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Speaker 1: Welcome to before breakfast, a production of I heart radio.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, this is Laura. Welcome to the before breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is to collect pithy praise. social proof is powerful,

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Speaker 1: and having a few short testimonials is a great way

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Speaker 1: to convince others that they should work with you. I

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Speaker 1: write books for a living, and whenever we're getting ready

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Speaker 1: to publish a new one, we go through the process

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Speaker 1: of collecting blurbs. These are the short statements of praise

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Speaker 1: that you read on the back cover of a printed book.

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Speaker 1: The idea is to get other authors or famous people

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Speaker 1: to say that the book is good. In theory, potential

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Speaker 1: readers who like those other people's work will then be

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Speaker 1: convinced that this book is worth reading. Now, collecting blurbs

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Speaker 1: can sometimes be a painful process. You are hitting people

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Speaker 1: up for professional favors. I always feel a little weird

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Speaker 1: doing this, which is why I write blurbs for a

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Speaker 1: lot of other people's books. I'm so grateful for everyone

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Speaker 1: who has helped me and I want to pay that forward.

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Speaker 1: But whether it feels painful or not, I do get

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Speaker 1: why we keep doing it. That's because social proof is powerful.

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Speaker 1: How do I know? I want to work with anyone.

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Speaker 1: How do I know that someone is really an expert

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Speaker 1: on something? How do I know if somebody is worth

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Speaker 1: my time or money? In many cases there is no

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Speaker 1: objective standard. But if I know that other people or

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Speaker 1: institutions with some credibility have trusted this person, then it

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Speaker 1: makes sense that I should too. If I am hiring

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Speaker 1: a writer for a project, someone who has written for

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Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal seems like a better bet than

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Speaker 1: someone who hasn't. If I am looking are an expert

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Speaker 1: on a topic, someone who is a professor at a

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Speaker 1: major research institution seems more in credible than someone who isn't.

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Speaker 1: And if I am looking to read a book, if

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite authors has said that it's great,

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Speaker 1: I am more likely to trust that it is so.

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Speaker 1: That is why book authors collect these short bits of

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Speaker 1: pithy praise. But you don't have to write books to

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Speaker 1: find this a worthwhile endeavor. Everyone can collect blurbs for

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Speaker 1: their work. People do some of this with linkedin testimonials,

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Speaker 1: which is great, but you can even think of this

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Speaker 1: outside of that format. When you work with someone and

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Speaker 1: you both enjoy it, each of you can write up

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Speaker 1: a short statement of exactly what was so great about

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Speaker 1: the other person. Start keeping a file of these short statements.

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Speaker 1: If your manager is okay with it. Any short statements

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Speaker 1: of praise from reviews or from end of project debriefs

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Speaker 1: can wind up in this file too. You could loop

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Speaker 1: in people you've worked with in other capacities as well.

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Speaker 1: Volunteer organizations totally count. If you have successfully reworked the

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Speaker 1: new member outreach process at your house of worship, a

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Speaker 1: statement from your pastor about that could also go into

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Speaker 1: your blurb file. These files then become helpful when you

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Speaker 1: are aiming to do something new in life. You can

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Speaker 1: bring them out when applying for a job. Blurbs would

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Speaker 1: be a great addition to a cover letter. You can

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Speaker 1: bring them out if you decide to apply for any

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Speaker 1: awards or if you're going for a promotion or anything

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Speaker 1: like that. It might not push you over the top,

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Speaker 1: but it's probably not going to hurt to have quoted

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Speaker 1: evidence of how great you are. We are all looking

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Speaker 1: to see what other people think. Decision makers like to

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Speaker 1: know that other people have voted for you too. When

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Speaker 1: you collect short bits of pithy praise, you can show

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Speaker 1: that very well in the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening and here's to making the Moose of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on twitter, facebook and instagram at before breakfast pod.

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Speaker 1: That's B e, the number four, then breakfast P O d.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at before breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iheartmedia dot com. That before breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I heart radio. For more podcasts from I heart radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the I heart radio APP, apple podcasts or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah, yeah,