert. Of course, we went to Tony Alessandra, a best-selling author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker in the fields of sales and marketing, who is an expert at developing assessment tools. We knew he could use these tools to evaluate the effectiveness of our new titles. As soon as we shared the titles we’d been working on with him he said, “They’re perfect! Clear, focused, completely on-track with what you do, and simple.”

We couldn’t have hoped for any better reception than that! So, here are the four main behavioral styles, complete with a short definition and description, and followed by Tony’s further assessment.

Go-Getter

Definition: A hustling, enterprising type of person. The Go-Getter would be the equivalent of the D in DiSC.

Go-Getters tend to be very results-oriented, driven, fast-paced and impatient. They have a get-it-done-now attitude. They attend networking events to gain new business and look to meet the most successful people at the event.

As Tony says, Go-Getters “believe in expedience and are not afraid to bend the rules. They figure it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. They are so focused that they can appear aloof. They are so driven that they forget to take the time to smell the roses.”

Promoter

Definition: An active supporter, someone who urges the adoption of, or attempts to sell or popularize someone or something. The Promoter would be the equivalent of the i in DiSC language.

Promoters tend to be very positive, friendly and happy-go-lucky types of people. They love to be on the go and are okay with having lots of irons in the fire. They avoid confrontations and seek fun in everything they do! They attend networking events to hang out, meet new people, talk to their friends and make sure they are “seen” at the event.

“[Promoters] would rather schmooze with clients over lunch than work on a proposal in the office,” says Tony. “They are idea-people and dreamers who excel at getting others excited about their vision. They are risk-takers who are not inclined to do their homework or check out information and base many of their decisions on intuition.”

Nurturer

Definition: Someone who gives tender care and protection to a person or thing, especially to help the person or thing to grow or develop. The Nurturer would be the equivalent to the S in DiSC language.

Nurturers tend to be very patient, kind, caring and helpful people. They are great listeners and tend to enjoy things at a slower pace than the Go-Getters and Promoters. They do not liked to be pushed or rushed into things and appreciate quality time with people. They attend networking functions to connect with people they already know, meet a few down to earth people and focus on deepening their relationships.

As Tony says, “[Nurturers’] relaxed dispositions make them approachable and warm. They develop strong networks of people who are willing to be mutually supportive and reliable. They are excellent team players. But they are risk-averse and may tolerate an unpleasant environment rather than risk a change.”

Examiner

Definition: A person who inspects or analyzes a person, place or thing in detail, while testing their knowledge or skill by asking questions. The Examiner would be the equivalent of the C in the DiSC language.

Examiners tend to be very thorough, efficient, task-driven people. They seek information and knowledge and love to check things off their to-do list. Because Examiners need a lot of information, they tend to make decisions more slowly than the Go-Getters and Promoters. They have a propensity toward perfectionism. Examiners tend to be very good conversationalists, as they know a lot about a lot of topics. They attend networking functions only to market their business and, once they achieve their goal for the evening, they usually leave the event as quickly as possible.

Says Tony, “[Examiners] are always in control of their emotions (note the poker-faces of many Jeopardy! contestants) and may become uncomfortable around people who are less self-contained; i.e., emotional and bubbly like [Promoters]. They tend to see the serious, complex side of situations. Their intelligence and natural wit, however, gives them unique, quick and off-the-wall senses of humor.”

Once you start to understand these four different behavioral styles, it can actually become easy it can be to identify someone, adapt to their style, help them feel comfortable – and make them feel good at the same time!

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author.  He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI (www.BNI.com), the world’s largest business networking organization.  His book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com.  Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute (www.ReferralInstitue.com), an international referral training company.

I take advantage of free book downloads. You should, too. It’s a good way to see what the marketplace is like. Smart authors are constantly playing with prices to find the ideal one that will move traffic.

Smart authors who self-publish, that is. Other authors, those who are published by traditional publishers, don’t have control over their own pricing. Their books are sold for $9.99 to $14.99 or even more.

Pricing is a big issue nowadays in e-books, especially now that the Justice Department has pinpointed Apple as a leader in price-fixing, working in with publishers. Cost is always an issue, but in e-books it’s more sensitive. There’s a lot more impulse buying among e-book consumers. And a lot more sampling, too – which is why free downloads are a good way to help drive product. It’s a little like browsing in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Dan Brown’s new novel, “Inferno,” is $14.99 for Amazon Kindle. That’s expensive. I downloaded a novel, “Blood Moon,” by Alexandra Sokoloff, free, during a one-day promotion the author had.

Dan Brown’s publisher, Doubleday, doesn’t need to offer free copies of his e-books – he’s going to sell well no matter what. But I’m certainly getting a better deal with the “Blood Moon” download, and I know, having read a free chapter of “Inferno,” that I will probably enjoy the free novel more than a $15 one.

If you’re self-publishing your book consider offering it free, and letting your audience know through your platform. This is likely to spark further interest in your work. But keep prices reasonable – certainly not $14.99. Your book is there for you to build your business. You want it to sell well, certainly, but if you rely on it as a source of income, you’ll be disappointed.

E-book sales continue to grow at a remarkable rate, especially for fiction. A BookStats survey – compiled by the Association of American Publishers and Book Industry Study Group – has found that sales of fiction e-books rose 42% last year, representing sales of $1.8 billion.

Nonfiction sales grew too, albeit at a smaller rate. Sales were up 22%, to $484.2 million.

Now, this doesn’t represent self-published books, which are making up an increasing percentage of total book sales (though these sales haven’t been measured in this study). Still, net revenues were $15 billion last year, up from $14 in 2011 (the BookStats survey is available for purchase; you can read the New York Times article on the survey results, here). Even with the competition from entrepreneurial authors who have decided to self-publish, publishers have been doing better. Thanks to e-readers.

For someone who’s working on a book and wondering whether the market will support the effort, considering the number of books out there, the results are still encouraging. With the proper platform  and to remind you, a platform is your way of reaching and building an audience, through engaging in a virtual conversation with people who are interested in or respond to your message – you can begin to attract potential readers and stand out from the crowd.

In any event, this is good news: the more e-readers (both machine and human), the more books will be consumed. And rather than being the death knell for publishing, e-readers are helping inject new life into it, through the independence offered by self-publishing (and the challenge it gives traditional publishers to try to innovate in how they distribute books) and the ease with which you can download a book.

For the brick-and-mortar bookstore, the e-book remains an area of contention, though independent retailers are doing better by offering that hand-selling and recommending that readers want.

In any event, more book sales mean more readers and, hopefully, a stronger industry in general.

You may have noticed that we live in a post-apocalyptic age. At least fictionally.

Many movies and television and novels have set their plots after an Armageddon-like event, whether it’s a nuclear holocaust or an alien invasion. N smart phones, no entertainment devices, no digital tools, no social media.

This is obviously not wishful thinking, but a confluence of such aftermath themes points toward our unease with where we are. What does this say when plots are driven not by the latest technology, but by the lack of it? Whether it’s television’s “Revolution” or the novel and book “The Road,” or the smart new young-adult novel, “The 5th Wave,” about an alien invasion bent on obliterating humankind, people are making do without.

It says that we’ve perhaps become far too attached to our stuff. In an interesting post, New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton wrote about high-tech gurus who turn off and tune out, as it were, by buying phones that only make calls, or avoiding social media. Bilton cited former Twitter executive Robin Sloan, who had found new technologies getting in the way of his productivity. As he quotes Sloan, “I needed my idle minutes to contribute to the story I was doing, not checking my e-mail or checking tweets.” (Read the whole story here:) And he’s not alone, even in Silicon Valley.

For anyone who’s creative, shutting off is a way to recharge. And even though you’re reading this post through electronic means, and we advocate using social media to help build your audience through a platform, there’s too much at stake when you become dependent on technology: human interaction.

We want to interact with people digitally, certainly, through virtual conversations with our readers. But we shouldn’t lose site of the face behind the avatar, or the living, breathing person.

You might find yourself more productive if you give yourself an hour or two during the day when you’re not reachable via one of your devices, and you can concentrate on the work you’re doing to spread your message via your writing.

I know it’s difficult – I have a hard time doing it myself. But I know that when I’m weaned off my digital dependence, I feel a lot better.

Copy, then find your voice.

Most new writers emulate the writers they most admire. They can’t help but sound like them. Even true originals like Marcel Proust used to do parodies of the writers he was most influenced by. He used this copying as a way of exploring what these writers had done with the language, and little by little found his own voice.

You don’t have to worry that you’ll just become a copycat. You have to do the apprentice work – major craftsmen started out as young craftspeople aping what their mentors did.

So, for you as someone who may be finding your voice, look to people whose work you admire. Try to express yourself, and you’ll find yourself taking pointers from those other writers. Then, put it aside.

Let it sit for an hour or overnight.

Then revisit it, and take out the copycat stuff. And see where you can say the same thing a little differently. As yourself.

Little by little you’ll discover ways of expressing you thoughts so that your personality comes through, rather than that of the writers who’ve influenced you.

Of course, you can still have elements of those other writers in there. But as you do this, as you find your voice, you’ll become someone who’s not copying anyone, but is influenced by someone else’s thoughts, inspired by that writer.

That’s the difference. Copycats copy. Writers take, and rework and make their own something that has given them the dream of expression.

Are there writers who truly influence you and whose prose style you want to make your own?

I’d love to hear it.

Thanks for sharing!

We don’t get information the same way that we used to. The very idea of story has changed. It’s all faster, shorter, and far more present than ever.

Simple narratives have been replaced by continuous story, as in role-playing video games, where interactivity replaces passive absorption of narrative.

This isn’t just a continuation of postmodern writing that novelists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, among others, practiced in the first part of the 20th Century. It’s become reality. We really do live in a world of stream-of-consciousness when random everything hits us constantly and we absorb, or don’t absorb, what’s going on around us.

So, how do you hold on to a reader, even for that microsecond of time he or she devotes to your blog or even your book?

Before I get there, keep in mind that this applies to your platform, which you use to build your audience. There are still plenty of old-fashioned narrative books out there, long epics, mystery stories with an ending, romances where love triumphs, page-turning thrillers. But you may find yourself, as many people do today, losing patience with traditional ways of storytelling. You might have turned into a fast-forwarder, remote in search of something that holds your interest.

We’ve all become so used to narrative shortcuts and the clichés of storytelling in movies and television dramas, even in books, that we seek ways to be interested.

So, what do you do?

First of all, have fun with your form. Do the unexpected. Write a blog that’s far shorter than normal. Or start from the end. Or begin with the answer and then lead to the question. Amuse yourself, and even if your readers aren’t at first amused, they will likely be interested.

You do this by moving away form what’s comfortable. Look where you’ve been surprised by what you’ve read. How can you replicate that sensation in your own writing? I’m not saying plagiarize, but use something surprising as your inspiration to surprise your readers.

If you’ve been blogging for a while you may find yourself going through the motions. Look back at your past few weeks of posts, and see if you’re still interested in what you’ve read. Even if you like something, how would you approach it to make it fresher, to get the information out there in a way that will grab attention?

I’d love to hear how what you think.

In my last post I raised the question of why the HBO series “Game of Thrones” is such a success. Not questioning its quality – it’s first-rate – but the reason something so seemingly old-fashioned would find a sizable audience.

I think one reason, beyond its immersive quality, is that while “Game of Thrones” is set in an alternative-reality past, with swords and kings and knights and even judiciously meted-out dragons, it’s more modern than that. It has so much plot, so many characters, so many stories with no real resolution, that it appeals to our current way of regarding narrative as an eternal present, with no end in sight and an overabundance of things to know. We catch things on the go, as in real life.

This raises a question for anyone who’s writing a book, or crafting a narrative that will distill his or her message: How do you tell a story when storytelling has changed, and the way we absorb stories is different?

One way is to think in terms of an older kind of storytelling, the oral tradition. Things were more free-form when stories were passed down mouth to ear, as it were, before literacy, books – or, more accurately, scrolls – implied a linear sense of narrative. As Douglas Rushkoff writes in his powerful and thought-provoking new book, Present Shock,” in an oral tradition, “the main object of the storyteller was simply to keep people involved in the moment.”

What better way to engage with a contemporary reader who absorbs information in pieces rather than in stories? I’m not saying that you give your readers an oral rendition of your message (though YouTube provides you with a way of engaging with your tribe in an oral way), but piecing out your information in simpler, more contrasting ways, conveying information using opposites. Not good or bad (though you can do that) but what you stand against and why that matters.

You are no longer hampered by what has gone before, in terms of getting your message across. This is even more so when it comes to the new world of digital publishing, since the electronic version of a book conveys very little sense of where you are in the book. Thus your narrative can be as free-floating as an oral tale.

I’ll visit this in my next post.

I’m surprised that it’s become such a cultural force, too.

Not because it’s badly written.

It’s not: the writing is excellent.

Not because it’s badly acted.

It’s not: in general, the actors are topnotch and riveting.

It’s not because it’s a fantasy epic.

It is: but it’s also about power struggles and politics and a lot of things that strike a contemporary chord.

No, I’m surprised that “Game of Thrones” is such a success because it’s a complicated narrative that demands that viewers catch up, figure out the interconnections and back stories of a lot of characters and many families.

It’s an old-fashioned kind of drama (albeit one whose episodes are made up of short scenes), that doesn’t treat the audience like a gaggle of idiots.

And I say I’m surprised because, as I’ve been reading a terrific new book, “Present Shock,” by the media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, I find myself agreeing with his premise that our current information overload has upended a lot of how we communicate, and that we have, as a society, lost the ability to follow narrative.

You know yourself – you see the world. You see how parents look at their children’s recitals through a smart phone camera rather than see the actual event. You know how people take pictures of paintings at museums rather than look at the paintings themselves. You know how people prefer texting to email, and Twitter to blogs, as Rushkoff says in his book. You know how you’re always being prompted to “click through” rather than linger. You know how you are always assaulted by information coming at you in undigested masses – and sometimes predigested snippets.

And yet a grand story of warring families seeking power in a fantasy world has won millions of fans, legal or otherwise (apparently “Game of Thrones” is the most-pirated series out there).

That says something. We may be losing our ability to concentrate on something. But we haven’t completely lost it. That means there’s hope for you, as you craft your own narrative and hone your own message.

The point is, how do you do it?

Ah, there’s the rub. I’ll revisit this in my next blog.

The filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is apparently tweeting a novel.

Now this isn’t exactly news. But it says something about how some creative folks are utilizing other means to express themselves.

Soderbergh, director of big-budget flicks such as “Ocean’s 11,” Academy Award-winning films such as “Erin Brockovich” and indie favorites such as “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” has said how frustrating he finds the current studio system, which he feels is run more by dull-minded bean counters than anyone with a sense of cinematic history or even interest in the artistic possibilities of film.

Now, a tweeted novel – dispensed in 140 characters a pop – sounds more gimmick than not. But whether it’s a one-off experiment or not, at least Soderbergh is having fun with form. And he’s moving beyond what might have been his comfort zone.

You can, too. You should, of course, be using your platform to engage in a conversation with your audience, and use your own blogging and social media presence to build that tribe of followers. But you should see how and where you can express yourself through other forms.

Consider tweeting your message. Consider breaking your book down into 140-character business kōan (a kōan is a statement, story or question, used to test a student’s progress in Zen Buddhism, but can also be a way to raise interest and disperse nuggets of wisdom). This will not only help you focus on what you’re saying, but how to say it. You’ll force yourself to distill the essence of your ideas.

In addition, using different forms of social media to communicate can free you up from thinking you’re stuck in a rut of posting to the same site all the time. You should have fun with your message, and fun with your medium. You want to share what you’ve learned, Why not enjoy yourself while you’re doing it?

Are book reviews worth it?

Do reviews actually sell books? No, but you do.

It seems that, at least according to newspapers, the book review is a thing of the past. Most newspapers have done away with book sections, severely limited book reviews and care less and less about cultural coverage in general. The only remaining stand-alone book review remains the New York Times Book Review, which has a new editor, Pamela Paul. (For the record, I know her.)

Now, for many readers, the Book Review has become almost irrelevant, according to a blog post by Michael Wolff on the Guardian website.

Paul will have a challenge in revitalizing the review – she’s already done some really good work, such as an interview each week with an author who chooses books she or he likes, and speaks about inspiration – but just as traditional publishing has changed, so too has the traditional review.

Yes, there is Amazon, with its own controversial reviews. And yes there was Good Reads (now owned by Amazon) to help steer people toward what other readers recommended. And of course independent bookstore insist that they do a service when they hand-sell books to their loyal customers. But there aren’t that many other options.

But how does a book get noticed? You cannot rely on a book review, really – they’re too few and far between. You can’t rely on television coverage, unless you’re notorious – like Amanda Knox, whose memoir about her murder trial and jail sentence in Italy were the subject of a primetime interview with Diane Sawyer – or already a celebrity (I bet Jim Carrey gets booked on talk shows to speak about the children’s books he’s writing).

Reviews are nice – mainly because it gets your name and that of your book out there. But they’re no longer essential, unless you’re looking to try to amass literary awards (themselves of less worth than they used to be) and become a critical darling, for whatever that’s worth.

No, you’ve got to do it through your platform – by building your audience conversation by conversation, reader by reader – and make a mark by being present for your audience. Either through social media, blogging or other ways of adding to what is known about you through the book you’re writing or have written.

You can’t just rely on a review. Chances are your book will be passed over. You need to be the maker of your own literary destiny.