Expert in the Rough, Brian Monahan

Donny Deutsch is on the line and he wants you to be on his show “The Big Idea.” You start rifling through your pile of napkins and scrap paper, but your “Big Idea” is nowhere to be found.  Donny hangs up.  You have just missed an opportunity to work with the “Oprah of Entrepeneurs.” You start to cry, but you’re a serial idea junky and you pull out a napkin, note to self, “Create a better way to take notes.”

You  missed the boat again because Jott.com found your napkin.

Jott is a very powerful and free internet application that allows you to  combine the powers of phone, email and text messaging.  I recommend it for the Expert in the Rough crowd to document their ideas.  This does not replace the “Super Cool Journal” but compliments it.

My favorite way to use Jott is to email myself ideas or notes when I am driving.  (Please don’t hate, I will be careful.)  Often times when I am driving I have an idea and I am not able to write it down.  I simply have Jott.com’s phone number stored into my cell phone.  When you call Jott it will ask who you want to Jott.  You say myself or whoever you want to Jott and speak your message.  It will confirm it recieved your message.  You hang up and it will email or text you the message.

You also have the ability to text or email others, create lists, text groups, set reminders and other powerful features.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on tutorial which you can get at Jott. com but I did have a few tips.

Set yourself up with multiple personal boxes.  If you load your cell phone number and email address into Jott it will send you both.  To save on text messaging, I created another contact for myself with an email address only.  I also like to use Jott to send text messages to people who I know are in meetings and can’t answer their phone but can view a text message.  You can also set up reminders if you are a person who loses track of time.

The opportunities and ideas are endless.  Just be sure to Jott them down.

Alec Baldwin said it best with his famous line from the film Glengarry, Glen Ross, “Coffee is for Closers.”

MySpace & Facebook are for the kids, Linkedin is for Professionals, “The Closers.”  Before you do anything else online you must take a look at your LinkedIn profile.  Oh you don’t have a LinkedIn profile.  Then you’re fired.

LinkedIn now has over 24 million registered users.  These are professional users.  Not a bunch 20 something kids living at home extending their youth with a subsidized broadband connection.  24 Million professional users who can make or break your career.

Recently LinkedIn was valued at 1 Billion Dollars and you don’t even have a profile or have taken no steps to optimize it.

Well you are in luck.  Just like the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, the company has provided leads.  If you are a “Closer” you can have the leads, if not then you will just have to stick with MySpace.

Here is your lead: Linkedin Strategies for Closers

If you feel up to it add me as a contact:

Here is a link to the Closer Clip if you feel up to it.  There is plenty of cussing, but closers can handle it.

By the way your assigment for this weeks Momentum Monday is:

Set up your LinkedIn Profile:

If you already have a profile be sure to use one of the power features such as Public Profile, Answers or LinkedIn Groups.

Extra Credit:

Add me as a connection, reference my blog Expert in the Rough with the “What I am Doing Now” feature or make a recommendation.

Be sure to comment with your successes.

Before you even get started on this journey to becoming an expert you need to know where you are.

Google yourself.

Can you be found?

What comes up?

What do you want to come up?

Who is your competition?

This is your first report card to being known as an expert.  If you did not make the first page of results.

You pretty much got an F.

Lets talk about how you can improve your grades next week.