consulting

Much going on here in Matt land, so a little update for you. These all focus on how I can help more people, more broadly. Suggestions and feedback welcome!

• Matt brand: I'm finally getting some clarity on my bigger vision, and how it encompasses productivity. It's still emerging, but it's around providing guidance, tools, and methods for enhancing intellectual performance and happiness. (Related: Genius, Purpose, And Cool Job Descriptions - What Are *you* Built To Do?)

...not try to sell you

I will look for ways to help you, esp. before we work together (if ever)

...not work with you if I don't think I can help

and I'll be very clear about it, even if we disagree

...not worry about "giving away the farm" to you

I know that sharing genuinely useful information always pays off

...be genuinely curious about your work

and have fun getting to know you

...continually absorb and synthesize the best ideas from my field

and share them freely with you

...respect you, your work, your organization

no exceptions

...treat our relationship as confidential

no exceptions

...be attuned to where we are in the process

and we'll change gears or take a short walk

Another treat in my interview series (kickoff post, all posts), I'm very pleased to share highlights from an hour with Dr. Marilyn Paul, author of the best-selling It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys (The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized) (personal and consulting sites).

One of the great things about my series of interviews with top productivity consultants [1] (along with lots of new ideas) is discovering thinkers I've not previously heard of. I'm pleased to share a short email interview with Nicholas Bate (site, blog), who came to my attention when I received a surprise box of books and playing cards [2] from London, including Being the Best: The A-Z of Personal Success, JfDI!

Continuing my interview series with the top experts in personal productivity comes another deep and wide-ranging conversation, this time with Sally McGhee, CEO of McGhee Productivity Solutions and author of Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized.

Continuing my interview series [1] with the top experts in personal productivity, I'm very pleased to share highlights from my conversation with Chris Crouch, creator of the GO System and author of Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize. Chris's company runs a certification program and sells products like an implementation kit. You can find some of his articles here.

As I announced last week [1], I'll be interviewing the top experts in the field of personal productivity, and I'm pleased to start out with a bang - I had the pleasure of talking with Laura Stack, AKA the Productivity Pro, last week.

I've recently had the honor of being included in some "top productivity blogs" listings, and I wanted to say thanks to you all for continuing to read, comment, and recommend my blog to others. Some of the listings include:

• The Best Productivity Related Blogs
• The Top 50 Blogs That Will Unleash Your Motivation
• The Top 50 Productivity Blogs (most of which you haven.t heard about)
• Top ten blogs on time management

Last week I wrote about my initial foray into LinkedIn's new Answers feature, and shared some of mine. Below I've included the answers I got to my (so far only) question How did you get clients when you started your consulting practice? Before that, let's briefly consider Answers' strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths?

• Opportunity to share knowledge and help others,
• Exposure to possible peers (increase connections) and clients,
• Increased repute

Weaknesses?

• Many answerers are writing pretty blatantly to self-promote,
• Ditto for questioners,