Learning To Love

The Spotlight
This guide was developed in support of OPEN for
Women: CEO BootCamp, a first-of-its-kind program
that immerses women entrepreneurs in some of the
fundamental pillars for successful ventures: confidence,
competence and connections. CEO BootCamp is
designed to help women business owners reach their
full potential as CEOs and help grow their businesses.
Introduction
You might think that most CEOs love the spotlight. While
some CEOs find it comfortable and even exhilarating,
for many others it brings back haunting memories of
being in the school play! No matter how you feel about
the spotlight, as a CEO you’ll have an advantage if you
view being the spokesperson for your business as one
more tool in your arsenal to help you grow your business.
Defining who you are in the spotlight and what the “right”
opportunities are for you and your business requires
strategic thinking. It begins with asking yourself how
YOU want to represent your company and where and
how you can be the most effective in using your profile
and persona to help propel your company forward.
This guide covers several important best practices to
help you learn to love and leverage the spotlight as a tool
for business growth.
• Define your CEO brand
• Create your self-promotion strategy
• Be authentic in order to be comfortable in the spotlight
Define Your CEO Brand
You may not be a household name yet, but as a CEO, you
are an essential part of your company’s brand equity. Your
public image, your reputation, and how people view you
inside and outside the company is your CEO brand—and
it’s a significant reflection on your company and its brand.
Your CEO brand not only represents your personality
and values, it extends to the culture and values of your
company. Its power is vast, in both good and potentially
bad ways. A CEO’s brand can help propel a company
forward, but also has the power to tarnish a company’s
reputation. It has the power to inspire and motivate
employees as well as the power to diminish morale.
Clearly, spending time investing in your personal CEO
brand is critical. You need to be proactive and think
about how you are going to represent yourself and
your company whenever you are in the spotlight so
that the impact is positive for you and your business.
You need to tap into the traits that show your strengths
and your authenticity. How do you do that? Essentially,
by deciding what YOU stand for and then living and
working by those principles. You can make the process
of formulating what you stand for more tangible by
identifying your unique values, your areas of expertise
and what makes you relatable to your constituents.
Following these steps can help you start defining what
you stand for:

This Insight Guide was commissioned by American Express OPEN and published in March of 2014. The information contained in this report was prepared
from sources and data that we believe to be reliable, but we make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and we assume neither responsibility
nor liability for any damages of any type resulting from any errors or omissions. The report is provided solely for informational purposes and is not to be
construed as providing advice, recommendations, endorsements, representations or warranties of any kind whatsoever. Opinions and analysis contained in
this report represent the opinions and analysis of Janet Kraus, a Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School
and Andrea Silverstein, CEO of Gallup Road Partners, and other third parties as referenced in the Insight Guide, and do not necessarily represent the opinions
or analysis of American Express Company or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or divisions (including, without limitation, American Express OPEN).
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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT
1) Identify Your Unique Values
Ask yourself how you want to be viewed by your
employees, customers, investors and partners,
both as a person and as a leader of your company
and brand.
These are the values that you believe in and want to
represent as you lead your company. Just as your
company’s brand might reflect multiple values, the same
could be true for your CEO brand. Think of your values in
terms of words that could represent you. Create a values
grid and write down all of the words that come to mind.
Here’s an example:
Values Grid
Strength Innovation Service
Integrity Authenticity Community
Culture Adaptability Appreciation
Listening Responsiveness Mentoring
Collaboration Accountability Change
After listing values, prioritize the words that a) best
represent you and your beliefs and b) align well with your
company and its brand values (e.g., blue highlights). If
you started the company, chances are that your personal
brand and your company’s brand are one and the
same. But this second step is especially important for
a CEO who is not the founder. If you were hired into the
leadership role, identify your values and focus on those
that have a clear connection with your company’s brand
in order to leverage your CEO brand as the asset that it
can be for your company.
2) Identify Your Areas of Expertise
Ask yourself what it is that you do very well and/or
that you know a lot about that sets you apart from
other people.
These are your talents. They represent a unique skill or
set of skills that can be promoted both inside and outside
your company. Call it your unique differentiator. Your
business has a lot to gain by appropriately promoting
this part of YOU as an asset. Again, creating a grid that
lists these “expert” areas can help you identify and then
prioritize those skills that ultimately help define you the
best. An example of this begins in the next column.
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areas of expertise
Negotiation Sales
Management Finance
Creative Networking
Marketing Technology
Design Product
Sometimes, your areas of expertise will be represented
by the product or service your company provides.
For example, Gina Bianchini, the CEO and founder
of Mightybell, has done a great job of promoting her
unique skills in the areas of technology, networking and
marketing. You could use those same words to describe
the essence of what Mightybell offers its customers:
a technology platform that provides a networking
vehicle and allows its users to connect with others by
marketing content. In other cases, CEOs can become
the “go to” on a particular subject that supports their
product or service but isn’t one and the same. Think of
Arianna Huffington, founder of the news website, The
Huffington Post. She has cultivated her personal brand
as an outspoken political commentator and activist. Her
subject matter expertise and reputation, have benefitted
both her own status as well as that of The Huffington
Post brand as a top online aggregator of news blogs and
original content.
If you have a hard time identifying what your unique
strengths are, ask people who care about you. They will
tell you. This is a good chance to get reinforcing feedback
about what is authentically and uniquely you.
3) Identify What Makes People Relate to You
Ask yourself how you can become relatable no matter
who your audience is and yet still be unique, authentic
and memorable.
This is about your connectivity and the qualities that
cause people to gravitate towards you and, sometimes,
to see themselves in you. This is the bridge that you
create between your values and your expertise and the
company and its brand. You often realize this over time
after seeing that you get the same, positive reaction from
people again and again. Consider it the authentic magic
that draws people to you.
For some, what makes you relatable might be your sense
of humor and ability to make people laugh with great
jokes or engaging stories. It might be your compassion
and how you show excitement when people around
you succeed, or disappointment when others struggle.
Maybe it’s how you acknowledge people in your audience
with eye contact that connects you. Regardless of what it
is, it is unique to you and your delivery makes people feel
that you are real, human, endearing and relatable. Again,
if you struggle to pinpoint why people gravitate towards
you, ask a friend, a colleague or a partner. There’s
nothing wrong with soliciting feedback like this to help
you reinforce the asset that you are!
After identifying the three most important elements
of what you stand for, bring them to life. Establishing
your CEO brand is all about weaving what you stand
for—your values, areas of expertise and relatability—into
your words and actions, whenever and wherever you
are in the spotlight. How do you do this? First, don’t wait
for the spotlight opportunity to be upon you. You need
to be prepared in advance in order to leverage future
moments to your advantage. You’ve done the hard work
to identify the three key ingredients that truly help define
your personal brand. Consider these ingredients as your
brand “template” that you can literally take “off the shelf”
and weave into your spotlight moments. Whether giving
a speech or in a meeting, you know that inserting these
three key elements into your communication will support
and/or enhance your personal branding in the minds
of your respective audiences. Could it feel a bit staged?
Perhaps. But its purpose is genuine. It’s to ensure that
the authentic YOU is present when you are.
Here’s how it can work. Imagine you’ve gone through the
exercise of defining your personal CEO brand as follows:
• Values: Collaboration
• Expertise: Technology
• Relatability: Storytelling
These three elements form your brand template.
Let’s say you’re preparing for an upcoming speech at
an industry tradeshow. No matter what the topic of
your speech, your goal is to weave these three YOU
ingredients into the mix. When describing a milestone
in your business, you might discuss the role that
collaboration played in its success and then you might
call out the value you place on collaboration in your
own work and life. Somewhere in the speech you can
share your technological expertise by referring to a
past success or your passion for technology. Finally,
you might end the speech by telling a story that is
relevant and meaningful to your discussion—perhaps it’s
something you’ve read or were told but it resonates with
you. You sharing it allows your audience to hear you in
a more familiar voice and offers them an opportunity to
relate to you as a person.
Clearly, it can be easier to leverage your brand template
within the context of a prepared speech than within a
smaller group meeting, a one-on-one or a tweet. But if
you have the template at the ready and practice using
it each time you’re in the spotlight, it will become more
comfortable for you and more recognizable to your
audience, which after all, is the purpose of creating your
personal brand.
Create Your
Self-Promotion Strategy
CEOs should understand that being in the spotlight is a
means to an end. Strong leaders don’t self-promote for
the sake of self-promotion. Rather, they leverage their
profile and promote themselves to the right audience in
ways that help them grow their business.
Think of all of your various constituents: customers,
investors, employees and partners, to name a few. As
a CEO, you will want to be in the spotlight with each
of these audiences at different times and in different
ways, because one size does not fit all when it comes to
where your respective constituents are looking. Think
strategically about where the “right” opportunities are
for each audience to view you. Realize that the spotlight
opportunities that give your business productive
exposure might not work for other types of businesses
or their CEOs.
Imagine leading a business-to-consumer brand.
Putting yourself in a very public spotlight (e.g., social
media, TV, radio) might make sense in helping to build
your company’s brand. Think of Steve Jobs, Martha
Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. These leaders used
spotlight opportunities to connect with consumers
and strengthen their brands. For other CEOs, being
in the spotlight with customers means something
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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT
Women Business Owner (WBO) Profile:
Rachel Braun Scherl, Principal,
SPARK Solutions for Growth
Rachel Braun Scherl is principal
and co-founder of SPARK Solutions
for Growth, a marketing strategy
consulting firm that enables clients to
make better strategic choices to drive
profitable growth.
OPEN: You’ve been an entrepreneur
for over 20 years. What do you think is
the hallmark of your leadership brand
and has that changed over time?
SCHERL: I live and work by a core value which is central to my
personal brand: Always say what I mean. Always do what I
say. I am (some might say relentlessly) direct. I make decisions
from an unshakeable set of ethics learned from my parents. I
don’t sugarcoat things. I state my opinion strongly and clearly.
I communicate points of commonality and difference with a
team. I share bad news and good news with alacrity. I don’t like
to be surprised by new information in a meeting or partnership
if at all possible, and I try very hard not to put people in that
situation.
While I consider my personal brand pretty well grounded, my
voice, or the articulation of my brand, has evolved as a result
of my new experiences. When I was at a large company, for
example, I learned the importance of culture, knowing the
rules of the organization, what success looked like and what
was required to get there. Even in a corporate environment, I
always had a personal voice, a point of view, a way of thinking
and communicating that was uniquely mine. Sometimes that
worked to my advantage and sometimes it didn’t. But no one
ever had to guess what I meant—which I found to be more
efficient.
At each stage/job/role within a large organization, I
challenged myself to answer an important question: Can my
voice, approach and skills allow me to be successful in this
organization? If the answer was no, I would begin the process
of finding a place in the company where I believed my voice
could make a more significant contribution—or sometimes a
new environment altogether. This was not just about staying
true to my personal brand and to my authenticity, but also
about knowing how hard to push a round peg into a square hole.
Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, situations do not
work. Careers and life don’t always allow the decision-making
process to be quite as smooth as we hope.
OPEN: When you became president of Semprae
Laboratories, did you need to adapt your personal brand
and your voice to this new leadership role?
SCHERL: When I co-founded Semprae Laboratories with
my amazing, longtime business partner, Mary Jaensch, and
became president, my role required my voice to be much
more public. I was now the company spokesperson and brand
ambassador for a business focused on specific aspects of
women’s health and wellness. I had to be comfortable speaking
about intimate issues. I had to find a way to combine my own
style with the personal nature of the topics to help others feel
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comfortable joining the conversation. I had to use language
that got the point across, but took away the flinch factor. As I
saw the reaction that our public messaging inspired and the
dynamic conversation that resulted, I built more confidence in
my developing public voice.
As the voices in female health with a non-medical, consumer-
focused perspective, Mary and I realized that we had a platform
from which to build our business with our voices. We learned
how to do TV, print and online interviews and crystallize
messaging by audience. At some point in the company’s
evolution and the public discussions, I realized that my voice
extended beyond the walls of that company and a specific set of
issues around our company’s specific business challenge.
OPEN: You have ultimately built quite a portfolio of writing
and national speaking engagements on an array of topics.
Do you see this as a “re-invention” or an extension of your
work at Semprae?
SCHERL: Through a lifetime of working on businesses, mine
and others, and focusing on women-driven businesses (“from
the tops of their heads to the tips of their toes,” as Mary and
I often say), I amassed learning and perspective. My thinking
has been shaped and impacted even more through my roles as
mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, friend, etc. I had a base
of knowledge, insights and a strong point of view that I wanted
to share—and hoped others wanted to engage with.
Somewhere in this process, my relationship with The Huffington
Post was born. To my utter joy and amazement, 21 of my
articles have been published in the last year and a half alone
and my first in Inc. is hot off the presses. I have begun a process
where I build story ideas in my head (talking to myself)—on
planes, in the car. I noodle the ideas for about a week and
then sit down and type as fast as my fingers can capture my
thoughts.
As I got my sea legs, I began to receive and respond to requests
from around the country at universities, professional meetings
and conferences. The writing and speaking have provided me
with the opportunity to present my voice in a different way and
on topics that I not only care about but ones in which I have
built credibility as well. But most importantly, I am engaged in
personally- and professionally-meaningful conversations with
fascinating, interesting people from a variety of backgrounds
that energize me and stimulate my creativity.
OPEN: How has your public writing and speaking platform
helped you in your current consulting practice?
SCHERL: As the co-founder and principal of SPARK, Mary and
I work with clients (Fortune 500 and start-ups) to help them
make better strategic choices to drive their growth—in existing
categories, new businesses, new geographies, adjacencies, new
channels, and new customers—the list goes on. In my mind,
the reason our partnership has been successful for almost 20
years is a result of common values, trust, shared experiences,
and similar work ethics. We are committed to work we like with
people we like on issues that interest us. In our relationship
with each other and with clients, we always say what we mean
and always do what we say. Through our voice, our clients
and prospective clients are able to get a broader sense of how
we think, process, evaluate information and solve problems.
Ultimately, our transparency allows them to make an informed
decision as to whether their voice and ours can sing in harmony.
entirely different. In the business-to-business space,
for instance, your goal might be to create credibility in
your industry (think manufacturing or advertising). The
right customer spotlight opportunities are more likely to
be at tradeshows and in industry publications than on
Facebook and Twitter. In a nutshell, you need to create a
unique self-promotion strategy that makes sense for you
and your business alone.
How do you create your self-promotion strategy? As with
any marketing effort, be very thoughtful and deliberate
about your audience or who you want to reach, the
goals you want to achieve, and the tactics that will have
the greatest impact on driving results. Decide how
much time and money you will put into promoting this
particular asset—YOU—to help you grow your business.
Often, at the early stages of your business, getting out
there and telling your story is critical and, frankly, can
be a lot less expensive than other forms of promotion.
Yet, it’s not unusual for female CEOs to find it difficult to
delegate day-to-day work early on in order to make time
for promoting the company and the brand. But people
can only buy your product or service if they know about
it! Putting time into thinking about your self-promotion
strategy and actually executing it is very important.
The following steps will steer you in the right direction:
Identify the various constituents and audiences that
you want to reach to help you grow your business.
• Customers? Investors? Employees? Partners? You
should list all of the various constituents and desired
audiences so you can think about a customized plan
for each one.
• Sometimes you can find spotlight opportunities that
effectively cover a couple of key constituents at the
same time which can be beneficial, given your limited
time and resources.
Establish your goals around leveraging your physical
self and/or profile with each particular audience.
You will likely have a variety of goals for multiple
audiences simultaneously, all of which are important to
moving your company forward.
• Define specific goals with each audience respectively.
What do you want to accomplish? Here are some
examples:
— Customers and potential customers: Position
myself as an industry expert in order to generate
sales for my business.
— Investors: Promote my leadership and industry
expertise in order to ultimately raise money.
— Employees: Inspire, motivate and/or get more
connected. Position externally as a great leader
people aspire to work for.
— Partners: Engage a thought leader or resource in an
area where I need support.
Once you’ve identified your audiences and established
your goals, you need to determine where and how
you will reach the intended audience most effectively.
Is it blogging or tweeting? Is it tradeshows or other
networking events? Is it print media coverage? Is it radio
or TV coverage? There are numerous options, but it
comes down to where your audiences are.
You can only begin to identify those opportunities to
reach your audience and meet your goals if you entrench
yourself in your industry and its ecosystem and see
first-hand where the various touchpoints are and where
you can have the biggest impact. You shouldn’t “wing
it,” especially if you have limited time and resources!
Take your goal of positioning yourself as an industry
expert to your customers and potential customers.
Start by researching what magazines they’re reading,
what sites they go on, what bloggers influence their
buying decisions and what tradeshows they attend. With
existing customers, you can usually get your answers
simply by asking them—it’s something so obvious that
we don’t always think to do it. The “ask” can be informal
(like at the end of a meeting) or more formal through
a quick survey. You should also look at where they are
advertising their own businesses. This tells you a lot
about where they are focused.
You can and should set your sights on these vehicles for
self-promotion, but this is really where the hard work
begins. Getting that byline or media coverage in the top
industry publications or being asked to be on a panel
at a national tradeshow doesn’t happen overnight! You
don’t suddenly get known as an industry expert. You
need to lay the groundwork and start building a name for
yourself in your industry and among customers before
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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT

you become the “go-to” expert or celebrity CEO that you
aspire to be for the benefit of your business.
Laying the groundwork for your self-promotion strategy
can happen through both your written work as well as
through the relationships you develop. And, there is an
overarching set of tactics, a “playbook,” that you should
follow in order to position yourself “out there” regardless
of which audience you are seeking to reach. Think of
these tactics as setting you on the path towards moving
up the food chain of professional celebrity.
First, do all of the stuff that is in
your control!
We all know that relevant content drives what people find
through a Google search. If you want to be found by folks
searching for an industry expert in your space, whether
for an article or a tradeshow panel, you need to build
your YOU content and make sure that the content you
have is great!
Start with the assets you can control, like your website.
• Make sure you have a thorough company description
that uses industry terminology for all that you offer.
This will make you more searchable.
• Create or tweak your bio on the site so that it is really
strong and highlights all of your accomplishments,
talents, awards and accolades. Also list any written
work you’ve published anywhere with links attached.
• Work on your LinkedIn profile to make sure it positions
you as an expert in your field.
— I nclude the number of years you’ve been in the
industry and capture some unique insights on
industry trends to show that you’re at the forefront
of your field.
• Create and/or improve your company page
on Facebook.
• Get on Twitter and DECIDE whether it’s a lever you
should use to support the growth of your business.
— Not every CEO needs to tweet to enhance their
personal brand or to support their business. But
you do need to see if there’s a group worth following
or an audience to follow you that makes sense
cultivating.
6
Social media can make it easy to access and create
spotlight moments. If you haven’t attended to your online
and social media presence to date, you’re doing yourself
and your business a disservice. So, get started!
Next, think big but start small!
You may be gunning for a byline in The Huffington Post
or an interview in TechCrunch. And perhaps you want be
on a panel at the next Ad-tech tradeshow. All good! But
most CEOs don’t just land at the top of the food chain—
the pinnacle of exposure, if you will. You need to build
up to it so that the decision makers see that you have a
track record—that others have leveraged your expertise
or touted your accomplishments; have quoted you or
written about you. They’ll want to know that you’ve sat
on panels or moderated them. And they will vet you, so
you’d better have built your track record.
Start with local media. Editors of local business
and consumer publications, sites and blogs are often
looking for content.
• Identify if there is a specific editor or writer that focuses
on your industry or area of expertise.
—R
 each out to that contact; get to know them. Share
your background and knowledge; position yourself
so that you are on their radar as a source for their
next relevant article.
— Ask
 for an opportunity to write an op-ed piece or
blog that allows you to share your insights and
expertise and gives you that byline and exposure for
your company.
— If
 you have news to share, such as a major
partnership, an innovative marketing campaign, or a
product you’ve invented, take the time to write and
submit a press release and position yourself and
your business for a potential feature.
Identify small online media sites in your particular field.
• There are many good sites out there that have great
content, but are significantly understaffed and
would welcome the contributions of an industry
insider, whether on a topic they suggest or one that
you propose. Again, the result is another byline and
exposure for your company, which helps continue the
process of building your YOU content and furthering
your “searchability” as an expert.
You must be proactive and persistent.
Once you get a piece published either online or in print,
make sure to go back and include it in your bio on your
website and on your LinkedIn page. And link everything
together. All of this makes you more searchable.
You should use the same approach for building up to the
“big” tradeshows and events in your industry.
Start local! Meet the people at your Chamber of
Commerce and at local or regional chapters of relevant
trade associations.
• Identify relevant business events and networking
opportunities.
—F
 ind out about the goals, content and participants of
their events.
— Share what YOU know, your background and
how YOU can contribute to the event whether as
a moderator (perhaps first) and ultimately as a
panelist.
— And keep in contact with the decision makers so that
they think of you for the next spotlight opportunity.
Over time, as you build your credibility and relationships
as a source for the media or among trade groups, and
as editors and event coordinators get to know you, you
will find that more doors will open for you in terms of
spotlight opportunities. Again, typically, it won’t just
happen. Rather, you will leverage all that you have done
to lay the groundwork for getting your name out there
and building your “portfolio” and it will result in upward
momentum towards the top of the “exposure pinnacle”
where you had set your sights. And at a certain point,
you’ll submit that idea to The Huffington Post or Wired,
or even The Wall Street Journal, and it will be accepted.
And you’ll go from vying for a spotlight opportunity at a
regional trade event to being the keynote speaker at a
national event! There will be a shift when, after all of your
hard work positioning yourself as the expert, you will
have established your value to such extent that the doors
at the top of the media pyramid will open for you! And
you might just find that your spotlight opportunity goes
beyond the byline to where the actual spotlight is shining
on YOU and YOUR business and all of that hard work will
have paid off!
Finally, be strategic and deliberate about the
message you convey to your various audiences.
It’s not one-size-fits-all.
• Think about what will resonate with each audience
independently.
• Determine what content is the most relevant to them
that you can deliver well through that particular
touchpoint, and ultimately, what will have the greatest
impact on your self-promotion.
Take your approach to messaging potential customers
versus investors. With potential customers, you might
share how your product or service can solve their
problem, you might give a tip or a “how to,” and you
might highlight other satisfied customers. Your message
to investors, on the other hand, might share your
insights on industry trends and project confidence in
the growth that you envision for your business. Both
messages position you as an expert in your industry
but you are slanting your content and tone to tell your
story in a way that is relevant to them and how they
touch your industry.
Being strategic about your message also means
thinking about what you want your audience to know
about YOU and your business. What do you want their
takeaway to be about your company and its leader? This
is very important and is very much related to your CEO
branding.
Communicate your message in a way that:
• Projects confidence
• Always ties back to the purpose of your business
• Reinforces its strategy and brand
This is your brand elevator pitch. As time goes by, update
your pitch to reflect progress. In addition, keep your
statements simple and consistent. While you might feel
like this is a bit forced or that you are repeating yourself
from one spotlight moment to another, as long as you
tweak your message to be relevant to your specific
audience, your content and tone will be relatable, and
your consistency will present a leader and a company
that is both focused and confident. Whether being
interviewed, introducing yourself on a panel, or just
answering the question “So, what do you do?” at a social
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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT

function, you can be ready and at ease if you follow
these steps.
Here are a couple examples of how you might create
and also update your response to the “What do you do?”
question in different spotlight moments over time:
When first getting out there, explain what you’re doing
and your purpose:
• As the CEO of ABC Example Designer Kids, I’m offering
the first-ever line of couture children’s clothing designed
exclusively for us by the top clothing designers in the
world, including Chanel, Versace, Prada, Hugo Boss and
Tom Ford.
As you grow, focus on what you’re doing now, tying it
back to your purpose, but also indicating your direction
as you continue to build your business:
• I lead a company called ABC Example Designer Kids
that offers affluent, fashion-savvy parents a one-of-
a-kind line of children’s clothing from some of the top
couture designers in the world. We’re in the process of
launching our ecommerce site that will showcase our
entire line and offer fashion tips and blogs from our
featured designers.
When you reach a large scale, reinforce your brand and
purpose; indicate a solid growth trajectory as well as
what’s been achieved:
• I’m so excited to be leading a company called ABC
Example Designer Kids where we are revolutionizing
children’s clothing while at the same time offering a
creative platform for couture designers.
In addition to thinking about your audience and being
deliberate with your messaging in preparation for
spotlight moments, you also need to be prepared for
the things you can’t plan for! Even the unexpected
spotlight moment offers a chance for you to build your
personal brand and support your business, so you don’t
want to miss it! Start by imagining all of the obvious as
well as not-so-obvious questions that could be asked
and have some good answers at the ready! If you’re
prepared, you’ll own the spotlight moment enough to
not only respond well to the unexpected questions, but
to weave in other great nuggets of information that you
want people to know about your business. At the end
of the day, you have the power to ensure that you don’t
let a spotlight moment turn into a deer in the headlights
moment. Always be prepared!

Next, put your self-promotion strategy and tactical plan on paper.

• This is your playbook coming to life and it will serve as a project plan for executing your strategy.
You can use something as simple as this template and customize it for your own plan:

SAMPLE: Self-promotion Project Plan for Digital Marketing Company

Customers Employees Investors Partners

Goals New customers; sales Acquire top industry talent Raise $1MM Source new clients

Message Expertise; great product; Strong leader; best place to Expert, market disruption Track record; client
strong leadership work; philosophy on team satisfaction; differentiated
building product

Touch Point Chamber of Commerce; LinkedIn; Twitter; submit blog TechCrunch Mentors; advisors; peers
Ad-Tech show; Ad Age pub; on LinkedIn Ad-Tech show touching industry
AMA Conference

Tactics Research local opps; contact Share with LinkedIn network; Press release; Set up coffees, lunches;
show coordinators; pitch tweet to followers Contact Ad-Tech coordinator; forward press release with
panel; attend shows; press pitch panel opp personal note
release to Ad Age; pitch blog

Timing Dec Dec – Jan Dec – Feb Ongoing

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Every CEO’s self-promotion strategy will be different.
Doing this analysis and making strategic decisions about
where and how you need to be in the spotlight is critical
in helping you leverage your CEO brand as an asset
for your company. It’s often grounding as well. It’s not
uncommon to look at what other CEOs are doing “out
there” and wonder if you’re doing enough self-promotion.
But if you do the hard work of laying the groundwork
and mapping out what will have a true impact on your
business in the short and longer term, you can breathe
easy. You’ve got it covered.
Be authentic in order to be comfortable in the spotlight
You cannot underestimate the power of creating your
CEO brand and strategically developing your self-
promotion strategy. Yes, it’s hard work and often harder
to pull yourself away from the day-to-day grind in order to
do it. But laying that groundwork pays off. Ultimately, the
day arrives when you’re actually in the spotlight, but not
just any spotlight! It’s “live” and it’s the big time! Whether
you’re giving the keynote address at a conference, being
interviewed on television or radio, or pitching a group of
nationally known venture capitalists, all eyes are on you
and there’s no way to be, but at your best!
Unfortunately for some CEOs, being in this kind of spotlight
can be such a nerve-wracking experience that it is truly
uncomfortable. But CEOs who are able to find their
comfort zone in the spotlight have the advantage of using
these spotlight moments to move their company forward.
How do you get into the “zone”? Start by being self-
reflective and ultimately, self-aware of what makes you
authentic. Then, consciously ensure that the authentic,
genuine YOU is present when under the spotlight. How
many times have you heard “Just be yourself”? This
is the ticket to finding your comfort zone. Being your
authentic self in the spotlight will help you feel the most
comfortable. As your comfort increases, you can own
the moment, which will give you power to be most
effective and, therefore, most valuable.
Start with the most obvious spotlight moment—public
speaking. This might mean a podium in front of a
large crowd, a conference room with a small group of
employees, or a lunch sitting with one potential investor.
It might be a planned spotlight moment or completely
unplanned, requiring you to think on your feet. Either
way, you can avoid the trap of a constricted rib cage,
shaky voice and sweaty palms by knowing how to make
the moment yours. Realize that it’s not about being
perfect, it’s about being genuine.
In It’s Your Time to Shine: How to Overcome Fear of
Public Speaking, Develop Authentic Presence and Speak
from Your Heart, author Sandra Zimmer offers seven
valuable tips to help you build a style of speaking based
on being who you are, rather than who you think you
should be, and how to access that authenticity when you
are in the spotlight.*
1. Include your natural qualities. Make a list of
qualities that describe your strengths, like kind, funny,
serious, intense, direct and knowledgeable. Bring
those qualities into your talk or performance. There is a
tendency for speakers to think they have to act a certain
way. Resist this temptation and just be the person your
close friends know.
2. Be unique. Everyone has unique and quirky behaviors.
Allow the quirky aspects of your personality to be a part
of your speaking or performing style. These will be the
marks of authenticity that your audience perceives with
the eyes and ears of their hearts.
3. Let your style be based on your natural
rhythms. Introverts and extroverts have different
rhythms for expression. Introverts are deep and
inwardly focused, so their thoughts and words come
from the depths of their being. If you are an introvert,
speak slowly and deliberately and thoughtfully. Don’t
try to manufacture enthusiasm that is false for you.
Extroverts are dynamic and outwardly focused. If you are
extroverted, be large and dramatic. Don’t try to squash
your natural energies or be too controlled.
4. Say it like you would say it in real life. Speak,
present or perform like you are talking to friends in your
living room. Ask yourself, “How would I really say this?”
Then say it as if you were talking to a friend.
5. Give up trying to be perfect. Let your style be
imperfect. Instead of trying to speak perfectly, focus
on speaking truthfully. When telling the truth, avoid
speaking in literary phrases. Let it come from your heart
as you feel it.
*Visit www.self-expression.com for further insight from
Sandra Zimmer.
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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT

6. Realize that being perfect does not equate with
being effective. Effectiveness has nothing to do with
your performance. Effectiveness happens when your
audience realizes you are being yourself with them.
7. Make space for your fear. Give yourself permission
to feel fear, anxiety or tension when presenting and
performing. Fear can be energy, power and passion.
When you create space inside to feel the fear, it converts
into passion and causes your words to vibrate with
electricity.
While having a bit of the jitters can be a source of positive
energy, if you find that your nervousness feels like a
major roadblock to your authenticity, you can focus on
reducing your stage fright through some additional prep
time. Here are a few tips that can help:
Relax your body. There are many tactics to relax, but a
few good ones include:
• Hum a favorite song – It steadies your voice.
• Eat a banana or something of similar size – It will fill you
up without making you feel full.
• Avoid too much caffeine – It can increase your
jitteriness.
Get there early. When possible, arrive at the space
early. Walk on stage or check out the conference room
so that you’re “acquainted” with each other.
Talk to people as they arrive. Connecting to
individuals before you go on stage will make you feel
more comfortable and genuine once you’re in the
spotlight.
Have a conversation with the individuals in
your audience. No matter the size of your audience,
connecting one-on-one through eye contact and
your words will make you more comfortable and
more effective.
Your takeaway:
As a CEO, you should view the opportunity to be in the
spotlight as one more tool in your arsenal to help move
your business forward. But to use the spotlight to your
advantage, you need to learn to be both effective and
comfortable under the proverbial lights.
Remember that there are several important best
practices to help you learn and leverage the spotlight as
a tool to grow your business.

• Exercise – Thirty minutes of exercise the morning of • Define your CEO brand

a speaking engagement can relieve tension and get
endorphins going, which can heighten your energy level
throughout the day.
• Create your self-promotion strategy
• Be authentic in order to be comfortable
in the spotlight

• Laugh – Yes, laughing relaxes you! Find a funny show or

a comedian to watch that morning.
Now, what are you waiting for?
• Breathe – Breathing exercises are important. Deep
breathing or a series of shorter breaths helps bring
oxygen to your body and relaxes you. These exercises
are great to do up to the very spotlight moment.

Visualize your success before you begin. Think

about what you said and how you said it. Visualize the
reaction of your audience and how you felt. Thinking in
advance about your desired outcome will make you more
likely to follow that path.

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WBO Profile: Carissa Reiniger, election—to becoming one of the most “popular” girls at
school, even emceeing the pep rallies! And today, my life and
CEO, Silver Lining Ltd. and creator my work have me in the spotlight constantly, and it’s where I
of Thank You Small Business need and want to be in order to champion small businesses.

Carissa Reiniger is the founder

OPEN: What is your view on self-promotion and creating
and CEO of Silver Lining Ltd., a your personal or CEO brand? Where do these two things
business strategy consultancy fit into your life now?
that has helped over 10,000 small
Reiniger: Because of my past, I was initially very hesitant
businesses set and hit their financial
about self-promotion. I was worried about being seen as
goals. She is also the creator of
cocky or conceited. But the truth is that the single biggest
Thank You Small Business, a global
impact on the growth of Silver Lining and Thank You Small
movement that is on a mission to
Business has been my self-promotion and leveraging my
change the economy one small
personal brand. It happened organically—people started
business at a time.
hearing my story and relating to it, profiling me and reaching
out to me to speak. And it not only drove the growth of my
OPEN: As the CEO of Silver Lining and leader of Thank You
Small Business campaigns nationally, you obviously spend company and its brand, but ultimately, I realized that there
a lot of time in the spotlight. But you were not always this was a brand that existed beyond my business and that was
comfortable. Can you share your story and what it was that me—Carissa Reiniger.
helped you grow into the pro that you are today?
I realized that I needed to take the advice I give to my own
Reiniger: As a child, I was truly held back by fear. I was
clients, which is to set goals and build the reality they want
so riddled with anxiety and was so shy that I couldn’t face
by prioritizing tactics that have the biggest impact on their
going to school, so I was home schooled. And my anxiety,
business. My hesitancy around my own self-promotion
undiagnosed for many years, presented itself with all sorts
was actually preventing me from resourcing what has had
of physical ailments so I spent lots of time going from doctor
the biggest impact on my company’s growth—me. I finally
to doctor who, like my parents, were struggling to figure it all
owned up to the fact that my goal of spreading the small
out. But ultimately, around the time I was to enter 9th grade,
business message is best suited via the platform I’ve created
it all became crystal clear for me. Fear—fear of the unknown,
around myself. And it’s not there to help me become famous
fear of making mistakes, fear of underperforming—it was
or toot my own horn—my self-promotion is mission-based
holding me back from living a normal, happy life. And I was
and it’s mission critical.
done. I decided to register for high school. And to be certain
that that my fear wouldn’t get in my way, I TOLD EVERYONE OPEN: Have you ever sat down to actually map out a
that I was going to school because I knew that I would never strategy for leveraging YOU as an asset? If so, can you
go back on a commitment. elaborate and explain how you thought about it?

I was a nervous wreck. But I pushed myself past my fear Reiniger: In some ways, my hesitancy around self-

and the first day of high school was not so bad… and the promotion probably stunted my company’s growth. I didn’t

next… and the next—I liked it! I had spent 10 years of my life leverage my profile and my brand proactively. It’s only very

dreading what “could be.” And because of it I had missed so recently that I am consciously putting myself in the public

much—sleepovers and camp and school and youth groups, eye. I have a strategy and this includes signing with a major

you name it. But, at the age of 15, I had learned one of the talent agent for speaking engagements and working with a

biggest lessons of my life: You can sit and worry about the literary agent, among other tactics. And I’m comfortable

things that might happen, or you can just go out there and do with this because I have a platform with a purpose—to help

it! From that point on, my life completely transformed. I went small businesses believe that they can create their own

from being crippled by anxiety to winning a student reality. And I believe I can use my brand to help them realize
their dreams.

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 LEARNING TO LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT

About American Express OPEN

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