Phyllis Khare
I had the pleasure of chatting with Phyllis Khare (pronounced “Care” like a care bear) on Saturday morning, 6 February 2010.
Phyllis describes herself as “geeky” and a “research librarian” and works with the technology side as well as the connection side of social media.
She is self taught with “a tendency to follow my nose” as she dives deep into the technology stuff as she tailors her work to the needs of her clients.
I had a treat watching Phyllis in High Definition video and a clear, clean audio transmission. Her equipment is in the affordable range for small businesses. The quality of both was excellent. You can get information on the microphone ( and possibly on her camera) along with other technology related tools from her site http://phylliskhare.com and The Technology Cheerleader.
She works from her beautiful home in Fairfield, IA which is a college town in a technology business area with fiber to the home internet connections. She works in front of her camera and mic over skype.
We talked about her business model How it is the first question she asks her clients and how she is changing hers it in 2010, as many others are. She sees a move from in person to virtual meetings as she seriously considers making more posts on technology and creating an inner circle to build a subscription based model based on inbound marketing.
We talked about the fear and uncomfortableness that small businesses owners often feel when they first start connecting online. While being open and authentic is essential to participating in Social Media, some people enjoy being on camera, but not everyone is. We need to look at both the clients skills and the people they are trying to reach in determining the best path for each client.
Phyllis let us in on her work with clients and helping them reach their whole market. “There are three types of learners: visual learner, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Your presence online needs to reach all three otherwise you will miss a portions of your demographic.” “3Headed(TM) World is the part of my business where I use the visual, auditory and kinesthetic stuff.”
We chatted about about how Phyllis and I met and how when we meet people online, we often connect in multiple places due to the interlinked, interwoven nature of the web. ( We are so interlinked that is is often hard to remember the initial contact.)
“Mind mapping is very important in social media to map out your connection efforts so that you create a coherent stream of events without duplication.”
What is your perfect client?
Phyllis: “Technically savvy enough that they can go with the flow. I dont want to spend the time to convince them that the technology is important, also somebody that has something wonderful to offer to the world that needs to open up doors and social media lets people open doors big time. A perfect client is someone who is raring to go, passionate about what they do, and can go with the flow.”
Phyllis: “What I run into mostly are people who know where their business has been and they need to overcome some fear about participating in social media to get it to where it can be. They need to learn to adapt and go with the flow.”
Phyllis shared that a big shift that has happened from running a business in the ’80 ‘s where it was about competition to today where it is an environment of cooperation. Phyllis has a friend who is writing a book about new ways of communicating and the qualities of masculine and feminine. It is a hot topic. Her name is http://speakstrong.com/ Meryl Runion.
You can listen to the full interview here.
