You will be the same in 5 years as you are today, except for two things: the people you meet and the items you read…
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Free Download - A recession: is it coming, here now…or mostly in our minds? By John Lees |
I once brought a particularly gifted speaker to Australia and New Zealand, to address our staff and customers…and I recall him saying this to me: ‘John, if I wanted to know anything about you I would just go to your bookcase, and then I would see who your heroes are, what business issues you consider to be important and what you consistently learn about.’ I remember thinking that I should go home right away and fix up my bookcase! And then it occurred to me that things were not as bad as they seemed, after all I had spent a lot of company money bringing this very valuable man to our shores, plus I had searched high and low to provide our 1st sales force (our staff) and our 2nd sales force (our customers) with an array of high quality speakers and trainers…at major conferences and key state meetings.
At Schwarzkopf, I even created an educational forum for our salon owner customers, featuring a national convention each year and two regional meetings…at which times they would encounter the best educators available, worldwide. The customers paid to attend these sessions but no profit was derived by our company, because it was in our interests for customers to learn how to grow their businesses…which in turn would lead to growth for Schwarzkopf. The educational forum was branded ‘The pH Club’ (progressive hairdressing), and at the first national convention the opening speaker was the then chairman of McDonalds in Australia, Peter Ritchie, talking about service and other key issues…and the industry speaker that day was ‘Stefan’, the owner of 60 salons in Australia. We very rarely presented product messages at pH Club meetings, unless there was a new product being released, and even then it would take up very little time (the club is still going after 23 years). I also ran a ‘board of customers’ in both countries and a regular speaker at those meetings was professor Roger Layton AM (faculty of commerce and economics)…and so our ‘board members’ were fed a diet of very high quality educators (3 times a year for a day and half each time), and the board concept ran for 8 years! So what are you doing to further your own business education, and if you are a manager, the education of your staff and even your customers…because the growth of people always precedes the growth of business results? People in business are the targets of incessant, high pitched, low quality education…and the closer you are to sales and marketing the worse it gets! The only reason I moved into business education was to offer an alternative and opposite message to those that I had found to be both embarrassing and repugnant…delivered by so-called ‘motivational’ speakers. The diet of drivel served up to sales people includes these inane topics: ‘how to set goals’; ‘how to be positive’; ‘how to sell anything to anyone’; ‘handling objections’; ‘closing the sale’, etc. Try to imagine doctors, architects and engineers being faced with such absurd professional ‘challenges’.
My message then is to be very selective in what you read, and the people you see as role models. The best bet is to avoid the books and people that are ‘flavour of the month’, because they almost always fade into oblivion. The authors that I found compelling were Peter Drucker and Harold Geneen, and the best speakers I hired were Wilfred Jarvis and Charles Jones. These people told the truth about personal and business success, with no hype whatsoever…but with plenty of fun along the way. The bottom line is that the narrower your education is, the slimmer your chance will be of achieving business success…or, what you earn depends on how much you learn.
You will be the same in 5 years as you are today except for two things the people you meet and the items you read - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is North America's leading authority on team culture. She is an author and professional speaker and president of the leading team culture consultancy, TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Crampton has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down or to subscribe to TIGES Free monthly e-newsleeter go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: Winning Business Team Cultures And Why They Thrive, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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