C-SuiteSkimm

Know, Watch, Ponder

"Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence."

Jorge Luis Borges 

Know

Are you comfortable on camera or a deer in the spotlight? Get ready for your CEO close-up.

The next big branding thing is right in front of you. Just look in the mirror. Hello! It's you. You and your internal team, are your biggest assets in building your brand and... Video is fast becoming today's best brand building medium.

What's Inside!

• The next evolution of influencer marketing is to look inward
• Outsider testimonials are table stakes - The CEO and inside team are the most influential spokespeople
• Video is today's most powerful pitching tool by far
• Don't use third party influencers to pitch your brand. External spokespeople can actually detract from authenticity
• Do use third party influencers to expand your audience by reaching theirs and to build credibility through power partnerships

How to use the CEO to power-build your brand

18 Statistics that prove personal branding is worth it

5 Smart reasons to use video marketing

Watch

Yes. AI is going to change everything.

How IBM's Watson Works

This is just mind blowing. Take the time to understand. It's going to rock our world. (10 minutes)

And, like every ground breaking invention, AI is not a magic bullet. It's a bit like ERP in that it will require companies and people to take the time, spend the money, assign the resources to figure out how to use it for best results. There will be infinite ways to design, use and roll out Watson or Einstein (SalesForce's AI) or any form of artificial intelligence. The path to AI ROI will be infinitely customizable and fraught with wrong turns. And for those who get it right, the rewards will be really, really big. What's really cool is that unlike ERP that speaks to the ENTERPRISE (as in the bigger the better), AI will bring big time advantages to companies big and small. Very, very cool!

Ponder

Only click if you're smart ;)

10 Problems Only Smart People Have

What's your "Smart Person" blind spot that's most in-the-way? Here's mine:

• They forget what it's like to be a beginner. As you get more and more advanced in your career (or relationship or business or pretty much anything), it becomes harder and harder to relate to true beginners.
• They want to skip the basics. Too many people think they're too advanced to perfect the fundamentals.

The C-SuiteSkimm is a weekly brief for CEOs and business owners delivering essential news, trends, tips and the occasional "ya-can't-make-this-*!@$#!"-up" story. Go here to get this fun, fast, high-value read delivered to your inbox every Sunday.