A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rod Alan Richardson, Business Consultant and Trainer. He supported what I believe and what so many other successful entrepreneurs have proven: That the time it takes to deliver value and the amount of money received for that value don’t necessarily have a direct relationship. Expediency and quality is a powerful combination. By the way, some of Rod’s cool deliverables include the following:

• Escalated an equipment manufacturer from $5 Million to $12 Million in 9 months
• Built an Ecommerce business from idea to $30 Million in 18 months creating partnerships and leading strategies that attracted 3 million visitors per month
• Designed a marketing strategy that attracted a $20 million capitalization into an Internet Technology company

He shared some great strategies that will help you not only increase your business productivity in less time but also create more value in the process.

I was so energized and inspired by his wisdom, and I hope you will be too. Click here, and give it a listen!

Mike’s Target audience is actually young (age 18-26ish) entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs (with a sense of humor!) who are at the beginning stages of getting their businesses off the ground, but even as a Gen-Xer who has been in business for five years as a productivity and small business coach, I was engaged from start to finish.

Mike’s tell-it-like-it is approach cuts out the fat and gets right to the meat regarding your passions, belief systems, vision, mission, purpose, funding (and how to hang on to your equity!), accountability, and team without having to shell out a lot of upfront cash or create an elaborate business plan. His calls-to-action at the end of each chapter are quite appealing as well.

He discusses in depth the only “Three Sheets” you’ll ever need to succeed in business if and ONLY IF you implement and be consistent in your efforts (and he even shares the templates in Word format for these three documents on his site http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/ in the resource section).

Have an open mind if you’re not one for bathroom humor and metaphors because you will completely miss the point if you don’t, I promise you. Even if you’re not a beer drinker or a party animal, there is an immense amount of wisdom joined with all sorts of practical strategies and tactics to go with the suggested tech tools (many of them free) to get you off and running or improving on your existing business.

And if you’d like to listen to him share some of his strategies today (12/17) at 3pm ET, please feel free to listen live and participate in the chat at http://blogtalkradio.com/Productivity-Talk. If you can’t be there live, it’s okay. Just grab the MP3 from the archive whenever you get a chance.

Hope to see you there, and I hope you buy the book!

Carol Dickson-Carr
The Productivity 3.0 Professor

The first time I realized I was taking knowledge for granted was in high school when I discovered that not everyone in band could play by ear (I played clarinet, flute, and sax, by the way–a woodwinds girl). I recall asking fellow band members to join me by accompanying what was playing on a random boom box at the time (probably some really overplayed Duran Duran song), and they looked at me like I had three heads because I didn’t have sheet music on the fly.

Even 20+ years later, I’ll sometimes forget what people know and don’t know even on things I’m not naturally gifted at but had immersed myself in the learning of the skill so much that it had migrated into the “unconscious competence” category. I am grateful to the clients and students who remind me when it happens.

Like today: And let me put forth a disclaimer first-I’m still in the continuous learning process myself about Twitter but at the same time consider myself quite a bit beyond the one-eyed woman leading the blind. I co-led a call today with Bea Fields on demystifying the use of Twitter for business. I intended to take one approach, but spontaneously decided to take into consideration the knowledge base of the participants starting from scratch.

We still discussed strategies, tactics, useful time-saving Twitter tools, and etiquette once the relevant people were set up and making their debut on Twitter… and a good time was ultimately had by all! If you’re still ambivalent about how Twitter can be worth your while in your business, then download the call we did today (below).

Also, read Bea’s Top 7 Strategies for Building Out Your Business Using Twitter and her cool list of Twitter tools to get you started. Enjoy!