A winning pitch

In the late 90s, K-Pop started getting international fame when artists like Clone made it to China and other Asian countries. Then in 2002, during the soccer World Cup, BoA topped the charts in Japan.

In 2008, K-Pop made strides across the western world with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, making itself available on international platforms.

The perfect storm happened in 2012, when a Korean record by Psy, became an international Youtube phenomenon with over 1 billion views at that time(now 3.5 billion views).

K-pop wasn’t just a flash in the pan, and the Korean music producers knew how to package catchy music, doll-face models as stars, colourful backgrounds and great dance moves

According to the theory of the Six Degrees Of Separation, we all are only a few people away from everyone else.

Embrace your friends' references and contacts to get to know people that can help you in your professional pursuits.

If you don't know anyone, a brilliant strategy is to provide free talks and seminars, and in the process build a completely organic list of people who connect with you and know your work.

To become a more effective communicator, you must 'smoke out' original thought. Rather than conforming to the status quo, make a conscious decision to abandon overdone and clichéd material/

Citing tired platitudes might win you a few "cool points" in social media circles, but they will only take you so far if you're truly striving to effectuate change. 

Once you’ve developed a fresh idea, work on organizing your message and polishing your delivery. Think about:

• How  you will launch a stunning opening and closing line
• How you will organize your material succinctly so that it is both moving and memorable (perhaps tweetable and repeatable)
• Compelling details that should be included.
• Your vocal and non-verbal communication (body language).

An executive needs those she leads to translate strategic insights into choices that drive results. For people to commit to carrying out an executive’s strategic thinking, they have to both understand and believe in it. But repeated explanations don’t necessarily increase people’s understanding and ownership of strategy. Making them discuss the pros and cons of it make it so the problem is better understood and flaws are identified and fixed increasing ownership for success.

When someone is promoted into a function that requires strategic leadership it’s easy to spend time fixing what was wrong in their previous function but that often isn’t what the strategic leadership position requires. So, identify the strategic requirements of your job and focus on them.

Relationships with supervisors can be powerful motivators.

Enough personal information as to make yourself seem more relatable provided at an appropriate time might just be the key to a future successful career.

Introducing yourself as the new leader of a team can be pretty challenging, as people will want to know more about yourself as well as about your plans in regards to the future of the company.

Explain patiently why you chose this path and how you plan on improving the chosen department. Employees also appreciate it when you explain why your new position is integral to your story and, most important, how your direct reports play a critical role in that story.

Steve Jobs's intro sentences were so great because they clearly outlined what the product did while creating intrigue.

Rather than rambling on, he used them to perfectly convey his message as compactly as possible.

Examples of one sentence summaries of the product he was presenting: "Mac Book Air: the world's thinnest notebook", and "iPod: One thousand songs in your pocket."

Whether you're networking or presenting, it's important to realize that it should never be a one-sided conversation.

Your audience is in the room for a particular reason. It's critical to understand why they're listening to you so you can tune your presentation in a manner that makes them more receptive listeners,

You’ve settled on your idea and transformed it into an offer. To convince your ideal customers to consume it, know your promises, pitch and prices, and have a short explanation of why your offer matters.

Aim to understand each action, deliverable, resource, and tool you need to launch and then follow through with it. Creating a schedule and sticking to it will help here.

Decide whether to keep investing time in this project or head back to week two and try a different one instead. Knowing when to quit and when to keep going is key to making any side hustle successful.

Even if you decide to abandon the project and choose something else, the experience you’ve gained will help you be more successful with the next one.

A growth mindset is a belief that anyone can change their talents, abilities, and intelligence. Those with a growth mindset:

• take on challenges
• take advantage of feedback
• use the most effective problem-solving strategies
• provide developmental feedback
• is persistent in accomplishing goals

Conversely, those with a fixed mindset believe that talents, abilities and intelligence can't be improved.

Leaders with a learning mindset are motivated to increase their competence and master something new.

A performance mindset desires to gain favorable judgments about competence and avoid negative judgements.

We let our planning focus on the tasks associated with the job. But we don't take into account all the aspects of our job.

Interacting with people can be part of the broader scope of your job. It means that interruptions are not actually non-productive aspects. They are actions that should get folded into the plan for each day.

Some interruptions cannot be avoided. But, we can talk to people in advance about the best times to pop in. We can also schedule a time when we will not be available and would prefer not to be disturbed.