Podcasts about question tell

Question: Tell us about the time that someone tattled on you or ratted you out. (eg. That a-hole co-worker of yours that told your former boss that you were taking too long of lunch breaks, your classmate threw you under the bus for your senior prank so they wouldn't get in trouble, when your buddies girlfriend broke up your relationship when you got hammered and she thought you were hitting on her...even though you weren't, the time your older brother blamed you for spilling paint everywhere even though it was both of you that did it, etc) Show Features: Missed Connection Inspection, Wrap It Up, and Bleeped BS Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the most SHOCKING thing that someone you don't know well decided to tell you out of the blue. (eg. The 85 year old lady that was sitting next to us at breakfast in Chicago that told us all about being a stripper in college, when a guy you went on a first date with dropped that he spent 3 years in federal prison, the time the lady working at the gas station decided to tell you she was getting divorced when you were buying a pack of gum, when your college professor told the class about his drinking problem on day one, etc) Show Features: Who's Horny, Cover Your Ears, and Karen Chronicles  Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the time that you fainted or passed out in public, what caused it? (eg. Mahoney got hit in the nuts so hard by a nerf football he fainted, Dave almost got KO'd by a heavyweight kickboxer in Muay Thai sparring, the time that you passed out on stage from being so nervous while giving a speech in HS, when you drank too much at a dayclub and they had to call the paramedics to wheel you out on a stretcher, etc) Show Features: Mullet Over, Movie Quote Quiz, and Fast Food Freakouts Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This TOTM Face to Face conversation is between Sam and Ben, two interns at the Ever Forward Club's Social-Emotional Leadership Academy. Through the mask-making process and the card game "Ever Forward Club: The Adventure", Sam and Ben explore what it is like to not know what to do with the rest of their lives with “adulthood” being right around the corner. They both find comfort in knowing that they are not alone in this sentiment. Ashanti Branch and Justin Martinez make guest appearances, holding space for the two young men. (1:18) Ashanti's introduction. (5:55) Ben and Sam introduce themselves. (7:10) Ben shares the front of his mask and why he chose the words intelligent, hard-working, and amiable. (8:20) Sam shares the front of his mask, and what it says about how he approaches new experiences - confident, courageous, creative. (10:00) Ben shares the back of his mask - anxious, exhausted, restless. (12:25) Sam shares the back of his mask - uncertainty, tired. They both relate to the feeling of not knowing what to do in life while being on the precipice of adulthood. (16:15) With the help of Ashanti, Sam and Ben play the card game “Ever Forward Club: The Adventure”. (19:00) Question: What is a question that you are afraid will be asked? Ben explains why he's nervous to be asked, “what do you want to do with your life?” Sam shares how similar questions are also nerve-racking for him, and they discuss how they navigate this question with their parents. (25:25) Question: What was the hardest day of your life? Sam shares the long road to recovery he endured after being hit by a car. Then, Ben answers the question with a story of when he passed out from exhaustion, in the middle of San Francisco. (32:00) Question: Tell us about a time when you realized you were becoming an adult. Ben tells Sam about the first time he came home after curfew. Then, Sam questions the idea that the age 18 automatically makes someone an adult. (36:40) Ben shares how he believes his growing awareness of politics, empathy, and mistreatment are signs of becoming an adult. Then, he opens up about the changes he wants to see so that his generation can thrive. (40:50) Next, Justin Martinez joins the podcast. He addresses some of the feelings that Ben and Sam expressed throughout their conversation. --- Connect with Ever Forward Club: Instagram: instagram.com/everforward Facebook: facebook.com/everforwardclub Twitter: twitter.com/everforwardclub LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-ever-forward-club --- Create your own mask anonymously at www.100kmasks.com If you are interested in being on the Face to Face podcast, email us at everforwardclub@gmail.com --- Connect with Ashanti Branch: Instagram: instagram.com/branchspeaks Facebook: facebook.com/BranchSpeaks Twitter: twitter.com/BranchSpeaks LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashantibranch Website: branchspeaks.com --- Send in a voice message: anchor.fm/branch-speaks/message

Question: Tell us about the wildest thing that you or your significant other have either done or said in your SLEEP (eg. The time he was saying another girl's name in his sleep...only to find out he was cheating on you, your girlfriend gets up and wanders around in her sleep all the time and doesn't remember any of it, the time you accidentally punched your husband in the face and broke his nose, launched your cat off the bed when you had a dream you were falling, etc) Show Features: Cover Your Ears, Super Stupid Spelling Bee, and Karen Chronicles  Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This TOTM Face to Face conversation is between Kevin and Chioke, two friends who have known each other for 4 years since high school. Through the mask-making process and the card game "Ever Forward Club: The Adventure", Kevin and Chioke go somewhere they have never gone as friends, establishing a deeper connection that felt long overdue. TOTM Face to Face was created during the launch of this podcast, where two or more young men participate in the process of making and sharing masks. Each participant will create a mask, as used in the TOTM podcast, and let the conversation go where it needs to go. The TOTM activity was created by Ashanti Branch during the documentary, The Mask You Live In. (6:00) Kevin and Chioke introduce themselves and their friendship. (7:15) Kevin and Chioke make masks together. (10:24) Chioke shares the front of his mask - dependable, fun, intelligent. Kevin shares the front of his mask - happy, excited, funny. (12:27) Chioke shares the back of his mask - I don't know how to get where I want to go; I feel lost. Kevin shares the back of his mask - unmotivated, stressed, loss of energy. (16:20) Kevin and Chioke discuss how different behaviors on social media represent the front and back of the mask. (23:50) Kevin and Chioke answer some questions from the card game Ever Forward Club: The Adventure. (25:20) Question: Tell us about an obstacle you have overcome in your life - Kevin shares how he faced a lot of bullying and name-calling while in school. Chioke shares how it was hard for him to find an identity and a community while growing up. (31:59) Question: Tell us about a time when you betrayed someone's trust - Kevin shares how it took him a long time to earn his parent's trust, and how he dealt with the shame of breaking their trust. Chioke tells a childhood story about a time he blamed a friend for something he was also involved in. (39:50) They reflect on the similarities between what they have shared, their relationships with their respective fathers, and how this conversation should have happened earlier in their friendship. (46:10) Question: Tell us about a time when someone earned your trust - Kevin reflects on the multiple romantic relationships he has had. Chioke talks about his first relationship and how he learned to trust. (56:10) Question: What was the hardest day of your life? Chioke shares what it was like when his significant other struggled with alcohol abuse and had a serious incident of alcohol poisoning. Kevin goes back to when he was bullied in HS. He recalls snapping a rubber band against his arm over and over again, and how one phone call played a huge role in his life. (1:06:45) Kevin and Chioke wrap up and give appreciations. --- Connect with Kevin Romero: Instagram: instagram.com/kevinn.romeroo --- Connect with Chioke Allen-Alvarez Instagram: instagram.com/aa_kuya --- Create your own mask anonymously at www.100kmasks.com --- Connect with Ashanti Branch: Instagram: instagram.com/branchspeaks Facebook: facebook.com/BranchSpeaks LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashantibranch --- Connect with Ever Forward Club: Instagram: instagram.com/everforward Facebook: facebook.com/everforwardclub

Question: Tell us about your fashion no f***s given moment or regular habit. (eg. Mahoney wearing fanny packs and old man walking shoes for their superior comfort, the time you dressed up in the world's douchiest couple's halloween costume cause you were trying to get laid, you'll rock the pajama pants and slippers to the grocery store all day, your Grandma would wear her curlers to church if she was running late, velcro shoes all damn day, etc) Show Features: Bleeped BS, Lazy Bonez Mahonez, and Missed Connection Inspection Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us your best MINIVAN story (eg. When your lost your virginity in the back of your parents Caravan, the time your friend stole his parents Astrovan so you guys could cross state lines to party, when you went street surfing being pulled behind your buddy's Town and Country, when your sister got arrested for going 110 in your parents Odyssey, etc) Show Features: Cover Your Ears, Blooper Reel, Internet Is Awesome, and Beer For Breakfast Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the diciest hotel / motel room you've ever slept in or partied at? (eg. Dave used to frequent parties at a super stretchy Red Roof Inn in a rough part of town, your work sent you on a trip out of town and put you up in a crack motel with no clean towels, you once found a sex toy in between the comforter and sheets, etc) Show Features: Super Stupid Spelling Bee, The Voice Mail, Wise Words From The Web Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com #TurnUsOn See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the time that you dropped something of great value, or when you dropped yourself, into a body of water. Did you ever get it back? (eg. When Dave's brother pushed a friend into Lake Mead with his new iPhone and wallet in his pocket, the time you dropped your car keys into the ocean...never to be seen again...cost you $850 to get the car rekeyed, when your non swimming dog took a fall into the pool and had to be rescued, etc) Show Features: Lazy Bonez Mahonez, Missed Connection Inspection, and Bleeped BS  Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the time that you got physically hurt by your sibling, or the time that you hurt them? (eg. Dave was been involved in his older brother's leg getting broken, your sister pushed you off the boat as a kid and you sliced your leg open on the side, you pushed your kid brother down a flight of stairs when you were wrestling and he broke both arms, etc) Show Features: Tipsy Or Toddler, Wise Words From The Web, Are You Smarter?  Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the time that your kid had a TOTAL meltdown over absolutely nothing in public? (eg. Dave's daughter freaked out after getting splashed by an Orca at SeaWorld after she chose to sit in the 'wet zone', the time your kid was told they had to leave Dave and Busters and he screamed and cried the whole way to the car, when you told your 4 year old they couldn't have a 2 liter of Root Beer and they started screaming HELP ME like they were being kidnapped in the middle of the grocery, etc) Show Features: Bleeped BS, Missed Connection Inspection, Lazy Bonez Mahonez Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the time that you or a friend took DAY DRINKING way too far? (eg. Your friend got hammered and ran out onto the field at an NFL game, you passed out on the beach and got blistered from the sunburn, your Dad had too many daiquiri's and ended up in jail for trying to fight your uncle, you almost got ran over by a moped when you were stumbling around drunk in Italy on vacation, you peed your pants at your best friend's wedding, etc) Show Features: Wise Words From The Web, Blooper Reel, Beer For Breakfast Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the last time that you ditched someone that you actually felt bad about? Or the BEST excuse that you have for getting out of plans you want to break? (eg. You still feel bad about standing up your prom date back in high school to party with your boys, you never feel bad and ALWAYS blame having to let your dog out, you feel bad about not showing up to your Grandma's 90th birthday party and she always gives you shit for it, you missed your kid's school play one time...never again, etc) Show Features: Overshare Chair, Dirty Laundry Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here we go again! We are super excited to share Part 2 of our chat with Dr. Jessica and Jon! We hope you guys have LOVED this interview - we sure have!   3:50 - 1st Question: Did you volunteer to step down or was it a break of contract at all? 7:08 - 2nd Question: Jessica, what was Dr. Pepper’s reaction? 9:15 - 3rd Question: Jon, what was it about Jessica that changed for you to settle down? 12:55 - 4th Question: Jon, when you were going through the entire screening process and everything, do you feel like you were seeing Jessica at the end like the person that she is or did it go through Molly first to realize that this is exactly what I want? 15:19 - 5th Question: How long have you been together? 16:08 - 6th Question: When is the wedding gonna be? 17:24 - 7th Question: Jon, did you ask her kids if it was okay to marry her? 24:33 - 8th Question: Jess, did you know or have an idea that Jon was going to propose? 25:47 - 9th Question: Let’s hear the whole engagement story! 30:03 - 10th Question: Jon and Jessica share about finding the perfect ring. 34:08 - 11th Question: Tell us more about the course you have for couples.   Come back next week for another GREAT episode! Wishing you the happiest holidays!!!   Dr. Jessica’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.jessicagriffin/ Jon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jon_francetic/ Love Builder Website: https://lovebuilder.com/ Love Builder, Inc. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love_builder_inc_/   And thank you to our sponsors:   SweatyBetty - Go to SweatyBetty.com/HMCP and use our code HMCP at checkout to get 20% off your purchase! This is the BEST OFFER Sweaty Betty has available ANYWHERE.   Calm App - Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40% off a Calm premium subscription at calm.com/hotmarriage. Unlimited access to Calm’s entire library, and new content is added every week! Download the app now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Question: Tell us about your WORST landlord ever. (eg. The guy who refused to fix a leak in your roof and it ruined a bunch of your stuff, the creepy old cougar lady that was always trying to sleep with you, the annoying one that was always fining you for silly little infractions, the out of town one that always harassed you to pay rent you'd already paid, etc) Show Features: Fake News Farra, Are You Smarter?, Tipsy Or Toddler Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about the scariest experience you've ever had with a bug. (eg. Woke up to a giant spider on your face, got attacked by a swarm of angry wasps when you were a kid, found a centipede in your lunchbox, put your shoe on while on vacation...to find a scorpion, stepped into a mountain of fire ants, etc) Show Features: Bleeped BS, Karen Chronicles, Cover Your Ears Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us what happened at the WEIRDEST house party you've ever been to? (eg. You walked in and it was a swingers party..and you instantly walked out, you went to a frat party in college and they had a live cow in the living room, you went to a party on the beach...and everything was fine until about half the people took acid, got arrested at a house party with 30 of your friends for underage drinking, etc) Show Features: Tipsy or Toddler, Lazy Bonez Mahonez, and Missed Connection Inspection Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out the book "Tell me about yourself" by Stephen Moulton. Also get Stephens FREE Resume Template at his website  jobskillsforprofessionals.com you'll find all sorts of great advice too.Roger Matthews can be reached at Developwebsites.com

Question: Tell us about the person(s) that decided to deputize themselves as being in charge of your neighborhood / apartment complex / house even though they don't have any authority. What's the most ridiculous thing they've done? (eg. They call the HOA on you if your trash cans aren't off the street within 2 hours of the trucks coming, they reported you to the apartment management for "walking around" your own place too late, they tried to perform a citizen's arrest on your friend because they "looked suspicious" walking around the neighborhood, etc) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Question: Tell us about your WORST childhood vacation ever? (eg. Mom and Dad decided they wanted a divorce half way through the RV trip, you fell and broke your leg on day 1 of the Disney vacation you'd been looking forward to all year, your sister stole your boyfriend on your summer beach trip as teens, your drunk Uncle crashed YOUR new 4 wheeler into a tree, etc) Show Features: Blooper Reel, Beer for Breakfast, Internet Is Awesome, Movie Quote Quiz  Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is a compilation of answers to YOUR questions that were asked directly from my listeners who attend my weekly business education YouTube live webcast. Topics covered include: Ideal answer to the question “tell me about yourself”, Stopping yourself from starting too many things simultaneously, How to answer the question “tell me about yourself”, stopping yourself from starting too many things, how do you quit the right way and more.  Refer to chapter marks for a complete list of topics covered and to jump to a specific section. Download my free "Networking eBook": www.harouneducation.comAttend my weekly YouTube Live every Thursday's 8am-11am PT. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to receive notifications. Learn more about my MBA Degree ProgramConnect with me: YouTube: ChrisHarounVenturesCompleteBusinessEducationInstagram @chrisharounLinkedIn: Chris HarounTwitter: @chris_harounFacebook: Haroun Education Ventures  TikTok: @chrisharoun

It's week 7 and the couples take a peek at each other's living situations and Pastor Cal makes a visit.Join us as Tayne continues to struggle with warming up to Karen and Ade is not happy with Amani and Woody's choices.

In this episode of Ventures we dive into all-things blockchains, the state of the crypto ecosystem, the evolution of the industry (especially since 2017), the nuances between Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-State, and the suite of services that Figment Networks provides.  Guests: Lorien Gabel, Andrew Cronk, and Tony Little. You can watch the video of this episode here. This episode is both an introduction to the blockchain space (for those new), and a deep-dive into nuanced blockchain topics if you are an industry expert. Below is a condensed overview of the topics covered, visit the episode page for the full notes. 8:47 - Question: Tell us more about Figment Networks. What is the story and what is the company up to? 11:20 - Backing up and getting more high-level, what is a blockchain? 16:20 - Lorien's comment regarding blockchains as creating digital scarcity, and Tony's followup comment regarding blockchains providing a source of truth, and who to “reward”. 17:06 - Will's recollection of Tony's Harry-Potter-esque description of blockchains replicating information across nodes. 18:14 - What is Proof-of-Work? Proof-of-Stake? Why do these matter in the blockchain ecosystem? 22:02 - The three layers of blockchains: networking, consensus, and changing application state. 22:49 - Blockchains can track other state changes besides payment transactions21:20 - Tony's comment regarding Proof-of-Work really being Proof-of-Stake indirectly within Proof-of-Work25:40 - Is “decentralization” destined to simply recreate a different form of centralization again? How important is decentralization?28:01 - What are the different components/players within the blockchain ecosystem today? 32:48 - Where does Figment Networks specifically contribute within the overall blockchain ecosystem? 36:19 - When starting up a new blockchain network, at what point should founders talk to Figment about helping out? How should founders think about the steps of building their networks? 37:40 - Staking Hub, a group for the validator community, and a place for network founders to recruit validators38:22 - Figment has been up close and personal with 15+ network launches, what are best practices for launching a network? 40:35 - Problems with so many new networks coming out of academia and theory/research backgrounds. 41:18 - What has Tony seen on this topic with regard to enterprises bringing blockchains to market (built on technology like Hyperledger)? 45:05 - Enterprise consortiums vs. projects like Libra. How do they compare? How do token economics come into play, if at all?46:59 - What are the big problems in the blockchain space? 49:59 - Why is governance participation so hard to encourage? Is there maybe not enough economic or social incentive at play in most networks? 54:38 - What problems exist currently in the blockchain ecosystem for decentralized application (dApp) developers? 58:04 - What is the Ethereum 1 to Ethereum 2 transition, and why is that important for the blockchain community? 1:11:20 - Where do you see the blockchain ecosystem heading? What sorts of things should we be looking out for in the future? How do you see Figment Networks playing a role?  1:17:40 - Livepeer as an example of how to create a utility at a lower cost using blockchains

Question: Tell us about the most serious or awkward moment that has been interrupted by a fart? (eg. Your professor busted ass in the middle of a lecture, you tooted while being a groomsman in a wedding, your Mom ripped one at Thanksgiving, a judge broke wind in the middle of a trail you were on the jury for, etc) Socials: @DaveandMahoney Voice Mail: 833-Yo-Dummy https://www.twitch.tv/daveandmahoney Additional Content: daveandmahoney.com

It may seem like a softball, but it's actually the toughest job interview question. Here's how to nail it.

This question is a key part of all interviews. You need to have an answer ready. If you listen to this episode you can also observe me utterly failing at following my own teachings :-)) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/moritz-gruber/message

Random questions from Phil proves to be hilarious, yet thought-provoking.

I've been looking for a better closing question to my podcast interviews. Maybe you can help me out...     Podcast Hotline: (612) 584-9330      Podcast Website:www.TheCuriousPod.com Map Of Recording Locations: www.TheCuriousPod.com/map Subscribe On iTunes: www.TheCuriousPod.com/itunes   Follow Rob On Instagram: @therobmorgan   Intro Song By Wild Ponywww.WildPonyMusic.com

How To Answer The Interview Question Tell Me About Yourself We’ve all been asked this interview question. It feels super loaded which is why I don’t even ask this question. Tell me about yourself … I immediately think coffee addict, dog mom, wine lover. None of the stuff you should talk about during an interview is what comes to mind. That being said, we have to be with this particular question a little bit more strategic. What the interviewer is looking for is to know mostly about your background. 90% of this question should be answered about your background. Think about it as your elevator pitch. I have seen people go on and on and on when answering this type of question. Here is the equation: 1 sentence about our background 1 background diving a little bit deeper 1 sentence about what we passionate about in our field 1-2 super quick tidbits My example was in tiers. 1 - 50k foot view 2 - 10k foot view My passion Personal tid bit Couple reminders: we are keeping it buttoned up must be less than 2 mins think about it as your elevator pitch offer enough information for them to get a great overview providing a foundation for the interviewer to ask questions and dive deeper personal tid bits What we are not doing: rambling on not 50/50 personal and professional we are not taking over the conversation To connect: Instagram: @stephdennis13 Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephdennis13 You’re awesome!! Go be your amazing self today!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/careertalk/message

Become a star with this killer interview technique · Use this technique to frame your interview answers · This is a way to sort out your preparation · Situation-based questions can often be asked, so it’s good to be prepared · Gives you a bit of a framework to answer the question more effectively · Use this technique, not as a template but more as a guide · You don’t want to sound robotic S.T.A.R. stands for: · Situation · Task · Action · Result Situation:Part of the interviewing process is a bit like storytelling (truthful stories!), so you want to be engaging as possible when explaining the situation. Task: What were you asked to do? What was the objective? What did you need to achieve to get the desired result? Action:What did you actually do? Result:Talk about tangible results Remember to keep it engaging and succinct. Keep it as relevant to the question It is really beneficial to try this out with your friends using this technique or write it out or speak it out, for practice. Muscle memory, it goes in a bit more and you will much more prepared for your interview! Here are some examples to help you: Example 1- Question: Tell me about the time you had to resolve conflict? Let’s use the frame work for this question: · Situation: During this time I was working for (company), this was the size of the team, we had a tricky client with super high expectations. They made a complaint. · Task: I was involved in smoothing out the relationship. · Action: I conducted a phone call with the client, listened and worked through their concerns to come to a resolution · Result: Due to inefficiency in the team, further training was provided. I took over the next 3 months to manage the account and our sales went up etc. Using this format demonstrates, good communication and leadership skills. Example 2 · Situation: We provided a weekly magazine, which had a strict timeline. The printer let us down and this threw everything out and we risked missing the deadline. · Task: I had to ensure the magazine was printed on time. · Action: I spoke to three new printers and negotiated new rates and managed to secure a better rate overall. · Result: We now have a back-up printer for future situations like this. I made sure this, doesn’t happen again. It’s more for you to get this in your mind. You should practise this at home, it’s a muscle memory. Say it out loud, so it is much easier to recall. Go through the job description, see what they’re looking for and come up with an example and think of why you’re right for the role and why they should hire you. Keep it engaging and get enough detail so you can really paint the picture. Visit us at: www.becomerecuitment.com/podcast This is a great resource to see examples of situational based questions you may be asked: https://insightsresources.seek.com.au/page/interview-building-tool Hope this podcast has been useful and makes a difference for when you’re interviewing. Good luck!J

We cover step-by-step how to create an irresistible lead magnet to grow your community and build an evergreen funnel to capture leads. We recently co-hosted a webinar with Lindsey Morando from HelloBar on how to create an irresistible lead magnet to grow your community. We’ve asked Lindsey to join us in this episode to tell us more about building an evergreen funnel. Lindsey Morando is Hello Bar’s Director of Marketing. She has over 15 years of marketing and business development experience that spans multiple industries. Lindsey prides herself on the creation and implementation of engaging grassroots and online marketing tactics that convert fans into paying, happy customers. When Lindsey is not moving the marketing needle for businesses, she is a marketing professor at the San Diego Fashion Institute and the author of “It’s Just the Beginning, Break Up, Get Up & Walk Away. Question: Tell us a little about yourself and why you are so passionate about helping entrepreneurs and companies build their email list? Answer: I started my journey in email marketing in 2002. One of the first instances where I started to see the value of email marketing was when I was collecting email addresses at a local bar for a Monday night football raffle. I would collect the email addresses, input them by hand, and manually unsubscribe all the bounces. I was able to see how email promotion filled the bar every week. That was one of the first instances where I saw the power of email marketing. Question: What is the main problem that we all face if we have a website? Answer: The main problem is keeping people on the site and getting them to take the action you want them to take, whether it’s collecting their email address, taking your free trial offer or getting a sale. 98% of website visitors are leaving without taking the action step you want them to take, which means you’re spending a lot of time, money and energy between social media, ads and SEO to drive traffic to your website for them to leave. Websites are an afterthought, so you have to work hard to keep them there, engage them and making sure the site is in line with the overall marketing and strategy plan. Question: What are your thoughts on using an exit pop-up to get people to take action? Answer: That one converts the best. The exit pop-up on our site has collected an extra 900 free trial sign-ups. It converts really well and there’s a reason it works really well. The pop-up only displays when someone is about to leave your site, so if someone is about to leave anyway, it’s not intrusive. You’re also giving them an added incentive. Google did a ton of user data research and they found people are far less annoyed with a page takeover upon exit then a model on the center of the screen. Question: How can we set goals that make sense for our business? Answer: When it comes to setting goals that actually make sense for your business, you have to think about the ultimate action step you want people to take. Do you want to sell more courses? Do you want to sell coaching or consulting spots? Do you want to sell more e-commerce products? Start there. I suggest goal setting for 90 days instead of a year. So much changes in a year. Look at what you’re focusing on in the next 90 days and link that to your goal. Question: Can you talk a little bit about what a lead magnet is and how to create a magnet that people want? Answer: You have your goal- what you want people to achieve. Next you need to determine what steps they need to take to get to that point. The lead magnet is a free offer, something that allows someone to get to know you, provide value to your community and ultimately gets people down the path you want them to go. Free offers are all around you, free pizza samples at Costco that lead to buying a whole pizza, the 14 day gym trial or hopping on a site and getting a free course, mini-challenge or book. How do you create an offer? That’s the biggest question. It used to be that people would opt into a newsletter, but these days free offers are more prevalent online so people are more selective. You have to know your ideal client that’s coming to your site and you have to know why they are coming. What are they typing in Google and what are they looking for? From there, create the offer from the pain point. Give them a simple thing that gets them where they want to go. Once you’ve captured the pain point, you know why they’re coming to you specifically. Then, whether it’s a course or a challenge depends on what you already have. If you already have a course, take a small portion of it to create a mini-course or mini-challenge. You just want to get people some quick wins and results because if you can achieve that with your free offer, they are going to buy your product. Question: How do you know when you’re doing well? Answer: On average, for every 100 visitors to your site, you should be collecting around 5 email addresses. If you have an amazing, enticing offer, you’ll collect a lot more than that. If you’re not getting a good rate, Hello Bar allows you to test offers, headlines and graphics. I suggest testing the headline first because that’s where you get the most traction and then testing offers after that. Tools, apps and links mentioned: How to Create the Perfect Lead Magnet to Grow Your List! Google Analytics Hello Bar Canva Design Wizard Beacon Take Action Download the webinar How to Create the Perfect Lead Magnet to Grow Your List! and Lindsey’s free offer and amazing bonuses!

Bakit nga ba mahirap sagutin para sa iba ang tanong sa interview na “Can you tell me something about yourself?” Nagiging mahirap lamang ito kung hindi malinaw ang ating pananaw kung para saan ang tanong na ito at kung paano natin magagamit ang pagkakataon na ito upang maipakita ang ating kakayahan. Sa ating ikalawang panayam sa isang Asst. Project Coordinator ng DOLE-BLE for Jobstart program, naibahagi niya ang kanyang experience bilang isang working student, para saan ang Jobstart program at kung paano ba siya nagtagal sa kanyang trabaho. Lahat ‘yan sa episode na ito, 00:38 Paano nga ba sagutin ang tanong sa interview na- “Can you tell me something about yourself?” 03:58 Ikalawang panayam sa isang Asst. Project Coordinator ng DOLE-BLE tungkol sa Jobstart at pagiging working student 09:56 Quote for the Week (Eric Hoffer)

Most investors have stocks, bonds and cash in their retirement portfolio- listen to Michael explain the reasons why you should consider a specific kind of commercial real estate to own- apartments. Michael breakdowns the different types and challenges of commercial real estate; office, retail, industrial & land and explains why apartments are the best property type to own.

Shep Hyken Show Notes  Shep Hyken is a Customer Service and Experience expert and Cheap Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. He is the New York Times best selling author and has been inducted in the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the speaking profession. Shep works with companies and organizations who wants to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His articles has been read in hundreds of publications and he is the author of 5 books, he is also the creator of The Customer Focus, a customer service training programme which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mind set. Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey What is your view of customer service and customer experience, what do you think is the number 1 reason why it’s not consistent across all industries both private and public sector? If you could describe the most amazing customer experience that you’ve ever had, what would that be and why? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights   Shepard Hyken stated that his first education on customer service and experience was when he was 12 years old. He was doing magic shows for parties and he came home and his mom said, “Make sure you write a “Thank You” note.” He thought that was a great idea but little did he know that that was customer service. His dad said, “Follow up a week later and thank them again with a phone call and also ask what they liked about the magic show and find out what was their favorite tricks and how they felt about the show.” And that was also a sales tactic because soon as they said, “Hey you were great” and he would ask why and say, “I notice that little Johnny had a sister, does she need a magic show too?” That was all helpful but what he was learning was: 1 – Show appreciation to customers, 2 – Ask for feedback. His dad actually told him that,“When they tell what tricks they like, if they aren’t mentioning certain tricks as you go and do more and more shows, see if the parents aren’t mentioning the same tricks or are mentioning the same tricks and then you’ll know what tricks you might want to pull out and replace to try and make better because nobody is talking about them.” And he goes, that’s great feedback and isn’t that what we do in business today and that’s why he jokingly say but it’s really no joke that his customer service experience started with common sense that was taught to him by his parents and that’s really where a lot of customer service falls in the world of common sense. There he was age 12 doing that and he worked in Gas Stations when he was a kid and he was in a self serving station when he was in college at a gas station where you pump your own gas but it was a cold day and an elderly woman came, jumped out of her car to pump gas and he said, “Mam, get back into the car, I’ll pump your gas, it’s too cold.” And he pumped her gas and the manager at the gas station as he was a low-level employee, got upset with him for pumping her gas and he said, “This is the right thing to do, the woman could slip, she could break a hip.” She had to be 80 may 90 years old and he thought it was the right thing to do, once again common sense. He believes in all of that and he eventually in that retail organization was a region manager for the convenient stores and gas stations that they had and eventually the station’s operations manager and when they sold their company, he didn’t have a job and he decided to get into the world of professional speaking and he had a little entertaining background and he had some business background, plus he had gone to college, got his degree and he felt he could write a speech and within a very short time, all the research that he was doing and his favorite topic was in that world of customer service, so that’s what he gravitated toward right away and that was over 30 years ago. He was hired back in the early 1980’s by companies like IBM and General Motors and Enterprise Rent a Car, these were his first clients and he’ll never forget because to him IBM was one of the greatest companies and is still a great company but back then they were the ones that really bring customer service on the map, “We want to be so good at what we do that price doesn’t matter.” And of course price always matters at some point but when it becomes less and less relevant, it’s because of the value that you offer and many times that value is because we have a reliable product, we have unbelievable response time, that’s customer experience.   Shepard Hyken stated that what amazes him, he read that customer service they spend about 1/10th of what they spend on marketing and at the end of the day, customer service is the best marketing you can have because if you do a great job, people go out and talk about you. Customer service used to be where the value was and then it slowly shifted to something they call customer experience and experience for a long time was just another word for service. Steve Jobs figured it out and he use him as an example of the Apple products he has, obviously you walk into an Apple store great service, you call their support line, you get great service but really what he figured out is the experience is more important than just the service, although service is a big part of it, when you get your new Iphone or Ipad or your Mac computer, the way it’s packaged alone is a great experience. So all these different touch points the customer has with you and it’s not just people to people touch point, it’s what you experience. He stated that he always quote Jan Carlzon, when he’s doing a speech, he talks about this concept called a “Moments of Truth” and he came up with it and primarily he focus on the people to people experience but he called the “Moments of Truth” in business whenever a customer came into contact with any aspect of the business, they form an impression. Jan Carlzon ran Scandinavian Airlines so his customers were passengers, so there were main impressions that were formed when a customer call to make a reservation, today we go online and do it but back in the early 1980’s when he was running Scandinavian Airlines, you pick up the phone and you made the call, you check your bags at the curb, you make check in at the ticket counter, all of these are major touch points but if you think about it, you sit down in the plane and is the seat comfortable? And he used to joke that if the tray table doesn’t work, the passenger might worry that the landing gear might not work. So it’s like, “They can’t keep the tray table from falling down.” But what is the user experience in addition to the customer service experience, so you combine thoseand that’s the total experience. All of his work for the first three quarters of his career was based on customer service, now a chunk of his work that they do, he is brought in to talk about what is the experience going to be? What can we do to enhance that? Which he emphasize that customer service is a big part of that.   Shep stated that he talks about a cab driver in many of his speeches and it seem to be like a normal cab but when he got in it was spotlessly clean, it had 2 newspapers to chose from waiting for him, he gave him a soda and this was back before bottled water. He had a dish of candy, he asked if he needed to use his phone, he was great and he send him a thank you note because he asked him for his business card because he said he collected them from people he drove. He sent him a thank you note after a ride; think about that, that’s amazing. Every time he goes to Dallas he calls him but he’s retired now. The interesting thing was that has he got to know Frank, he would tell him things like he used to wait at the airport like every other cab driver 2-3 hours in the long line and now he just goes and parks the car and walks and waits 10 minutes for his next customer and he’s managed to make back in the day more than USD $100,000.00 a year as a cab driver because he figured it out, he figured out the average cab drivers making 3 or 4 decent trips a day that are making them money and he’s making 15 or more because he’s not waiting in line, he’s waiting for his customers and he figured it out because it’s customer service and the lesson is there is a big difference between satisfied customers and loyal customers. There is statistics and facts that will prove that satisfied customers don’t always go back to places that satisfy them because the moment they have a chance to do business with somebody a little bit better, a little more convenient, they will do that and that’s the difference and the loyal customer’s a mind set, it’s an emotion, you feel connected, so he felt truly connected with Frank, when he sent him that thank you note, that was it. It was like in that movie with Tom Cruise where he plays a sports agent, Jerry McGuire, “You had me at with the thank you note, you owned me at that point.” Shep stated that he has a lot of stories like that but he really loved that one because of the ordinariness of the job of being a cab driver and taking it to a whole level of being extraordinary and anybody can do that if a cab driver can figure it out, we can do it virtually in any business.   Shep shared how he stay motivated, he stated that he is an optimistic guy and sometimes you’re just born with the luck of thinking that way, some of it has to do with the way you are brought up by your parents. He stated that he has this optimistic outlook, at a very young age he surrounded himself with the right people and even as a teenager, he had great mentors and these people drove him to be more successful because maybe they made him feel good, maybe telling him he’s doing a good job like a coach telling you, “Go out there, you can do it, you did it, that’s great” pat you on the back but he over came fears, he did the magic shows and you would think a kid at age 12 doesn’t have fear, he was scared to death of those little kids staring at him. Even in his mid 20s, he started his speaking business and if the audience was under 100 people, he felt comfortable but as soon as it got bigger than that, he was scared, when he got in front of an audience of 1000 or 10,000 so he’s still nervous but he gets over it because mostly anxiousness than, “I’m scared to get out there.” How do you get motivated? You have to over come things and feel really good about what you do so that drives you. He reads a tremendous amount of good things, one of the things he doesn’t do anymore, he doesn’t watch local news and even the national news, national news keeps you inform of many things but local news, they are showing car accidents, crime scenes and other than the weather and sports, he doesn’t need that negativity in his life, he needs to know the big picture things. He also works out quite a bit and he has fun. He shares that he has a really good balance, he works very hard but he has a really good time, he takes advantage of things when they are in front of him, he has a great wife, great kids. If he’s going to a sporting event, he soaks it all in and he just loves having fun. He works a tremendous amount of hours but when it’s time to have fun, he knows how to do it.   Shep stated that one of the apps that cannot live without in his business is Outlook, he also mention that he loves a good travel app because he travels so much and he’s using TripIt but it feeds into Flight Update Pro and so that way he can track flights coming into his gate, if they are going to be late many times he knows before the gate agent, so because he travels a lot and that’s great. He stated that for email, he just signed up for Sanebox so if you want to check out Sanebox you can put his email address or his name and you can get a free month. What Sanebox is doing is everything that’s coming into his inbox, it recognize when he’s getting a newsletter and puts it in the newsletter box that he can get to it later on. It is actually learning his routine, it is putting his best emails in his inbox and putting everything else in another box and it’s unbelievable accurate, they say it will essentially save you up to 12 hours a month. There is a feature on it called the Saneblack hole, if somebody subscribe you or you start getting on somebody’s promotional email list of a company and you don’t know how you got on the list, you just put it in the black hole and you’ll never see it again. They give you a trail period to play around so that’s a cool app for a reasonable price. He just got a Slingbox at home so now he can watch TV on his phone and where that counts is when he’s traveling on the other side of the world and his favorite sports teams are playing in the USA and he wants to watch them, so that’s a cool app. Another app is BombBomb, if he wants to take a short video that say, “Hey thank you for having me on your show” and then send it to you, he can do it with the phone but what happens is that attaches the video to the email and if the video is too big, it may get block by your email system, so what BombBomb does is allows you to create a cool template that’s custom to you and then you shoot your video and then you send the email and the person just pushes the button and actually plays if they are connected to the internet, it’s a very cool thing and that’s the most basic use. You could have a list of people and you want to send everybody a video message.   Shep shared that he mentioned Jan Carlzon book, Moments of Truth was written mid 1980’s and the first time he ran across Jan Carlzon was in an article but he eventually went on to write the book about Moments of Truth and it’s a thin little book that would take an hour to read. Shep stated that to him one of the greatest customer service books of all time. However, his favorite book is called The Experience Economy by James Gilmore and Joe Pine, what a great concept and they used Starbucks and that book has been out for maybe 10 or 20 years and for a company like Starbucks to maintain its relevancy in the experience base is really cool. He stated that Thomas Peters co-author a book back in the 1980’s called In Search of Excellence and he believes he had 50 companies that he considered most excellent companies in the world and if you look at it 25 years later he doesn’t know if half of them made that list anymore. For Starbucks to stay relevant and he predicts that Starbucks will stay relevant, their module is all about the customer not just about coffee and that’s why Amazon has been so successful and when Jeff Bezos says, “We are trying to stay a step up ahead of our competition, we’re trying to stay ahead of the customer” meaning what are we giving the customer more than what they thought they were going to get, get them something they didn’t know and that’s what Steve Jobs did too with Apple, give them something they didn’t know they needed and create this need or discover the need the customer didn’t realize they needed then deliver on it. To put another book, in the latter part of the 1980’s a guy name Harvey Mackay wrote a book called Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition, we have anyone out there with entrepreneurial type businesses or anybody that’s in a business to build a relationship with your customer, this book is unbelievable, it’s filled with so much great information, common sense information from a guy that was really doing it at the time.   Shep shared that there are 2 or 3 things, number 1 is they have an amazing online group of courses based on the work he has put into his books and what they do with their training programmes and speaking programmes in person, so he’s very excited about how over the years it has been revolving into a major part of their business. He is just finishing up a book called Be Amazing or Go Home, so that’s kind of fun, you got a choice in life, if you want to come to work, be amazing otherwise why show up for work. The other book that’s coming out next year is a book all about creating convenience, they talked a little bit about that’s a part of the experience, how convenient and easy can you make it for a customer because today you walk into a business, you expect a certain level of customer service and that’s table stake and for the last 30 years he has been talking about the table stakes and now he thinks it’s becoming common when companies get it and understand it, whether they execute on it is another thing, so what’s the next level of delivering amazing service and that is be more convenient than your competition.   Shep shared that listeners can find him at - Shep Hyken Twitter www.hyken.com   Shep shared some of the quotes that inspire him in times of adversity. He loves Jiminy Cricket who said, “Let your conscience by your guide.” In business when he’s up against somebody who is upset about pricing or maybe he’s upset that something is a little more expensive than he thought it was going to be and he always remember Aldo Gucci said, “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.” so when he thinks about business in general, it’s not just the quality product, it’s the quality service and experience and even though he didn’t write it, he thinks it’s a mantra we should all subscribe to, we deliver the best part of the quality, an experience, everything does what it’s supposed to do, great people, people aren’t going to be so concern about the price.  Links Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine II and James Gilmore In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Running Companies by Thomas Peters Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition by Harvey Mackay

As Founder and CEO of Mattson Enterprise, Inc. Glenn oversees an elite team of practice development consultants who provide solutions to agency leaders and salespeople facing the challenges of achieving extraordinary success in highly competitive and overcrowded markets. Glenn is an extremely sought after keynote speaker, a gifted and respected platform trainer, coach, advisor and author. He stated, “My business is helping my clients transform their business into a more efficient, productive and profitable one” Glenn’s background is that he helps his clients build a successful business comes from successfully building and selling his first business while he was still an undergraduate student. Glenn was so effective at generating new revenues for his business that it dominated the marketplace and was later sold for a multiple of annual revenues. After college, Glenn joined the Sandler Training organization. His early career was nothing to brag about. He made mistakes. Some costly. But, using the same systems he uses with his clients today, he became the #1 Sandler associate both nationally and internationally. His personal success was a difficult, deliberate, and demanding journey. One of Glenn’s philosophy is, “I believe once you are crystal clear on WHY you want something, finding HOW to do it won’t be far behind. Being successful isn’t difficult. Thinking and acting successful, IS!” Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey How do you believe that customer experience supports efficiency and productivity, give some examples of why customer experience is important? As a customer, how do you feel about customer experience? As part of Sandler Training, could you share with us a little bit about the customer experience section that focuses on customer service and what that program is about? How do you change the mindset of persons who believe unless you are in customer service, customer service doesn’t apply to them?   Highlights Glenn Mattson stated that like most people if you were asked how they are on a personal level, he thinks the great balance is the golden rule which is to do unto others as you want to be done unto you and that usually in the last 40 years has been a really good rule for him among others, so the golden rule is an important one for them and it does help traumatically making sure you’re doing the right ethical thing and instead of thinking what’s right for you, if you’re in their shoe, what’s right them and that always works. He stated that the flip side is that he was asked about what really makes a difference in his life, one of it is among other things is literally having a very clear picture of what you’re trying to build and with that very clear picture is being incredible motivated to the actions not the results but the actions you need to have to achieve those results and unfortunately in this day and age everyone wants everything quickly and time needs to be apart of the success. He stated that one of the greatest things were patience and grit and long-term dedication to doing the daily behaviors. Glenn Mattson stated that if you look at the pure numbers, 80% of the people that don’t go back to rebuy is because of a bad experience, so when we look at it, your experience is what you dictates repeatable sales. Your marketing and selling will get you the first one, your selling and everything will get you the second and third but your client experience is really a true testament on your second, your third, your forth, the ease of the sale afterwards is the direct proportion, so if you look at it, 80% that decide not to go back, decide not to buy again is due to poor experience. Glenn stated that we spend so much time and energy trying to get in front of the right people and then we forget about how to keep them and unfortunately that’s just as important as finding them. Glenn stated that the way he looks at it is depending on what your expectations are because experience is historically for most is that they didn’t get what they expected and for more times than not you have to ask yourself what are you explaining, what are you conveying, what’s the message you’re giving, what kind of experience can they have. There are plenty out there that are very inexpensive products that tell you that you’re going to buy it cheap but you’re not going to get a great customer experience, meaning that you’re saving on all fronts, so others that have more value, they have the ability of heighten level of experience so they feel that the money they are investing is worth it. When people spend a premium or spend a dollar amount and they don’t get the service they are looking for, that is the number one reason people leave, they expected A but they got B. Glenn stated that we all have experience bad customer service. He stated that most people want attention, we want value, we want to have respect in a lot of ways, we want resolutions when something goes wrong, we want you to fix it but we also want to make sure that you follow up. When he looks at his own experiences with service, everyone makes mistakes and that’s understandable, it how you handle the mistakes that are critical. Glenn shared an experience he had, there was service issue that he had with a client where he was the customer and someone was going through it and instead of just flat out saying, “we made a mistake, I apologize, this was what he can do to fix it” it was more of the questions they were asking was trying to make it seem like he made a mistake and what was happening is that they were reducing his level of respect, so more times than not, that’s usually what gets us is that respect, that integrity, it’s the “I did what you told me to do and it didn’t work” “I got that, I understand it, let’s just fix it, let’s not try to figure out why, I’m the one to blame when it came out this way” that piece was probably the one that left the biggest taste in his mouth which is they didn’t accept responsibility. Glenn stated that when we take a look at efficiency and effectiveness which means that they have some type of process in place and within that process, the sequential steps but also there is competencies and skills in that part of it, once they have that done, how you get better at it, it becomes efficiencies and effectiveness in terms of results, so when they look at what they call their customer care program, it’s not just external customers, it’s also how do you do treating your internal customers, how you do treating your staff because your staff is a direct portion to you, to your client base. He stated that it’s interesting when he has conversations with people and they talk about what a successful mindset is, a successful mindset is someone who takes responsibility or accountability or ownership, people don’t realize that 87% of your staff learns how to deal with clients, how to deal with each other and how to deal with stress based on how their boss does it, they are one person above them. So when they look at customer care, they have a 12 module program that they run people through and a lot of it has to deal with understanding a couple of things, one is what is the backdrop of what’s happening, do you really have the skills, the patience, listen, questioning skills, are you getting emotionally involved, are you getting defensive because if that happens, you cannot be a successful customer service person. They look at what do you need and then they turn around and say, “now let’s take a look at the process itself, how do you create the right attitude, how do you develop trust really quickly, how do you take control, how do you have ownership of the situation and what are the best ways to follow up and if there is, how do you identify opportunities for potential future sales. Glenn agreed that people think that customer service is a title and not necessarily a culture or an attitude. He shared that Harvard University did a study that will tell you that the majority of companies will fail in achieving their goals is because the individuals don’t understand one of two things; one is what is the direction of the company, what are the rules. The other is they don’t know how to tie their personal into the company, so when you talk about sales people, sales people desperately needs customer service and so does IT, that’s usually one of the biggest areas that people have issues with. Once you realize that everyone’s role is to maximize or heighten the client experience. He shared an example, down in Florida, at a resort in Tampa and the person who owns it is well known for his artwork inside and it has to do with the oceans. He is at the resort and is there for 4 days with his daughter, his wife and his son, he’s at an essence lost in looking for where to find the tennis courts, simple easy, piece of cake. Walking down 7:00 am in the morning and he asked a woman who is clearly leaving one building to go to another for something else, she’s kind of moving fast, he said, “I don’t mean to bug you but can you point me in the direction to where to the tennis courts are?” she said, “absolutely, are you running late for a lesson?” and he said, “yes I am” and she said, “follow me then” she walked him right to the tennis courts versus telling him where to go and as they talked, she asked him all about his family, they talked about why he was down there, what is experience was, she has been apart of that hotel for 25 years. The hotel was a nice place but what he’ll remember about it and why he would recommend people to go there is because of the feeling he got from her. That was the home run, the mere fact that a woman who has been there for awhile, who had no interest in helping him find something, could have just pointed in the direction and just said, “it’s over there, keep moving until you find it” but she walked him over and they had a great conversation, he had a connection to the hotel now through a person and it made his experience. Yanique shared that she had a similar experience when she went to a hotel for an All You Can Eat Pizza Night, it was extremely disorganized because they had a book launch before and they didn’t advice the persons who where coming for the All You Can Eat Pizza Night that they was a launch before and so these events were merged together and so those persons who didn’t know of the launch came famish and completely ready to engage in pizza and the waitress they got, she was extremely courteous, friendly, she really came down to there level, spoke with them candidly. It felt like she was a friend at the end of the evening, she knew her name. She told her if she came back to the hotel, she would definitely come back and deal with her again, it really boils down to the feeling, the connection she gave to them, she’s not sure if everyone at the location had the same experience but she certainly left feeling much better than she when she just arrived. Glenn stated that most people want to be better but most have never been trained on how to be better. Yanique agreed and stated that she had an experience in a supermarket and her girlfriend was there with her and she was by the fruits and vegetable section and there was a young man packing out sweet peppers in the fridge, he referred to her in a very informal term, she can’t recall what he said and she said to him, “you really shouldn’t refer to your customers like that, you should say to them excuse me miss or sir or madam” and he said to her, “no one has ever told me that before” what was extremely a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) to her was that how can you have someone working in your organization, even if they are just packing things in an area in the supermarket and you have not even brief them on how it is that are to interact with your customers because you can’t just hire people and put them to work. Glenn shared that most unfortunately don’t realize who might touch a customer, one of the first things they do in one of their modules is who is the front line, receptionist, sales, billing, accounting, technical people, installers, drivers, warehouse people, anyone who has any interaction with a client at any level and for most they realize that, why would you train a driver for instance that delivers things on customer care. The reality is that they have some of the best ears and eyes that others don’t have, so who is really that person, how do we effectively communicate, how do we effectively understand our clients or customers and then you get into one the best questioning techniques because customer service is not about information you give, it’s about the information you can obtain, you need to understand what’s going on in the world to provide good customer service. Customer service is not talking; customer service is exceptionally great ears and being very good at asking questions so you can get to the root of the problem. You add the attitude piece to it, which is a lot of time when you deal with customer service issues, people aren’t the happiest all the time, so how do you deal with difficult people, how do you make sure that you don’t get emotionally involved, how do you make sure that we don’t get stuck in the emotional game, meaning that when they do something or say something, we take it personal, we get defensive, our brain shuts down, we panic, we start doing self talk to ourselves, we forget everything they say, for some people they block out and when they hang up the telephone, everything that we’re suppose to say, should have said, could have said pops in their head. So it’s not a problem of not knowing, the problem was in the heat of the battle you panicked so mentally you left the battle and after you have the chance to regain your composure, all the techniques came to you. Glenn shared that what he finds is that most of us is that our goals create motivation, motivation creates a sense of ownership which is responsibility because when we do goals, one of the things that he found for years is that everyone may say that they have a goals program and 80% of the people walking planet earth have no goals whatsoever. Sixteen percent of the people that are walking planet earth have an idea of what they want, less than 4% actually have goals, have them written down and less than 1% look at them but where the numbers get crazy, is the people that are at 16% who just have an idea of what they want in life, they are 10 times more effective than those who don’t have any idea and the people that have the goals written, they are 3 times more effective than those who just have a concept, now they translate it into action now this is the staggering thing about motivation, people who have goals, they look at them every week and they do their plan, they earn 9 times more than those who don’t. When you look at motivation, it is what are you really trying to build, are what are you willing to give up to get it. They are very clear on what they trying to do, they are trying to maximize the client experience, and they are reducing the cost to sale. How do they give their clients what they want the fastest, easiest, most productive, most effective way possible? They are never sitting on their roles, they are never sitting back saying, “we did really good that year” the question always become is how do they get better and they do it more efficiently, more effective. He is and he has to be a pure representation of what they trying to get their clients to do.   Glenn stated that there are about 3 apps that he couldn’t live without, it’s one of their own, it’s an app that he uses for managing his behavior, it’s called an Arbs a behaviour and Accountability app, once you have your plan and your action steps it tracks it everyday, you can’t hide from it, he finds it fantastic. The two other apps that he uses, one is because he travels, it’s called Flight Tracker and he finds it very effective. The third app that he thinks is phenomenal, it has transformed itself, it use to be a service where they read emails to you way back before we had cellphones, it’s called Copytalk, Copytalk transformed itself into a dictation service, so every time he’s on the phone with someone, it could be a prospecting call, it could be a client call, it could be a service call, it could be a training meeting, anyone. He could do a Copytalk and it transfer his memory from his head to his mouth and they transfer it from his mouth to typed, so at the end of the day he’ll get 10 or 15 or 20 emails from Copytalk on all his summaries of everything he did that day. For instance he says to someone during a quick call, “that sounds like a good idea, let me send you that slide” or “that’s great let me put that book into the mail for you” if he hangs up and jump right into another call, that goes to his to do list and those to do list get big fast, it works best for him for follow ups, for efficiency and effectiveness, it’s not relaying on his memory. When he Copytalk he tells people on his staff, “I need you to do this or can you do that or make sure that gets to so and so”, so now they have a memory jogger too and it gets transferred to the to do list. They have found it to be the best ways to internally communicate within the team on where they are with progress and statues.   Glenn shared that he has a couple books that has had the biggest impact and one is The Formula for Success by Napoleon Hill, the other one that he found to be quite useful but it’s his background but he’s a big proponent of Eric Berne, he is a psychologist that transformed or created something called Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy and it’s a theory that says all of us have 3 different egos states in us, so child, adult and a parent and we have to speak with them independently. So if someone comes to us very angry in a customer situation, that’s their 4 year old inside of them that is angry, so you need to hear the 4 year old but you need to fix the adult, because it’s the adult one that’s going to tell everyone about it, if you try to fix the adult without talking to the child, you’ll never get to the true emotional bonding part. The book is powerful and understanding human nature. The third book that is fantastic is a Sandler book, You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar: The Sandler Sales Institute’s 7-Steps System for Successful Selling it is basically saying that if you do really want to expand, if you do really want to get great at your profession, you’re not going to figure this thing out at a one day seminar, so it does take time and energy. He had a lot of problems when he just started, a lot of head trash, a lot anxiety, a lot of fears, a lot of issues with people thinking he was a sales person versus an account rep or a service person, but what he found is that once he started working on his beliefs, his fears, his anxiety, his scripts and then understanding how to put plans together, understanding that the majority of people don’t in the world do that and those who do are really more successful than he was so why would he buck the system, so he just became a product of his own process and it worked.   Glenn shared that one of the things that they are doing right now is spending a lot of time and energy into distant learning. That’s helping individuals all around the world learn versus just having him present face to face, so one of the exciting things is how they can really maximize technology today and how they can help more people around the country versus only helping those he can get face to face or get time to go to conventions.   Glenn shared that listeners can find him at - www.mattson.sandler.com Glenn Mattson LinkedIn Sandler Training YouTube   Glenn shared the quote that inspires him in times of adversity is “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others want but can’t.” In other words, do what most won’t do to have a life that most want. Glenn stated that for persons listening or starting a business or thinking about starting a business, one of the beautiful thing about business is that you can start, you just need to do your due diligence, find out about your product, find out about your plan, find out about your finances, do as much diligence as you can and do the best you can to take you and have you number 3, your clients number 1, your staff number 2 and you’re number 3 or 4. If you remember that it makes building a business a little easier.   Links   Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy by Eric Berne You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar: The Sandler ales Institute’s 7-Step System for Successful Selling by David Sandler      

Nicole McLaren Campbell is professional Speaker, Educator and Entrepreneur. Driven by a passion for empowerment, she represented Jamaica at MIT’s Junior Summit and was selected to address then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at just 13 years old. She was subsequently featured in local and International Media including CNN and Nickelodeon and was chosen has one of 20 teens who will change the world by Teen People Magazine. She’s a graduate of the St. Andrew High School for Girls and completed her High School studies at Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts before going on to earn an Undergraduate Degree in Economics from Princeton University in 2006. Nicole also studied at the Stanford University Summer Institute and the University of London where she earned a Master’s Degree in Globalization and Development. In late 2016, Nicole started the AIM Higher Foundation with a mandate to indentify, develop and empower promising low income students so that they can too access and unlock their potential through access to tertiary education, her vision is to inspire youth globally to aim higher.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey You can tell us a little bit about your company Aim Educational Services and what it is that you do and why do you think customer experience is important to that whole process? How do you feel about customer service/ customer experience as a customer yourself doing business on a regional level or internationally? Nicole’s book, Making It Count: The Tips on Unlocking Your Vision in 2017 and Beyond, some of the key points are fear, having courage to ask for what you want, procrastination and tuning into your purpose and staying motivated. How do you do all of those things for your team members? What are some important considerations that you would recommend to business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Nicole McLaren-Campbell shared her journey and stated that part of it is making sure and trying to protect your motivation every single day as much as possible and being deliberate about your approach every single day and then wherever possible, try to coach your team in a similar way but also be very cognizant that as a leader/parent, you have to lead by example and that’s something she takes really seriously and so it’s about taking a deliberate approach and understanding yourself and how the brain works and how the human body works and then doing what you can everyday to get the most out of both of them. Nicole McLaren-Campbell shared that at Aim Educational Services, when she just started Aim about 7 years ago, it stood for Aspiration, Inspiration, Motivation, so Aspiration, Inspiration, Motivation is the meaning behind AIM and every single day they aim to empower students to unlock their potential and really chart an education and career path that’s fulfilling for them based on their interest and talent and customer experience is really important at AIM because how people feel about the service you’re delivering and from the minute they make contact with you on the phone or you make contact with them via email or an initial meeting to the very moment the service is actually delivered to even after - their feeling about how they were dealt with and the experience they had with each person that forms apart of AIM is really important. It’s important for them to deliver the endgame which is admission to college or scholarships but it is also important that the journey a family takes with them is one that they feel empowered during and feel great about. They don’t always get it right but the whole point is that as human beings, when we make a mistake we have to own that mistake completely. Nicole stated that she made a pretty large blunder the other day and she is not afraid to talk about it because she thinks what everybody needs to understand as business owners and even as human beings as we try to do our best in life is that sometimes we fall short because we are not perfect, the most important thing in business as well as in one’s daily life is that when you fall short, be very quick to own it and to learn the lesson and ensure you apologize and take responsibility and then put in place what you need to try and ensure that it doesn’t happen again but instead a lot of people hide when they make mistakes or hide when they fall short and that puts a bad taste in the mouth of your customers. It shows your team that instead of taking on something hands on and taking responsibility and dealing with it that it’s okay to make an excuse or give a reason and then that will set the tone. It’s not always perfect and we do fall short but the idea is that when do fall short, own that and take the lesson and move on and apologize and try to make it right with that customer. Nicole shared that as a customer she has a lot going on, so she likes a service that is delivered in an efficient way where the communication is very clear from the get go and where she is really treated as somebody that is important, in other words, not that cavalier attitude but she likes when the service provider makes things easier for her. She doesn’t have an issue paying the bill or whatever it takes but at the end of the day as easy you can make it for her to consume/use your service is the easier it is for her. Make it possible for her to send somebody to collect something or send it to her or give her a reminder when she needs to get something done. The world is moving so fast so she thinks it’s also instructive to challenge business owners to put themselves in shoes of the customer because as a mother, wife, you’re running a business, you’re trying to be a great civic citizen and leader as well, there’s a lot going on and she puts herself in the shoes of her customers. She would say to her team, “I know we sent an email remainder about this but not everybody checks their email day.” Or in the same way she could miss an email, the customer could have missed the email too. They are college advising and helping families to chart the educational path of their child and they are tutoring and that means that the parent plays a significant role but AIM has to be responsible at the end of the day for the deliverable, so you can’t just say, “Well, I emailed the parent and they are supposed to now do this and they haven’t done so it’s their fault.” No, at the end of the day, she has to put herself in the shoe of her clients and say, “The same way I’m busy and I would really appreciate a text message reminder.” or “I would really appreciate if all the information is communicated one time instead of piece by piece.” It’s about continuous improvement. She stated that she was reading a book called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth and it’s talking about how people can be in a job for 20 years but they get the same one (1) year of experience 20 times as oppose to 20 significant years of experience where you’re growing and improving every year and that’s a deliberate thing that you have to keep in mind as a person but also as a business owner, your business shouldn’t be at the same stage this year as it was last year, you shouldn’t be doing things in an identical way. How can you make the experience better? They keep looking, they have management meetings every week with their team and they have strategic meeting every two weeks and she’s really about that because it keeps them focused on the fact that it’s all about constant improvement and really making sure that they are flexible to change because they are dealing with Generation Z kids. They are dealing with parents who are generation X and so they have to communicate with them in different ways because both of them are customers. Whereas the email might work for the parents, maybe it’s a What’s app that’s working for the student or maybe they need to be delivering messages through an app instead, it’s just this constant idea of How can I make this experience better for customer? How can I make the deliverable of this service actually happen and not just say, “Well, I did my part” but how can I constantly try to provide support and empower her customers and understanding how the different users or customers receive and process information and what different things prompts each sector to action. You can’t treat the student the same way or try to communicate with the student the same way you would with the parent, so it’s trying to be sensitive to that and making sure it’s a customer centered business. Nicole stated that based on her team, how they are structured, they have part-time college consultants, part-time tutors, they have a core full-time team of 7 people and everybody else is part-time. They have 15 part-time tutors and 7 invigilators and then they outsource things like accounts and other administrative; they have 4 part-time college consultants, so the team is just under 30 persons. Nicole McLaren-Campbell stated that key is to grow her team members and the company and part of it is now insistence on a weekly management team meeting, all members of the full-time core will meet every week. It’s leading by example; nobody wants to hear their boss preaching to them every week so she would try not to preach. They have a book club now and every month somebody gets to choose the book and so she is deliberate with her choices because she’s trying to sneak in the coaching and inspirations through the book club even though they don’t know it. Nicole tries to impart a lot of what she learn in the daily day to day, like when she makes an error she tries to own it 150% so that they can get from her no excuses, things like that are important. She arranged a Vision Board Workshop for her team in the past and now they are due another one, she brings in inspirational person to lead their strategic sessions and to work with them in terms of business coaching because that’s really important, so part of it too is that they see her everyday so she not doing all of that coaching work herself but to also introduce external people who can help with that. There’s nothing better than leading by example and then trying to make sure that just from the way they set their vision and the things they talk about every week and different situations that comes up in the office with clients or with students that the idea of it is all possible, removing obstacles, focusing on solutions and not problems, these the things that they really do on an everyday basis in various ways and she tries to be very deliberate about that. The other thing is that she tries to look for opportunities for them to grow just as the same way she seeks opportunities to grow herself. Nicole stated that just the other day she was talking to her assistant about an online course that she wanted to do and she recommended that he also take it because based on what he is interested in that it can be a useful skill set, so that emphasis on continuous growth and improvement where she try to share these opportunities as they come up and be deliberate about the different types of exposure and experience she wants them to have internationally every year, so they are looking all around for those opportunities all the time. Nicole stated that this year 2017 is when AIM really plans on expanding its online presence and to do more work remotely with students all over the world, so far they have had students from almost every Caribbean country, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and St. Lucia as well as United States of America, Canada and United Kingdom but those have come from word of mouth, they are looking to establish more of their presence in some of these countries to do more online work. With students they work online with, the idea is that to make sure that they are kept in the loop and don’t miss out on any opportunities that face to face students have, the challenge for them as with any business owner trying to do more online is to make sure that the experiences are as similar as possible to what a face to face experience would be like, making sure that the software they are using actually works, making sure that when it’s time for their meeting there’s no internet problems and the call dropping and they feel like, “Oh my gosh, if I was there in person then it would be a better experience.” It’s about making sure that they have the same access to group sessions, so looping them in via video conference, making sure that they are getting the same communication and having the same number of meetings as much as possible and that it feels intimate and that might involve them getting 1 or 2 more extra online one to one meetings than you would someone who comes in face to face but whatever it takes to make that happen then you have to do. The beauty of it is that most of their communications are done online so it doesn’t feel that much different from a face to face but it depends on the business you’re in, examine the business you’re in and try to see how you can ensure that the two (2) experiences are similar in terms of the deliverable. Nicole shared that she believes in full disclosure and authenticity as much as possible so she doesn’t maintain motivation every single day. She stated that it is not that she doesn’t try every day but sometimes you sort of don’t get there for whatever reason, what really counts is that sometimes you’re not 100% feeling it, sometimes you feel “pop down” for whatever reason. She stated that at the moment she may have a sinus infection coming on or the flu and it makes her really tired and when she has low energy, then she can’t do anything as well as she normally could and what that means for her is that she has to understand her body at that point and maybe she needs extra sleep for example which she managed to get. Sometimes she doesn’t feel 100% motivated, ready to get the world. Yesterday was very hard for her to even get through what she had to and what she had to end her day early to get some rest and so that would help her for the next day where she is not 100% but she is not where she was the day before. When she is feeling low on energy, she prays about it and does as much as she can, understanding that she is not 100% herself but she will be and not being too hard on herself about it or worry about it too much because sometimes it’s the worry and anxiety that kills us. As business owners you always feel this pressure to lead by example so you don’t want to have a meltdown but at the same time you have to take care of yourself and show your team that it’s okay to care of yourself because if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t bring a 100% to your job, you’ll just be sitting at your desk and you’re not doing anything, productivity all the way down. It’s very important in staying motivated to know your body and know when you need to pull back a little bit but her system is to just develop really good habits around her eating, her exercise and her sleep, those 3 things are very important, the minute any of these 3 start to slip then you know it’s danger zone, disaster, productivity cut down so because they are important, she tries to develop good habits and plans around them. She stated that for her food, she try to make sure that it’s prepared two (2) days in advance so that she knows what she is packing to eat and she doesn’t have to get stuck being hungry wondering what to eat and then possibly making a low energy food choice. What she likes about habit is that it cuts down on the work your brain has to do and she likes that because her brain has to do really important work during the day, for example, she pick out her gym clothes the evening before because at the time she wakes up in the mornings to go the gym, she doesn’t want to be making any decisions and thinking too hard about anything, she just want to go and so she get into the habit of exercising which powers her up, gives her energy, gives her a feeling of discipline that can carry through the day, gives her a feeling of winning she feels like, “Oh my gosh, Nicole you can do it, you have so much will power, you’re such a winner.” She tells herself all these things. She stated that prayer is important to her, every day she is praying and thanking God for things that have happen, things that haven’t happen yet, for opportunities, she’s thanking Him for the people in her life, for her family, for love, thanking Him for a thriving business where all her visions are being realized and for the different opportunities that are coming her way. The food, the exercise and the sleep are the 3 things that she really tries to build a habit around and feeding her spirit with prayer everyday and that’s her routine that she finds is key for helping her to be motivated. The other thing that is important for her is being really clear about her objectives, not just for the year but for the week because when she feels like she doesn’t have clearly established objectives, then there is so much going on that she feels overwhelmed and when she gets overwhelmed, she also gets worried, anxious, depressed and so she try to plan out her days according to her highest objectives and goals for the year overall. Yanique stated that she loves the fact that Nicole spoke about eating properly, sleeping and also ensuring that you exercise because those are 3 things for you to be optimally productive and in the society that we live in currently, she doesn’t think that 90% of Jamaicans are doing those 3 things in a habitual practice and that’s probably one of the reasons why organizations are not as productive as they could be because the companies are the people, if the people are not healthy, they have all of these diseases that many of them that we contract from poor eating habits like hypertension, high blood pressure and diabetes, then they are going to be affected by the quality of work that they put out in the organization.    Nicole shared that one of the tools she can’t live without is Solid, it is an app that tracks all your meetings and allows you to type the meeting notes in while you’re having the meeting and then you can key it as an action item. As soon as she opens the app, it shows her all her action items out of all the meetings and nothing is as good as the satisfaction she gets from ticking them off as done so she knows three (3) more pieces of research that she has to do, so it’s exciting. Asana is very important for her team at work because it gives them an awesome way to track where all their students are in their different programmes. When you’re advising a student for 3 years in terms of College planning, there are different things you need to do for them and that you need to remind them to do for themselves to create an awesome, winning College Admissions worthy profile, “So I need to remember to research summer programmes for Robert, I need to remember to remind Robert’s mom link her friend that does Environmental Planning because he might need a two week internship.” And things link that. If they don’t have Asana they are basically lost. Asana is really good when you have a team and everybody needs to see what everybody else is working on because sometimes they have students who in their College Placeme programme they might also be doing tutor and those 2 things need to speak to each other. For her home team, she has Wunderlist, it is a great app, and her team at home wouldn’t need Asana as it is a bit much for what they need. They need things that can help them keep track of the grocery list, for example, one of her housekeepers at home is in charge of the putting the things that they need from the supermarket on the app on the tablet that’s in the kitchen and whatever she gets she crosses off so that Nicole will know, “Oh, there’s no more Almond Milk at home.” She wasn’t able to get it from wherever she normally gets it from, so if she has time she can stop and get the almond milk and cross it off the list. She stated that there are small things that lead to a woman being confused, she finds herself responsible for most things having to do with the home and then her husband is responsible for most things having to do with the outside of the home. Making sure to keep the outside intact, he’s in charge of all the building projects and all the decorating. While she’s in charge of making sure that everybody has good things to eat, the Wunderlist also helps her as she has two (2) children in school and a stepdaughter and sometimes all three (3) of them needs things for projects at the same time or they have Valentine’s Day project and things they have to make and do and it becomes overwhelming, small things becomes big things if you have a lot of things going on, so she try to organize down to the very last detail and Wunderlist is wonderful. Nicole shared that one of the books that has had a super impact is Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth which is beyond amazing. She stated that there is this other book called The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg which has been phenomenal and then there is another book called No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracey which has been really phenomenal. As well as Nicole’s book Make It Count: Tips on Unlocking Your Vision in 2017 and Beyond. Nicole shared that the big thing right now is that they are working with a really awesome, amazing, inspiring business coach and she is really excited to see just the results they will have out of this accountability because that’s really important for business owners no matter how inspired and on top of things you are, there is nothing like an external party to keep you accountable and what she like is for the team as she is the one who is keeping everyone accountable in their weekly meetings, so it’s good to have somebody else to keep all of them accountable. She hosted their strategic retreat. She really excited about that because really knowing that this outside accountability visionary influence will really cause them to aim higher this year. Nicole shared that listeners can find her at - www.nicolemclarencampbell.com Nicole McLaren Twitter Nicole McLaren Campbell Facebook Nicole McLaren Campbell LinkedIn Instagram @nicolemclarencampell Snapchat - nicmccampbell Nicole shared a few quotes and stated that one thing that she think is really important and she has really being understanding the value of it recently is that, “You have got to be focused, not only as a person but as an entrepreneur.” She got it from Grit and sometimes the Lord knows what she needs to hear and He keeps sending it in all different ways and she said, “Okay, Lord I get it.” And it’s focus, you might be good at a number of things and you might like a number of things but you can’t pursue them all and be an expert in them all and do all of them to the level of brilliance with the level of impacting the world you might want to have. In the book Grit, Warren Buffett did an exercise with someone and made them write out 25 Career Goals and tick the 5 that are most important to their life where they know what they are and what really drives you and once you tick the 5, cross out the other 20 and focus exclusively on 5 and don’t allow the other 20 to distract you from the 5 core ones that you know are of most importance to you. “Do less with more focus” and really get clear about what your 5 are. The other one is for when she feeling really tired, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Sometimes it gets hard and you’re tired but at the end of the day, if you manage yourself properly you can get it done and sometimes you need to rest. She stated that she also says this one, “Everything begins and ends in your mind.” You have to really force your mind to go further than your present circumstances if you want to change your present circumstances.   Links Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg No Excuses!: The Power of Self Discipline by Brian Tracey Make it Count: Tips on Unlocking Your Vision in 2017 and Beyond by Nicole McLaren Campbell Solid Asana Wunderlist

Kenneth Bator is the founder of Bator Training and Consulting Inc; he has more than 15 years of experience in helping organizations create environments where employees actually want to come to work and customers want to keep coming back. As a facilitator for training and strategic planning sessions and an expert in brand concept, culture building and management, Kenneth has helped 100’s of organizations since 2001. In additional to his career working with managers and entrepreneurs, he has also served as an executive of 3 different institutions throughout the United States of America and has assisted many small to medium size businesses to reach new levels of effectiveness. Kenneth is the author of The Formula for Business Success = B+C+S, The Pocket Guide To Strategic Planning: The 90-Day Quick Fix For The Business Owner or Manager and The Strategic Planning Workbook and Guide For Financial Institutions, his articles has appeared in many trade publications including the Credit Union Journal, Lifestyle Entrepreneur, CU Business Magazine and ABA Bank Marketing. Born and raised in Chicago, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from DePaul University as well as a Certificate in Integrated Marketing from The University of Chicago.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey As a management expert, how do you feel about customer service or customer experience on a global level? Your book The Formula for Business Success = B+C+S, B is the brand, C is the culture and S is the strategy. Why do you believe that all of these three things need to be cohesively aligned in order for a business to reap success? In your experience as it relates to the brand, the culture and the strategy, what role do you think leadership plays? What would be 3 characteristics you believe a leader should have in order to be successful in these 3 areas of brand, culture and strategy? What are some important considerations that you would recommend to business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful? What advice would you give an employee or business owner in a business about sustaining a service culture? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business, specifically as it relates to constantly motivated human capital? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Kenneth Bator shared that his journey started with basically getting let go of an executive job, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for a 4 Billion Dollar Financial Institution in the Chicago area and with a change in executive management came a change in a lot of positions and his was one of the first ones but he decided that instead of going back into corporate life to do what he really loved and enjoyed which is teaching and public speaking and writing and working one on one with a lot of different entrepreneurs and business owners and he loved every minute of it. In a sense, the founding principle that he lives by as well as mentor many college students on is really find out what you love, do what you love and find a way to make a living at that, otherwise, it’s going to be a real uphill climb. He didn’t realize how unhappy he was in the executive job until somebody did him a favor and let him go. Kenneth stated that to him Customer Service and Customer Experience are two different things. Customer service is part of the customer experience, you could have customer service and it can be poor service, which means that you’re providing no experience or a very poor experience. A lot of what he teaches centers on that experience itself and he believes it first starts with creating an experience for your employees, it is very difficult to have a positive interaction with your customers if you don’t have employees that really and truly want to be there. Yanique agreed that customer experience is different because the experience forms everything that they go through; every channel that they are engaging with your business and also, it is before they come in to work with you, so a lot of customers are very informed before they come to your business, with the onset of the internet, they can do their own research, they can look for information on their own, they are 60%-75% informed about what your business offers before they even have an interaction with you or your employees.   Kenneth stated that the example that he usually use, he uses one from his banking day is that customer service is we are going to handle the customer transaction properly and efficiently maybe even wish him/her a nice day and shuffle him/her out of our bank. A customer experience is when we have a line at the teller line, we are going to have somebody come by and offer them water and coffee, we’re going to ask them if there is something we might be able to do for them in an office, we might ask them,”What was your transaction today and what were you trying to accomplish? Maybe there’s another way that we can help you.” That’s an experience, that’s a how do we create a positive environment for our customer rather than just putting them in a line and giving them service and taking care of a transaction. Kenneth shared that around the time he was let go in 2001, he started to really delve into a number of different books and even before he was let go and was an executive, he tried to be a sponge and really understand all the nuances of business to take things to the next level, so he’d read a book on reengineering and he’d go to a seminar on empowerment and he would listen to a tape on Six Sigma and he would always think, “How do we put all of this together? How do you apply this? But not just tactically but apply it where it’s in alignment with everything.” Slowly but surely he came up with this brand culture strategy concept in that, “We need to know what is the image we want to create out in the public, we need to know what experience we need to create both through and for the employees and we need to know how to drive more of the right business to our business, brand, culture and strategy.” What he found that was developing in his mind is that he would do work in one area for a client for instance, one client would call him and ask him to do a strategic plan for them and they would do a very in depth written plan but nothing would get executed because their culture, the people weren’t passionate and wouldn’t support it, so the culture was an issue there or somebody would hire him to help them with marketing and build a brand message and they would do an awesome job of that and they would drive more of the right people to their business with that brand and that strategy but maybe the culture wouldn’t provide the main point that the customer experience that was proper, therefore everything falls apart. The same thing goes when you have a great culture where you have a team that’s really engaged and want to work and you have a strategy that makes sense in terms of having the right profit margins and the right product but if you’re not getting your brand message out there properly, you’re like the best kept secret, you’re not getting the people there to work with your business, so if the B or the C or the S isn’t quite right, then your formula is not going to yield the success that your business should have. Kenneth shared that leadership in management are different things, he’s a big fan of Dr. Stephen Covey’s work and he talked a lot about that whether it was in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change or any of his other books. Management is about moving around things and categorizing items but leadership is truly working with people which is a much tougher job, so from a brand, culture and strategy stand point, it really does start with the leader, somebody that understands that we can’t have a positive customer experience without having a positive employee experience and we can’t gain profit from a positive customer experience unless we have the right brand messaging to drive more of those people to our experience. And also so from a strategy stand point, you need a leader who understands that you need to not only just have goals but to have all the tactics and objectives aligned where people understand and can continue to move the organization forward, so leadership is key, without the right leadership and he has seen it too many times even with a great team and a great passionate staff it’s very difficult to have a successful business. Kenneth shared that the 3 characteristics a leader should have and the first is one is self-awareness and he can speak for himself as he has a very big ego and a type A personality but being able to step back and being able to say, “I screwed that one up.” “I actually do need to back to my staff and have a little egg on my face and say that one is on me guys, I messed up and maybe I took it out on you as my employee or my staff or my right hand person. Number 1, I apologize, number 2, we’re going, number 3, if you see me do that again then call me on it.” Second is engagement which you can also call involvement, he sees a lot of leaders that maybe have good intentions but they want to do everything themselves, take advantage of the resources that you have you’d be surprised at the things your staff can do even if your running a little ma and pa grocery store, talk to the part-time cashier ask him/her, “What do you think we could do to drive more business to our store?” and you’d be surprised, you’d get some great ideas. The last one is being able to take an airplane view, and he’s guilty of this and this is way he has a consultant for his business because he’s close to it even though he can consult with other people’s businesses but take an airplane view and be able to see how everything is working from above. We get so busy in the tactical, we get so busy in the day to day, “Oh, I have to do the books today, I’ve got to do the inventory today, I’ve got to do employees reviews today.” and you’re bouncing around from one task to the other, the ability to take at least 15 minutes a day from an airplane view and look down is not only critical but also provides some really valuable prospective. Kenneth stated that he has a client that wants to take their business online, they are not getting rid of their brick and mortar but they want to engage with their customers online and one of the struggles that they have is that they do have a great culture and they do such a great job of engaging with their customers when they walk through the door, how do we transfer that into online? What they are working on is what does a personal engagement look like online for their customer? Sometimes it’s a matter of asking, “What do you want Mr. Customer?” especially if you have a long time client that you’ve been working with for a long time. What does online business with us look like? What is comfortable to you? For instance, this client is actually looking at ways through their app to actually say, “Hello, Yanique” of “Good morning, Yanique” and to make that online a little more personable. So that’s the big question to ask is, “How can I create a customer experience online that is going to be aligned with how I works with customers today?” It’s not the end all, be all silver bullet but if you start by asking those questions, then you’re automatically on the right track. Kenneth stated that for advice on sustaining a service culture and if you’re going to do one thing, implement service standards and don’t just implement service standards, implement service standards from the ground up and what he suggests is get everybody on your front lines, get everybody that works with customers most often and he sees it when a company does merge with another organization and now all of a sudden they have 5 or 6 people that are brand new coming from a completely different environment and they say, “Okay, what do we do with these folks?” if you already have service standards, then he suggests getting everybody in a room and say, “Alright, we are a new team, we are a new family now, these are the service standards that we have, let’s discuss if we need to make an changes, additions or take some these things off. For instance, if we have a service standard that we are going to answer the phone within 3 rings, if we have an operational reason why we can’t adhere to that, then we better take it off or change it or make it 5 rings because it’s written down, it’s a promise.” And if you don’t have service standards then its even better opportunity is to get everybody involved and simply do an exercise and say, “What does service mean to you? What does service look like here? What should service look like?” Kenneth has done those types of exercises dozens and dozens of times and every time he does that, they always get some amazing feedback. Sometimes they get some goofy stuff which is like, “Get more sleep” but sometimes they get some really interesting things which is, “We should be able to solve most problems within 72 hours and we usually do, why don’t we make that a standard and put it in writing that we will resolve all problems within 72 hours and if we can’t, we will call the customer or client within 72 hours to give them an update, let them know what we’re doing and what’s in line for them.” but when you do that and you create the service standards from the ground up and you get people involved then there is instant buy in, now there are service standards, they are your service standards, they are not just one more thing that’s being pushed down from management saying, “Here are your service standards that you need to adhere to everyday.” They are all involved in this and if you’re bring new people on, that’s a great opportunity to either create them or take a new look at the service standards so that you can create that buy in and get every body involve right from the start. Yanique agreed that they are good points that you definitely need buy in, it needs to have a level of inclusivity that people feel like they are apart of the process because then they are more willing to adhere and to actually own the issue, they don’t feel like it’s information being handed down to them that they have to comply with and it makes the environment that much easier for you to work with because the team members feel like it’s their business and it really is. You spend 90% of time at work. Kenneth stated that he has seen in some circumstances where if you’ve done this properly in terms of creating the service standards, that there’s even a self-management among the team where one front line worker will tell the other front line worker, “Hey, that’s not how we do things here.” It actually begins to take some of the onus off the leader to continually be that person that cracks the whip, it actually makes things in the best of circumstances run smoother without your involvement as a leader. When you can leave for days and the place runs just as well or better than when you’re there, then you know you’ve done something right. Kenneth shared that he’s no different from other people; some days motivation comes easy and other days it doesn’t. Motivation for him is that he loves what he does and he’s really passionate about this brand, culture and strategy alignment concept. On the days when he’s not motivated, sometimes you just have to acknowledge it. He thinks that as entrepreneurs, executives, business owners, a lot of times we just want to push through things and that’s not necessarily bad but sometimes we you just have to acknowledge it like, “Hey, I’m a little off today, I’m not as motivated, I’m not as focused, I’m not necessarily doing backflips over what I need to do today.” And just acknowledging that leads you to a question in your mind of, “What do I need? Maybe I need to go out for a run or maybe I need to have one more cup of coffee or maybe I just need to take a walk around the block.” Sometimes what he’ll do if the task is not coming to him, let switch to another task, maybe instead of working on this client’s strategic plan, let’s put that off until this afternoon and let’s work on a video this morning, let’s work on another project because sometimes that gets your mind going to where you’re little bit more motivated in the day. Kenneth shared that the tool he can’t live without in his business is LinkedIn, if they took away Facebook and Instagram and every other app that he has and only left him with one, he would say LinkedIn is his best resource. It’s his best resource for information, he reads a lot of articles from other thought leaders on LinkedIn. He always find really good education on there and he connects with a number of people, there are some clients that he LinkedIn message, they don’t even email because they are on that app. So LinkedIn is number 1. Kenneth shared Stephen Covey books has had a huge impact on him especially when he read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change in the early 2000’s, that number 1. He stated that 2 others that read recently that he has been recommending a lot, one is kind of a oldie but goodie and that’s The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber, it’s a really good book on putting together systems and process which we need in every business and not taking away the people aspect. Another one that he read about a year ago that he really liked was All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line by Diana Kander, it’s somewhat of a fictional narrative an entrepreneur who’s struggling but it makes it really fun to read because it is a story but there is a tip with each of the chapters which is really interesting. Kenneth stated that the one thing he would say is, “What’s the feedback from your people?” if you truly feel they are not motivated then you have to ask. Sometimes we think it’s rocket science but it isn’t, sometimes it’s just a matter of getting people in the room and asking them really leading questions with the sincerity to listen, “What do you think is going on here? How do you think that we could take our business to the next level?” sometimes that question is a great one because you have some people that have some burning ideas in them but they’re afraid to say it and if you’re not getting the answers by simply asking them face to face then you need to try another way, maybe it’s an anonymous survey or you bring in an expert to do focus groups or something like that because you need to get that feedback, you need to the “Why”. If you’re not seeing the motivated human capital out there amongst your team then you have to get to the “Why”, is it because of the salaries, is it because of the working conditions, is it because of possibly one bad apple on the team that may be a supervisor that is not doing the job properly. You can’t solve the problem until you get the “Why’s” so you have to ask the questions. Kenneth shared that the thing that he’s really excited about right now is in the process of putting together a couple of online classes based on the brand, culture, strategy concept that he put together. He have been wanting to do that for a long time because there are people that enjoy the book and there are people who enjoy seeing and hearing him speak but there are some folks that want to learn but don’t necessarily want to hire him has a consultant and he understands that so he’s excited about giving them an option of an online class where they can take that at their leisure and work the brand, culture strategy concept through their unique business. Kenneth stated that his hope is to have it out summer 2017, that might be a little aggressive but now that he have put it out there, then it would more likely to come out this summer. Kenneth shared that listeners can find him at - www.btcinc.net Kenneth Bator LinkedIn Kenneth Bator Twitter Kenneth Bator Facebook Kenneth shared that he has a quote that he sometimes revert to and it’s one that many people have heard before, it’s Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity which is, “Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” That kind of pops into his head, it’s like a cartoon clown jumping out of a clown car sometimes where actually a voice comes in and saying, “Okay, are we just simply doing the same thing and expecting a different result?” or “Do we need to change at least a little what we’re doing today in order to actually move forward?”   Links The Formula for Business Success = B+C+S by Kenneth Bator The Pocket Guide To Strategic Planning: The 90-Day Quick Fix For The Business Owner or Manager by Kenneth Bator The Strategic Planning Workbook and Guide For Financial Institutions by Kenneth Bator The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line by Diana Kander

Angie Fisher founded and created Coaching Success Systems in 2011 as a way to provide busy business owners with the full range of resources they need to accomplish their goals. What began as a part-time position became a full-time thriving business by 2012 providing copywriting, graphic design, administrative and marketing assistance and more to several successful coaching entrepreneurs. Over the last 3 years, Angie has continued to grow a thriving business by creating a team of 15 talented support members. Coaching Success Systems provides valuable services to clients all over the world. As a mother of 3 children and an entrepreneur, Angie understands the importance of providing solutions that will help you reduce stress, grow your personal wealth, decrease overwhelm, stabilize your business during hectic times and find more free time to do what you enjoy. Angie’s passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed has led her to author several free reports you can find on her website at www.coachingsuccesssystems.com, each report can provide you with tips that you can implement today to save time, grow your business and spend more time with those that you care about and are close to.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Can you tell us a little about what is it that you do and how is it that you make life simpler for other entrepreneurs? As a small business owner, what are your views on customer experience? What if a leader is not big on automation, what are some of the tips you help to get those entrepreneurs into a mindset that will allow them to transform their business? How do you stay motivated every day? What are some important considerations that you would recommend to business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful? For running a business at home, how do you balance that and what are some of the things you would recommend to an entrepreneur to take into consideration to be successful? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Angie Fisher stated that as an entrepreneur, that definitely had challenges but that’s okay because she feels like that’s why she is where she is today because of the challenges and the wins and all the triumphs. Definitely challenges throughout the 6 years she has been in business. She started the business as a part-time, not so much as a hobby but doing a little bit of extra income after she had her son and it quickly turned into a thriving business and she had to make some tough decisions as not only as an entrepreneur but a parent and still stay grounded to her “WHY”and she continues to develop that and continue to grow her business but to also keep her family in mind at the same time. Angie stated that they help entrepreneurs and even companies and business owners use delegation and use the power of delegation to get more done in their business, they also help them conquer technology and guide them so that they don’t have to know how to do everything in their business, they can stay in their zone of genius and where they are an expert at and do what they love and they take care of all of the rest. Angie and her team create foundational services so that entrepreneurs and companies can stay in that zone of genius and do what they want and they can take care of everything else to keep their business thriving. Angie stated that it is one of the main areas of a business, in any business customer service and customer experience is a part of the bread and butter, it’s what makes your business successful not only short term but long term, it can make or break a business and good word spreads well but bad experiences spread like wild fire, so it’s our obligation as business owners and entrepreneurs to make sure that there are measures in place initially and those measures are being monitored and checked and reviewed by your team or by someone other than yourself often to ensure that the customer experience is there and it’s what you want it to be, it’s not unnecessarily a cookie cutter, it’s you want the feel of and what you want your customers to experience when they are working with you or buying from you. Yanique shared that as a business owner herself who lives in Jamaica, she finds that customer experience is driven or inspired by the person that’s leading the company, so leadership is very important. Angie stated that leadership creates the whole moral of the company and that moral trickles down to the customer experience and the results of the business, so leaders need to really follow the 3 C’s, have communication, be consistent and have compassion and they also need to teach their staff or their team the same morals. It’s really important to not forget what it’s like to be on the other side of the desk, or the computer or the monitor or the cash register, wherever your customer is sitting, to not forget what that experience is like, so leaders need to understand and help their staff to know and remember that and that can’t go away it doesn’t matter what size your business is, there has to be someone in charge of remembering what that’s like and ensuring that that’s still powerful. Angie stated that the employees could have those values themselves, they could be a great communicator, they could be a consistent person, they could have compassion but the real power comes from the leader teaching the staff on how to implement that in the business, how to reflect that in the business, the tone, the voice, the service, the product, all of that plays into it and the leader really needs to guide those employees to help them understand that and they will look up to that leader because of how they are acting, they are a role model. Angie shared that she always suggests that when they are in that situation, when an entrepreneur or business owner feels that way, you start small. You always have to start somewhere and starting small and guiding them and letting them know and building trust with them that, “We can handle this and here’s a plan, short term and long term on how we can help and here’s the first step we’re going to take.” They take their hand and walk along the journey with them and start on a project they feel like they could delegate out and it’s not going to have a huge impact on their business or it’s not going to be customer facing. It is something they can be done behind the scenes and in a worst case scenario, if it’s completely messed up or if it doesn’t happen which I haven’t happen but an entrepreneur says, “What’s the worst thing that could happen today?” then their customers, their business is not directly affected by a small task that they are going to start doing for them and then once that task is done, they build more rapport and they continue to do more and more for them and the whole time they are still practicing communication and consistency and compassion. They do that within her team and make sure that their clients feel like they are taken care of and they can trust them to help them get started which sometimes can be difficult but it’s very promising because entrepreneurs are very open to delegation and very accepting once they have experienced it and get a taste in their mouth. Angie shared that there are a few things that keeps her motivated and we all need those motivators to keep some fire within us and she really loves what she does, she’s a leader and a teacher and an organizer at heart so this industry fits her well which gives her motivation. She knows at the end of the day that other entrepreneurs and companies are relying on her to help them with their challenges, challenges she faced on her own and help them work towards their life of success and goals so that’s what keeps her going because she knows she has sat in their chair before, she knows what it’s like to be scared, she knows what it’s like to be tired and to stay up late at night and to get up early in the morning and to sometimes have to tell your family no you can’t do something because you have to work, she knows what that feels like and she wants to take that away from them and tell them have more freedom in their business. That’s the big motivator for her and the last one would be her family and her kids because she wants to teach her kids by action not only by words and she feels like being an entrepreneur and being a role model to them is powerful and it shows them that they too can be entrepreneurs if they wish too later. Angie shared that what they should take into consideration is to remember that you are going to take care of the customers that you have now and be okay if they do not want to transition online as well. You have a different market online, you can have a different market online and you can stay and take care of your customers and have them experience the same service they have in your store, so remember that, not everybody is going to transition and agree with that and that’s okay. Also think of it a little bit differently when you move to online, it is a different space and how can you as a brick and mortar business relay the voice, the tone, the feel that business has, how can you relay that online, how can you have your new customers online experience the same thing they experience when they walk into your store, when they pay for their products, when they are greeted throughout the store, make sure that it is consistent and don’t lose that value. Angie stated that she truly believes in consistency, if you aren’t consistent then there is lack of trust and lack of trust will get you no where. You will not have customers and you will have trouble growing your business when you don’t have the trust of your clients and so consistency goes a long way. Yanique Grant shared that consistency is one of the founding characteristics of a business that offers quality customer experiences, if you look at the Zappos of the world and the Amazons of the world, they are consistent in their service delivery and if they are not consistent, their service recovery strategy is extremely successful in winning that customer back over at the first point of contact because they know how important it is to retain their existing customers.   Angie stated that a lot of entrepreneurs want to fish the sea, they want to get new leads and new clients but we always have to remember to take care of the clients we currently have and we already have them, they have already raised their hand and said, “I have bought from you or I want more from you” so we should pay attention them and it may be easier and cheaper to sell more to them than to go out and try to get a whole lot more leads of new clients. There is a balance there but be sure that you are paying attention to those that already love you.   As an entrepreneur running a business from home as she struggled with it for a while, the balance of it was hard, she’s not saying that it’s perfect at this point, life changes, days are different, she is adapting and changing this process as her life, her family and her business grows. The tips that she would give is that you have to take time for yourself to build your business, it is going to take you putting sometime on the calendar or on the refrigerator, taking a highlighter and highlighting some time out and being clear that, “This is my time” and having an office with a door that shuts and not to be inconsiderate or rude to your family but that’s a sign that, “This is my time, this is my business time and I need this time to grow my business because this is important to me” and it won’t grow if you aren’t able to spend time on it. So shutting the door would be one of her big tips, it seems so simple and it kind of seems silly but it’s so important because you have kids coming, “Mom, where is this, mom, what are we having for dinner, what are having for lunch?” and you don’t have that barrier, so when you have that barrier, it really shows them a more serious measure and respect and boundaries. Also planning ahead, you want to be sure you have your to do list and this to do list should not have10 or 15 items on it, it needs to have 3-5 things that are your top priority, ”These are the things I need to get done in this period of time” and it’s not something that you plan right before you start work, when you are ready and kid free or you have your time to work, it’s literally sitting down at your computer and you start working, it’s no planning, it’s doing, implementing at that time. Plan ahead, if it’s the night before, if it’s the Sunday before the week, whatever that looks like, plan ahead and have a system in place and that kind of move her in the other systems and processes are truly going to save you a ton of time and if you’re not wired like that, what she would suggest is as your setting your business up, think about how if someone else was to do this job what would they need, so this might look like a checklist of what you’re doing and what needs to be done in your business and as you move forward and do more and more in your business, the checklists are going to grow and you just create them as you go and set them aside and have a process for yourself and before you know it, you’re going to have an operations manual and when it’s time to delegate, you’re going to be able to easily delegate because you have followed these checklists and someone else can do the same thing. Yanique stated that this is applicable even if it’s you alone in the business in the first 6 months; you can put that structure in place so that when the opportunity comes for expansion and scaling, delegation is a much smoother process. Angie agreed and shared that delegating early is the key but she also understands that that’s not possible sometimes, so being ready because when you bring a team into chaos which is most of the time a business that has experienced growth, it is chaos behind the scene because you are working hard to keep everything floating and nothing dropping and so you bring in a team or a virtual assistant or a coach into it to help you, they are coming into a little chaos and it makes it stressful for the business owner, it can make it stressful for the team and it makes it more difficult to move forward, it takes more investment of time. Setting up those things early and especially when you’re growing, you have a little bit of extra time, even if you have a family at home, you still have the time and it’s worth it to take the extra 15-30 minutes while you’re doing the task to make the checklist along the way. Angie shared that a Project Management System. She that it’s the life of her business, it is what helps it keep going, she and her time and her clients work out of it. They have a Project Management System where they communicate, that’s where tasks are set, that’s where passwords are saved because it’s a secure site, that’s where everything happens, it’s kind of the heart and brain of your body, that’s what a Project Management System is to her business. The project management system Angie and her team uses is com. Angie stated that she has 2 books that have impacted her. The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson, it’s a book about taking small steps and actions each day to work towards your big goal and at the end of the day we have 2 choices, we can take the positive side and we can take the negative side and regardless of what side you choose, those are going to compound and those are going get you to a bigger goal negative or positive so it’s really important to remember that the small steps that you take each day are going get you somewhere and just to pay attention to where that somewhere is, what are you working towards. Her second book is Thank & Grow Rich: A 30-Day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy by Pam Grout, it is a book about living a life full of gratitude and stepping back to be thankful for what you have now, you can still wish for more and want for more because we are human and we want that but it’s taking a look at being thankful for what you already have in front of you and what you’ve been given or what you have received that got you to where you are today, those are her 2 favorite books that have helped her throughout her life and business. Angie shared that the one thing that is working on right now is that she is building out a new service in her business and it is narrowing on My Zone of Genius. My Zone of Genius is being a leader and delegating and taking care of a lot of balls in the air and keeping everything in motion and setting up a system in process for that. She is beginning to offer a service to businesses, companies and online entrepreneurs to where she is setting up the systems and processes personally, she is guiding them and putting their business under a microscope to see where there are gaps and where things could be fixed, where they could gain more clients or have better client retention, have a better client experience, she is really excited to offer that in the coming weeks, the product will be launched on February 14, 2017 and being one to one with other companies and businesses. Angie shared that listeners can find her at - www.coachingsuccesssystems.com Angie Fisher Facebook Angie Fisher Twitter Angie Fisher YouTube Angie Fisher Pinterest Angie Fisher LinkedIn Project Management Teamwork App   Angie shared one of her own quote, which is, “Your knowledge and experience is enough.” She stated that a lot time people don’t feel like they are enough or that they know enough or that they have enough but you are enough and she also wants entrepreneurs to remember that because sometimes it can be a very lonely world. Links The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson Thank & Grow Rich: A 30-Day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy by Pam Grout Project Management Teamwork App Coaching Success Systems     Listeners of This Episode #40 – Receive a Free Gift from Our Guest Angie Fisher Freebie Link for Listeners of this Episode from Angie Fisher

Joseph Michelli is an Internationally sought after Speaker, Author and Organizational Consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the total customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and front line workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives. Dr. Michelli is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Neilsen Book Scan and New York Times number 1 bestselling author. His latest book is Driven to Delight: Delivering World- Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way, some of his other titles include Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW, Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System, The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary and The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, as well as When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market. Joseph holds a certified speaking professional designation from The National Speakers Association and is a member of The Authors Guild; he received his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Southern California and he has won the Asian Brand Excellence Award as an Editorial Board Member for The Beryl Institute Patient Experience Journal (PXJ) and is on the Founder’s Council of Customer Experience One, he is also named one of the top 10 Thought Leaders in Customer Service by global gurus.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey Could you share with us from one of your favorite books, what are these 5 principles that seem to be a constant in most of the books that you’ve authored? What are some of the limitations that leaders may face? Do you think they are more internal or external? Why is it that leadership seems to be a big challenge for a lot of organizations, why are they not getting it right? How do you think a business owner or a leader should approach service recovery? What are some important considerations that you would recommend to a business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Joseph Michelli shared that he has been in this business of customer service which has transformed into customer experience enhancement for so long that he has had many great mentors and guides along the way and if anything, he has been excited to see how many people have started to appreciate that it’s not just the products they have that makes a difference in the market place but it’s really the way those products to marketing, he thinks that changes in the global economy have cost us all to realize that you can get a lot of very similar products very easily today but the service dimension is something that very few have mastered and it is a differentiator. Joseph stated that it starts with leadership, entrepreneur, a small business owner, a large company, having a leader who has the vision to realize that people are the most important aspect of business, that all business are personal, that you have to understand the wants, needs and desires of people in order to create, innovate and to deliver in ways to meet their wants, needs and desires. It’s an overarching commitment to utilizing both technology and the human capital within your organization to create memorable or crave able experience that people will talk about on social media. He thinks that there are dimensions of driving culture, a culture of service excellence as well as operational excellence, getting it right and making it right and obsessing about that and most of these brands are on a journey to decrease the amount of effort that customers have involved in getting their needs met, currently there are all these making sure and understanding that this is a long game, that this is about lasting significance not just short term sales or profitability for the next quarter, it’s really about understanding relationships and multi generations of consumers who are going to support your brand. Joseph shared that he thinks they see excellence within silos, they build organizations that have silos and they are not looking at the journey of the customer across the organization, so instead of looking down from the top of an organization and seeing your marketing silo and your sales silo and seeing your after sale silo, your customers look from a horizontal vantage point and they see the brand and they see it when they encounter it inconsideration of a product, they see it when they walk into a store or when they attempt to purchase something from the online store front, they see it when they make a return, they are seeing the same brand in a horizontal walk. Unfortunately, a lot of organizations reward people for success in each of the verticals silos as they look down on it from the top, so a lot of this gets to helping organizations create opportunities of handing the customer from one point of the journey to the next part of the journey seamlessly instead of just celebrating success within a silo. Yanique shared that she found that the companies that really understand their journey also recognize that things are not going to go smooth all the time so service recovery is so important. Joseph stated that it’s one of the greatest differentiators, everybody do a good job until they get your money, as soon as they get your money, they treat you differently, some take you for granted and never speak to you again or when it’s time for renewal, try to get you constantly to buy something from them. Those who after the sale respond very ably to the consumer, the better, the first formal part of this is understanding that service recovery is an investment in future marketing so rather than seeing it as a lost leader, it is a part of your advertising strategy and saves you money from having to advertise and recover customers who are soiling or contaminating the market place with their negative reactions to your poor recovery. It’s a mind shift on what recovery is, it’s a fundamental opportunity to decrease future marketing costs and actually leverage that which is so valuable the customer you’ve already acquired in having them be a repeat purchaser, it is so much easier to get them to buy a second time than to get somebody to buy the first time and the cost associated with retaining a customer is so much less even if you have to invest money in a recovery moment than it would be to try to require a replacement customer. Joseph stated that it is simple as Starbucks has a promise that, “If you don’t like your drink, we will replace it for you no questions asked.” Joseph gave an example, he stated that there was a prankster, a person who pranks corporate America, so he bought a Starbucks drink, he brought it home, it was a milk based drink, he put it in his garage, he left it there for a week and a half, he brought it back extremely rancid inside of a plastic bag and he brought it into a Starbucks and handed it to the Barista and saying, “Look, this drink does not meet my satisfaction.” They have been trained so well by this brand simply said, “Let me take this take this to our back dumpster and in the mean time, what drink might I prepare for you that you might like today?” It was that simple, many people would say, “come on, obviously this is not a freshly made drink that we are in any obligation to replace” In truth, this prankster went on to write a blog about the fact that he had hoped that they would fail their recovery promise and they did not do so and he was the one who got pranked and that advertising and that promotion and the fact that he’s telling the story today has far more value to the brand than the $4.00 they would have saved had they argued with the customer in suggesting that he was not entitled to the recovery. Yanique stated that she lives in Jamaica and most of the stores already have a sign on the door that says, “No exchanges, no refunds” so you as a customer, once you enter or start to browse that store, you know, “If I purchase this, clearly it’s a final purchase, if I have an issue with it, I can’t take it back.” It’s truly amazing to know that the promise is that they are going to replace it for you no questions asked, that takes real guts, real courage. Joseph stated that there will be those who abuse it and this would have been a case of abuse, clearly it went well beyond the perimeters but most people will not. There is a speaker in the USA who at the beginning of every presentation hands out a bowl of quarters and he says, “Please take all the quarters” and no one has taken all the quarters in any audience that he has ever put that out to and the message largely is, most people will self regulate, most people are business owners, most people have a sense of fairness, there will be those who abuse it but assuming the entire population is out to get you creates an animosity between yourself and the customer that’s hard to recover from and as a world traveler, he has been to countries in the Caribbean that are open and warm and he has been to ones that are locked down and he knows which ones he doesn’t want to go back to. Joseph stated that online is a very self service oriented deliverable, it’s a lot about speed, and it’s a lot about convenience so you clearly should maximize those dimensions. The more speedy and more automated this becomes, the more you need people around in case something goes wrong because he become lulled into the sense that everything is perfect and so if you’re going to have online, you also need to have some level of Call Centre or human response that can deal with any break downs that happens in the automated space and so you have to be very mindful that you’re going to move in and out of brick and mortar, in and out of call centre, in and out of online app deliverable and so it really is a multi channel mindset that you have to start thinking about and the customer can start in one spot, jump to the next and needs to be able to jump back to the next. If you go purely online and it’s difficult to get people to solve a problem or answer a question that you can’t get answered on a frequently answered questions page online then you end up with a lesser experience and you may end up churning customers so doing online development means you also have some talented human capital that bolts into this multi channel journey. Speed and Convenience for todays customer - Joseph stated that we have to maximize the speed at every turn and we do have to manage customer expectations because there are certain expectations that have gotten ahead of customers and in order to have everything that fast you also give up some tradeoffs on artisanship and quality so it is an educational on tradeoffs that with speed comes some compromises and we are willing to make them in these regards because we know what’s best and in delivery of this particular product you know you need speed, we know you need speed, we are working to maximize that but you also need quality and if you compromise and buy something very hastily crafted in order to meet the speed, it probably won’t last long, so it’s baiting what is value and speed is a part of the value equation but there are other dimensions that you have to education. Sometimes we can do things while they are waiting for those 5 days for a product, we can educate them, and we can stay in relationship with them. The art of Disney if you go to Walt Disney World, you are in massive lines, it is not speedy at all to go through the experience but they often distract you, entertain you, transform you with other things happening while you’re in line and he thinks that’s the art sometimes, how else can they add value, “The product will be there in 5 days but in the mean time I want to give you 5 days of information about how maximize the use of your product as soon as it arrives so there isn’t such a learning curve.” So maybe there is a not speed to delivery but there’s a speed to use because he has done something in that delivery time that adds value. Beta Brand – company that did not have a product but they provided their prospects with entertaining stories. Joseph stated that that particular journey with the owner was a co authored book with Johnny Yokoyama who created Pike Place Fish Market, he had the good fortune of working with him and he’s inspirational to him. He stated that Yanique and himself shared many of the same journeys, they go in and help leaders create better experiences to drive loyalty and engagement of their people and of their customers and that’s just a life giving journey that he’s on, to deal with the Johnny Yokoyama’s, to deal with the CEO’s of these corporations to help them lead these initiatives, to watch small business owners change the way they treat their people and the way their people treat the customers, it is so life giving that it’s easy to do what he does in life and because of that, it’s easy for him to stay motivated. Joseph shared that he is on the road all the time so most of the airline apps and almost all the hotel apps have incredible value to him. This morning he walked to his local Starbucks and he used his mobile order app, he was able to have enough time to sit down and enjoy his coffee because the coffee was waiting for him. Anything that makes his life easier is something he tends to continues to give real estate to his phone, otherwise he downloads a lot of apps and then they are gone 72 hours because he doesn’t use them, they look good but they don’t’ give his life ease or pleasure. Joseph shared that the book that has had the biggest impact is Man’s Search for Meaning By Viktor E. Frankl, it is the message of a Psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps in World War II, the beauty for him is that he inspires him to realize how great he can be and his classic section is where he’s talking about people who are near starvation, who gave up the food they have, a small portion of that to someone else who are worst and Frankl says, “there are not many people who did that but the fact that we can is inspiring to all of us” and that’s how he looks at the world, we can all serve better, we can all do more to be in service to one another and that’s the kind of books he tends to like to read. Joseph stated that right now they trying to figure out to create product, he thinks he is at a point in his career where he has written enough books, he has done enough consulting and he has been on the road a lot, so he is trying to figure out how to monetize and create a platform of training courses and things that keep him from having to go on planes so in 10 or 15 years he can spend more time with in the islands enjoying life while still creating value as best he can.   Joseph stated that it starts with you, we can identify the generation Y and Z and the millennials, reality says, “If you’re not a hundred percent in every single day, why should anyone else in your organization be, you are the owner, you are the leader, you set the standard, what shows up in your business is probably in part a reflection of who you are.” It is harder today to find motivated people so it takes more discipline to select, you should be looking for them everywhere you find them, you should be offering them an opportunity to consider employment with you, stealing the best from the rest but ultimately it is how do you show up every day because that will show up in the life of the customer.   Joseph shared listeners can find him at – www.josephmichelli.com Joseph Michelli Twitter Joseph Michelli Facebook Joseph Michelli LinkedIn   Joseph stated that Peter Drucker once said, “We are not in business to create a profit, we are in business to create a customer, it is through customers that profits come.” So for him, Joseph is less worried about whether or no they are going to be profitable, he’s more worried about customers and if he takes care customers, the profits will follow.   Links Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way by Joseph A. Michelli Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People by Joseph A. Michelli The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW by Joseph A. Michelli Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System by Joseph A. Michelli The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph A. Michelli The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph A. Michelli When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace from the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market by Joseph A. Michelli and John Yokoyama Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Isabel Hundt is the author of The Power of Faith-Driven Success: A Journey Toward Living Your Dream by 30 and certified vision and Transformation Coach and International Speaker. She’s a world visionary and an ambassador of Global Presence Leadership. She travels all over to share her enlightening message of tuning in to our true selves by understanding the connection between our heart and our brain. She is also teaching how to use our emotions as a powerful guide for success in all areas of our lives instead of experiencing emotions as a distraction. She’s a proud Christ follower, wife and a mother to son Jonah. Isabel enjoys kick boxing and body combat.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey How do you feel about customer experience in your own life, the things you’ve experience and what role do you think that plays in you being able to help people transform into their best selves? What are some everyday solutions that you believe can help improve customer experience? How do you feel about leadership in a business? What role do you think leadership plays in the whole customer experience process and the emotions around that as well? As a Visionary, as a Coach, what are some important considerations that you would recommend they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Isabel Hundt shared that she that when she was young, she had a lot of out of body experiences, at some point she had a head trauma and when she had the head trauma, she was out of her body and she could watch herself and there are other times where she felt like she could leave her body which was weird and she always reacted weird to other people that were in pain. For example, she laughed when they were hurting and she know why, she would say, “oh my god, it’s so embarrassing, I shouldn’t be laughing, it’s not funny, they are hurting” and looking back she knows it was a coping mechanism for her to not take on their stuff but when she was 12 years old, she had a vision that she would be moving the United States of America, she is originally from Germany where she grew up and her family is there. She had the vision and that she would be speaking in front of a lot of people and she didn’t quite know how it was going to happen because she didn’t have any connections and she also got into psychology and sociology around the same time, she grew up in the so call DDR, East Germany and they grew up Christian and so her dad wasn’t allowed study because he participated in church activities so when the walls came down he was finally able to get his Degree and that was when she was about 12 years old and that time she studied with him which was fun and when she was 18 years old, she went to the USA for an exchange year which was interesting because she really sucked speaking the language, she didn’t know what, “you’re welcome” meant. She then had to go back and she didn’t feel at home anymore, something didn’t feel right, it was just off and her dad would always say, “one day we’re going to do something together, we’re going to work together” and of course when you’re 19 years old you’re like, “heck no, I’m independent now.” She studied economics and failed, they kicked her out after 2 years and she started to have really bad depressions and she didn’t care if there was a car coming or not, she was just done with the world, everything was noisy and loud. When they kicked her out of university, she had to figure out what she wanted to do next and she finally admitted that she probably should go into the social science field because that’s what she was always been interested in, so she did that and started over and somehow she got into a really bad relationship with an American guy but that’s how she really came over so she is kind of grateful to him but that ended too after she finished her studying and she still came over and worked as a nanny. In that process she got to know her now husband and because he didn’t want to get married right away, she almost got deported and that was interesting. She had to go to Canada which was quite the experience and all that up and down and she didn’t what she wanted to do, she never felt like she really trusted her intuition and that’s when through a friend of a friend she started to get into the coaching world and she participated in a training, “This was exactly what I need to do because I need to understand who I am. I don’t feel German, I don’t feel American, who am I?” and within that journey of becoming a certified coach, she also realize that she is an empath which means that she experience the world more intense, she can see through people, she sees color around people, it’s a lot of stuff that she takes in and never knew how to trust that intuition or to work with it and throughout the journey she got to where she is today. Isabel Hundt stated that she used to do a presentation at Ball State University about customer service and they would look at like she’s crazy because nobody really understands that the customer service starts with you and they believe that customer service is the foundation to success in whatever you offer in your business, customer service is nothing different than creating relationships and being open to the experience with the other person. The problem that she sees often with customer service is that we don’t not have that self awareness, that often we don’t understand is what we focus on we create more of, what is going on inside of us is being reflected on the outside, that’s what’s happening around us. For example, if somebody comes into work and already has a crappy day and you have someone call you and they need help or support, you would react differently to them than if you had a happy or great day and even though the other person’s reaction wasn’t any different, you just experience it differently so if we have that awareness of what’s going on. For example, you can simply acknowledge, “oh shut, I have a crappy day today, I don’t know what’s going on, I feel frustrated, I feel angry, I’m not sure why” but if we just simply acknowledge it, you don’t have to go through the whole process of analyzing but just acknowledge it, we are able to take that apart from what we experience in relationship type of setting and we can say, “okay, I hear them differently, it’s nothing personal what they’re saying, I don’t have to react to it, I can set my stuff aside to be available to them” and that’s why she thinks self awareness is the foundation to great customer service, yet customer service is the foundation to successful life and business. Isabel stated that emotions aren’t just emotions; they are what we make them, who would determine that anger has a certain chemical reaction in your body, we define it and we can acknowledge, “oh, that’s what’s going on, it’s okay, I am okay, I just don’t have to act on it react to it by pushing it on someone else” Isabel shared that for one, it depends on the setting but if you have a small business and it’s just you, definitely having a ritual every day, if it’s in the morning or before whenever you start working and for her, it’s usually around lunch time because she has a 3 year old when he’s finally asleep. Before she really start getting into work or connecting with people, she sits down and either meditate in her case and sometimes just a reflection yourself is really important just to understand, “okay, what’s going on today, what do I have to work through today that could get in the way for me to create successful connections with people that I really want to be of service to?” that’s the one thing that she really stretch with everyone. When she teach that at universities, the staff always looks at her like, “yeah, can we have a little more business like instead of all the psychology behind it” they don’t really want to take that responsibility, so it’s a little tough. If you can be compassionate with yourself and understanding and acknowledging it, you are more likely to show more compassion to those who you serve, if they have a bad day, you’re not jumping on board, you can just say, “hey, do you having a bad day? I’m sorry if you do, it’s okay and I still see you” so feeling seen creates the connection, the connection again is the foundation of a successful business. So the most important if you remember anything from this conversation, self reflection is the first thing someone should do to have a successful business. Isabel agreed that leaders have their own emotions and depending on your mode, your energy can manifest into the physical space and that can have a positive or negative impact on the staff and then eventually spill over to the customers. She stated that she used to work in corporate America for a year and she didn’t like it because she was the Administrative Assistant and was responsible for all those people and sometimes she would sit there and listen to people talk to customers and would say to herself, “do you actually want to work with that customer or you don’t? Because right now it sounds like you don’t” and even with each other. She thinks that customer service starts with the group itself, if there is tension within the people that work for you, those tensions come across with the customer, so for everyone that is a leader who is leading a group of people needs to stretch on team building and team building is the focus on self that’s why really successful companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook as well as Amazon, they all have life coaches, so their employees, most of them have at least one session a month or they have free access to a life coach and there is more of team building going on as their foundation than the actual growth of the business. If your team feels valued and seen, automatically your business will grow too because they do whatever it takes to grow this business because that means they feel a part of a big team, a mission, something that’s really important and that as a leader of a company if you have employees, for one you need to do the work yourself, that’s something she has realized, they usually send their employees to her workshops and expect that they will change the environment they are working in but they don’t want to do the work and that’s what hurts most companies. Isabel stated that most of her clients are online. She said that for one, it is more convenient with a child at home that young but it allows her to work with people from all over the world, from France, Sweden, and India and all over the USA and she found and it depends on where you live. She stated that where she lives people are very conservative so it takes a lot to break through that wall and outside of it people are more open to what she’s talking about and what she teach and coach on. She does work mostly online but when she speaks, then she is travelling. Isabel stated that if you want to take everything online, the most important for her is authenticity, if suddenly you come across online differently than in your physical store, that will distract from your brand and people get confuse and when people get confuse, they will not buy from you. Authenticity, really understanding what you want to bring across online, what you want people to understand about who you are and your business that you can also implement or that you have already implemented in your brick and mortar business. Especially if you have a store and you want to take it online she really believes in help from people that have a lot of knowledge like Web Designers, they understand how to use different colors that really reflect your personality and your work because callers also have frequency as well as emotions where they create emotions or support certain emotions so people have to be aware of what they use even there online, what do you want to bring across, how you want people to feel when they look at what you represent. That goes back to personal development, Who are you? What is your message? What do you want to bring across? How do you want to serve people? What do you want other people to take away from it? And you can’t really answer those questions unless you are really aware of who you are and your purpose. Isabel share that sometimes we take My Why a little bit too easy, it’s not just, “my WHY is to support my family financially” it needs to serve for the greater good. She stated that her WHY is to create a deeper connection inner culturally to understand that even though your background is different or the way you grew up or the traditions are different, it doesn’t make you any different as a human being. Her big Why is to bring people together to really connect on such a deep level that we can understand that without each other we can’t do anything and even if we live a thousand miles away from each other, we still impact each other in the way we think, in the way we operate, it has a ripple effect, that’s her greater purpose, that’s greater vision that she has so if you start with the WHY and only say, “my WHY is supporting my family” that’s not enough, that keeps it too limited and you don’t think outside the box. Isabel stated that what keeps her motivated is one, her Why, the essence of what she do what she do, she can’t just let it go, there’s too much at stake to not to do her work and she would be responsible. She always remind herself that if she doesn’t do the work that she is call to do, she is responsible for the people she could have impacted or that she could have supported and served if she had stuck with it, so the moderation is to keep that vision in mind, “Who am I impacting and what are the consequences if I succeed?” that is her biggest motivation and music helps her too. Music changes your vibration energy which the frequency of your body either increases or decreases depending on what you listen to and when she feels really demotivated, she listens to inspiring music and it feels like she is able to conquer everything, she is a leader and once she gets to that she feels she can move forward and stay motivated. Isabel stated that she was thinking about that question and she couldn’t quite find an answer, she was looking though everything that she is using but what she could not live without is her Virtual Assistant or her Web Designer the two people, she knows that they are not a tool or something that she uses online but those are the two things that if she didn’t have them her business would not be where it’s at or where she wanted it to go. She stated that they take such a load off her shoulders, it’s incredible. She stated that if you have an online business she would recommend that you get a Virtual Assistant and have a Web Designer always on your side. If something happens, within 2 minutes they can check, “okay, I got it” without you having to try and figure it out or make it even worst. Isabel stated that the other online resources that are really helpful like Buffer or Hootsuite are important if you want to save time and one thing that she learnt is focus on a few social platforms, don’t try to get into everything and get on board with everything new. Focus on 2 or 3 things that you are comfortable with and do whatever it takes to get your name out on those social platforms. Isabel shared that the book she read over the last year that really impacted the way she thinks and the way she experience things is The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLaren, it’s more written for empathy so if you’re not really an empathy and don’t want to get too deep into it, don’t read it but if you’re really interested in it then it will definitely help in coping with a lot of things and understanding a lot of things. Isabel stated that the advice that she would give is the advice that she gives herself everyday and that is trust. If you are in alignment, if what you do, what you send out is in alignment with what you have on your heart, that dream that really fires you up every single day, you need to trust. You can’t go out and follow everyone strategy and try to make everything work and sign up for every program that you can find just to make something happen, you need to trust and with every decision you make, ask yourself, “is that in alignment with who I am?, does this really work for me? And is it in alignment with my greater purpose?” If it’s not trust that you don’t need it at this time or ever but really trust. Trust, reflect and listen from within, those are the small advice points that she always give that she always give to herself as well. Isabel stated that the one thing that she is really excited about is doing sessions that are called Releasing Trapped Emotions because those are really important for us to be able to move forward otherwise we will always ending up where we started. Those are the 2 things that she is really excited about but she is also excited about working on a Ted Talk and that’s something she is doing right now and she got a lot of support from people who have done it before, who have the connections so she is super excited and nervous. In the near future she wants to create a more specific course about emotions and how to identify them and work through them with getting all wrapped up in it and that’s something she going to be working on in the spring and those are the few things she is working on right now.   Isabel shared listeners can find her at – www.isabelhundt.com Isabel Hundt Facebook Isabel Hundt Istagram Isabel Hundt LinkedIn Isabel Hundt Twitter Isabel Hundt YouTube   Isabel shared that she usually reverts to Matthew 17:20 and usually people say that you can’t bring the Bible into your business but for her it’s faith and science. It says, “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” And especially when we know the science part about it that we are able to just with the way we think, that we really can move mountains in that sense, just knowing that keeps her going. We are here, we are destined for something greater and we as a human world society, we have a responsibility to do better than what we’ve done so far.   Links The Power of Faith-Driven Success: A Journey Toward Living Your Dream by 30 by Isabel Hundt The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLaren  

Louie La Vella’s clients are entertainment personalities, night clubs, concerts and festivals and he creates brand and marketing strategies to engage and connect with their audience. Working within the shark infested waters of the night life and music industry as a Marketing and Branding consultant, La Vella has been delivering high profit solutions to live entertainment events, musicians and venues for years. With over 20 years in the night life industry, an extensive development and production experience with national television projects, authors, speakers, event producers and coach. La Vella has produced and marketed over 30 live music concerts in the past few years. Winner of the Niagara Music Awards Promoter of the Year in 2012, The Junior Awards Canadian Music, Dance category committee. He has been called a “Mediapreneur”, combining a successful television executive producer and host role with being sought after marketing and branding consultant in the night life and in the music industry. In his television days, he had the opportunity to interview the likes of Lady Gaga, Richard Branson, Backstreet Boys and more.   Question Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey What has your customer experience been like in terms of being a service provider as well as being a customer yourself and receiving services from people you may have to interact with at the events? What are some every day solutions that you would recommend to a small business owner to help them improve their customer experience? Can you share one or two things with us that you’ve taken away from interviewing people that have celebrity statues that has really helped to mold your personality and make you a better business leader? How do you stay motivated every day? What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you? What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people? Where can our listeners find your information online? What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?   Highlights Louie La Vella shared that he start at about 17 or 18 years old as a Night Club Promoter working for other event companies and venues. He stated that everyone has that part time job when they are getting into college whether it’s retail, grocery store or even a bartender and his love was business, of course going out and having fun and parting at the bar and clubs was a huge interest for everybody usually in the college scene. He wanted to put those two together and see if he could make money from it and it was a fantastic start. He got to forge some great relationships with venue owners, managers, bands and deejays and of course learn the trade but he thought being a Night Club Promoter wasn’t exactly his career path, he knew the entertainment industry was going to be something he wanted to be in so he quickly learned to level up and have a long term goal of working on a global scale with festivals and musicians and celebrities; so it has been a 20 year journey to get where he is today but in between, he has seen all these different opportunities to increase his personal brand and always level up and growing from that first start as a night club promoter and very quickly into booking venues and running his own events and then getting on television and radio and now to this day, it has been a fun journey. Louie stated that as an entrepreneur, he has two arms to the business. One of them is B-2-B which is him getting clients and getting to work with musicians or record labels or festival owners and it is really showing them that he can connect and engage their audience to them because now a day’s everybody gets the same feeling of social media being such a big player in marketing, if not the player in marketing depending on your demographic but it’s very noisy and you have to do a lot of hustle, it was a little bit easier back in the day to just either pay radio for events or do print ads or flier or television and you have that marketing there. Now there is so much more involvement, you have to understand the user behavior of your audience and with that said the second arm of what he has to do is connecting them and even himself to the consumer audience, so that’s selling tickets, getting people to download music and that’s really understanding what the consumer wants to see on Social Media for them to engage, no longer that it works for us to just put a nice looking flier on Social Media and boots that post, you really need to come up with a campaign, some with music, you can’t just drop a track on Facebook and get couple of your friends to share it and hopefully your fan base runs with it. You need to create a strategy 4 weeks, 6 weeks and get them engaged, get them listening to the teaser or get them feeling what the event’s going to be about and eventually get to the ticket launch and then they’ve already bought into the message and you have them a little more excited and they are raving fan ready to support you. Now a day’s a lot of people get scared of that and they think, “that’s a lot of work” and it is and you trade a little bit of hustle for maybe writing cheques to traditional media for ad spend because the ad spent on social media is a lot less but it works well and that is the sandbox where everybody is playing so we really need to take that seriously and not just say back in the day it was easier, we don’t have time machines, we can’t go back in the day and go back to where we knew what we were doing and we were successful at it, things change consistently now and very quickly so we have to be on top of that. Louie stated that talking about events whether its festivals or night club events or smaller concerts, going to the events are always great for him to either wine down and enjoy the event or do a little bit of research on what everybody else is up to and he fine that a lot of the places that either spend too much money to market to fill their room or just not filling their room is because they are stuck back in the day. Louie shared he was on a panel at the International Night Life congress a month ago and everybody was talking about Millennials and how they’re on their phones all the time and it’s ruining the experience going to a club or going to a venue to have their phones out and they just want to be on social media and he sat there and thought about his experience going in and he said, the usual behavior is not just because they are on social media and need to tell their friends or talk, it’s their documenting, they’re documenting everything they do and we do the same things, maybe not as much as the generation because depending on our age demographics but we want to tell our friends what we are up to, we want to share what we are eating, we feel like we are all media companies and we need to document. He told them going back to the experience of him experiencing a night life venue, “What are you guys doing differently than 20 years ago? You have a concert hall or a night club with a nice deejay or a band with some lights and a bartender but that’s the same concept as 20 years ago.” He was trying to poke fun by saying that he doesn’t use VHS tapes anymore, we have all changed, why have you not changed if you think about 20 year old concept of the night club, it’s exactly the same, and we have different sounds and different lights but that’s not a huge step in the experience. When he walks into a club and its dead and the bartender is on their phone and it’s the same old, same old for 20 years, he’s thinking well no wonder nobody’s here or it’s too busy and the promoter and the venue owner thinks, Hey, Louie look how packed it is, look how great it is here, it’s over packed” and he’s thinking, “Go ask 6 girls right now what they think about your club and I bet you 4 or all 6 of them will say it’s too busy here, I can’t get a drink, I wanted in line too long, I Iost my friend when I went to the bathroom” and you think that the over capacity of the club is your success but I bet that you’re even losing money because they want to leave early, they get frustrated to get to the bar to get a drink. He has seen that with his own experience by going to these places and thinking….these are issues that are going to bite them or already bit them. He stated that it’s the same with Facebook likes, he has 10,000 likes. Likes do not equal sale at all. The amount of time that your organic reaches 1% you still have to target people, you might be targeting specific intricate ways of targeting like somebody that likes your page but also likes these certain items. A lot of people are just going for likes and it’s a visual thing and he understands as a branding play but that’s a small piece of the branding pot, you have 5,000 likes or 10,000 Twitter followers that never equal actual sales, you have to think outside of that, so you spend all of your money trying to get likes but he never do that, he tries to spend the ad budget on your actual target, let’s try to create a funnel, let’s sell tickets, let’s sell music, people will like your page indirectly because they see the ad and they don’t like your page currently and they’ll it like but that’s not the metric we go for so a lot of people are not thinking the new way of doing marketing and still thinking of the old mentality, we want more likes, we want to pack the bar, we want to do the old school way because it’s easier and it just doesn’t work. Louie La Vella stated that one of the mistakes that many business owners and entrepreneurs make is that they forget that they are also a customer, he hears it a lot with musicians or bar owners or club owners on them complaining when they go to another bar or complaining about, “Why do these people want to message me on Facebook or text me, I want to be on phone” they are romanticizing bout the old school days and he sit there and say your audience is 21, they don’t care what you think and they forget about them as a customer sometimes, “Oh, I went to the bar and it was too busy, they couldn’t get a drink” and yet they do the same thing. The first thing that everybody needs to stop and realize is that you are also a customer and think about how you want that experience to be. A lot of people disconnect that, they think “This is how I want to be treated”, but I don’t do this thing to my customer and then they wonder why there is a disconnect there and that’s a massive thing that everyone forgets. Same thing on Social Media “Oh, I’m going to complain about my dinner and I expect somebody to respond right away” but on the flip side “That idiot made a one star review, I think I should delete all my reviews so nobody sees any of them” you are disconnecting yourself as a customer though, you’re not thinking about what you would want, they want to have someone respond right away, they don’t want it to be deleted and you would hate that to happen but now you want to do that to them so that’s massive tip number 1 on returning customer service and just thinking about how you would want to be treated. The second thing is Consistency, a lot of people give up very fast, they try something new and it doesn’t work a couple weeks in and they give up. Have a long term goal, at the beginning of the chat he said he had a 20 year span of cool stuff that happened to get to where he is today but all of it was fun and there were pivots everywhere, he went into radio, he went into TV, it was all to the same goal of music, music show, music television, everything was in the same genre so that he could keep building brand awareness and now he’s on the listening committee for their award show which is like the Grammys up in Canada which is great and is more branding too and it’s exciting to be a part of that community as well and all that is a long term goal and he has those sites. A lot of people create an event like a bar event or new business shiny object syndrome and then they give up fast, if that’s something that’s serious for your business and it’s going to grow your brand, have a realistic goal, nobody is going to pack your club in 3 weeks and nobody’s going to have a brand new division of their entrepreneur business and think in couple Facebook ads “I’m rolling”, you need to have a long term goal but you have to stick with it. You can pivot along the way a little bit because things need to be tweaked and at the end if it’s not working out, fine, you remove it, stop wasting your time but you have to stick to a realistic goal. Louie stated that the celebrities that he interviewed are all down to earth people and he really like the fact that they are normal people and that people resonate with that and especially on Social Media where they can have Snapchat or Instagram stories or just respond as a normal person, it makes a human-to-human connection and that’s a common thread he saw with all of those people. There were a very few celebrities that he met that had that fake persona or were just rude and it may have been the industry that they went through and whatever path they went through just gave them that cold heart but 99.9% of them were all super down to earth and super nice and just appreciative of just being normal people which is amazing. A fun story that he likes to tell, he takes so many flights and sometimes flying on his own, you sit beside somebody it may not be in a first class and you go, “Hey, how are you doing? What do you do?” “I’m the president of this massive company” or “I’m the executive of this” and sometimes they ask him what he does and he would have a cool story and he’s always thinking on the plane everyone is such a normal person, you’re sitting beside who knows who and they are normal people and if you think about that with these celebrities, they really are. That down to earth groundedness is what is making them successful and holding onto their long term goals. You see some of them derail here and there and that’s when they lose sight of being themselves but to be real like that really helps in their personal branding, if you tweet at somebody and they tweet back to you or they do something on Ellen you laugh with them like, they’re just normal funny people, you laugh with them like, “Oh, I find that funny too, I would do something that crazy” and it really helps to be that kind of person and on his side getting those interviews of course being on television a lot of them were organize but Lady Gaga and Richard Branson, those were just last second accidental interviews. Lady Gaga was interviewing other people and she just got signed to Interscope Records like week before and that was years ago. She was a this rooftop party with her managers and all these other deejays were there and his TV crew was interviewing famous deejays and she was nobody and her managers came up to them and said, “Here’s this new girl that just got signed, we are ready to push her, she going to have a great album come this summer and she would like to get some media so would do an interview for her?” and he said, “I don’t know who she is and we have a lot of stuff going on but hold on this could be an opportunity” they listened to the song and it was “Just Dance” and they said, “Yeah, it’s a fantastic song, she has major backing, absolutely we will do the interview, not a problem” not knowing that she was going to be a superstar within a month or 2. These doors open in front of you and sometimes you may not be real person and think, “I don’t have time for this” this would have been a way different story saying the time he could have interview Lady Gaga and that was her first national TV interview as Lady Gaga just getting signed which is cool to have under his belt as well but you would have to try and see those opportunities as they open. Louie stated that he likes what he does and that’s one big thing that keeps him motivated to wake up and know that this is what he likes, so when there is down times whether it’s working with clients that aren’t his favorite and you can decide “I can fire these clients and just move on” there are up times too, it just keeps him motivated to wake up and do something fun. He thinks that everybody needs to do that whether it’s a regular job or whether you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re an entrepreneur don’t create for yourself that you don’t like. Do something you love and that’s a huge factor and of course the idea as an entrepreneur that you can create money out of thin air or anything that’s a failure you don’t count it as a “Oh man, I failed, I suck” you just look at it like, “Find no problem, let’s pave it, let’s tweak, let’s continue, it’s all good, I will create something new, I can adjust” that mindset is really exciting to have. Louie stated that he is fan of the dance genres, that’s what they did with the television network and radio like electronic music, dance music, house music and of course that was the music that was fairly strong in the mid 90’s when he was growing up but hip hop was strong too so that’s another favorite genre of his. He stated that it was funny because if he was asked what his favorite song is, he wouldn’t have had a good answer. There are so many new stuff coming especially that he has to listen to so many music and mix shows that he probably couldn’t give a straight answer on what his favorite song is right now but he would lean towards the club genres, the dance music and hip hop urban music is great and there are some pop rock songs that he loves too but he is not a fan of country or classical there are so many genre room in his brain to follow. Yanique asked him if he likes reggae and he stated that reggae is great. Louie stated that the tool he couldn’t live without is Facebook. He has been able to get clients and return the favor by making them millions of dollars on the platform of Facebook and of course that same Social Media but majority of his business is on Facebook and Instagram very close but those are the two. He stated that within those 2 apps he can message people, he can be in contact, he can get on phone calls, he can do his advertising, those are the BIG monster players in his industry. Louie shared that he is a big fan of audio books; he will listen to audio books like crazy. Especially when you’re driving or traveling. He stated that there are so many that he has gone through that are absolutely amazing and a few off the top of his head: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek was a great one. Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk was a fantastic one. Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday was really cool. He was talking about how media manipulation happens and how groups of people can get in, utilize the media and reading that book years ago and being a marketing guy, you can start to understand how things are happening on advertising like self driving cars are going to be coming out stronger as the years go by but you’re seeing ads now like a Kia or Ford commercial. If your brain wonders a bit and you think about your kids and you move into another lane, don’t worry the machine has your back, just slowly getting us used to the idea how we are scared of we are better than the machine, “I don’t want the car to self drive, I’m a better driver” just slowly giving us a tiny step by step of training our brains to think, “No the machine is better than you” you wonder off, that kind of idea without being a hardcore. Have a little strategy, give yourself a 4 week campaign before dropping your track, this is a probably a 4 to 10 year campaign but you can see these little things happening and you can also look at the election. You can see how Donald Trump, how he used the media to his advantage, against his advantage and when you read a book like that and you look at what’s going on in the media and how we are all headline readers and we’ll believe anything on Facebook whether we click on it or not it’s scary and it’s extremely possible to do those kind of things which is scary. Louie stated that he lives to level up what he does ever so often and he started to scale away from night club and bar and doing a lot more festivals which is very exciting and record labels and speaking as well. He has a book that he authored a few years ago and he’s coming out with a second one and he’s starting to do more speaking engagements around North America and that’s a new level of what he’s doing. The entire year (2016) as he called it The Year of Authority for him, he’s going to get on podcasts, spread his message and just shares what he knows and do a lot more of his own podcasts and articles and he’s going utilize Social Media to build authority and brand awareness so that he can bump up the next level and start doing a lot more larger scale things and do speaking. He has done speaking gigs now which has been exciting. So that kind of the new next level for him which he has already hit and he starting to grow that and explore, just in podcasts, he has done over 45 + in last 3 months as a guest host which has been really exciting and a lot of hustle and a lot of fun and he is on pace before the month’s over to hit over 50 podcasts and he’s going to keep on going so that’s going to be a lot of fun for continuing to release and share those again throughout 2017 because he’ll have one a week to share which is great and that’s really cool for authority building and brand building. People can listen; they have a great conversation, and it is a cool tool that he’s picked up. Louie stated that the night clubs are your basic bar and night club, there can be a 500 person venue, 1000 person venue but through your typical night club every week they have events going on or students nights so it’s a different atmosphere all together where as a Festival your talking 30,000 people showing up a day or more or maybe less and it’s such a massive cool undertaking and you work on marketing for 8 months, right now he’s working on marketing, even in September 2016 he was working on festivals for June 2017 but it’s really cool. You have a tight nit team and they organize everything to do with the festival and when it finally comes to fruition and you’re on stage with 30,000 people in front of you and this massive production and you’re thinking, “I’m the marketing guy, I was a part of bringing in these people in that’s really awesome.” And that a cool feeling and it’s a larger scale and not everybody gets to do that, if you’re a good marketer and you have friends and you know deejays, you might be able to jump in as a promoter at a night club but that’s not something that he does anymore, he consult and train a lot of owners and promoters because he knows marketing but he has a small hand full of bars and clubs now just because he knows them well and they are friends now and he helps them out but for the most part he has expended away from that and there’s different monetary value between a large scale festival and a night club so he can do different business and not work so hard but work on 3 projects instead of 15.  He stated that in festivals now you’re dealing with million dollar deejays, million dollar bands, some of the biggest of the biggest and you get to discuss with their management things, forge friendships and that’s just a whole other ball game as oppose to the night club which is still fun and great but you’re working with the local club owner or the local deejay and sometimes they bring in acts but not usually not the larger scale because there is no way they can afford someone of that caliber for a 500 person venue so it’s a completely different ball game but it’s a lot of fun.    Louie shared listeners can find him at – www.louielavella.com Louie La Vella Facebook Louie La Vella Twitter Louie La Vella Instagram Louie La Vella LinkedIn   Louie shared a quote that he has two quotes the first one for him especially is “Every day is a Friday” so whether it’s actually Friday or a Monday, if you feel like it’s a Friday it means that you are doing what you love, so if you can find something that feels like a Friday everyday then you’re doing well. The other one especially in the marketing sense he likes to always say, “Make sure you’re playing in the sandbox everybody else is playing in.” So whether your audience is on LinkedIn, whether your audience is on Twitter or Facebook or on radio or on print, wherever they may be, make sure you know where they play because if you’re in the wrong sandbox, no matter what you are doing over there you’re not getting the message across.   Links Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

Obviously there have been some extremely interesting developments in the 10 days since we recorded this all-questions episode, but your questions are still awesome and we hope our answers are, too! First, we talk about the status of gay issues on the tour. Is "open secret" a sustainable status? Next, Sloane? That's the question. And what's the significance of the WTA coaching moves of Li Na and Ana Ivanovic? Also we explain to you why it's problematic that Wimbledon won't let the press ask Andy Murray about poop. Then, for a complete change of pace, we discuss taxation ethics! Because obviously! Lastly, we turn our sights to the upcoming #MERICA swing: what are the best U.S. Open Series tournaments, and is there any American man other than John Isner who could do something halfway-decent? You, our listeners, are like triple-decent. As always, you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to and review our show on iTunes or whatever your podcast app/platform of choice may be!

Without much urgent tennis to attend to, Ben and Courtney decided to dive into your pressing questions! We answered a ton, so this Episode 81 has been split into two parts. Lucky you! On this first part, we discuss who will be the next first time Slam champ on the women's side, what to expect soon from Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, and Agnieszka Radwanska, what Fabio Fognini's deal is, women's tennis' broadcast shortcomings, Serena's burnout and how it reflects on Chris Evert's open letter, our dream tennis-rap beefs, and more! As always, you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to and review our show on iTunes or whatever your podcast app/platform of choice may be!