How to Create An Audience from Scratch

Posted in Branding, Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Networking, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

How to Create An Audience From Scratch

For today’s post I’m sharing a question I was asked after a recent presentation I did on blogging and Personal Branding:

Question: If I’m not an established Blogger like you, how do I create an audience? How do I find people willing to let me interview them for my blog when I have no experience and I’m not well established?

My Answer: We all have to start somewhere! (Tweet this!) I had a “first blog post” on my Dinner With Nerds Food Blog (retired) and here on my life leadership blog just like every other, now established, blogger out here on the internet. I had a “first interview” for my blog because I wasn’t afraid to ask that person for the interview. I told her that I was getting my new Food Blog started and I would be honored if she would be my first interview! She said yes!

One thing I believe works to my advantage quite often in life is the fact that I’m not afraid to ask for what I want. The worst someone can tell me is “NO” and if they do, I’m on to the next person who can help me out. Hearing “NO” is not comfortable by any means, but hearing “NO” simply means that I won’t be doing whatever it is I want to with that person, right now. There’s always a way to make things happen when you really want something. (Tweet this!)

Have confidence in yourself, plan out how you will pitch your idea and simply ask. Often times when you are requesting to interview people who are influential or have something to share, they readily welcome the opportunity for any interview – that’s great exposure for them! The more you add to your blog, the bigger your audience will grow, the more experience you get under your belt and there presents your ripple effect. Just Get Started!

– Dr. April

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is a 2014 Graduate of the New Leaders Council Institute – Nashville Chapter. Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for College Students and Young Professionals.

24Jun2014

Leaders Don’t Have All The Answers

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Networking, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

Leaders Don’t Have All the Answers

Leaders don’t have all the answers – no one does. However, great leaders know how to create power teams around them to fill in where they are weak. In his world-famous book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill spends a lot of time talking about Mastermind Groups. He illustrates how each of the world’s most successful people he interviewed for his book, all understood the importance of participating in Mastermind Groups that met regularly. These Mastermind Groups consist of anywhere between 5-12 like-minded business people who meet REGULARLY to bounce ideas off of each other. They share ideas on how to get Results in their business ventures.

Leaders are not born, they are made! It’s important to constantly sharpen your leadership skills through reading, continuing ed, attending conferences, meeting with mentors, and meeting regularly with Mastermind Groups, etc

Have you ever considered meeting with a Mastermind type group? If not, why don’t you join one or even start one yourself?

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

You can follow her daily #Leadership insights on Twitter @DrCarmenApril

23Jun2014

The 2014 Kentucky College Women’s Leadership Conference

Posted in Branding, Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Networking, Success by Dr. Carmen April

The 2014 Kentucky College Women’s Leadership

Conference

I recently served as the Opening Keynote Speaker for the Kentucky College Women’s Leadership Conference held at the University of Louisville! It was my first time being at the University of Louisville and was actually the first time I had really visited Louisville. I always enjoy visiting new environments, meeting new people and taking in the culture of different cities while on business trips.

Of course, the highlight of the visit is that I was able to inspire young women through my Keynote Presentation. The young women were very receptive and asked great questions about my presentation that connected Leadership with Personal Branding and specifically using Blogging as a Platform to create that Brand.

I’m very appreciative of all who came up to me afterward and expressed their excitement about what I discussed. I plan to turn some of the questions I was asked after my presentation into blog posts to share with you here. I also started gathering some help for a new “#Leadership Is...” project I’m working on. Check out the photos and the video below!

Here’s a preview of my new ‘LEADERSHIP IS’ Project…………

Passionate

Empowering

Authenticity

Action > Words

Empowering Others

Motivating & Appreciating others

The ability to pass the torch

Peace!!

Inspiring Others

Taking Initiative

Practicing what you Preach!!

What does Leadership Mean to you??? Follow the link below to watch the Leadership Video and stay tuned for more on my upcoming “Leadership Is…” Series!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E21bKpdwMQI

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

19Jun2014

Developing Leadership Through Sharing Wisdom

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Networking, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

Developing Leadership Through Sharing Wisdom

Maya Angelou was such a wise woman – an inspiration for us all. I was so sad to learn of her passing a couple of weeks ago. She was definitely a woman who left her mark on this world and that is truly wonderful! I came across this quote of hers and couldn’t wait to create a blog post around it because I couldn’t agree more!

There is so much wisdom that can be gained from listening to the stories of other people. Hearing the personal successes and struggles of others can give you the courage and the strength to overcome obstacles. It can be that extra “push” you need to take a big step or make a major decision. It call pull you out of feeling isolated when you are dealing with some of the heavy blows life sends our way sometimes.

On my Dinner With Nerds Food Blog (now retired), I created a series of interviews with people for this very reason! My “In The Kitchen” and “At The Table” series are interviews I conduct with professional, successful people over dinner/coffee/lunch. I believe we learn more about others in more laid back environments over dinner/coffee/lunch than we do in an office setting or stuffy board room. I know the value of learning from others – their mistakes, successes and journey’s along the way.

Take the time to invite someone for coffee or lunch and invest in learning from their life experiences. We are more alike than we are different! There are common themes we all encounter in everyday life that can be used as inspiration for each other. Let the experience and wisdom of others help you to develop your Leadership skills today!

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

18Jun2014

How Asking Lots of Questions is an Important Component of Effective Leadership

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

How Asking Lots of Questions is an Important

Component of Effective Leadership

Effective Leadership Involves asking a lot of questions!

A crucial component of Leadership Development involves asking the right questions regarding key components of your team’s operations. Questions offer the opportunity for evaluation of what is working and what it not. Organizations and individuals should establish a standard process for asking these questions on a regular basis as they are crucial for professional and Leadership Development. Here are some suggestions……

1.) Question and Evaluate your own leadership skills. How effective are you being with your team? Have you set out a clear plan with target deadlines? Is your plan in writing and easily accessible by your team? Leaders are not born, they are made! You must constantly exercise and strengthen your Leadership muscles through interacting with your team, networking with other leaders to learn what is working for them, reading industry journals and blogs, attending conference, etc.

2.) How is your team responding to you as a Leader? Does everyone understand the vision you’ve set forth as their leader? Are there team members you are having a difficult time connecting with? Organize training or team building activities for your team as an opportunity to develop camaraderie in your working relationship.

3.) How are your team member working with each other to achieve assigned tasks? Is the team on the same page with each other? The same type of team building activities mentioned above, after work-type Happy Hours, in office lunches, etc may be helpful to get team members to develop rapport with each other.

4.) Are your team members feeling valued on the team? What are their goals and motivations within the organization? It’s important to understand that everyone has their own individual career goals. The mark of a good leader is being able to match responsibilities with those goals so that people feel valued in the work they are doing. A mismatch on this level often leads to frustration from team members within an organization.

5.) WHY? It all starts with WHY! Understanding WHY your organization exists, the purpose it serves and the need it works to fill, gets you to your “what”, “how”, “when” and “where”!!!! A organization’s Leadership should constantly remind itself of their WHY and have an open dialogue to ensure its staying true to its value, mission and vision.

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

17Jun2014

A Major Branding Insight from a Trip to Louisville, KY

Posted in Branding, Leadership, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

A Major Branding Insight from a Trip to

Louisville, KY

I was recently in Louisville, KY for the Kentucky College Women’s Leadership Conference held at the University of Louisville as the opening Keynote Speaker – what an absolute honor! It’s a lot of pressure to kick off a major conference, but from the response I received, I think I did pretty well!

Because I’ve been known to get turned around a bit when driving to new places (even with my GPS signaling the way in my car!), I like to arrive to important meetings and events a bit early. My presentation wasn’t until later in the evening on the day I arrived so I checked into my hotel early and ventured around downtown. I dined at a wonderful restaurant I’d heard a lot about and made a mental note of some other places I wanted to come back to and see the next day. Throughout my entire stay in Louisville, I started to take note of the major brands associated with this city. There were horses (statues of horses) everywhere! I saw people walking around with Louisville slugger bats as souvenir’s from the museum. Kentucky Bourbon was at the top of every single menu of every restaurant I visited. Everything was uniquely southern!

CONSISTENCY IN LEADERSHIP & BRANDING– The city of Louisville does a great job of having their hotels, restaurants and small business on board with the major brands present there – Horses, Bourbon and all things southern. There are horses or images of horses everywhere you look. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel like overkill! We all know that Louisville is home to the world-famous Kentucky Derby. When most of us think of the Derby we think of that 1-day annual event on the first Saturday in May. However, the city celebrates The Kentucky Derby year around. I saw statues of horses, portraits of horses, and Kentucky Derby themed cocktails on restaurant menus. The city is CONSISTENT with that brand and everyone from restaurants to hotels, to clothing stores, gift shops, visitor tours, etc reflects that brand.

This started me thinking of the Leadership involved in branding on a smaller scale such as small businesses or individuals crafting personal brands. When crafting a brand, it’s important to ensure that every part of your team understands what you want the brand reputation to say and develop creative ways to effectively communicate that. The way you communicate that message should be consistent, creative and capture the attention of your target audience. I’ve never really been into horses as a passion, but I got on board with the Kentucky Derby concept while I was there because of how the city creates a fun atmosphere around it. I enjoyed it so much that I would love to go back with a group of friends on a food and museum adventure!

Is your Leadership, business, or personal brand as CONSISTENT as you want it to be or feel it should be? If not, what steps can you take, right now, to be more consistent in your message?

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

You can follow her daily #Leadership insights on Twitter @DrCarmenApril

16Jun2014

Why the Overnight Success We Wish For May Not Be So Great After All

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

Why the Overnight Success We Wish For May Not

Be So Great After All

“Success” is a goal most of us have for our lives. In today’s social media culture, we see images of people who seem to have figured it out overnight. There are people everywhere you turn who ‘guarantee’ to show you how to become an overnight success! Please don’t believe the hype! Success doesn’t happen overnight and here are a couple of reasons it probably wouldn’t be a good idea anyway:

1.) Don’t believe the hype – Overnight success is very rare! Even the stories we seem to think about as overnight successes are not really so. Facebook seemed to become part of popular culture over night, but a little research into its history tells a very different story. Facebook today looks nothing like it did when it first started by a Harvard College student. It has taken time to evolve into what it is today.

2.) Too much success and attention before you’re ready can actually be detrimental, especially if you are not prepared. We see way too many young actors and actresses get cast into the limelight before they are really ready for all the fame, attention and criticism. Many of them don’t handle this “overnight success” well and end up with substance abuse issue, run-ins with the law, troublesome family relationships, etc. Part of the hardships that are encountered along the road to success is humbling and offers a more realistic perspective on what success really is. This leads me to the 3rd point………

3.) It’s the small things that matter – The small things you learn on your journey to achieving that personal level of success, however you choose to define it, will probably help you appreciate the success more once you’ve achieved the goal(s). You don’t acquire critical skill sets overnight. This comes through a process of trying new things, testing, failing, succeeding, then trying again.

4.) Anything worth having is worth working for. Not many people are simply handed everything they want on a silver platter. Dedication to your goals and hard work is admirable. It is in this preparation that you really learn how to be a master of your craft and deliver what your customers, clients and teams need and want!

5.) Wisdom develops with time. Just as it takes time to bake a cake from simple ingredients to a finished product, it takes time to produce a great finished project in your career! Think about what happened the last time you tried to skip over some steps when baking your grandma’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe. When you leave out ingredients and steps in the process, the end product turns out to be a mess! Part of what makes Grandma’s famous cookies famous, is the attention to detail and care she puts into creating the finished product!

Remember – there is really no such thing as Overnight Success. It’s ok to look to others for inspiration, but Never Compare Your Beginning to Someone Else’s Middle!

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

11Jun2014

Mastering the Feel, Felt, Found Method for Conflict Resolution

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

Mastering The Feel, Felt, Found Method for Conflict

Resolution

The Feel, Felt, Found Method is a popular sales technique of converting sales objections, but I’ve found it to be helpful when addressing conflict as well!

Here’s how it looks:

FEEL – Acknowledge that you understand how a person feels – This creates empathy and immediately de-escalates a situation by acknowledging the concerns of the other person

FELT – Share a quick example of someone else who has experienced a similar situation or felt a similar way. This reduces isolation and takes the issue from being purely subjective to more objective.

FOUND – Share how a person who felt something similar found the situation to have a positive outcome

Example: “Hi Mark, I understand you feel Susie did not give you a chance to voice your opinion at the meeting this morning. I know others have felt the same way during some of our high intensity meetings in the past. What I’ve found is that Susie has a specific format she likes to follow during those type of meetings so we can cover everything in 30 minutes or less. She will probably be interested in your suggestions if you present them to her one on one.”

It may be helpful to memorize this technique and use it the next time you are working through a conflict with your team. This technique also works really well with conflict in any relationship including those with family and friends!

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

10Jun2014

What a Recent Food Trend Teaches Us About Leadership

Posted in Branding, Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Uncategorized by Dr. Carmen April

What a Recent Food Trend Teaches us About

Leadership

If you cater to everyone, essentially you cater to no one!

There’s a recent food trend around the country that can be examined to illustrate how important it is to define (ie Brand) your Leadership style. I came across this post on Mashable that discusses small businesses carving out a niche for themselves. If you own a small business, are the face of your small business” as a solopreneur or if you hold a leadership role in a larger company, it’s important to understand how finding and establishing what you are really good at, your niche, works to your advantage.

If you cater to everyone, essentially, you cater to No one! – As a leader you must be consistent in those things that make you the best leader you know how to be. While every team you lead will have its own flavor, it’s the direction of the leader that sets the tone for the rest of the group. That’s why it’s important for leaders to Understand their own individual leadership style and Deliver it really well! In this Mashable article, each of these New York City restaurants focuses on one item and becomes really creative with that one item! Who knew you could make grilled cheese so many different ways? What about Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches? These aren’t your 3rd grade lunch box PB&J Sandwiches we’re talking about! Some of these PB&J sandwiches are going for more than $9 each!! Guess what? Customers are paying that price because they know what to expect from the restaurant. They count on the restaurant to be really, really good at PB&J because, essentially, that is what they specialize in!

What does your Leadership brand say about you. Does your team know what to expect from you? Are you consistent in how you deliver visions and measure results? You can’t be everything to everybody. You must narrow in on a a specific leadership style that is true to you and work to become the best reflection of that individual style you can!

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

9Jun2014

The Art of Saying ‘No’ in Business

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success by Dr. Carmen April

The Art of Saying ‘No’ In Business

Last year one of my Op-Ed pieces, The Art of Saying ‘No’ in Business, was featured in YFS Magazine. Because it’s such an important Leadership concept, I am sharing it here as well!

Follow this link to see my article over at YFS!

What are some things you need to say “NO” to, in order to be more productive with your schedule?

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April

Entrepreneur, Podiatric Physician and Leadership Speaker serving to Uplift, Encourage and Inspire

Tag Archives: Leadership Speaker

How to Create An Audience from Scratch

How to Create An Audience From Scratch

Leaders Don’t Have All The Answers

Leaders Don’t Have All the Answers

The 2014 Kentucky College Women’s Leadership Conference

The 2014 Kentucky College Women’s Leadership

Conference

Developing Leadership Through Sharing Wisdom

Developing Leadership Through Sharing Wisdom

How Asking Lots of Questions is an Important Component of Effective Leadership

How Asking Lots of Questions is an Important

Component of Effective Leadership

A Major Branding Insight from a Trip to Louisville, KY

A Major Branding Insight from a Trip to

Louisville, KY

Why the Overnight Success We Wish For May Not Be So Great After All

Why the Overnight Success We Wish For May Not

Be So Great After All

Mastering the Feel, Felt, Found Method for Conflict Resolution

Mastering The Feel, Felt, Found Method for Conflict

Resolution

What a Recent Food Trend Teaches Us About Leadership

What a Recent Food Trend Teaches us About

Leadership

The Art of Saying ‘No’ in Business

The Art of Saying ‘No’ In Business

Follow this link to see my article over at YFS!