By: Joshua Finley
Adam Houlahan is a LinkedIn marketing expert and a published author of three books that have performed well on Amazon and we hear there’s another one on the way!
Houlahan’s first three books have already helped countless thousands of entrepreneurs and business leaders to up their game on LinkedIn, so we caught up with him for an insider’s sneak preview. We asked him why he’s decided to write another book and what the focus of this next one will be. It turns out that this book will be a little different from the first three.
Why A New Book Now?
Houlahan shared a snippet of his journey as an author:
“Ten years ago I took the scary step of writing and publishing my first business book, “Social Media Secret Sauce”. It was an amazing and challenging experience getting up at 5 am to write, alongside running a business, and having a young family, but it got me hooked. Since then, I’ve published two more books, “The LinkedIn Playbook” and “Influencer”. They are designed for business owners who want to create an iconic identity for themselves and their businesses and grow a following on LinkedIn. If you haven’t read them, they’re still available on Amazon. But this isn’t about those two books.”
A New Opportunity For Business Owners
Houlahan’s new book digs deep into a rapidly accelerating global trend that, Houlahan says, cannot be ignored if you want your business to remain competitive and profitable in an ever-tightening labor market.
He plans to share insights from his journey as the founder and CEO of Prominence Global, shining a spotlight on a strategic decision he made several years ago. This decision has enabled his company to ride out the turbulence of the COVID years, scale up and down easily when business conditions have changed, and develop a strong team culture.
There’s a detailed explanation of the strategy and commercial rationale that underpins it that Houlahan has implemented so successfully in Prominence Global over the last few years. This strategy has been refined and developed into a brand-new, unique service offering that will enable Houlahan’s followers to reap the same benefits as Prominence Global has.
The Working World’s Expansion Into Diverse, Distributed Teams
In the never-ending pursuit of efficiency and profitability, the way businesses work was already changing quite rapidly before COVID-19 turned organizations in every country upside down. That situation has accelerated the shift, and Houlahan maintains that the way he works has changed forever.
This new book sets out a clear plan that business leaders, from solopreneurs to corporate executives, can adopt to reduce their labor costs while “baking in” flexibility and productivity.
For several years now, business owners and leaders have been discovering the potential benefits of engaging a virtual assistant—someone with the skills to support key executives and perform a wide range of mostly administrative tasks without having to be in the same office—or even the same city or country.
However, Houlahan points out that this practice has largely been restricted to what we once called secretarial or executive assistant duties. The opportunity is orders of magnitude greater than that. Far more roles lend themselves to remote work than you might think. In fact, Houlahan has outlined over 50 diverse roles that can now be managed this way in the new book.
Prominence Global Leads By Example
When asked about the practical effectiveness of his approach and how it delivers the profitability and productivity he claims, Houlahan provided a compelling response: “In our work helping clients to grow their businesses using LinkedIn, we never recommend an approach that we haven’t tried and “battle-tested” in our own business. That philosophy has stood us in good stead for years, and we see no reason to change it now. So, the approach to working with distributed teams I outline in the new book has already been trialed, refined, and successfully implemented in our business and with clients. It works!”
The Evidence
When asked for more details, he explained that the Prominence Global team he’s built is a living example of this strategy in action. He has team members in multiple time zones within Australia, as well as in the Philippines, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India and the USA.
Most of them have never met each other—or him—in person, yet they are committed, consistently productive and have a strong, collaborative team culture. The terms of engagement for each team member are tailored to their personal circumstances and Prominence Global’s commercial needs, so it’s a win for all concerned.
Drivers of Success With Distributed Teams
That raised the next question. No doubt there are plenty of pitfalls for businesses that until now have still relied on only hiring locally based staff, so what do business leaders need to do to capitalize on this opportunity and get it right?
Houlahan smiled and said: “You’ll have to wait to read the book for that!”
He was happy to share four key tips to get you thinking:
- Understand the difference between diverse and remote teams and which is more appropriate for your current situation.
- Regions differ in the availability of specific skills so choose your sources carefully.
- Do your research to ensure you are compliant with legislation in your chosen regions and that your contract terms and pay rates are aligned with the market.
- Implement the right processes, systems, and technology to help your remote team members integrate with your local team and get the support they need.
What, When, And Where
This sounds like a must-read for business leaders everywhere, no matter what size business they are running so we had to ask, what’s the title, and when will it be available?
Houlahan said that he has several ideas for the title which are still being refined so he’ll share that later once it’s finalized. The book is currently in its writing phase and will be available to the public in January 2025. There will be further updates as we get closer to the final release date.
If you’d like to be added to Houlahan’s priority pre-release list for advanced access and launch bonuses, reach out to him on his LinkedIn profile.
Published by: Holy Minoza
