In this short podcast, you’ll hear Rhonda explain the benefits of branding for small business.  If you want to build your brand AND your revenue, don’t miss this evening! To register, visit the IABC/Toronto website and look for “Events.” To learn more about Rhonda and “Know Your Difference,” visit her website.

Listen here:
Indy Cast 36.

Are you making the most of the 24 hours you have at your disposal each day? Come out to the PIC meeting on Wednesday evening, May 2, 2012, to learn from productivity expert Ann Max, who will share her insights and help us to set priorities and manage our time effectively.

Listen to this conversation with Ann, where she maintains that: “We deserve to manage our time.”

Indy Cast 35

For more information and to register to attend this meeting, please visit the IABC/Toronto website.

Please check out Ann Max’s website at ProductiveToTheMax.com.

Are you getting all the benefits you can out of your networking efforts – both in person and online? If you think you can be doing more to grow your business with networking, come out to our PIC meeting on Wednesday, April 4 to meet Martin Buckland. Martin heads up Elite Resumes, and he is a leading job search strategist, career coach, award-winning resume writer and fearless networker. He has spoken to our PIC group before, and our attendees rated him very highly.

In this short podcast, Martin shares some of the tips he’ll be presenting on April 4.

Indy Cast 34

Please visit the IABC/Toronto website to learn more and to register for this event.

Hosted by IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators on Feb. 1, Anita provided solid information paired with actionable advice. If you missed it, you can still refine your profile armed with information from

• Sue Horner’s event recap, 10 tips to polish your LinkedIn profile,
• a Storify summary compiled by Donna Papacosta, and
• by listening to this pre-event interview with Anita.

Have a newly-buffed profile you would like to share? Post it in the comments section below.

Is your freelance career still not as lucrative as you’d like? Then join us for our next IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators (PIC) meeting on Wednesday, March 7 at 6 p.m., where three panelists will share their secrets of success:

• Dawn Boshcoff, Principal and Trainer, BOSHnewmedia Communications
• Cathy Ledden, R.G.D., Chief Designer, Ledden Design
• Paul Lima, freelance writer and business writing trainer.

They will cover:

• How to extend your brand into new areas
• How to market yourself to attract the clients you want
• How to generate “passive” income from self-publishing

Register now for this event at the IABC/Toronto website. And in the meantime, listen to this short interview with our three panelists.

Indy Cast 33

Many of us have LinkedIn profiles, but are not taking advantage of all the capabilities of this business-focused social network. At the next meeting of the IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators, we’ll learn tips to rev up those profiles. For example: why you should join groups and post events, how to use the concept of “six degrees of separation” to get to the person you want, and why it’s important to add skills to your profile.
Please listen to this 10-minute interview with our guest speaker, LinkedIn expert Anita Windisman one One of a Kind Marketing.

IndyCast 32.

The meeting is on Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 6 p.m., Metro Hall, Toronto, Room 310. Please register in advance at the IABC/Toronto website. This event is likely to sell out.

Start 2012 with less clutter! Do you have trouble finding files on your computer?  Do you have a consistent method of backing up and archiving your files? Come to the January 12, 2012 meeting of the IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators and learn from professional organizer Deanne Kelleher of KaosGroup.com. She’ll show you how to organize files and folders, how to create your own naming formula, and much more. Let’s all be more organized and less frustrated in the new year!
For more information and to register, visit the IABC/Toronto website. And check out this seven-minute interview with Deanne:
IndyCast 31

But how much do you know about the other people in the room and what they can do for your business – or how you can help them?

Find out who to ask when you need help

“We don’t have specialists down the hall, we have to create our own links,” said Patricia Davies, PIC’s Director of Events. “We’re all in business. We need each other.”

That’s why Dec. 7 is your chance to shine. At “Show, Share, Socialize” you can impress your colleagues what you’ve got. Highlight your award-winning design, talk about that sticky situation you just helped a client through, or hand out excerpts from your upcoming eBook.

How you want to present your business is entirely up to you. By the end of the evening, we hope you’ll have some solid connections that will help your business grow.

Is collaboration a good thing for your independent business? Tune in to this short podcast with Davies and PIC’s chair Donna Papacosta where they talk about the event, ideas and success stories.

If you would like to be part of our showcase, please email Davies to let her know you’re coming.

How to prepare

Marketing your own business not one of your strengths? This is a great event to talk to other successful indies about what works for them. When trying to figure out how to demonstrate your talents:

• Think about your work: “This is who I am, here’s what I do.” How do you do what you do?
• Look at your current or past projects. What can you highlight?
• Bring something tangible. Can you create a handout?
• Remember the basics. Check your supply of business cards and dust off your LinkedIn profile – your information doesn’t need to be glamorous, but you should make sure it’s available.

What are you waiting for?

Not only is this a great opportunity for you to network with your colleagues, it will barely make a dent in your marketing budget: just $12.50 for IABC members or $22.50 for non-members. The show and share will run from 6:30 until 7:30, then we’ll move to the Bell Lightbox for a bit of pre-holiday socializing. Claim your spot and register now!

Details at a glance:

• When: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. (setup at 6:15)
• Where: Room 303, Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, ON
• Socializing at the Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street (corner of John/King)

Listen here: Indy Cast 30

For PIC panelists Susan Crossman, Andrew Schiestel and Amy Sept, the answer is a resounding yes! For both Susan and Amy, social media is their main source of referrals; for Andrew, social media is his business.    

About six months after writer Susan Crossman of Crossman Communications started blogging, people started noticing and contacted her. Susan reports three quarters of her revenue comes directly or indirectly through her social media channels and feels her time spent blogging and on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is more than worthwhile.

Not-for-profit consultant Amy Sept of Nimbyist Communications uses Twitter as both a personal and professional networking tool. For Amy, using social media to communicate is second nature, having being active on message boards before today’s social media tools were invented. Amy told us that all her business leads came to her through social media, including two contracts through Twitter.   

Digital marketing and social media specialist Andrew Schiestel of tbk creative is also an early social media adopter. Andrew spoke about a social media campaign for a law firm that wanted to launch a class action lawsuit. Instead of using costly traditional newspaper or television advertising, Andrew developed a “Take your body back” Facebook campaign, attracting 5,000 followers and enough potential participants for his client to launch the lawsuit.

While reading Andrew’s website, I noticed a law professor remarked this was the first time Facebook was used to attract participants to join a class action lawsuit. PIC members whose clients include litigation lawyers should take note! 

For a more detailed write-up including benefits of being active in social media and dos and don’ts, go to PIC member Sue Horner’s blog post, Social media can be magic.