I just returned from Blogher and boy are my arms tired! (Hee! Hee! that was for Liz Strauss! SMILE!) Actually they are from all of the stretches I was doing at the Go Red For Women Better U Program booth. But that’s another post for later. What I want to talk about here is why I am ENERGIZED. I’m energized because on the expo floor at Blogher I had some really thoughtful, productive conversations with brand representatives from P & G, Pepsico, Nintendo, Johnson and Johnson, Nickelodeon, and 1800Flowers to name a few. Almost all of the representatives were new to me, and only a handful had first hand knowledge of my work on PBS and with Miss Lori’s CAMPUS. So I was going in COLD, as we say in sales. Yes, sales, because that is what I was doing, selling myself. (Wait, that didn’t come out right.) I was selling my BRAND. (That’s better.)

When I visit booths on the expo floor I am shopping for a connection and then I am selling my expertise. I’m not there to grab as much swag as I can, (says the girl with the 48lb suitcase.) No, I am there to do business. Network. Connect. How do I do this? Well there’s a long answer to that short question, which I am going to delve into in a series of posts here over the next few weeks. But for our purposes today I want to talk about one idea. That is to be “B.I.G.” on the expo floor. “What do you mean Miss Lori. I have to wear high heeled shoes?” No, (although I won’t lie to you being tall has it’s advantages in a crowd), you need a “B.I.G.” presence and approach. I will spell it out for you. [Read more...]