I’ve been working on my own for 20 years, ever since I stepped off that plane in Istanbul for the first time and muttered, “What am I going to do now?”
Since that moment, I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve sold jewelry. I’ve imported stuff from China. I’ve written annual reports. I’ve done presentation training.
But there has been one constant thoughout that entire time: I have always been the guy from the foreign land.
Being the outsider means your buyers don’t have the automatic trust in you that they have in those closer to them.
When you are talking to one of your fellow locals, the trust part of your message is, relatively speaking, pretty much already taken care of. “Hi, I’m from around here.” Boom, that’s all you have to say.
“Hi, I’m not” doesn’t have the same effect.
I’ve worked for big companies and I’ve worked for small. Some of the bigger ones have names like HSBC, Citibank, Allianz, and UniCredit.
So I am comfortable working with the highest-level execs and board members in even the biggest company. And while I have no problem going big, I actually prefer working with solopreneurs and startups better.
Why? Because with them, the organizational distance between the “yes” from the customer and the food on the table is razor thin.
As geeky as it may sound, I love to streamline communication across departments and international language boundaries, and am skilled at rewording the explanation of arcane technical subjects for mass consumption. I am an expert speechwriter and delivery trainer.
I studied Chinese history at the University of Chicago, and have traveled to 22 countries and lived on three different continents.
In 2013 I finished a 2,100 kilometer walk across Turkey, which I did primarily because it needed to be done, and not a lot of people do it. The walk took 7-1/2 months. It was profiled on television stations and in magazines, and I wrote a book about it.
My personal website is here.
