Great post. I have notice a big difference in the attitude of prospective clients since I wrote a book (aimed at my peers). Casually mentioning that I wrote a book on the topic often results in - "what? wow!" type of reaction. Literally no-one else they have spoken would have even thought of writing a book, so it really lifts you up the perceived authority ladder.
I've used VMWare for a while now, and it is indeed very fast. I've just started using Vagrant (thanks for creating it!) and love it, despite the slowness of Virtual Box. Good luck with VMWare support, I'm looking forward to that.