Only the dead have seen the end of gluttony.

With apologies to Plato. Unless you are skinny as a post don’t read this one. Read on if you need a reason to win the war with your weight. It’s not what you think.

Candy Crowley from CNN can get away with it. Rush Limbaugh did for a while.

But not you. Even though one-third of Americans are overweight and trending heavier, this should not be an excuse for you, the small business owner.

As you become a heavyweight in your business you will be speaking on radio and TV. And even on radio, you will have a publicity shot to advertise your interview. You better look good.

And as a public figure, you will soon learn the inverse rule that rules show bizziness:

The more weight you carry, the more you will be seen as a light weight.

Isn’t this, well, profiling? Is this fair? Would it be right to judge a book by its cover?

Nope. Not fair.

But why is this? My favorite answer comes from Joan Lindsey, a world class instructor from (where else?) LA.

Here’s the insensitive question: Is there a poundage penalty?

Lindsey uses a world-class vocabulary, dealing with micro and mass persuasion. She says that the most effective spokespersons must have:

Lean Body Mass

This is the issue framing that commands not-so-lean consulting fees.

The Lean Body Mass person is perceived as energetic, believable, smart. The not-Lean Body Mass (if you know what I mean, and I think you do) person is perceived as lethargic, deceitful, dull.

Always? Camryn Manheim won an Emmy. Churchill won a war.

Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. Go figure, so to say. And it didn’t seem to hurt their believablity.

Or maybe it helped her. Being overweight “symbolizes an inability to control oneself or to maintain personal health.”

The Boston Globe quotes Myrna Marofsky who runs a diversity consulting firm ‘’Size generates subtle biases as well as blatant ones…You might hear, ‘If she would just lose 25 pounds, she would have a better chance at that promotion.’”

And this is just not fair.

However, the purpose of this post is not self-esteem. BigFatBlog can do that and argues persuasively on the world of overweight.

I am concerned less about your psyche than your gravitas. What counts is that you, as the small business owner, are able to be liked, able to sell, to persuade.

Lean Body Mass sells. And communicates.

But didn’t Jackie Gleason communicate?

Indeed, but as Shakespeare’s ‘fat knight’ Falstaff says in Henry IV, “I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”

Unless you are running a small business comedy club, it might be best not to have people laugh at you.

David Lakhani and Jeffery Gitomer in their book Persuasion, write on this, perhaps subconsciously,

Over Sunday brunch you and your spouse decide it is time to buy a new car. You want something newer than you have, but you don’t want to spend the money for a brand-new model year car, so as you eat, you hear those magic words on the television from an overweight, mutton-chopped used-car salesman…

Emphasis mine.

Your Business Blogger can provide advice on most any topic — I will not pretend to tell anyone how to lose weight. Goodness, even marathon runner and blogger Brad Feld complains about losing that last 10 pounds.

But I can say that persuasive communication and selling is a thin person’s competitive advantage.

Creditable, likeable, believable. Your job is to sell.

At every meal, think, Lean Body Mass.

I hope to take your appetite away, and perhaps give you something better.

Posted by Jack Yoest | Comments (4) | Permalink

You think you’re ready to consider attracting venture capital and want to know more about the process and get the real scoop from a VC’s perspective?

Today you are in luck. This show features Cathy Panzica of Panzica Investments who runs her own investment firm and brings to our show over 20 years of global investment and acquisition experience.

Most of us realize we only get so many shots at going for venture capital and we want to make the best use of our and the investors time, therefore preparation is key.

Treat your preparation for this important endeavor with the same passion you treat your business. Take the time, right now and listen to this show. Cathy pulls no punches and tells it like it is from the investor point of view.

Learn What Investors Look For in Startups

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (0) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the Podcast, Fireside Chat with Lisa Haneberg.

Description: Here you will find business management podcasts and webcasts that you can download and listen to - all absolutely free.

Comments: With over 20 existing, 30 minute podcasts Lisa has a great deal of valuable content. In each podcast Lisa interviews a guest who may be an author, a consultant or business owner. She covers a wide variety of topics such as:

- Creating strong middle-management
- How to identify and harness strong leaders
- How to manage change
- How to be a role model of good focus
- and much more

Each show is well planned and organized to best use your time. Music intros are used effectively and all guests seem well prepared.

Pluses: The site is a very clean design, podcast links are obvious and the audio begins to stream and play almost immediately. RSS subscription links are front and center and each podcast has a nice summary paragraph with show information. The real strength is where it should be, in the audio content and Lisa is a good interviewer.

Minuses: There is no ability to provide comments or feedback on the podcasts. The sound quality could be better as captured phone calls can sometimes be problematic.

Overall I recommend that you give the Fireside Chat with Lisa Haneberg a listen and add it to your directory of business podcasts.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

This weekend I had the chance to sit at the feet of Brent Bozell, who runs the Media Research Center. He spoke on new media and reported that the future of news and information will be delivered through broad-band. Old mainstream media are dinosaurs, and at least one — CBS? will be out of business within a decade. Brent reminded us that most everything we need, we will get online.

And it’s not just our news and entertainment that we will get. We will get our stuff. Our merchandise. We will do our shopping online.

Jordan Williams writes New On Line Shopping Trends in Webpro.com:

The Department of Commerce recently stated that the total eCommerce sales for 2005 were $86.3 billion and that is an increase of 24 percent over 2004. A 24 percent increase in one year for people that are making online purchases!

Charmaine, the wife of Your Business Blogger, is a case study on Jordan’s post. We were replacing our elliptical trainer. She researched products online. And found an interesting company — and believable testimonials.

So we bought the Smooth Fitness piece of hardware last month. One of the benefits of the online company was follow-up and attention to detail — even though this was not a face-to-face relationship.

Recently, I received a follow-up phone call from the Smooth Fitness Director of Customer Experience, Keith Menear. We talked about the terrific Smooth Fitness CE 3.2 Elliptical Trainer machinery, my smooth online purchasing experience, the constant follow-up and Smooth Fitness touches.

Actually, Keith let me do all the talking, which is how I prefer to do business anyway. I subtly let on how I am a world famous, very influential blogger.

Keith brightens audibly — I could see the light coming through the cell phone, “Are you the Purple Cow guy?”

I tense up, “What?”

“You know,” says Keith, smiling. “The blogger who wrote Purple Cow?”

“Who?”

Keith is excited, “Yes, the staff let me know this author…”

“–Never heard of him–”

“…who just bought one of our ellipticals.”

Time to surrender. “Oh, I guess you mean that struggling marketer, Seth Godin.”

“Yes, that’s him! The staff is psyched — Seth Godin just placed an order.”

“Well, I guess he has some name recognition…would be great for your business…?”

Keith is floating off his Aeron. “Right, I hear he’s quite a superstar.”

“I suppose…well, this is nice Keith. Now, what can I do for you?”

Keith pauses, distracted. “What was your name again…?”

[sigh]

In any event, customer service was outstanding. The Dude, a pre-teen in my Penta-Posse, read the directions (something I’ve never done before), followed the directions (something I’ve never asked for) and completed the assembly and had me working out in an hour. Silent and smooth as silk. Proving Seth Godin was right about marketers being liars. Or wrong.

Your Business Blogger has very simple tastes; the best in everything. I have noticed, however, a near fatal flaw in the Smooth Fitness product. Shared unfortunately, with my old Mercedes: there is no place for a coffee cup. (The only thing that ever had a cupholder was my computer…)

And please understand that Smooth Fitness products are frightfully expensive. And worth every dime.

And that’s no lie.

###

This is an unpaid endorsement.

Posted by Jack Yoest | Comments (0) | Permalink

You know you have it, but how to achieve it is the question.

What I am talking about? Your businesses growth potential of course.

How do you best chart the course to achieve the growth you know is possible? What have other successful small businesses done to achieve their growth? What is the best way to achieve that insight and support?

Most importantly, how do I accomplish all this in an affordable and time effective manner?

Fortunately on this weeks show our guest is Stephen MacGill. Steve is the CEO & Founder of PeerSight. Steve discusses how to identify and overcome the obstacles that are preventing your business from growing.

If you want to grow your business then make the time investment now to listen to Steve’s expert advice on how to Unlock Your Growth Potential

UPDATE: Be sure to read Steve MacGill’s backstory about the fire alarm that went off during the show — we can laugh about it now. Anita writes about it too, in Averting Disaster As a Small Business Owner.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (0) | Permalink

Do you have an interest in becoming a virtual freelancer and working on projects or tasks as an independent contractor?

Does the idea of home-based freelancing appeal to you and would you like to find out more about how to find opportunities, filter through the 90% of home-based business schemes that are really scams and learn about the real work that is available?

Then this is the show for you, our guest is Michael Haaren, Co-Founder of Staffcentrix and Editor of the Rat Race Rebellion, a weekly bulletin of screened, home-based freelance projects and jobs. (www.2secondcommute.com)

Michael shares his insight about the trends, the advantages and the pitfalls of being a home-based freelancer or what we call virtual-freelancer.

Michael has even made a special offer to all Small Business Trends Radio visitors and listeners.

Until October 12 go to this link: SPECIAL OFFER and enter the discount code SMBSHOW and save 15% off the subscription price of The Rat Race Rebellion.

Listen and learn more about Becoming a Virtual Freelancer

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the Podcast, Great Big Small Business Show.

Description:Your small business is our passion. We’re dedicated to providing tools and ideas for you.

Comments: This is a really interesting idea, this podcasts takes inputs from 5 or more individual contributors and weaves them together into one podcast. Each week there is a different theme addressed by the various content providers. (what some of us call this is a mash-up)

Some of the topics addressed in the podcast are: organization, delegation, customer service, networking and more. Each contributed segment is no longer than 5 minutes meaning the entire show averages 30-35 minutes.

Pluses: The quality of the audio is well done and the host Becky McCray does an excellent job of hosting and facilitating the flow from each segment.

I also like the fact that the audio plays immediately from a link on the site, or I can launch it to play in a seperate window or a link for downloading is supplied at the end of each podcast post. RSS feeds, comments, archives are all clearly evident.

As a plus almost all segments come with accessable notes or transcript of the content so you can have a take away to use if the information is of real value to you.

Finally, a really nice touch is a phone number listed to provide feedback or inputs, I have not seen this on any other podcast. Listener feedback what a concept!

Minuses: I cannot control my location in the podcast in the player provided, sometimes I like to fast forward or rewind to get to a particular content area.

Overall I highly recommend that you give add the Great Big Small Business Show to your arsenal of must listen podcasts.

Truth in Reviewing Statement: I must inform you that I am a contributor to this podcast.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (0) | Permalink