Some great personal news below this awesome George Michael video.

Last June, 2010, HARO was acquired by Vocus, Inc. It was a great day, and the perfect culmination to an amazing three years of building the best PR repository in the entire world. In just under 30 months, HARO turned from something I’d send to friends into a game changer – something that thousands upon thousands of people relied on each day to get publicity, exposure, and grow their businesses. It was massive.

Over time, I noticed that the number of PR firms using HARO peaked at “all of them,” and the number of small businesses using HARO kept growing at a rapid, rapid pace. And it occurred to me – small businesses really have two choices when it comes to growing their company from a marketing perspective. Do it themselves, where they may or may not succeed, or hire an agency, and hope for the best.

Both those options have their own benefits. I’ve worked with some of the best agencies in the world, as well as some of the smartest internal marketing teams known to man.

However, on the flip side, I’ve also consulted with companies who have come to me beyond angry, for they’ve found themselves having spent lots and lots of money, either for no deliverables, or for deliverables so far off the mark, that they’ve actually hurt the company in the long run.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what can be done to help the small businesses of the world with marketing. It’s easy to help large businesses. When Saudi Aramco wants marketing help, they throw me on a plane to Saudi Arabia, and I help them.

When a mom and pop bakery want to grow their small, three person business, or want to dip their toe into social media, or figure out how to reach the media, it’s a bit harder. How do they find the right person to help them? How do they know whether or not to trust that person? And finally, how do they know they’re doing it right?

End result? Small businesses, which make up what, something like 97% of the United States economy, need some serious marketing help.

That time has come.

As you can read in this release issued this morning, I’m happy to announce that I’m joining Vocus as Vice President and Small Business Evangelist. In this newly created position, I’ll be helping the more than 30,000 small businesses around the world who utilize Vocus in any capacity, how to grow their business through smart marketing, smart use of PR, advertising, and yes, even social media.

From a bigger perspective: I’ll still be consulting, speaking all over the world, blogging, tweeting, bothering Meagan on a daily basis, and doing all the other fun things I do. I’ll still be writing the HARO, five days a week. I’ll still be based in New York City, and still have NASA the Wonder Cat by my side.

But – Now I’ll have the power of a huge, publicly traded company behind me. I’ll have hundreds of brilliant Vocus employees to whom I can turn, and as important, I’ll have the spectacular suite of tools from Vocus to offer clients around the world. These include PRWeb, HARO, NorthSocial, Engine 140, and a host of other tools and products designed to simplify, enhance, and grow any company’s marketing presence.

It’s going to be a fun, fun ride. Keep watching. We’re going to have a bunch of new and exciting news coming down the pike in future weeks and months. I for one, am excited as anything for this new change. I hope you are, too.

As always, thanks for reading. Thoughts? I want to hear them below.

There are certain things you don’t do in this world: Abuse an animal. Make any attempt to get any TSA official to smile. And also, you never pay a consultant or company to acquire new Twitter followers for you. They’re not real, and they won’t help you in the long run.

By itself, the number of Twitter followers you have is the new penis envy. If that sounds familiar, it should – I’ve said it before. But with new “consultants” popping up all over the place guaranteeing you “2,000 new followers in 30 days” in exchange for your credit card number, I believe it’s time to revisit the subject.

1) Quality will always trump quantity. I’ll take 500 interested, engaged, active, and contributing-to-the-conversation Twitter followers over 50,000 from whom I never hear back any day. In fact, (and I mentioned this before, too,) when I have some occasional free time, I’ll DM some followers I’ve never heard from before, asking them if I can change anything to make their experience of following me more beneficial. If I don’t hear back, or if they continue not to respond to anything I tweet, I no longer count them as a “real” follower in my mind. In some cases, I’ve suggested that some followers unfollow me, and based on what they’re tweeting about, follow other, more relevant Twitter users, instead. It’s never about the amount. It’s about the engagement of those you have.

1a) – Remember – By default, high engagement from the followers you do have almost guarantees new followers daily, since they’ll be people who have seen your current followers engaging you – thus, they become interested in what you have to say. This is the best kind of follower, an organic follower. Getting organic followers should always be your goal, because they’re born from you tweeting interesting and exciting content. I can guarantee you that paying for followers will not generate one single organic follower. Expecting it to is like expecting a prostitute to want to come home the next morning to meet your family. There’s no reason for them to, since it was always a business transaction, and nothing more.

2) Here’s the number one, time tested, best way to get new, organic followers: Respect the followers you currently have! My favorite line of all time, and I say it often: Having an audience who actually wants to listen to what you have to say is a privilege, not a right, just like wearing Spandex. You have the privilege of having an audience who wants to engage with you, and you must respect that. That means listening to what they have to say more than you ask them to listen to you. It means holding contests and giving away free (quality) product or discounts to the audience you currently have, and not insulting and ignoring them by holding weekly “our next follower/fan gets a free thingamabob!” contests. You’ve worked hard to have the right to talk to the audience you have. Why would you, as soon as you get them, ignore them, looking for the next one? It’s like those people we’ve all met at networking events: As you’re introducing yourself to them, you can’t catch their eyes, because they’re already scanning the room for the next possible introduction who they think might be better than you. Insulting as hell, isn’t it? Well, by constantly focusing on trying to get that next new follower/fan and not giving props to the ones you have, you’ve become that guy to your audience. Don’t become that guy.

3) So the logical question then becomes “well, if you’re telling us to only focus on the followers/fans we have, how do we attract new ones?” And it’s a valid question, with an even more valid answer. Your job is no longer to do your own PR. For years, it was. For years, you were the one charged with shouting from the rooftops how totally awesome your company was, and getting people to listen and believe you. Those days are over. That’s no longer your job. If you’re still doing that, you’re wasting your time.

Your new job is simply thus: Create such amazing experiences for your current customers and audience, with stellar customer service, amazing response to them, and spectacular content tailor-made for the audience you already have, and your current audience will take over your job AND DO YOUR PR FOR YOU!

Think about it – Your audience, if treated beyond well (think awesomely,) will go out and share how happy they are with their audience, and well, simply put, chances are, that’ll convert some of their audience over to you, and you’ve got an organic follower, who’s so much more likely to turn into a paying customer for you.

It’s no longer about you having to shout about your awesomeness. It’s about allowing an audience who for the first time has the tools to do it themselves, to go out and do it. And you’re not asking them to – you’re not begging – you’re not asking them to “vote for your page,” or any of that crap we see so often. You’re simply offering such an amazing service, product, and in the end, full experience, that they do it on their own, because they want to share their story.

Think about the last time your flight was late. Remember when you finally landed? You and everyone else on the plane pulled out your mobile phones and bitched. Didn’t matter who you called, you just needed to bitch about the craptastic service you got, and how you were never flying that airline again.

But then, think about the last time you had an awesome experience. You did the same thing, without even realizing it. You shared it. You talked about it. And you did it without being prompted. You wanted to talk about it. You wanted your friends, those people who put their trust in you, to have that same amazing experience. You wanted to build organic followers for the company or brand that made you feel like a superstar.

That’s what we need to be striving to do. Not trying to get to a “number” or fans of followers. Not pulling out the tape measure. We need to focus on being amazing, in all aspects of our business. When we figure that out, it won’t be a numbers game anymore. It’ll be about your business growing. And in the end, a business that grows, and generates revenue, and is profitable… Well, I’ll take that over a thousand new followers every single time, and so should you.

I used to have this totally insane, very loud friend, who’d call me up on random weekdays and be all like, “I don’t want to go to work today. Let’s go to a spa.” I usually turned her down, but the one time I went, I remember the spa having a sign that’s stuck with me to this day. It said simply…

“Embrace the Silence.”

The concept was simple. You were in a spa. You were waiting for your treatment, or just got out of one. You were relaxed. It was quiet. There was no need to talk, or jump on your mobile, or pull out your laptop. It was peaceful.

Silence reigned.

With each of us having more and more ways to communicate, perhaps it’s time we went back to that sign’s true meaning. Below are four times when you might want to just embrace the silence. Or, to put it more directly, here’s a list of times when you should just shut the hell up.

Four Times It’s Totally Appropriate To Shut the Hell Up

1) When meeting someone for the first time: It’s no secret that we all live to impress: We like to let people know how great we are the moment we see them. The thing is, if you play all your greatest hits too soon, you don’t have anything left over to pull out when you really need it. My suggestion? When you meet someone for the first time, shut up. Let THEM talk. You can learn so much about a person if you just stop talking and start listening. You learn all the things you can use – anything you have in common with them, for instance, that you can pull out whenever you need a quick boost. It’s simple: If you meet someone, let them talk ninety words to your every ten.

2) When your boss’s boss is congratulating you. It’s nice to get recognition, but it’s also a wonderful time to make yourself even more beloved than you already are. When your boss’s boss is talking to you, congratulating you, or the like, say thank you, but then, mention the real hero of the day – Your boss. By congratulating your boss and letting his (or her) boss think that he (or she) is the real hero, you’re cementing your loyalty to your boss. When your boss moves up (and he (or she) will,) you’ll be coming along for the ride.

3) While you’re not necessarily shutting up completely in this example, comparatively, you’re like a mouse, when you’re behind the moron who’s screaming and pulling his “Don’t you know who I am” routine at the airport check-in counter, or the club, or the restaurant, etc. Essentially, here’s how it goes: You wait for him to finish (and most probably get denied.) Then you walk up, smile at the gate agent/bouncer, maitre ‘d, etc. and pull the soft-voice “I can’t imagine how you do your job as well as you do,surrounded by such mean people.” End result: You wind up with the upgrade the moron in front of you so badly wanted.

4) When someone else is being ridiculously loud on their mobile phone in a public place. You’re probably thinking I’m crazy with this one – Why would you shut up, as opposed to telling them off? In some cases, you can tell them off – It depends on what they’re saying. Listen to them first. Is it a business or personal call? If person, what kind? Boring stuff? Stuff about their nail salon appointment? By all means, go over and smack them silly. But… If it’s a business call, or a personal call or some importance, don’t tell them to stop talking, do what I do: Turn on the voice recorder (or better, the video recorder) of your phone or laptop. Start taking notes. Business call? Are they mentioning names? Remember – Google is your friend. With nothing more than Google, a few key names, and their own stupidity, you can probably gain a lot of information that could be quite valuable, if you know what to do with it. Or, I guess you could just tell them to shut up.

What other times are appropriate to just shut up? Let me know in the comments.

The fun part about grabbing someone else’s ID (other than the fact that I can ask them what they think of the keynote they’re about to hear and they don’t realize that they’re talking to him) is that I get to hear unfiltered information about what scares these people – what these small business owners think about social media – and more often than not, why they believe social media to be complete bullshit, and not worth their time.

Why is that important ? It’s important because I can tailor my speech to those specific people who don’t believe that they’re going to get anything out of what I’m saying. The ones who’ve gone to countless speeches like these in the past – Those radio-sponsored “business breakfasts” where they listen to some full-of-it “social media guru” talk about the coolness of social media and how it can save them.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. NO CEO THINKS THAT “COOL” TRUMPS “REVENUE,” AND YOU SHOULDN’T EITHER. The speakers who get on stage and tell you how “cool” social media is and how is good for only “your brand” are full of it. Below, I’m going to give you seven ways that your small business can use social media TO GENERATE REVENUE, TODAY. Retweet this. Repost this. Link to it. Feel free. Why? Because I’m simply sick to death of these snake oil salesmen posing as “social media gurus,” charging you thousands of dollars to listen to them tell you how they can save you. BULLSHIT.

Remember HARO? I started HARO. It was a social media company that generated over a million dollars a year in actual revenue, and when I sold it, I sold it on the merits of what it DID, not some “I make my money by talking about social media” crap.

TWEET THIS: The biggest problem with Social Media is that too many people talk about it and not enough people ACTUALLY USE IT TO GENERATE REVENUE.

So let’s use it. The following are tips for small to mid-size businesses – They’re the kind of stuff companies ask me for all the time. I charge for this stuff. But rather than do that today, I’m giving it away below. Enjoy it. Use it Call it your own if you want. I won’t know. (But Karma will.) The main reason I’m doing it is because I’m sick of these charlatans saying they have all the answers, and they’ve never done one bit of real social media in their lives. That goes for those heads of PR and marketing firms who’ve told their clients that they can handle their “social media for them” and don’t have the first clue as to how to do it.

Marketing in the form of social media, to drive sales and generate revenue, makes you skilled in social media. “Having a Facebook Account” does not. “Speaking about Twitter” does not. Saying you have “Influence” does not. Having “guru,” “expert” or “rock star” in your name, ID, or business card, most certainly does not. Stop believing the charlatans who show you 100 twitter followers and expect you to believe that they can cure cancer. They’re angering the universe. Trust me. The universe will kill them soon. Believe in what works, and nothing else.

IF YOU’RE A RESTAURANT: Get to know tools like Foursquare and Facebook Places. Teach each server who works for you to recognize the signs of someone who uses Foursquare, Places, or the like: They keep their device on the table, they talk about “checking in.” Have those servers ask their customers if they use those location based games. If they do, have the servers offer a free drink or appetizer. Explain what it means to be a “mayor,” and why that’s beneficial to your establishment. Explain to them why they should help your customers use these technologies. Most importantly, explain to your servers that THEY represent your establishment, and without them, your restaurant is history, as is their job. The goal is to get customers to come back, bring friends, and spend more money. IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S ABOUT GROWING YOUR RESTAURANT.

IF YOU’RE A LANDSCAPING BUSINESS: Photos and videos are your friends. Why do people hire you? They hire you because they have EGOS. Lets face it – EGOS SELL. If I want my property to look better than the Kleinman’s property, I hire the best landscaper. That’s YOU. Want to use social media to GET MORE CLIENTS and make more money? Go out and buy a good digital camera/video camera. Check out the Canon G11 – I use it and love it. Then learn to use it, and shoot what you’ve done! So many social media hucksters have NOTHING to back up what they’ve done – YOU DO! You have your clients and your work! Made an amazing lawn? Shoot it! Made some kind of waterfall, the type that I can only imagine because I live on the 30th floor of a high-rise in NYC? Video it! Post it on Vimeo.com, and let people see it! That’s REAL social media because you’ve done it and are sharing it! That’s truth. Go forth and spread it, most awesome landscaper! IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S ABOUT SHOWING THINGS YOU’VE DONE THAT WILL BRING NEW PAYING CLIENTS.

IF YOU’RE AN ACCOUNTANT/FINANCIAL PLANNER: OMG, how boring! Right? That’s what most people say when they hear that you work as an account or financial planner. OK, that may be true for some of you. But if you’re an accountant or financial planner who has the most basic knowledge of social media and how it relates to your industry, then not so much. How about starting a basic twitter feed that you populate every day with the top two stories about your industry? “What will this five minutes out of my day possibly do,” you ask! Well, if you’re an accountant/financial planner trying to grow your business and get new customers, check this out: You post one or two stories per day about your industry – perhaps they’re the stories you find interesting and think others might find interesting – you post them, and what happens – people find them, and retweet them – repost them on Facebook – All of sudden, you’re a CURATOR! You’re one of those people who knows about the trends before they become trends! What happens then? The media starts following you, and you get called on by them, get quoted in the paper, on TV, on the radio, and online on a regular basis, and how about that, new people start calling you out of the blue, asking if they can be your clients – Where do you think they came from? From the media! And where did the media come from? From your brilliant use of social media. To quote the chief of police from the movie Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that there’s gambling going on in here!” Face it – This isn’t rocket science!! You’re simply employing common sense –something the charlatans won’t tell you actually works – because it takes away from their revenue. Screw them. Make their revenue yours. IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA: IT’S ABOUT USING THESE TOOLS TO PROVE YOU KNOW MORE THAN YOUR COMPETITORS AND ARE BETTER THAN THEM AND DESERVE NEW CLIENT BUSINESS.

IF YOU’RE A REALTOR: As someone who’s currently in contract for an apartment in New York City, this really hits close to home. If you’re a realtor, social media is SCREAMING for you to pay attention. What are you selling? Location, image, and the like. Come on! You should have a digital camera with video inserted under your skin! Your industry was BORN for social media! A new property comes on the market? Get video of the best parts of it – But not from the traditional boring “front of property,” “back of property,” kitchen view” way. Figure out cool ways to do it! Current family got a swingset in the back? Shoot video of the house from the swingset – It’s different, and anyone with kids will appreciate it. Selling mostly to families with school-age kids? Take the flipcam, duct-tape it to the grill of your car, and SHOW, IN REAL TIME, how close the best school in the district is to the house! Why? Because no one else is doing it, and that’s something different! And let’s face it, realtor – if you’re using social media, you’re doing it to make a good commission. So take these ideas and build on them. Why? Because they’ll sell properties. And in the end, those properties will make you a commission. And I gonna go old school here – What are you gonna do with your commission? “I was going to take my commission, and buy Ferris a car.” Use social media, do it in a new and exciting way, make a commission from it, and buy Ferris a car! IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S ABOUT SHOWING THROUGH THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT YOU’RE GOING TO HELP SELL OR BUY A HOME FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS IT.

IF YOU’RE A MOVING COMPANY: If you’re a moving company, then welcome to social media. Last time I moved, I went online to ask for recommendations for good moving companies. You know what I got? Companies who didn’t screw my friends, and that was it. Forget about GOOD moving companies, I got moving companies similar to cell-phone companies – recommendations to the companies who sucked the LEAST. Really? Is that how you want to help grow your industry? By being thought of as the company that sucks the least? Please. How about this: You offer your next client 15% off the cost of their move if they allow you to film the entire move. How do you do that? You go to Amazon and buy three GoPro helmet cams, the same kind I use when I fall from perfectly good airplanes. Then you ask a few of your best movers to wear them the next move they do. They put them on their heads, and everything they do, the gopro films. Because you’re an awesome moving company, the gopro films your best movers being oh-so-careful with the client’s property. When the move is done, you’ve got what, two hours of video of stuff being moved. OK. Great. That’s boring as hell. BUT – What if you take that film, speed it up so that the entire video is sixty seconds in length, then you add a fun soundtrack to it (Think the Benny Hill TV Show theme) and that becomes the first thing people see when they hit your website? They get funny yet real video of a real person’s belongings being taken care of, and you get… wait for it…. Wait for it…. A new client. How about that? You’ve just used social media to land countless new clients. Cost: About $150 for the GoPro. (And you thought GoPros were just for skydivers and mountain bikers.) IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S ABOUT PROVING THAT WHEN A POTENTIAL CLIENT NEEDS YOU, YOU CAN BACK UP YOUR CLAIMS WITH REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES THAT WIL TURN POTENTIAL CLIENTS INTO REAL CLIENTS.

IF YOU’RE A SEAMSTRESS WHO WORKS WITH FABRIC: This one is awesome. So I get an email out of the blue, from someone who says “Hey, I’ve been following your blog because I get the HARO, and I’m a seamstress who has started an event company that makes events out of fabric – If a company wants to hold an event, we’ll produce it.” (Email me if you want their info.) I was like, “OK, that’s weird, but whatever,” until I noticed they had an attachment to the email. Normally, I hate attachments, but since it was a .jpeg, I was ok with it – I opened it – It was my logo, on a pair of running shorts. Think about this for a second: This company was smart enough to realize that I was an exercise geek, ran all the time, yet was still involved in social media. So they made me running shorts with my blog logo on them. What does that tell you? That this Seamstress/Fabric company went out of their way to identify not only me, but what I’d recognize – Why aren’t you doing this? Why isn’t your company assigning one person to say “hey, this is a way to get noticed and perhaps generate revenue? It is. I can attest to that. I’ve given this company business already. IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S ABOUT TAKING THE MOST RANDOM, NON-SOCIAL-MEDIA THING (LIKE FABIRC) AND FIGURING OUT A WAY TO TIE IT IN, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT WORKS!)

IF YOU’RE A MARKETING/PR FIRM: OK, if you’re a marketing firm, do I really need to make this any clearer? If you’re a company that does any of what I’ve talked about in the past three pages, don’t you think you can figure something out that’s in some way related to what I’ve talked about, and figure out a way to connect what’s here to what you do? I’m sure you can. Because come on, if you can’t, do you really think it’s ok to call yourself a marketing firm? IT’S NOT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA. IT’S ABOUT BEING SMARTER AND REALIZING THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS SIMPLY ANOTHER MARKETING CHANNEL TO WHICH YOU SHOULD BE LEADING YOUR CLIENTS.

OK. There you go. Seven ways to grow your small business using social media. Didn’t cost you a penny, you didn’t have to go to some BS breakfast, and you didn’t have to waste your time. So the rest of it is up to you. Will you use what I gave you here, or will you just spend your money and hire someone with no reputation because “it’s easier?” It’s your call.

Thanks for reading.

This is the first in a series of posts on how to be taken seriously. Each post will focus on a specific concept, and the five ways to be taken seriously within that concept. This post has to do with backup plans and timing.

Last week, during the 854th NYC storm of the month, I had to get out to San Diego to keynote a conference.

Knowing there was going to be a storm, I made a backup plan. I booked the Continental 8:45 EWR-SAN, then booked the Continental 2:45 EWR-SAN as a backup, pretty sure the 8:45 would be cancelled. And of course, it was, and I was all like, “It’s cool, I’m on the 2:45.” And it was cool, until the 2:45 was cancelled, as well.

Crap.

At this point, most people would have pulled the “act of God” clause, and either cancelled altogether, or done the presentation via Skype or similar. They still would have demanded to be paid, despite the fact that as cool as Skype is, it’s still a million years away from being there in person.

If you want to be taken seriously, you simply can’t work that way.

Simply put, I gave my word. I told someone (or in this case, 200 people) that I’d be at a certain place at a certain time, and they’d arranged their schedules to make sure they got to see me. How people view how you value your word is worth more than any speaker’s fee.

I don’t care who you are, you never have a right to break your word.

I wound up booking the last seat on JetBlue on a flight from JFK into Burbank. The flight left two hours late, so I landed in Burbank around 12:30am and drove down to San Diego, arriving at my hotel around 2:45am. Got to bed at 3am, was up at 6am, and at the conference at 7:30am. My keynote went flawlessly, thanks to five bottles of Diet Pepsi.

Want to be taken seriously? Honor your word:

5) “Cancel” is a word that should be used VERY, VERY rarely. I used to have a friend who would always book things with me, and at the last minute, cancel on me. Eventually, I wound up feeling like a stop-gap until something better came along for her, and I ended the friendship. If you tell someone that you’re going to do something, DO IT. Canceling should be reserved for broken legs and above. The guys on Captain Sully’s flight that landed in the Hudson? They had a valid reason for canceling their meeting. Chances are, you don’t.

4) Have a backup plan, then a backup plan for that, too. I thought my 8:45am flight would be canceled, so I booked the 2:45. When that was canceled too, I was scrambling, and that was due to my lack of foresight. I call it “counting the exits.” When I walk into a place I’ve never before been, I count the exits, and sight them out. Spies and secret agents do this. If there’s a problem, I know how to get out. You should, too. It’s called having a backup plan. A simple thing that so few bother to do. And remember – the closest exit may be behind you.

3) ADAPT. I was giving a speech in Pittsburgh one day last year, and I had to be back in NYC for another speech the next morning. Getting to the airport, my 6pm to NYC was cancelled. I could have waited and tried my luck on the 8pm (it was an ice storm in NYC, so I didn’t see that happening) or I could have adapted. I went downstairs, rented a car, and six hours later, arrived in NYC. Was I tired? Sure. But I made it to my speech the next morning.

2) Be willing to SPEND. “Money is only something you need in case you don’t die tomorrow,” said Martin Sheen in the original Wall Street. We’re all using our credit cards wrong. They shouldn’t be used to splurge – They should be used when you need – wait for it – credit! I love my American Express credit card for exactly that reason – The only limit on the card is the highest you’ve ever spent – and paid off on time – in one month. I’ve found myself winning clients because I’ve had the ability to book a flight to Tokyo for an in-person pitch on 48 hours notice. Old adage still applies: You’ve gotta spend money to make money. Be willing to spend – but spend smart.

1) Don’t be late. This is the easiest thing in the world to do, but so few people do it. I’m writing this post in a Jamba Juice at 9:16am, waiting on my 9:00am meeting, who’s now 16 minutes late. HAVING THE ABILITY TO TEXT “I’M LATE” DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BE LATE. Show up on time, all the time, and you’ll subconsciously earn the respect of anyone you’re meeting, long before they realize they respect you. You’ll land more clients, make more money, grow a bigger audience, and do that much better in life in general, simply by being on time.