First thing to say - and I suspect the awkwardness I too feel at direct sales is related to the awkwardness I feel at saying stuff like this - is you are super cool. And you provide a great service as a role model and inspiration.

One thing I've noticed is how unfamiliar clients are with the blog format of a website. If I point to a blog, only other bloggers take it seriously (or are even able to work out how to navigate it). I think it's a bit like brochures and peacock feathers; everybody knows they're useless but they like to feel the weight of the paper and see the lustre of the feathers because it denotes 'fitness'. I think blogs are blogs and we should probably all have websites.

Plus, the longer you've been 'doing' it on the web, the more it shows on your website. Again, clients like websites to look like they were made recently so they can email links to their boss.

(It's possibly stupid to make these kind of generalisations. But, let me add some background to show why I'm making them. My last 'employee' role was as L & D Consultancy Business Development manager. Selling on a team to team basis means you often learn a lot more than selling one-to-one, usually by accident. Negotiations and pitching can take months so you get to know people pretty well and due to mild cases of sales-Stockholm Syndrome. Surprisingly often, I'd end up in a coffee shop with 'my' contact at a client who'd complain how I was their favourite but that some budget holder had wanted the shinier, 'safer' option. Often, we're not selling 'to' people but helping our friends/contacts/kindred spirits sell ideas to their bosses.)

I wonder how many of us write for our peers more than our customers and clients? I know when I started I fully intended to aim every post at clients. But I write most of my posts now for friends on Twitter. I mark down my blog time as sales/marketing but it's not, it's professional development. Should we all be more ruthless? Or, at least, get better at signposting people to the simple stuff?

I was just thinking, I could give you loads of advice on sales and marketing. I've just been looking at your salesy pages and there's a ton of low-hanging fruit to pick. Heck, it's what I did for nearly a decade - we should definitely talk!

Problem is, I take NONE of it myself. As I Tweeted, lots to think about here. You're one of the most recognisable L & D people on the webs - if you're not exactly rushed off your feet, what chance do the rest of us have?