Garrison Keillor may not be the first person you think of when it comes to business and personal success. But, he has a lot to say about success - and what it really takes to create meaning and value in our lives.

From his perspective, success happens when you follow these three principles:

“Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

To me, “be well” part is about taking great care of yourself and handling the personal problems, fears and challenges that keep you from growing your business, advancing your career and living your purpose. It’s about developing the confidence and courage you need to do your best work. The “do good work” part is about investing energy into things that makes a difference and call upon your best skills and talents - whether that be a job, volunteer position or role within our families and community.

Then, there’s the “keep in touch” part.

Most people know that building and maintaining a powerful network is just as important as your net worth. For example, business owners know that keeping in touch is a critical part of growing their business. Whether it be for business or personal, most of us acknowledge that relationships are what it’s really about.

But, here’s the sad truth. Most people don’t keep in touch like they know they should. Business owners miss out on opportunities, lose touch with prospects and fail to connect meaningfully with the people they are meant to serve. Professionals fail to nurture their network during the good times and then panic when it’s time to change jobs. Most of the time, we neglect to consistently make that personal connection with the people we care about most.

And, when that happens, the opportunities to “do good work” are less and less. Which then negatively impacts the “be well” part.

This degenerative cycle repeats itself over and over again…until we break it by reconnecting with the people in our network and in our community.

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Maybe it’s just me, but everyone seems to be talking about intentions these days. Not surprising, given the buzz created by The Secret, which focuses on the Law of Attraction and the importance of setting intentions to attract what you really want.

This talk of setting intentions and aligning your thoughts and actions must have been on my mind today during a meeting the owners of a small business in the service industry. As I listened to the business partners describe the various efforts they had made during the past year to grow their business, a certain phrase grabbed my attention.

We just need to get the word out.

After a powerful discussion about the importance of building relationships with prospects and clients over time, one of the partners explained to me that they were going to purchase a billboard ad in their efforts to grow their business and get clients.

I asked the business owner to repeat that last sentence, certain that I didn’t hear her correctly.

“Yes, we are going to purchase a billboard ad and possibly some additional magazine ads in order to get the word out about our business.”

In my experience, ads don’t do much to help service professionals get clients and generate referrals.

Lest I dirty my name with the advertising community or insinuate that my colleagues should not use a billboard in their marketing efforts, let me say this. Ads can be quite effective for certain companies and for certain projects. I just find them to be largely ineffective for the service professional who wants to get booked solid.

The reason? For the service business, it’s all about building trust and credibility with your clients. And choosing the marketing tools that will cultivate the “know, like and trust” factor.

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