Thought Leader Life 026: Guest Jeffrey Hayzlett
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a global business celebrity and former Fortune 100 c-suite executive. From small business to international corporations, he puts his creativity and extraordinary entrepreneurial skills into play, launching ventures blending his leadership perspectives, insights into professional development, mass marketing prowess and affinity for social media.
Jeffrey is a leading business expert, cited in Forbes, SUCCESS, Mashable, Marketing Week and Chief Executive, among many others. He shares his executive insight and commentary on television networks like Bloomberg, MSNBC, and Fox Business. Jeffrey appeared as a guest celebrity judge on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump for three seasons. He is executive producer of a number of global television projects and Celebrity Editor of the largest circulation social media and business magazines in the world. With a strong following in business and social media communities, he’s recognized as one of the Top 10 c-suite Twitterers and a key influencer in the social media landscape.
Jeffrey is author of 2 bestselling business books The Mirror Test and Running the Gauntlet, which received critical acclaim and are on numerous bestseller lists.
In this episode, Mitchell and Michael mark their sixth month on air by featuring one of the show’s most popular guests so far, #ThoughtLeader Jeffrey Hayzlett. Joking about being upset that he is the 26th, rather than the first, #ThoughtLeader to be interviewed on the show, Jeffrey takes comfort knowing that he is in fact Thought Leader Life’s half-year inaugural guest, as pointed out by Mitchell.
Many years ago, Jeffrey introduced the word “activate” to Mitchell who later on made it a ‘buzz’ word in #ThoughtLeadership. In the interview, Jeffrey discusses what activate means and why he thinks an expert or an author should be activated to really be a #ThoughtLeader. It’s not enough that you publish a book or get your thoughts out there; people should buy it, talk about it and move or take action because of it. Quoting his own public relations firm’s adage: “If you’re going to roll with the big dogs, you got to learn to pee in the tall grass” (http://www.tallgrasspr.com), Jeffrey says the key is to activate a thought-provoking conversation among individuals and communities with your content.
Jeffrey also shares his secret in building a good fan base and developing advocates: he treats people the way he likes to be treated. This means he follows back people who follow him and personally responds to people who take the time to send him a message, negative or positive. A word of caution, though – when you ask something from Jeffrey, make it direct to the point. Jeffrey is a person who doesn’t like to have coffee (he really doesn’t drink coffee!) and have a little chit chat. Tell him what you want from him straight out and he would respect that directness and he would gladly extend help because, as he puts it, he has this “servant mentality” in which he would always want to help others any way he can.
Jeffrey also talks about the Thought Leadership Funnel (http://www.thinkaha.com/thoughtleadershipfunnel) and discussed the next step to building advocates. For Jeffrey, it’s all about adding ‘zeroes’ and understanding that ‘there’s always someone out there who’s bigger than you are’. Finally, Jeffrey shares some interesting and surprising twists behind Bloomberg’s #1 primetime reality show C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett (http://www.bloomberg.com/videos/csuite). Connecting the premise of this show to #ThoughtLeadership, Jeffrey notes that what the show has proven is that transparency really works. He also talks about his newest project the C-Suite Network which he describes as “LinkedIn on steroids” where C-Suite executives can share and interact online, participate in a conference or take up a course in the c-suite academy. Jeffrey and Mitchell share insights about the recently held C-Suite Network Conference and the great speakers that were featured there. Who was Jeffrey’s favorite speaker at the conference? Mitchell was surprised about Jeffrey’s answer.
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Here are a couple of aha moments from the episode. See more in the “Aha Moments from Thought Leader Life” books available in the THiNKaha App: http://AhaAmplifier.com/.
- I learn from you, you learn from me, we learn together; our boats rise! @JeffreyHayzlett
- Be direct to the point. I’ll respect that a lot more than a bluff. @JeffreyHayzlett
- Activate means not just getting a brand out of the things you say. It’s about having advocates who share your content. @happyabout
- Keep adding zeroes in terms of your advocates and followers. @JeffreyHayzlet
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