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How To Sell Your Ideas Like Don Draper
By Robin Fisher Roffer
Could playing small be what’s keeping you from winning big in business?
Each time I sit down to watch an episode of Mad Men I’m drawn in by the power that Don Draper commands in a meeting. He knows that he’s got the right idea. His cocksure pitch blankets the client in confidence. With total faith, they believe that the campaign will work to increase sales and build their personal reputations as genius decision makers. And whether it’s Cool Whip or Clearasil, Don and the Mad Men of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce deliver. More…
I have been celebrating my birthday over the past couple of weeks. I attended intimate dinners and cocktail events that I arranged in my honor in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. As I made my way across the country, each night I would walk into a room filled with people I love. In turn, the next day I came to my meetings happily in service.
I’m feeling like the word “marketing” should be retired. I know this may sound like blasphemy to most of you, but what I see driving success in large corporations and in small businesses is not traditional marketing, it’s culture.
At the beginning of December, my 13-year-old daughter told me that she wanted to switch to a private prep school after Winter Break. The alternative school she was attending was no longer challenging her and she wanted more structure – a place where she could feel a sense of accomplishment. 
Last week during my monthly touch-up, my hairstylist announced that he was going back to school. George was excited about transferring his talent for making people beautiful into a new career as a plastic surgeon. His plan is to work his way through school over the next seven years. I was completely inspired by George’s focused determination to reinvent himself, and I knew that he wasn’t alone. Frustrated by dead end careers, a lack of job prospects and the need to enhance skill sets or be left in the dust, adults are going back to school in droves. 
I know it seems counter-intuitive, but if you’re feeling paralyzed by uncertainty and doubt, my best advice is to resist isolating and get out into your community. Helping find a cure for cancer by running a marathon, volunteering at a local museum, lecturing at a college or industry event, advocating for a worthy cause or mentoring young people will make you look like a leader, someone who has dimension. 
