They don't cost much energy or money to produce, but booklets and special reports can bring you following kinds of results:

* A big burst of extra money, or a steady stream of revenue for years, as you prefer - some items have earned as much as half a million to a million dollars for their authors!

* A valuable list of people interested in your topic, to rent out or use yourself for sales of more expensive products and services

* Possibilities for translations and bulk sales - i.e., greater exposure and income

* Content that you can resell in other formats, such as audio or video tapes, articles, books, subscription Web sites

* An inexpensive means of testing waters for bigger products

* A method of making an end run around editorial gatekeepers at magazines and book publishers

* An easy, inexpensive entry into highly profitable information business

* Additional opportunities such as speaking engagements, consulting, audiotape possibilities, magazine articles, book contracts and business partnerships

Compared with some other vehicles for selling information, booklets and special reports have these advantages:

* So long as you have a computer and either a high-end word- processing program or a desktop design program, you don't need additional equipment to create these products.

* Most people will not need to hire a producer or designer in order to create a salable product.

* You don't need space or advance investment to stock inventory, but can instead create booklets and special reports on demand, as people send in money. Hence you can get started with an outlay of less than $10. Truly!

From dawn of publicly held corporations, CEOs and upper-management executives have been placed on a pedestal. Too high to touch, too strong to falter, too knowledgeable to need help. Unfortunately, this stereotype perpetuated for far too many years to count, leaving many CEOs and executives at a disadvantage. However, public recognition of executive coaching several years ago has taken a sledgehammer to base of that pedestal, and has broken ground on a new era of "CEO training." Kathi Graham-Leviss of XB Coaching, Inc. (www.xbcoaching.com) has seen how this stereotype has dealt an unfair blow to many a corporation. Through years of providing coaching to top corporate officers and executives across country, Leviss has found that holding fast to “untouchable” persona triggers a domino effect that faults corporation, executive, and those on their team. So why then, are so many organizations still cloaking their leaders in blanket of supposed omnipotence?

“The general consensus of past was that public opinion and corporate loyalty remained higher if there was a perception that all officers and executives could do no wrong,” states Leviss. “However, that consensus is extremely outdated. Today more trust, more loyalty, and stronger team values are exhibited when employees see their leaders and officers continually improving themselves. When upper-management portrays an image of teamwork by admitting fault, improving skill sets, and leading by example, everyone benefits.”

Especially after recent corporate improprieties, employees and stockholders alike have taken a strong stance that those in charge not only be more visible within corporation, but that they also be better trained in a plethora of areas.

“Many officers and executives struggle (unbeknown to others) with job requirements for which they simply never received formal training. Because many people exhibit sheer brilliance in area of their expertise, they are assumed to be qualified in all nuances of leadership,” Leviss says. This is a dangerous and unfounded assumption.

For example, following responses appeared repeatedly in results of an informal survey I conducted: