The Green Evangelist

A few months ago I wrote my now infamous eZine on global warming. Many loved it and several were rather disdainful. What I think some may have missed is that the point of the article was to increase awareness for the myriad of opportunities in "green business" for Independent Professionals.

For this you need to think outside of the box.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in an article from this week's New Yorker, whose subject was Amory Lovins, perhaps the preeminent green business consultant in the world and C.E.O. of the Rocky Mountain Institute (R.M.I.).

Lovins doesn't just think outside of the box, he declares, "There is no box." And this goes for generating business as well. One thing is for sure: Amory Lovins is a great networker.

It doesn't hurt that he's a genius and polymath. He has worked for twenty five years with clients in a wide range of industries, where his primary focus is on sustainable businesses and energy conservation.

Companies hire him because he produces bottom-line results, such as dramatically cutting energy costs, but he's not one to hide out in a laboratory waiting for clients to call. He gets himself out there - in a big way.

Let me quote from the New Yorker, where Elizabeth Kolvert describes Lovins at an international conference:

"After lunch everyone switched tables. This time, Lovins ended up sitting with several executives from Ford; Pernendu Chatterjee, the head of a private equity firm; and William McDonough, one of the preeminent "green" architects in the United states.

"In the front of the room, executives from two international companies were holding a panel discussion on energy saving companies with the former NATO commander, General Wesley Clark.

"Lovins spent most of the discussion sending emails. One was to the Norwegian philanthropist he has just met. The philanthropist owned a cheese farm; Lovins attached a paper on energy-efficient dairy farming.

"When General Clark said something he disagreed with, Lovins sent him a long email outlining why. During a brief break in the program, Lovins sought out Thomas Friendman, the times columnist, and Rick Fedrizzi, the president of the U.S. Green Building Council, to give them a PowerPoint on a school R.M.I. had designed in Brazil.

"During another break, he presented the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, with an inch-thick pile of articles. As Newsom took the articles, he laughingly alluded to an equally thick pile of reading material Lovins had handed him several weeks earlier."

Lovins certainly networks with people in high places but he is only doing what any good networker does - getting attention by communicating value and then providing more information. You can bet he follows up diligently with every contact by email and phone. It obviously works.

He has built R.M.I. into a fifty plus person consulting firm that not only does well but does good. His organization's stated goal is "the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining."

You may or may not agree with Lovins's aim, but you have to hand it to him. He's a networking and personal marketing powerhouse that would put most of us to shame.

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The More Clients Bottom Line - Amory Lovins embodies the essence of an InfoGuru - someone who networks and markets himself and his business through information and "evangelism." When you become an evangelist, it's hard to stop you!

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What are you dong to evangelize your business? Share things you've done on the Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Comments

[Dating Goddess]

Hi Robert:

You may not know my nom de plum, but it is what I am evangelizing right now. You ask what your readers are doing to evangelize their business. I, like you, started a blog as a way to write my next book on a new topic, datng advice for women over 40. Since this is a new area of expertise, I promoted the blog to other bloggers in the datng space, trading links. I also traded links with other thought leaders, not in the dating/relationship space.

I let my colleagues know, and they have recommended me for interviews in the media. So even though the manuscript is still in my agent's hands, I am generating buzz for this new business even before the book is out.

I'm also contacting my pals who have products/services to promote to this market. I've made deals with friends with books, CDs and coaching services so I earn a percentage from each sale that comes through the Dating Goddess site.

(Hint on my identity: You and I share the same initials and live in the same area and I've interviewed you twice in the past.)

Thanks for continuing to provide solid, helpful content for us info-gurus!

Dating Goddess
Adventures in Dating After 40
http://www.DatingGoddess.com

[Nicholas Head]

Its not about us.

[Nicholas Head]

Robert, thanks for your leadership on this issue. I am coaching green as much as I can. What that means is forwarding green business, organizations, change agents, wannabe change agents. In the Organization Development field there are rumblings, and local here in AZ, I have some like minded colleagues interested in "holding the space" for green change agents to come together and capture the synergies. All the best. Nick

[syl]

Sorry Rob,,

The green gold just wasn't all it was made out to be. I am terribly dissapointed. I have known of better business marketing products. Your green gold just did not cut it. Disappointing is all I can say to capture this product. The green gold turned out to be straw.