Miss Lori wants bloggers to shed their fears and embrace their inner FIREWORK before Blogher

Blogher is right around the corner and you can feel the anticipation in the blogosphere. People are excited. That’s a good thing. I love Blogher. I love the chance to connect with some really lovely people that I don’t get to see regularly. But it’s not just old home week. It’s serious business that requires planning and preparation. [Read more...]

Miss Lori is talking rates; How do I know what I am worth

Okay, it’s time to talk seriously folks. Brands, PR and most especially Bloggers, it’s time to talk worth. Right off the bat let’s get one thing straight…your services are never FREE. Say it with me… “I never work for free!” NEVER! Even when you are doing something “Pro Bono”, you aren’t working for free, you are simply waiving your usual fee. I can hear some of you mumbling, “That’s just semantics Miss Lori.” That may be true, but they are very important semantics, because they speak to your self worth. And let’s be clear, they are not only speaking to you, but to the professional World you are trying to work in. What you think of yourself has a huge effect on what the World thinks of you. If you want the World to take you seriously, to see you as a professional, then act like one. You’ve heard the term “dress for success”? That’s what this is. You are dressing for success.

Now a couple of weeks ago I started by talking about how you should be B.I.G. with brands when you meet them in person. Then earlier this week I talked about the pages you should have on your blogsite. Now we are going to talk about RATES. [Read more...]

Miss Lori wants you to be B.I.G. with brand representatives

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...]