About the Author

Stephanie Diamond is a thought leader and management marketing professional with 20+ years of experience building profits in more than 75 different industries. She has worked with solopreneurs, small-business owners, and multibillion-dollar corporations.

She worked for eight years as a Marketing Director at AOL. When she joined, there were fewer than 1 million subscribers. When she left in 2002 there were 36 million. While at AOL, she developed a highly successful line of multimedia products that brought in an annual $40 million in incremental revenue.

In 2002, she founded Digital Media Works, Inc. (DigMediaWorks.com), an online marketing company that helped business owners discover the hidden profits in their business. She is passionate about guiding online companies to successfully generate more revenue and find their company’s real value.

As a strategic thinker, Stephanie uses all the current visual thinking techniques and brain research to help companies get to the essence of their brand. In 2011, she founded the Savvy Executive Institute (SavvyExecutiveInstitute.com) where she helps companies accelerate their growth by understanding and communicating their value to customers using all the latest techniques.

Stephanie received a BA in Psychology from Hofstra University and an M.S.W. and M.P.H. from the University of Hawaii. She lives in New York with her husband and Maltese named Colby.

Dedication

To Barry, who makes all things possible.

To my family, for their encouragement and love.

Author’s Acknowledgments

It is my great privilege to write this book. I want to offer great thanks to Wiley Publishing, Inc. for letting me reintroduce Dragon NaturallySpeaking to a waiting audience of smart readers.

The following people were especially important in creating this book, and I offer very sincere thanks:

• To the wonderfully creative group at Wiley, Acquisitions Editor Katie Mohr and Project Editor Brian Walls. They made this project a dream!
• To the very sharp folks at Nuance Communications, Peter Mahoney, SVP and GM and Erica Hill, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, for sharing their knowledge.
• To Matt Wagner, my agent at Fresh Books, for his continued hard work on my behalf.

Finally, thanks to you for choosing this book to learn about Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I wish you enormous joy on your exciting journey into voice recognition.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Project Editor: Brian Walls

Technical Editor: Eric Guinazzo

Editorial Assistant: Claire Johnson

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Project Coordinator: Emily Benford

Cover Photo: ©iStock.com/Xavier Arnau