In this talk/presentation, we will discuss how to leverage your professional skills along with your brand profile into other business projects. Take your core competencies — those you carried with you into blogging and those you’ve honed while running your blog and social media channels — and position those skills as value-added to others. KEY TAKEAWAYS - Understand the importance of short- and long-term planning and positioning, including thematic leadership. - How to take stock of the skills and brand you’ve developed with your blog and how to value and leverage these for other business opportunities. - How to approach potential clients with a consulting mindset to educate companies on the importance of these skillset and how they can benefit from working with you/your blog. - How to managing business vs. maintaining a blog, including determining your core competencies and opportunities to outsource.

1. Build a Business, Not Just a Blog
Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott, Uncornered Market
UncorneredMarket.com
@UMarket
facebook.com/UncorneredMarket

3. Road Map
! Perspective and thematic
leadership
! Planning
! Leveraging brand & skills
! The consulting mindset
! Managing it all

4. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It
is not the conviction that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out. "
- Vaclav Havel

5. Is it really all about passion?
! Cal Newport: “Don’t follow your passion, cultivate it”
! Malcolm Gladwell: 10,000 hour rule
! Passion drives you to the development of skills
! Good news: anything is possible
! Bad news: TTT (things take time)

6. You Blog = Not an End Point
! Develop skills in building it
! Leverage those skills and brand for related projects
! Become a trusted authority

7. Thematic Leadership
! Hint: should be connected with
What do I want to
passion, values and skills
be
known for? ! Be clear and consistent on
your values and message

8. Planning
! 3 themes for next year
! Set goals (measurable)
! Plan: set markers, how to get there
! Manage expectations, no “overnight”
success
“In preparing for battle I have found that plans are
useless but planning is indispensible” - Eisenhower

9. What do you bring to the table?

10. Brand
! Valuable
! Stay consistent
! Values alignment

12. Bloggers Wear Many Hats
! Content development – writing,
photography, video
! Social media skills
! Authority
! Previous/current professional skills
Don’t take your skills for granted!

13. Don’t Sell Your Skills Short…but
Be Sure You Bring Value
! Evaluate your skills and value that you bring.
! Don’t give everything away for free.
! What is “normal” to you might be magic to others.
! Be creative in applying skills to different industries
! Learn to say no.

14. A Consulting Mindset
! It’s not just about how great you are, but
how great your client can be.
! Ask questions. Listen. Have a vision.
! Expose gaps, create pain points
! Under promise & over deliver.
! Always manage expectations.
! Develop relationships, think long-term
! Plow lessons into product development

15. Orient Yourself for Opportunity
! Biggest opportunities = what’s NOT being done
! Look outside the travel industry
! Proactive vs. Reactive

16. Managing it All: Part 1
! Step back for big picture
! Return on Stability
! Sometimes forgo short-term
gain for long-term growth

17. Managing it All: Part 2
! Time is your most valuable
resource
! Delegate or outsource what’s
not your core competency
! Watch for burn out
! Balance: don’t neglect blog
in exchange for other
projects and vice versa.

18. Key Takeaways
! Consider your blog as something to leverage, not an endpoint.
! Know where you want to go. Build a business plan to help you
get there. But understand that things change.
! Understand the confluence of your skills and passion.
! Stray from the herd. The biggest opportunities are in what’s
currently NOT being done.
! Sacrifice some of the short-term in favor of the long-term.

19. Key Takeaways
! Find shared values and story between you/your blog and
business opportunities.
! Don’t forget to look outside the travel/blog community for
opportunities.
! Value your time. Use it on core competencies, try to outsource
the rest.
! Don’t forget: this is your life.

20. Thank You!
Let’s continue the conversation. Connect with us on:
! UncorneredMarket.com
! info@UncorneredMarket.com
! Twitter.com/umarket
! Facebook.com/UncorneredMarket
! LinkedIn: Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll