Podcast appearances and mentions of ron kaufman

What will 2025 be like? My Universidade do Consumidor and I have gathered the visions of renowned professionals worldwide and will share them here every three days during November and December. Follow, comment, and share! Guests such as: ✅ Marilu Lopez, México, Vice President DAMA Internacional for Data Management. and she offers my audience a 30% discount to get my book at https://lnkd.in/dZegvV5v with coupon SEGDA30 ✅ Todd Ericson, USA, director of the Inspiration 4 space mission to send the first 4 consumers into space on Space X ✅ •Shep Hyken, USA, New York Time Bestselling Author in CX ✅ Ron Kaufman , Singapore, World's #1 Customer Experience Guru ✅ Ian Golding, United Kingdom, one of the founders of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) ✅ Aviv Gruber, Israel, Data Science Team Lead at Rekor ✅ José-Carlos Yamagoshi Wang. MBA, Dr.Ed. , Perú, Sociedad Iberoamericana de CRM - SIACRM ✅ Ian Millar , Switzerland, the best hotel school in the world ✅ Emil Björnskär , Sweden, Head of MarTech ✅ Rodrigo Navarro, Chile, Head OTS stay tunned stay tunned in our youtube channel

Meet Kayleigh Fazan, the visionary founder of The International Retail Academy, a pioneering force in the global retail industry. With an unwavering commitment to elevating customer experiences, Kayleigh has championed a transformative ‘bottom-up' approach, fostering a new era of excellence in the world of retail.For over 15 years, Kayleigh has been on a mission to empower shopfloor teams within global retail brands, equipping them with the essential soft skills needed to excel in an ever-evolving marketplace. A renowned expert in retail leadership, Kayleigh has led countless brands on a journey towards customer-centric success, arming them with the tools to create meaningful connections with their clientele.Hit play to listen to her roaring success of a story! [03:23s] Her journey into retail[10:02s] Exploring the global landscape of retail[15:47s] “Don't lose touch with the shop floor ever!”[28:49s] Starting her entrepreneurial journey[37:39s] Return of the retail stores post COVID [51:16s] RWL Read ‘The Culture Map' by Erin Meyer and ‘Uplifting Service' by Ron Kaufman; Tony Robbins' podcastMore about Kayleigh's work at The International Retail Academy Connect with Kayleigh on LinkedIn Connect with Vinay on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn What did you think about this episode? What would you like to hear more about? Or simply, write in and say hello! podcast@c2cod.comSubscribe to us on your favorite platforms – Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Tune In Alexa, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn + Alexa, Stitcher, Jio Saavn and more.  This podcast is sponsored by C2C-OD, your Organizational Development consulting partner ‘Bringing People and Strategy Together'. Follow @c2cod on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook 

I'm excited to bring this episode of Soft Skills for Leaders to you today.  My guest is Ron Kaufman, a global leader in the service industry and the author of "Uplifting Service". Ron is one of the world's foremost authorities on customer service, and building strong service cultures. His expertise has been honed through years of working with various organisations, from facilitating international events to advising governments on improving their service culture.  Ron's insights are not to be missed, as he shares his wealth of knowledge on service excellence and leadership skills. It's a pleasure to have him here on Soft Skills for Leaders. In this episode, Ron shares his insights on leadership, service excellence, and the power of caring for the future well-being of individuals and the environment. From managing expectations and cultivating trust to the evolution of his brand moniker, "serve, care, love," Ron explores the emotional depth of empathetic care and the importance of creating value for both external and internal customers. Join us as we delve into the essential soft skills leaders need, and discover how leaders can create oasis moments for their teams amidst overwhelming situations.  Timestamps 00:00 How Ron got started in this journey. 03:11 Promoting Ultimate Frisbee globally and learning about the different customers. 07:06 Creating value through service, internally and externally. 12:41 Apple store and Genius Bar create an experience. 14:54 Apple store purchase experience feels like the first time. 18:39 Create exceptional first-day experience for employees. 21:55 "Valuing creativity, innovation, and personal connections." 25:02 Service creates value by contributing to well-being. 28:29 Employee trust matters more than transparency. 30:03 Trust in competence, capacity, and care. 33:18 Recognise others' emotional needs, and be compassionate. 37:03 Create oasis moments to shift moods effectively.   Why Listen? Ron Kaufman provides valuable insights and ways of enhancing service excellence, building trust, and creating a positive work culture. By tuning in, leaders can gain an understanding of the importance of caring for the well-being of individuals and the environment, and learn practical soft skills for creating value and fostering strong relationships within their teams and with customers. You will gain actionable strategies to improve customer experiences, motivate your teams, and ultimately elevate your organisation's service culture. Talking Points

How to have Uplifting Service - Ron Kaufman, New York Times Bestselling Author "UPLIFTING SERVICE" [Service]ABOUT NICK GLIMSDAHLSubscribe to my bi-weekly newsletterFind me on TwitterFind me on LinkedInLISTENER SUPPORTPurchase Nick's books: Reasons NOT to Focus on Employee Experience: A Comprehensive GuideApparel: https://www.teepublic.com/user/press-1-for-nick Support this show through Buy Me A CoffeeBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:Learn about all the guests' book recommendations here: https://press1fornick.com/books/ BROUGHT TO YOU BY:VDS: They are a client-first consulting firm focused on strategy, business outcomes, and technology. They provide holistic consulting services to optimize your customer contact center, inspiring and designing transformational change to modernize and prepare your business for the future. Learn more: https://www.govds.com/ This podcast is under the umbrella of CX of M Radio: https://cxofm.org/Podcast-Shows/ SPONSORING OPPORTUNITIES:Interested in partnering with the Press 1 For Nick podcast? Click here: https://press1fornick.com/lets-talk/

In this episode of Retain: The Customer Retention Podcast, host Lauren DeSouza is accompanied by Ron Kaufman, the CEO of Uplifting Service. As a keynote speaker and author who's considered an authority on all things customer service, Ron has helped transform the cultures of many global brands, including Microsoft, Xerox, and Coca-Cola. During their conversation, Lauren and Ron discuss the four categories of value for the customer, why businesses need more than a good product, the fairly unknown origins of the term ‘customer', and how retention works across different industries.

Are you struggling with creating a customer-centric culture or measuring service effectiveness? This episode with customer service culture experts Stacy Sherman and featured guest, Ron Kauffman, share actionable strategies to break siloed thinking in teams, measure service performance the right way, and harness the power of 'Perception Points' for brand differentiation. Plus, you'll learn from a real-life case study of a toxic culture makeover that you can apply to your business and supercharge your customer service standards as a competitive advantage. More details at

Hablamos con Eileen sobre Ron Kaufman y su ponencia en la Conferencia Global de BNI 2023, explicando los diferentes niveles de servicio de una empresa: Criminal: The post EPISODIO 148 – ELEVA TU SERVICIO appeared first on Somos BNI Podcast.

[Replay] Ron Kaufman - New York Times Bestselling Author "UPLIFTING SERVICE" [Service]ABOUT NICK GLIMSDAHLSubscribe to my bi-monthly newsletterFind Press 1 For Nick on YouTubeFind me on TwitterFind me on LinkedInLISTENER SUPPORTPurchase Nick's books: Reasons NOT to Focus on Employee Experience: A Comprehensive GuideApparel: https://www.teepublic.com/user/press-1-for-nick Support this show through Buy Me A CoffeeBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:Learn about all the guests' book recommendations here: https://press1fornick.com/books/ BROUGHT TO YOU BY:VDS: They are a client-first consulting firm focused on strategy, business outcomes, and technology. They provide holistic consulting services to optimize your customer contact center, inspiring and designing transformational change to modernize and prepare your business for the future. Learn more: https://www.govds.com/ This podcast is under the umbrella of CX of M Radio: https://cxofm.org/Podcast-Shows/ SPONSORING OPPORTUNITIES:Interested in partnering with the Press 1 For Nick podcast? Click here: https://press1fornick.com/lets-talk/ 

What happens when a recognised thought leader shifts his focus beyond the existing niche of his leadership?  In continuation of our discussion, Ron shares how he is going beneath - deeper- into the area of Service Leadership and Uplifting Service Cultures to the world of Care. In this bonus episode, we talk about:- What brought about this shift in his focus?- As an individual, how is he developing his knowledge and eventually thought leadership on the topic?and - How is he engaging his existing community in to the whole new world of care?This conversation offers a peek into how Ron Kaufman, who is a world renowned thought leader in the area of Service Leadership,  is now focusing his genuine thinking in the area of care.Know more about Ron's phenomenal work in the domain of Uplifting Service Cultures and Customer Service here:https://ronkaufman.comhttps://www.youtube.com/c/RonKaufmanNowConnect with him on  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronkaufman/ Thank you for listening!You can connect with the host - Surbhi Dedhia - on LinkedIn to share ideas and thoughts on building your #thoughtleadershipThe Making of a Thought Leader podcast is brought to you by Jot My Bio.comJot My Bio helps executives and entrepreneurs to narrate their professional experience through personal bios. Personal bios are essential to position one's work experience and skill sets to attract more interactions, be it on the About us section of the website, Linkedin or on presentation slides. To get a professionally handcrafted bio, get in touch with https://www.JotMybio.com

In this phenomenal episode of #TMTLpodcast Ron Kaufman shares foundational concepts on what does is really take to be a thought leader? Ron is one of the world's top 10 recognised gurus in the world of Customer Service. He has built his thought leadership or genuine thinking, as he says, over the last 3 decades. How did he do it? How did he become a recognised thought leader? How did he stay undistracted for so many years? how did he build his community who follow him as their thought leader?In this episode, Ron points out to the fundamentals that can help us understand ourselves better and also offers contrarian view point on why everyone should not be a thought leader! This episodes is full of a-ha moments and the one that challenges our understanding about building thought leadership. Know more about Ron's phenomenal work in the domain of Uplifting Service Cultures and Customer Service here:https://ronkaufman.comhttps://www.youtube.com/c/RonKaufmanNowConnect with him on  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronkaufman/ Thank you for listening!You can connect with the host - Surbhi Dedhia - on LinkedIn to share ideas and thoughts on building your #thoughtleadershipThe Making of a Thought Leader podcast is brought to you by Jot My Bio.comJot My Bio helps executives and entrepreneurs to narrate their professional experience through personal bios. Personal bios are essential to position one's work experience and skill sets to attract more interactions, be it on the About us section of the website, Linkedin or on presentation slides. To get a professionally handcrafted bio, get in touch with https://www.JotMybio.com

Gautam Ganglani is the CEO - Chief Energizing Officer of Right Selection.Right Selection is a global speakers management & marketing company, that has access to 100+ international high-profile celebrity speakers, regional speakers & industry experts.Some of the global thought leaders who work with Right Selection are Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Stephen. M.R Covey, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, Mark Thompson, Ron Kaufman, and Sally Helgesen to name a few.Gautam is also the author of the book Breaking Bread.In this episode we discuss,The philosophy of Breaking breadBuilding relationshipsNetworking - Myth-bustingExperience of being a writer and authorSpeakers under the Right Selection bannerGratitude journal and being gratefulPractice of listening Timestamps Importance of building relationships - 2:05Busting Networking myths - 13:04Gautam's reflection on being an author - 18:34Success mantras of great speakers - 24:38Power of 3 - 27:47Managing information overload - 37:21QuotesThere is always a story behind a storyHow you respond determines your outcomesStop learning, stop livingBest networker listens to 70% and talks 30%To know and not to do is not yet to know; you knowConnect with Gautam:  LinkedIn | Website | TwitterDo not miss to check out our new website and share your love https://inspiresomeonetoday.in/Subscribe, follow, and leave your comments to help me get better with my episodes. Available on all podcast platforms, including, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, RadioPublic, TuneIn, Gaana Jio Saavn, AudibleDo stay tuned for new episodes every alternate Friday. Next episode - Jul 22'22.

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[Replay] How to have Uplifting Service - Ron Kaufman, New York Times Bestselling Author "UPLIFTING SERVICE" [Service]Welcome to another throwback episode! I hope you enjoy it! ABOUT NICK GLIMSDAHLSubscribe to my bi-weekly newsletterFind me on TwitterFind me on LinkedInLISTENER SUPPORTPurchase Nick's books: Reasons NOT to Focus on Employee Experience: A Comprehensive GuideApparel: https://www.teepublic.com/user/press-1-for-nick Support this show through Buy Me A CoffeeBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:Learn about all the guests' book recommendations here: https://press1fornick.com/books/ BROUGHT TO YOU BY:VDS: They are a client-first consulting firm focused on strategy, business outcomes, and technology. They provide holistic consulting services to optimize your customer contact center, inspiring and designing transformational change to modernize and prepare your business for the future. Learn more: https://www.govds.com/ This podcast is under the umbrella of CX of M Radio: https://cxofm.org/Podcast-Shows/ SPONSORING OPPORTUNITIES:Interested in partnering with the Press 1 For Nick podcast? Click here: https://press1fornick.com/lets-talk/ 

It is the world of services today. Providing an excellent and differentiating service makes an organisation stand apart in the market today. Unless thought is put into making oneself unique in the sector, it amounts to the same, and there is no mechanism to pull the maximum customers. The idea is to identify a key point one wants to focus on and attract the target customers accordingly. Well, why and how to do it? We have all your answers covered in today's conversation with the leading educator for uplifting services, Mr. Ron Kaufman. Ron Kaufman is a leading educator for the world's uplifting service, performance, and building service cultures. He is an author of a bestseller, “Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues and Everyone Else You Meet”. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbcy/support

The CX Goalkeeper had the great opportunity to interview RON KAUFMANRon's LinkedIn Headline:New York Times Bestselling Author "UPLIFTING SERVICE" | Customer Experience & Service Culture Expert | Keynote SpeakerThis discussion was split in 2 episodes. On April 4th, the first episode went liveHighlights:00:00 Service Process & Service Perception6:11 Measurement of service quality9:35 The future of service ("A customer is anyone who is not me")13:30 Book suggestion15:50 Contact details17:20 Ron's Golden Nugget... and much moreRon's Contact Details:* https://www.ronkaufman.com* https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronkaufman/* https://www.youtube.com/user/ronkaufmanThank you, Ron!more information: www.cxgoalkeeper.com/RonKaufman2First episode: www.cxgoalkeeper.com/RonKaufman1#cxgoalkeeper #customerexperience #podcast #leadership #service #care

The CX Goalkeeper had the great opportunity to interview RON KAUFMANRon's LinkedIn Headline: New York Times Bestselling Author "UPLIFTING SERVICE" | Customer Experience & Service Culture Expert | Keynote SpeakerThis discussion was split in 2 episodes. On April 11th, the second episode will be liveHighlights: 00:00 Game Start1:35 Ron Kaufman's Introduction 4:30 Ron's 6 personal values7:30 Service, Care and Love8:40 The Grandma story at the Kindergarten9:40 Uplifting Service10:30 The definition of Service 14:15 Pillars of the Service Culture18:30 Excellent Service vs. Service Culture... and much moreRon's Contact Details:* https://www.ronkaufman.com* https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronkaufman/* https://www.youtube.com/user/ronkaufmanThank you, Ron. more information: www.cxgoalkeeper.com/RonKaufman1Second episode: www.cxgoalkeeper.com/RonKaufman2 (available starting from April 11th 2022)#cxgoalkeeper #customerexperience #podcast #leadership #service #care

In this first episode of 2022 of the Life Science Success Podcast, I am honored to be joined by Ron Kaufman. Ron is one of the world's most sought-after educators, thought-leaders, and keynote speakers on customer experience and service culture development. Ron has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, and for years Global Gurus has ranked him as the #1 customer service guru in the world.

Ron Kaufman has spent his career applying the principles of service excellence and service leadership to help business leaders, companies, governments, and non-profits uplift their service. An acclaimed and highly sought-after global customer service guru, Ron is also the author of the NYT bestseller "Uplifting Service." In this episode of the Beginners Mind Series, Ron and Simerjeet talk about what it takes to succeed in the service industry in a VUCA World. They discuss how with a service mindset and a culture of service excellence, it's possible to grow with your company, raise the bar on customer satisfaction, and, more importantly, fuel your journey of personal development in the process. Please join us for another exciting live event. Regards, TeamSJS & Simerjeet Singh Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VTQP1dQ62AY #BeginnersMind #ServiceExcellence #CultureBuilding #LeadershipTraining #RonKaufman #SimerjeetSingh #CareerGuidance #KeynoteSpeaker Follow us on: https://linktr.ee/SimerjeetSingh

Ask yourself what contribution you want to make with your life, and then let that be the expression of your business. That's how you're going to make it, says Ron Kaufman, co-founder of Uplifting Service. In this episode of Making It, Ron shares his eye-opening story of helping leaders, organizations, and even an entire country build service cultures that deliver real, authentic value in communities for employees, customers, and citizens.

Ron Kaufman talks to peopleHum about uplifting service through leadership. Listen to the entire episode to know more. If you like our content, please follow for more! 

Ron Kaufman was quoted "Exceeding expectations is where satisfaction ends and loyalty begins." In episode 155 of the Aviation Business Podcast let us revisit a key approach and mindset to exceeding customer expectations called "plussing" coined by Walt Disney himself.

Ron talks about:·       What it takes to build a service culture·       The difference between excellent service and service culture·       And the importance of a service mindsetThe person who has influenced Ron the most in the past year:Afeef HussainHis note to all customer service professionals:“Be grateful for the privilege you have for today to touch and uplift other people’s lives.” Transcript: https://press1fornick.com/ron-kaufman/  JOIN THE PRESS 1 FOR NICK COMMUNITY:LinkedInWebsiteConnect with Nick BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:Learn about all the guests' book recommendations here BROUGHT TO YOU BY:VDS: They are a client-first consulting firm focused on strategy, business outcomes, and technology. They provide holistic consulting services to optimize your customer contact center, inspiring and designing transformational change to modernize and prepare your business for the future. Learn more here This podcast is under the umbrella of CX of M Radio SUPPORT:Want to support this show? Click here to buy me a coffee SPONSORING OPPORTUNITIES:Interested in partnering with the Press 1 For Nick podcast? Click here 

You won't find a better 59 minutes of political stories and advice than this conversation with longtime GOP media consultant / strategist Mike Murphy. Mike has worked with some of the iconic Republican political names of his generation...McCain, Schwarzenegger, Bush, Romney, Alexander, Engler...and so many more. And there is no better and more enthusiastic political storyteller than Mike Murphy. IN THIS EPISODEMike's family connection to a “thank you” letter sent from FDR's campaign manager…Mike talks about how the Cold War defined politics in his early days…A young Mike learns under Arthur Finkelstein…Mike finds himself in Moscow during a momentous moment…How Darth Vader focused Mike on a career in politics…Which iconic GOP House member just needed a 6-pack of Heineken to be the life of the party…Mike's very specific advice about how to quickly learn the political ropes…Roger Ailes gives Mike an important early break…Mike tells the story of the fabled negative ad against Jesus Christ…Mike talks about the “mentor” model vs the Google model of learning the political craft…Mike talks about the importance of running an incumbent like a challenger…Mike's great story of the advice he got from crusty old media consultant Bobby Goodman…Mike's big breakthrough in the Governor's race in his home state…Mike gets an important call from Bob Dole (with a great Bob Dole impression)…Mike talks the Minnesota race that was “the craziest race he's ever been in”…Mike doesn't make any friends at his first (and only) George H.W. Bush White House strategy meeting…Mike's killer story of how his aborted “man on the street” TV shoot for Bush in '92 led to getting his access to the top floor of HQ revoked…Mike's love-letter to the '96 Lamar! For President race in 1996…Pat Buchanan's '96 Iowa stump speech makes Mike fear for his life…Mike talks the McCain magic in the 2000 primaries…John McCain can't resist needling Steve Forbes…Mike helps engineer the rise of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger…Mike's advice to any budding media consultant…Mike's recommendation for a deep cut political movie…ALSO…Roger Ailes, atomic dirigibles, Doug Bailey, James Baker, Jim Blanchard, Rudy Boschwitz, Warren Buffett, Murphy Brown, Pat Buchanan, Jeb Bush, Harry Byrd, Jimmy Cagney, James Carville, Jimmy Carter, Arne Carlson, Alex Castellanos, Bill Clinton, Paul Coverdell, Phil Crane, John Deardorff, Jeremiah Denton, Terry Dolan, Dick Dresner, John Engler, Arthur Finkelstein, Steve Forbes, Wyche Fowler, John Gautier, Barry Goldwater, Jon Grunseth, Adam Goodman, Bobby Goodman, Chuck Grassley, Judd Gregg, Pat Griffin, ham-and-egger debates, Hogan's Heroes, John Hiler, Mick Jagger, Lyndon Johnson, Ron Kaufman, Dirk Kempthorne, Bill Kristol, Christopher Lasch, Mike's madras blazer, Mack Mattingly, Larry McCarthy, George McGovern, Joel McCrea, HL Mencken, Dennis Miller, Chris Mottola, NCPAC, Ogilvy on Advertising, Rudy Perpich, Pontius Pilate, Larry Pressler, Dan Quayle, Ronald Reagan, Steve Ricchetti, Mitt Romney, Karl Rove, John Rousselot, Tim Russert, Bernie Sanders, schnitzel at Spago's, Bob Shrum, Don Sipple, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Greg Stevens, Preston Sturges, Steve Symms, Bob Teeter, Hunter S. Thompson, Donald Trump, the USC Center for the Political Future, John Weaver, Vin Weber, Paul Wellstone, and MORE!

For the last several years, networking has been dreading many people. Those who are comfortable have a very different perspective of what networking in a professional environment means. Our guest for this episode is Gautam Ganglani, the author of "Breaking Bread." In his view, when networking is approached differently and holistically, it can yield long-lasting and meaningful results. At the same time, it can build long-term relationships too.We talk about:His book and the idea of "Breaking Bread."What is going wrong in virtual meetings these days?How do you utilize his idea of Breaking Bread and optimize it to suit your circumstances?Value of affirmations and how it can help in networking?A few tips to get better at networking in today's covidian world.Gautam was born in London and completed his education in the UK. He now has over 20 years of experience as a business entrepreneur as part of a father & son team, representing and working very closely with world-renowned authors & global thought leaders like Marshall Goldsmith, Ron Kaufman, and Brian Tracy.He shares insights into the power of building high-quality relationships from his learnings from these authors and his experience in Europe, the Gulf, India & Asia that will help you transform your happiness, fulfillment, and results you achieve in your personal and professional career.About the Podcast:ICT Podcast all about innovation, communication, and technology – a few key areas that are super important in today's world. If you want to know what it takes to be a better innovator, better communicator, and leverage technology to make this world a better place, please subscribe. Every week, I bring new perspectives, ideas, tips, and techniques so that you can improve all these aspects of your life.Web: https://www.anandtamboli.comLinkedIn: https://www.anandtamboli.com/linkedinBooks: https://www.anandtamboli.com/amazonMusic By: https://tunestogo.netSupport the show (https://www.anandtamboli.com/books?s=podcast)

So fortunate that Ron Kaufman could offer me some of his time and wisdom for a superpowered conversation around his lifelong mission to transform how organizations serve. I first discovered him in reading his best-selling book Uplifting Service, which I now consider required reading for anyone looking to make their organization have extraordinary - from the interior culture to the final product. He looks at the system of service in a particularly holistic way - every dimension matters and can be continually fine-tuned like a luxury automobile. One could call him a thought leader in "the art of blowing customers away" or perhaps "hitting the always-moving target of being an exceptional service provider." Discussed (Among Many Other Things):The future of work is a service-oriented landscape. Learn how "serving, caring and loving" puts you on the leading edge. True service is the kind that is authentic - the person serving actually cares and wants to help. The right and wrong ways companies go about trying to cultivate authentic service in their team.How to build more warmth and humanity into your service game - regardless of how gravely functional your product is and at how large of a scale you deliver it.The most effective ways that companies can start evolving their culture to support their team’s growth and development as service professionals.All Roads That Lead to Ron Kaufman:ronkaufman.comLinkedIn PageFaithful Sidekicks:Bringing Humanity Back to Large Scale ServiceGo Deeper Into Mastering the Service Mindset:Subscribe/Review on i-TunesGet Access to the live workshops and master the service mindsetJoin the Facebook CommunityFollow Me on InstagramConnect with me on LinkedInCheck out my partnership with The Institute for Organizational Mindfulness

Longtime political strategist and George H. W. Bush's White House Political Director, Ron Kaufman joins Sam LeBlond on this week's "All the Best". He recounts the story of his 40+ year relationship with the Bush family, the road to both the 1980 and 1988 presidential campaigns, and how 41 masterfully walked the line between partisan politics and official white house business. Plus, Kaufman shares how the political climate of the past can inform the political decisions of today. To read the full transcript of this episode visit https://www.georgeandbarbarabush.org/podcast-transcript/.

My guest is the world’s leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service and Uplifting Service cultures. He helps leaders, teams, and organisations learn how to serve better, care more, and generate new value in the world.  He is author of the book, Uplifting Service, and fourteen other books on service, business and inspiration. For three years in a row, GlobalGurus has rated him the #1 Customer Service Guru in the World.  He is a man on a mission – to uplift the spirit and quality of service and care everywhere in the world – including with us here today, please welcome Ron Kaufman.  Bio Ron Kaufman is the world’s leading educator and motivational speaker for uplifting customer service and uplifting service cultures. He is author of the book, Uplifting Service, and fourteen other books on service, business and inspiration. Ron is rated one of the world’s top twenty-five “Hot Speakers” by Speaker Magazine for his high energy and high content presentations. Ron is a man on a mission – to uplift the quality and spirit of service everywhere in the world. For over two decades UP! Your Service Founder and Chairman Ron Kaufman has helped companies on every continent build a culture of uplifting service that delivers real business results year after year. Making transformation his mission, Ron is one of the world’s most sought-after educators, consultants, thought-leaders and customer service speakers on the topic of achieving superior service. Any business can say the customer is king, and many spend a lot of time and money on incremental service improvement. But Ron understands the only reliable way for a company to achieve and maintain a competitive edge is to build a culture that empowers every employee to surprise and delight customers and colleagues every day with truly uplifting service. Ron works with a successful clientele of government agencies and multinational corporations including Singapore Airlines, Xerox, Nokia Siemens Networks, Marina Bay Sands and Wipro. He delivers powerful insights and global best practices enabling organisations to gain a sustainable advantage through service. Ron’s methodology includes a set of proven service principles, leadership rules, culture-building blocks and implementation roadmaps that apply effectively across all industries and cultures. This methodology is easily customised to suit the unique needs of each organisation, including all departments and team members from leadership to frontline.  His unique approaches to learning and leadership have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Ron is a regular columnist at Bloomberg Businessweek. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Uplifting Service and 14 other books on service, business and inspiration. Recorded on: 17th December 2020 Links: More about Ron Kaufman More about Maria Franzoni Ltd Connect with Maria on LinkedIn Connect with Maria on FaceBook More about London Speaker Bureau Connect with London Speaker Bureau on LinkedIn To book any of the speakers featured on the Speaking Business podcast, click here Listen here: Libsyn  Itunes  Stitcher Spotify

If you relied on in-person meetings before the pandemic, you’ll love this interview with Gautam Ganglani. Gautam explains how he was able to strengthen relationships with 200 people VIRTUALLY during the past 7 months. He also shared lots of gold nuggets, including how he’s used of LinkedIn to become known to prospective clients before asking them to have a conversation. Gautam is Managing Director of Right Selection, a “Speaker Management Agency” in the Gulf area of the Middle East & India. He’s been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years as part of a father and son team. They represent and work very closely with world renowned authors and global thought leaders like Marshall Goldsmith, Ron Kaufman & Brian Tracy. You’ll want to take notes as he shares tips and stories from his new book, Breaking Bread: Building Meaningful Relationships for Long-lasting Success.You’ll discover: How “breaking bread” differs from networkingThree principles Gautam’s father shared with him in high school that serve as the basis for everything he’s done since thenWhy sharing coffee or a meal with someone is so powerfulWhat you can do to get the attention of your ideal clients on social mediaHow to use affirmations to create a new reality for yourself

Happy New Year and welcome to a new season of Digital Agency Hacker podcast! Super pumped today to welcome the one and only Ron Kaufman to the show. I've been following this guy for years and to be honest I dedicate a lot of the success that we have had at Hite and Digital Agency Hacker to this guy right here and his principles. The leading businessman in the world of customer care, on taking care of your clients, on building an uplifting service culture. This is a conversation I will never forget. Thank you Ron, and thank YOU for listening. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Ron Kaufman is one of the world's leading expert in customer service and best-selling author of "Uplifting Service”! Ron provides insight into how the concept of CARE enables executives to make customer service sustainable for customers, colleagues and communities. www.ronkaufman.com

Today's guest has built his career on the power of building high-quality relationships with world-renowned authors and global thought leaders like Marshall Goldsmith, Ron Kaufman, and Brian Tracy. He is the Chief Energizing Officer of Right Selection Speakers, a global speakers management and marketing company that works with international high-profile celebrity speakers, regional speakers, and industry experts. He's built an impressive network with clients in Europe, the Gulf, India, and Asia. He partners with entrepreneurs and corporate professionals to build meaningful, long-lasting relationships by applying his 'breaking bread' philosophy so that they can make a difference to their lives, and transform their companies to achieve greater heights of success. Please join me in welcoming Gautam Ganglani. In this episode we discuss: his thoughts on leadership “Being a good leader is about relationships. Families that eat together, stay together.” the really great advice passed down to him from his father. his experience of being bullied at a young age and a mindset changing conversation with his father. how he handles hardship and his belief that once you accept the situation it is easier to move past it. his thoughts on being globally minded and how his subconscious plays an important role in helping people feel comfortable with him. the origin story of his business. how his business model keeps evolving and his tips to get better and be flexible in his business. his thoughts about nurturing his network and theory about breaking bread even if it's only in an email. the newly named Gautam Challenge! Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com - episode 218.

Today’s guest has built his career on the power of building high-quality relationships with world-renowned authors and global thought leaders like Marshall Goldsmith, Ron Kaufman, and Brian Tracy. He is the Chief Energizing Officer of Right Selection Speakers, a global speakers management and marketing company that works with international high-profile celebrity speakers, regional speakers, and industry experts. He’s built an impressive network with clients in Europe, the Gulf, India, and Asia. He partners with entrepreneurs and corporate professionals to build meaningful, long-lasting relationships by applying his 'breaking bread' philosophy so that they can make a difference to their lives, and transform their companies to achieve greater heights of success. Please join me in welcoming Gautam Ganglani. Would you leave an honest rating and review on Apple Podcast? Or Stitcher? They are extremely helpful and I read each and every one of them. Thanks for the inspiration! In this episode we discuss: his thoughts on leadership “Being a good leader is about relationships. Families that eat together, stay together.” the really great advice passed down to him from his father. his experience of being bullied at a young age and a mindset changing conversation with his father. how he handles hardship and his belief that once you accept the situation it is easier to move past it. his thoughts on being globally minded and how his subconscious plays an important role in helping people feel comfortable with him. the origin story of his business. how his business model keeps evolving and his tips to get better and be flexible in his business. his thoughts about nurturing his network and theory about breaking bread even if it’s only in an email. the newly named Gautam Challenge! Links Gautam Ganglani on LinkedIn and Twitter. www.gautamganglani.com Books mentioned in this episode: “Breaking Bread: Building Meaningful Relationships for Long Lasting Success” by Gautam Ganglani “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” by David Allen Other Resources Listen to my episode with Dorie Clark. About Robbie: Robbie Samuels is a keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, and relationship-based business strategy coach who has been recognized as a “networking expert” by Harvard Business Review Ascend, Forbes, Lifehacker, and Inc and as an "industry expert in the field of digital event design" by JDC Events. He created The 5% Advantage Program, a four-week experiential program that helps presenters grow in their confidence with Zoom, online facilitation, and virtual event design so they can reduce their tech angst and host more engaging online experiences that meet the purpose of the convening and participants' need for content and connection. He is the host of #NoMoreBadZoom Virtual Happy Hour, a popular weekly virtual event that explores new ways to design engaging virtual experiences. He assists organizations with bringing their in-person events strategically online as a Virtual Event Design Consultant, Virtual Emcee, and Zoom Producer. He is the author of the best-selling business book Croissants vs. Bagels: Strategic, Effective, and Inclusive Networking at Conferences and has been profiled in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company. He writes for Harvard Business Review Ascend. His clients include associations, women's leadership summits, and corporations including Marriott, AmeriCorps, Hostelling International, and General Assembly. He has been featured in several books including Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It by Dorie Clark and The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact by Michelle Tillis Lederman. He has guest lectured at many leading educational institutions including Harvard University, Brown University, Cornell University, and Northeastern University.

Edward Marshall, Managing Director at Boston Private is joined by members of Denton's Public Policy and Regulation practice Ron Kaufman, Mayor Michael Nutter and Eric Tanenblatt. Their conversation is a primer on the presidential election, the debates, and a key Senate race.

For our double episode, we talk to Ron Kaufman, world's leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures.  Tsun-yan, Ron, and Huijin have a wide ranging conversation about the “caring” crisis underlying more obvious crises like climate change, protectionism, and co-vid induced disruption, and how that could be overcomed if we let go our isolated sense of self, and instead embraced the human connection with others.  This calls for Presence, the topic of episode 16, to lean into each moment, with joy and heart.                  

https://www.engati.com/ Engati is the world's leading no-code, multi-lingual chatbot platform. https://open.spotify.com/show/3G0uQwPnQib22emRi9VhUg Blog link: https://blog.engati.com/ | Subscribe now. Creating an uplifting service culture has many benefits, according to New York Times' bestselling author, Ron Kaufman. Explore these benefits by checking out this exclusive interview on Engati CX. If you like the video, please subscribe to the channel, so we could keep producing more content like this! Follow us on Facebook: http://s.engati.com/157 LinkedIn: http://s.engati.com/158 Twitter: http://s.engati.com/156 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getengati/ https://www.engati.com/glossary/service-culture https://www.engati.com/glossary/genetic-algorithms #RonKaufman #EngatiCX #UpliftingServiceCultureWithTech

Welcome to a very special and bonus episode of the Elevated Entrepreneur Podcast! In the previous episode, which is episode number 8, I’m talking to Surbhi from Digital Genie and we are talking about ideal customers, personas, and how they’re so important to any business.While we were recording that episode, Surbhi and I got to talking about her experience as a marketer, working for Ron Kaufman, the author of the Uplifting Service Series. I highly recommend these books if you haven’t had the chance to check them out as they’re amazing in learning how to better your service, especially if you run a business!As I was talking to Surbhi, I was awestruck at how large businesses and authors like Ron Kaufman, manage their marketing, their customer personas, and profiles, and it was just amazing to listen to the size and scale at how they manage those. Which is why I wanted to share this special behind-the-scenes episode. The main episode again can be found at https://elevatedentrepreneur.fm/8 and if you haven’t already listened to that episode, I invite you to take a listen because that episode too has some amazing content for you. Find more information at https://elevatedentrepreneur.fm/8bElevated Entrepreneur Podcast Facebook page -https://www.facebook.com/elevatedentrepreneurpodcast

Ron Kaufman is the world's leading educator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures. He has helped companies like Singapore Airlines, Citibank, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and many more to leverage the power of service culture.   Ron is rated one of the “Top 25 Who's Hot” speakers by Speaker Magazine, His energetic keynote speeches and workshops have inspired millions across the world. He is author of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller, “Uplifting Service! The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues and Everyone Else You Meet” and 14 other books on service, business and inspiration.   Want to start your own podcast? Join me on my FREE 90 Minutes Podcast to Profit Masterclass to learn how you can build your influence, authority and business using a podcast. Read More.  https://live.bijayspeaks.com/ptp    Time Stamps: 01:40 Bijay introduces the guest, Ron Kaufman 03:46 Conversation starts here if you'd like to skip the intro. 06:40 How to cultivate the service mindset? 08:50 What's the simplest thing one can do today for others? 12:10 Ron shares about how got introduced to the idea of a service mindset. 15:55 How can you serve people even if you are not CEO? 17:29 Service leadership and how can you develop it? 19:52 What are the barriers to uplifting services? 23:03 Challenges on developing service culture within the organization. 25:09 How to collaborate effectively? 28:35 12 building blocks of service. 31:09 How the service culture will evolve as we navigate through the current COVID pandemic. 36:45 Ron's last message. Follow the Inspiring Talk on Facebook http://theinspiringtalk.com/facebook  Twitter http://theinspiringtalk.com/twitter  Instagram http://theinspiringtalk.com/instagram  Read full show notes and resources:  http://theinspiringtalk.com/89  

Stand Out In The Speaker Marketplace In today's episode Steve Lowell talks about How To Stand Out In The Speaker Marketplace. Would you like to learn how to stand out in the speaker marketplace? In today's interview James Taylor interviews speaker Steve Lowell about: How to generate revenue from the stage How to stand out as a speaker A mess, a moment, a mission Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl063-how-to-stand-out-in-the-speaker-marketplace-with-steve-lowell/ James Taylor Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode. Hey, there's James Taylor, and I'm delighted to welcome Steve Lowe. Steve is a sought after speaker and mentor and one of only 15% of professional speakers worldwide holding the distinguished, certified speaking professional designation. In addition to this, he is the 2018, national president of the Canadian Association of speaking professionals and on the board of the global speakers Federation, we're gonna learn a bit more about that later, with a worldwide reputation for excellence and training, steeped coaches, executives, speakers and entrepreneurs in the art of winning over audiences using interactive educational and inspiring approaches, and as a result, exponentially increasing the influence and growing their businesses. And it's my great pleasure to have Steve with us today. So welcome, Steve. Steve Lowell Wow, thanks for having me here. I'm so excited about about this summit. And congratulations to you, James, for all the amazing work that you're doing and bringing all these incredible resources together for your clients. James Taylor And you're you've been traveling around the world because you, you about to become the president of the global speakers Federation. Is that correct? Steve Lowell Right. So I was the national president for the Canadian Association of Professional speakers in 2018. As you said, I'm now the immediate past president and I am now the vice president of the global speaker's Federation. So I'll be the incoming president in about a year or so. James Taylor So if anyone that doesn't know about the global speakers Federation, and what it does, Tell, tell us about what the GSM is. Steve Lowell Sure. So there are 16 countries around the world, each of whom have a speaking Association like they do in the UK and in the USA. And in Canada. There's 16 of these countries around the world that have associations for professional speakers. So there's a central hub organization called the Global speakers Federation. And these associations from all these different countries, they belong to the Federation. Now the Federation is like this central body by which these associations can share best practices and, and collaborate and it's just like a central hub where everybody can come together to make every Association stronger across the entire world. And so as the incoming president of the global speakers Federation, I'll have a lot of opportunity to work with the boards of directors of all of the different speakers associations around the world. And this is how we sort of bring the internet National speaking world together. James Taylor And in addition to all the different national associations having their own conferences, global speaker Federation also has a conference it is every every two years, I believe. Steve Lowell Yeah, it used to be every four years. But we made a decision, I think last year to run it every two years is called the Global speaker summit. And the next one is actually in February 2020. And it's happening in Namibia, in Africa. And we're so excited about that. And we're expecting, I don't know, somewhere around 200, maybe 300 people, something like that. And, and this is a really great opportunity for speakers around the world who are either international speakers, or people who aspire to be international speakers to come together and meet some of the top global speakers on the planet and just and shake hands and ask questions and learn, share, grow and belong together. And we're just so excited about it. James Taylor And everyone tells me Namibia is one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. So it was just just go into the movie. Everyone's telling me the radio About as a country to visit. So let's let's take a step back. How did you get into this strange, unusual world of professional speech? We'll begin. Steve Lowell Well, you know, actually, it all began for me at the age of six years old. So when I was six years old, I was a musician, you know, and a bit of a ham. And so I love to play my guitar and ham it up on the stage. And then that turned into a professional music career for most of my early adult life. And then I guess that was in my mid 20s or so. And I stumbled across a zig ziglar video, and I thought it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I want that job. Because, you know, he's got no equipment, he doesn't have to haul stuff around. You know, he speaks for 40 minutes and he goes home and in the music business, you know, we had trucks and vans that we traveled on the road and we play all night long and then you do it again the next night and it was awesome, but it was just you know, it was it was time for change for me and, and so I got into the world. of speaking and then I started training speakers very early in my career. And I just seem to have a knack or skill for that. And then over the years, over the last 3035 years, I've been honing that skill, developing that craft and coming up with a lot of very unique content specifically for speakers to help them in different areas, not just stagecraft, and message construction, but really going deep into their expertise and into their experience and their wisdom and their creativity, and pulling out that profound piece of messaging that only they can claim ownership of. And so that's kind of where it's all wound up. And that's what takes us around the world now. James Taylor And you mentioned Zig has been one of those early inspirations as you were kind of getting into the world of speaking. Who were the you know, the mentors that you had or Who were those speakers that you looked at? And you said, I like their how they built their speaking business because there's so many different models for building a speaking business. But was there any that you went? That's the kind of speakers I want to be able to speak in business I want to have. Steve Lowell Yeah, so I would say that the Zig was my primary sort of virtual mentor. I never really had any personal mentors to guide me through because I was always, how can I put that I was always a bit of a rebel. And I was one of those guys that needed to figure things out the hard way, you know, so I need to get in and do it wrong and screw it up and do it wrong and screw it up and then figure it out. It's just my nature. But the, but the speakers that I that really motivated me, were speakers that probably your audience wouldn't know, because these were speakers who were not out there on the public stage. But I would go in I would watch these speakers at at conventions and a corporate things and, and what I got really fascinated with was how they would be able to generate revenue from the stage so they would speak and then at the end, people would walk up and sometimes run to the back table to sign up to their to their stuff. And I was fascinated with how that works. And of course, there's the other side of the speaking business where people speak for a speaking fee, and at I did that. And I did. I worked in the corporate space and all that. But there was something about those speakers that that really captivated me. And this is long before, you know, the Brendon Burchard. And the ones that are popular today, this was years before them. And so I really started to try and study their craft. And I'll tell you, James, I never got it. I mean, I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried. And it never really happened for me until until fairly, but it's a real skill to do. Oh, James Taylor cool, pretty new kind of keynote. Steve Lowell Oh, yeah. It's it's totally different. But I was fascinated by the process. And so I just really spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on. I even studied neuroscience to try and figure it out, and a whole bunch of things. And so I mean, we we have a system now that works for it. And I can talk a little bit about that if you like but those were the people that really motivated me the most the ones that could get on the stage. And and it wasn't really for me about how amazing they were on the stage or how slick they were. Although Didn't notice those things, but was really impressive to me was how were they guiding the audience to respond the way they want the audience to respond. And I was fascinated by that process. So that's kind of where I focused all of my, my, you know, training. James Taylor And you remember point where, you know, in the early days, you were kind of trying to figure out that figuring out that blend of the obviously the psychology, the stage skills, finding your message where you were, was there a defining event or speech that you gave, we just kind of all seem to click into place and it seemed to work? Steve Lowell Yeah, well, there were many of those until it didn't work the next time. Alright, so the frustrating part of it, James, you know, I, I worked something out and I would say, okay, it works. I did it. And then all I got to do is do that again. And then I go to the next gig and I do the exact same thing and it wouldn't work, you know, and there's like years of this trying to try to figure this out. So was there a defining moment I don't think there was a day defining moment as because I think what happened for me was I had so many of these so called defining moments that I just sort of stopped looking for them. And what I started focusing on was, you know, building the the patterns of success over time. So there was no snap of the finger where it came to my awareness that now it's working. And yesterday, it wasn't, it was more of a process of learning and getting momentum and fine tuning. And now we kind of have it down to a bit of a science but you know, that there was no snap of a finger, you know, earth shattering, jaw dropping, life changing moment that made it happen, I thought there were you know, before that, but they turned out not to be James Taylor so talked about and in. No one thinks I often speak have a conversation with speakers about is around kind of positioning. Yeah. It's, you know, one of the good things now is we have this just so many speakers coming onto the onto the market, all different topics. Obviously, we're in trouble. Local marketplace now as well. And that's fantastic, because there's all these voices, new voices coming onto the stage. But the challenge that the flipside of the challenge is, how do you stand out? How do you find your own place in this marketplace? So I know when you are in sync, we were in Singapore recently in event together, and you were kind of talking about this idea of thinking about positioning and how you can stand out in a crowded marketplace. Steve Lowell Yeah, and there's, there's a lot of different angles around that, you know, there's the social media angle, and there's the website angle, and there's the branding angle, and, and there's all these different things you can do. And I tried to do all of those, and I wasn't really very successful at any of those things. So that when I when I look at standing out being noticed, and we talk about positioning, I talk about it this way. And you're an excellent example of this James and it's, it's like this is what do people attach your name to? What do they associate your name with? And so James, you know, you've done some magnetic If isn't work with this summit over the years, and so people now associate your name to the international speaker summit. And you've got that. And that's, that's a big piece now, of what positions you and it's a big piece of what what attracts people to you, in addition to everything else that you do. And so, you know, for me positioning is about what do people actually attach your name to. And so for Jane, and I and my wife, Jane and I, over the past five or six years, people have been attaching My name to what I call my rescue meter, and anybody who's seen it, they know what it is. And and so that is the positioning thing for me. So I'm becoming known as you know, I'm becoming known as the rep meter guy. And I'm, you know, I'm very much in demand as a mentor for professional speakers around the world because of that rep meter model system that that piece that I do, which I can talk to you about. So positioning as a speaker, I don't think that there's any one specific answer to it, but a answer like an answer. That works really well is when you have something that is so profoundly unique, or at least that you express it in a way that is unique that people can attach your name to it. And it's interesting because, you know, we hear a lot about differentiation, right? The marketing, people will talk about differentiate, and you have to be different. And what I've learned is James, you don't actually have to be different from anybody else who does what you do, you only have to appear to be different. And so and so what I found is the way you appear to be different starts by changing the language that you use when you speak about yourself or your business. And then and the ultimate goal here is to change the language that the world uses when they speak about you. That's the goal. And so you want to train the world to speak about you a certain way. And that starts by changing the way you speak about yourself. And then the other component to it is that your messaging isn't it's not enough that people understand Your message, they need to be able to repeat it, which means they need to be able to take your message, whatever it is, and apply it to their lives somehow. And then when they walk out the door, they need to be able to recognize opportunities in which your message resonates with them. And so that's sort of the process. And so there's an understanding, first of all, I don't actually have to be profoundly different, I just have to appear to be profoundly different. How am I going to do that, I'm going to start by changing the language that I use in my messaging and about myself, and the way I speak about myself so that I can train the world to speak about me a certain way, and then make that message repeatable so that they're speaking about me out there to other people. And so that's sort of the positioning trajectory that we've developed and, and that we're working on and, and that's kind of what we what we bring to the table when we work with speakers and coaches and trainers and authors and all the nice people who do what we do. James Taylor So it's a little bit like a new assistant, like Seth Godin talks about in terms of printing Our product, it has to be remarkable it has to be something that people remarked others about. Yeah, in order to kind of spread that viral nature, something something you mentioned in terms of positioning and creating those kind of statements, those those words, that you know, eventually you can have, you put them out into the world and they might be nothing people, but gradually over time, that means something in you, you connect you own that that phrase in the in the mind of the, of an audience member. One thing I often wonder about that is, you know, in part when I used to be involved in politics, we often message discipline, so disciplined with your message over and over again, to the point that people can repeat it, like, they get almost Confederate because they can just repeat it or that Oh, that's such and such. But, and I find, you know, I think I think for as a speaker sometimes as we were interested in often so many different things, is how to how to have that that discipline Plan of continually, can you repeating that message? I mean, have you any thoughts about that? Because that could be a, you know, if your mind kind of jumps around for different topics, I could speak about this, I could speak but I'm really interested in this topic just now. How do you give yourself enough discipline to be able to focus on that word? Steve Lowell Yeah. And I love this conversation. Because, you know, I hear this all the time, as do you, I'm sure you know, you know, I never met her microphone I didn't love and I can speak on anything like that. And, you know, I think that that philosophy can absolutely kill you as a professional speaker, because as you said, you want to have something that people can eventually, you know, attribute to you. So the discipline, I think, for me, the discipline was this, because I'm kind of like that, you know, I've got a lot of different things that I would love to talk on. But I had to make a conscious decision and I'm gonna, I'm gonna filter all this out, I'm gonna, you know, choose this particular lane. Now, that doesn't mean a particular necessarily particular audience. But here's what it meant meant for me is, once I had that, that piece of messaging that you Talking about I call it expert insights. By the way, that's the word that a word that I picked up out of a book somewhere. And I call it my expert insights. And this is what we teach people to do is develop their own unique expert insights. But once you have your expert insights, it's not about speaking, adjust about that, as much as it is being able to take that concept and apply it to different audiences. So for example, I can take this concept called the revenue meter and my expert insights, and I can speak to speakers, and I can spin it a certain way. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a convention for real estate investors, which which are not my audience at all, but I use the exact same content and I just take speaker out and put real estate investor in and you know, fine tune a few things and targeted to them. And then I do it with executives. So you know, I take this do the same content, I just pull the keywords out and change it so that it's relevant to the audience. So now what you're doing is you're taking your one message your one expertise or your two expertise. or whatever. And and instead of repeating the same thing over and over and over, which does happen, by the way, but there are opportunities for you often to take those expert insights, take that messaging, and just with some minor tweaking, you can make it available to a lot of different audiences. So it opens up the opportunities for the speaker and it makes it a little bit more interesting, you know, but I'll tell you something, though, with the discipline side, you know, for years, as I mentioned, I was in I was in the music business and you know, we would play in bars, James, we played in bars, and sometimes six nights a week on the road for years we did this and so you know, I can't tell you how many times I had to stand in front of an audience and play the song Brown Eyed girl right? And and if there's any musicians listening to this, you know, Brown Eyed girl is a beautiful song. It's a great song, but it's got like three chords and then one little extra chord, and it takes almost zero musical talent to play Brown Eyed girl, but the audience has loved it right and so every night well Hey, we're gonna play Brown Eyed girl. But here's the discipline. You know, I'm picking up my guitar and I'm ready to play and sing Brown Eyed girl and in my mind, I'm going I just I just don't want to do this song again. It's the third time tonight is the hundredth time this week, done it a million times. Like that's what's going on in my mind. But here's the discipline to that audience. It may be the very first time they're ever hearing us do it. And so every time we do it that audience every single time, they deserve 100% or more, I mean, they deserve every ounce of anything that I can muster to make it feel like it's the very first time I've ever played it. And to me speaking is exactly the same thing. And it's the same with any other you know, skill or discipline. We need to be able to show up for that audience regardless of who they are every single time without fail regardless of how we're feeling you know, I've spoken with the with the flu, as I'm sure you have. I spoke with, you know, with fractured ribs when I crashed my motorcycle I broke I've spoken broken legs come in you and you give 100% every single time period. So to me, that's just the basic discipline of being a speaker. And it's part of what we do. And it's part of what we're expected to do, even if it means that we're repeating same message over and over and over and over again, it's part of the business. James Taylor And you mentioned they just, obviously, you work with a lot of speakers and just kind of help them and coach them and around that positioning and the messaging and the business. I'm always intrigued, but, you know, you because you mentioned the music side, obviously, you know, like a music industry originally, as well. And I remember giving one of my very first speeches, I filmed it, and I sent it to a mutual friend, Frederic Heron from Singapore is a great speaker. And he and Frederic said, he said, because he knew I was a chameleon, and he said, you're basically being a cover band. Yeah. Okay, you need to pull your own songs now. Okay. Yeah. And it was fine because it's the way that We learned that we learn an instrument because we cover other people's stuff. And then gradually over time, it gives the basic skill set. And then they say, Okay, what do I want to say? What was my my thing? And I remember another mutual friend we have with Ron Kaufman. And I remember speaking, I've run I've got this idea. And, you know, it's about two things. I'm really passionate about technology and, and creativity. And it's this idea, like bringing these two things together. And I said, you know, this idea of the center, like this half human half machine thing that can it comes together and he and and you can only get this from someone that's experiencing the business and understand speaking internationally. And he said, center, yeah, as very European. So Oh, okay. And is that and so we started playing around and I came back and like, what about if we did like super creative, super creative? like super is like the augmented part and with technology and creative as the, the creativity part, and then Ron, and something you mentioned, like the small tweaks sometimes, and Ron said to me He said, make it a verb. So then that is a super creative you make it super creativity. And so super creativity is that word is now building and you're building you mentioned, like having a word or something you build on, which means nothing, the outside world. Some mostly there's no word at the moment. But gradually you look to develop it, but is it a little kind of steps in stage, like you're chiseling away at this thing until you can hopefully you have your Michelangelo's David or just an elephant or something. And so when you're working, you work with so many speakers in terms of helping them develop that find that that that position, that speaker thing that's underneath there. What are some of the good rules of thumb that you would suggest in order to start being able to really probe and find out what that is if someone could speak on anything, but what is that thing that's unique to them? Steve Lowell Yeah, and that's a big, big question because it's different for for everybody. So, you know, some people I find have, let me put it this way. Most speakers that we do And you'll recognize this I'm sure, most speakers, coaches, trainers, authors, entrepreneurs, people who use the spoken word to drive business. What we found is most of them are motivated by one of three or more of the three primary motivators. And the first one is what I call a mess. Which means some of us have, you know, a big massive story that we've overcome in our lives that have molded part of who we are. And I don't have a mess. I don't know if you have a mess. But I have a lot of it'll know a lot of speakers who do have a mess. A mess is you know, where they've had the illness or the accident or something major in their life. And some of us don't have a mess. But some of us have what I call a moment, a moment in time where we realize that we have a gift or a purpose. Like it's that moment or a series of moments in time, James, you know, where you go, this is it. This is why I'm here, right? And I have one of those, but a lot of people don't have one of those. And if they don't have a mess, and if they don't have a moment, then generally they have what I call a mission, which means they have a bigger purpose in life, right. There's a footprint they're trying to leave a legacy. See, they're trying to leave, there's a change. They're trying to evangelize or something. And so typically when we, when we, you know, talk to speakers, we typically find they fall somewhere in there in terms of their primary motivation. And then that motivation sort of nests upon upon which they base their messaging and everything else that they do. So for me, one of the rules of thumb is first determine what is your primary motivation, I mean, what really actually drives you to be in this business, and it could be as superficial as money, and it could be as profound as changing the world and it could be anywhere in between there and and both of those extremes are okay. But once you know what your primary motivator is, then that would that sort of helps you guide towards what really should you be spending your time looking for because ideally, you want something that stirs you at an emotional spiritual soul level almost other than something that just drives your intellect because there's something drives you're in intellect, that's a finite thing, typically, which means once you are intellectually satisfied with this piece, you move on to something else. And that's why people tend to jump around from from one thing to the other, but the soul or the spirit, or that thing that comes from inside. That is that is usually not a finite thing. That's usually something that's more, you know, it's almost infinite and a lot of people, that's what I think we need to find, because finding that piece, you know, the piece you're talking about, you know, what I call expert insights, or that one piece that is unique to you finding that can take an enormous amount of effort and time and, and introspection and, you know, a lot of years to try it and get it wrong and figure it out. I mean, it can be a really big process. And so this is why I think so many speakers never really find that piece. You know, James is because they're operating at the intellectual level. They become either intellectually exhausted and they give up or the exact opposite they become intellectually satisfied in Then they have to move on. So the answer isn't up here the answer, the answer is here. And that's where we have to look. And just and you know this from your music background, you know, James, the music doesn't come from the head, it doesn't come from the page. And it doesn't even come from the instrument. The music comes from the heart, it comes from the soul, and everything else are just vehicles in order to create the music. And I believe that speaking is exactly the same thing. And so many speakers speak from their head. And certainly when we first started as a speaker, you know, we're cover bands, we're all cover bands, right? I was a zig ziglar cover band, you know, for so many years, because I was in my head, just trying to get my you know, find my own stage. But then once we find the stage, once we find that place that comes from here, it gives us the drive. I mean, you know, I know how much work it is for you to do this summit. And you've been doing it for several years now. And you don't do this because it's a good idea. You do this because you're driven for this right. And this part of it's not part of what you do anymore. It's part of who you are. So that's the the angle we need to come from as a speaker. So to answer your question about best practices, I don't think there are any best know, best practices matter until you get that. And once once you've got that, then it's time to really start digging, but to just to start finding something because you're looking for something and you're and you're in your head doesn't isn't really gonna work. I don't know if that makes sense. No, James Taylor it makes total sense. And I think it's that it's that finding that that Wellspring? Oh, yeah. And it's a difficult thing to explain, you know, something which energy you might make might constitute an energy or all, you know, is going to that place and that does require a lot of work often requires a lot of inner, you know, inner work as well to find that thing to chip away at that and that's where I think mentors can be great, you know, and have that have or being part of a community is that I think the one thing about the danger the community is that That may be that need to feel to conform or to go along with what other people are doing in this. And when you're in Canada, you're at, you're in a country of great songwriters. So the journey mixers of this world, they've always kind of chosen their own path. And it's like, it's trying to find that. So using the community to be able to learn to contribute to, but at the same time, figuring out what your own thing is, as you said, your you know, that idea. And so as you were going, you mentioned this, this coming to that stage where that light bulb did go on for you. And it was like, this is it. This is what I want to devote my life to what what was it for you? Steve Lowell So that particular moment happened? I'm going to guess I'm in my late 20s. By that time, and I had, I saw the zig ziglar thing I became very attracted to the professional speaker thing. And so I thought, Well, where do I go to learn that and so I started working with a training company called the Dale Carnegie training organization, and, and I went through all of their courses and I was working for them. Am I in my mind, I was training to be an instructor, but I started in sales and all of that. So what happened was, I would go to all of the Dale Carnegie courses, and I'd be sitting at the back of the room as an assistant. And I'm watching the instructors, and I'm thinking, I'm trying to coach in my head. And sometimes the instructors would do things I'd say, Oh, I didn't like the way he did that. Oh, I like the way he did that. And I would have done it differently. And I'm really kind of in my mind evaluating the instructors, right. And then one time, the instructor came up to me and he said, Hey, Steve, would you like to try coaching somebody, which was like totally irregular, that would never happen, but it happened in this day? And I said, Yes, Yes, I would. So I stood up. And there were I think, 30 people in the class and this one guy, the student, he gets up to speak, and he is the one person in the class that absolutely did not want to be there. He was just he was his boss sent him there because he had no personality. He had no social skills like us is what he did not want to be there. And it was I think we Seven have a 13 week course. Anyway, he got up on the stage and he kind of had that, okay, I go ahead and press me kind of attitude, you know, and I and it within two minutes, man, I had that guy wide open. And he was like he was loving being in front of the room, and he never went back. And from there, he just soared. And it was in that moment, I thought, I can do this, this is what I can do. I can take people in front of an audience and I can find magic in them they never knew existed. And I did it in less than two minutes. And I had one of those earth shattering, jaw dropping life changing moments, then, and that's when I realized I can do this. But I also realized that I was in the wrong place. Because I didn't agree with a lot of the philosophies that were being taught at that time in that organization. And so ultimately, I left and started my own business, and I've been sort of doing it ever since. But that was the defining moment for me in terms of why I'm here. But there was actually another defining moment in In terms of my current content, and this was one of those things that happened and I don't know if you've seen the whole revenue meter thing but I have some videos for you and your and your guests that describe it but what was happening in my business is I had just met my wife Jane, we're going back maybe six years ago and my business was doing okay you know, but when Jane came into my life it just it really started to soar And I remember thinking you know, what, what has changed because I'm not doing anything differently just everything's working today that wasn't working before and and I was trying to figure out what changed for me in the business because I wanted that content. I wanted to see if there's something there I could bring into my you know, content. And I had one of those two o'clock in the morning straight out of bed ideas ever had one of those jams I just got to pop you right out of bed in the middle of the night. You get those right, yeah, the trick is always do you write them then you write it you write it down. So I've had many of those over the years but this one I was from dead sleep to Wow. And then I went and got my iPad and I wrote it all down. And that's become the foundation of what we do now. So those are the two pivotal moments, I think in terms of getting us to where we've been. Now, your earlier question, it sounds like I'm contradicting myself, because your earlier question was, you know, did you have a pivotal moment where you figured out how to be, you know, be productive from the stage. I never had a moment from that. But I did have that moment where I figured out why I'm here figure out what my gift was way back at age 2527, whatever it was, and I had this moment about five years ago, that drives the content we're using now. So you got to listen to those moments, because I think we all get them and like you said, we get them and then we don't write it down. And then you know, then it's gone. But I wrote that one down. So thank goodness I did, James Taylor obviously so and this rescue meter, this is a way of being able to benchmark yourself and then be able to track your progress and develop as a speaker. Steve Lowell Yeah, exactly. I'll give you a quick snapshot of it. It's basically like the What we've found in working with speakers all over the world is that there there are basically four states to a speaker's reputation as it relates to how people talk about you. I'm not talking about your reputation online, and although all that comes into play, but what is it that people actually say about you. And the first state is a state that I call obscurity. And obscurity means that people aren't really talking about you at all. Nobody really knows who you are or what you do. And so many people stay in that state for a long time. And if they stay there long enough, they end up getting out of the business. But if they do a few things, right, the next state is a state that I call competitive at the competitive state. What that kind of means James is, generally people know who you are, and they know what you do, but there's nothing really that separates you from everybody else who does what you do. And so people look at you as a something or an something and you're kind of in this category of many, and it's really difficult to operate in that state. And I would say about 95% of us And our business operate in that state, you know, for their entire careers. But then if a few things change, if you start changing the way you speak about yourself, and you start guiding the way the that the world speaks about you, then you can get to this stage that I call branded. Now, what the branded stage, this is where things really start to change in terms of your reputation out there at the branded stage. This is where people kind of look at you and they know what you do. They know who you are, and there's something different about you, even if they can't quite put their finger on it. Like your name doesn't necessarily rise to the top, but it kind of it's kind of, you know, escalating up there and you're getting some attention, eyebrows are raising the phone is starting to ring a little more people are not noticing you and you're in that stage. And that's a really good stage to be and that's the stage at which momentum starts to begin. And then the fourth stage, which is the ultimate stage is what I call the one. This is where you are the only logical choice in your field. This is where you pick and choose the gigs. You're going to take you Set your price people pay it, you choose how hard you're going to work, who you're going to work with. And now at this stage, you're kind of thinking more about legacy because your business has kind of taken care of itself. And interestingly enough, it has very little to do with tenure, it has very little to do with how long you've been in the business, and more to do with how you have trained the world to talk about you. And that's why these these unique pieces that I've been talking about, you know, I call it expert insights. And, you know, people they're different people call it different things, but that little package of of wisdom that only you can claim ownership of, that's what drives that conversation that takes a person from obscurity to competitive to branded to v one. So the rep you meter is really just a visual representation of those four states and then the discussion in terms of how you get from one to the next. James Taylor I think you're talking about that. So the first one was up was unknown. I'm talking about the first of a first security obscurity. So it's interesting because as you're saying, I'm also thinking about you know, what enquiries come in to speaking engagements, the level of conversation you have with someone depending on where they're coming in. So, you know, if you're in obscurity frankly you're not getting any inbound leads anyway there's nothing nothing coming you're just wondering you're having to go and fight every single fight. The second one is your in your in the competition you're in the running but you're not differentiated. I'm guessing in any major way. No, I heard and I see the emails that come in, which are around Oh, we've seen your we've seen your work around create my kissing on creativity, we really like it, we think it could work well for this particular event or this particular client. So you start to move up a little bit more branded because they like your, like you or they like your message like the way that you see it your unique take. But then there's a final one, which is the one I love when I get those emails in. And we're looking to book bring a speaker in to talk about this idea of super creativity. Which word is like that I'm not competing with anyone. You got Steve Lowell it. And so that's exactly right. So for you, it's super creativity, your name gets attached to that. And so now you become the one. So you nailed it. That's exactly the process. Yeah. James Taylor So and it's great, because I think as you start to do that, I mean, also, you can think of this in terms of a pricing perspective as well. I think all those people who are, you know, as you say, the one they own something, you know, start with why Simon Sinek Yeah, sure. I mean, I don't know what Simon's fee is at the moment, but it will be pretty significant he owns it owns something in the mind of the customer, though, so is an awesome, very different conversations that are going on there as well. So I love that so obscurity to competitor to brand new to the one and you have this video series, which we're gonna have a link here below. So people can can go through and obviously go much more in depth into how each of these work, how you develop each of these, these stages as well. And so we're going to have a link here. People just click on that link, and anything else that we need to, you want to kind of say just at the stages, as people kind of thinking now kind of getting their head around this idea of, of the one and what it takes to be the one? Steve Lowell Sure. Here's, I think, the most important premise to start with, and that is, get your head out of your solution. Because here's the thing, you know, we go, we go to many conferences around the world, as do you, and we see many speakers as to you. And, you know, we go to these conferences, and there may be, you know, 5060 speakers over three, four days. And, and even if all of them are outstanding on the platform, they got great stories, they got great show and slides, and they make you laugh, and they make you think, and they make you cry, and they do all the things speakers are supposed to do. And at the end of the three, four days or whatever it is, you walk out of there and usually there's only one or two that actually stick in your mind. Right? And and so there's a reason why only one or two actually stick in your mind and generally the reason is this, because most of the speakers are focusing on their solution. There. Five Pillars to this, there are six secrets to that there are three models to this, there's a platform for this. And it's not that that's a bad thing. I mean, that's an okay thing they get on the stage, they tell their stories, and then they present their solution in the context of those stories. And then, you know, and that's their positioning. But the problem with that is, that's what 98% of the speakers do. And so what, what I recommend is get your head out of your solution. And don't even talk about your solution, help the audience understand that they have a very specific problem first, and if you can help them understand that they have a problem, help them and it's usually a problem they were never awareness aware of. So you bring to their awareness, a problem they never knew they had, then you help them understand the cost of having that problem. And then you present to them here's why that problem exists. And only then are they really at all interested in your solution. And so reverse the order of your presentation, get the solution out, leave it to the very end, help them understand their condition better help them understand the cost of their condition. help them understand why they're in that condition and then bring your solution to the stage. Because here's what will happen, people will walk out the door, and they're not going to remember your solution at all, what they know is they need you. That's what they know. And they're not going to be able to remember your four secrets to this, your four pillars to that or your six strategies, or whatever. What they aren't going to remember is that James is that guy for Super creativity, that's him, or whatever that thing is, he calls it, that's the guy I need. That's what you want them to remember when they walk out. And even if even if you're not selling, coaching, training, consulting, whatever, that's what you want them talking about when they go to the next convention, or when they put their feedback form in or where it's time for their organization to hire a speaker. All they're going to know is that guy understands or that lady understands our world better than we do. And we need them in front of us. And so that would be sort of the starting point. James Taylor Great. So we're gonna have that link. Yes, you can get that video series. As you start to finish up. I'd love to know, if you're traveling a lot just now in your role. Go Speakers Federation, if you had a long haul flight, and you could choose any speaker or author or thought leader to be sitting next to you on that long haul flight, living the living all that. So you can have a really good conversation with them. Who would that speaker author or thought leader be? Oh, boy. Well, I would you know what, I would have to go with Zig, right. I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times. And I do have time for like, 30 seconds story. Absolutely. I guess I use sigma stories. Steve Lowell Okay, so I, you know, I had written a couple of letters to Zig over the years and all the time, he always hand wrote me back, which I thought was cool. But he didn't really know who I was. We could have just a guy, right. So he was speaking in Montreal, which is about two hours away from where I live in Ottawa, Canada. And so I went to see him speak because I hadn't seen him live before. So I get to the hall where he's speaking it's a big conference room hotel room, and I opened the doors because I wanted to try and go get a front front row seat and there was nobody in the place. So I thought I'm going to run up to the front, I'm gonna put my book because I had one of his books, I put it on the front chair, and I'm gonna reserve my seat. And as I look up on the stage, there he is. He's on the stage. And at that time, he was using overhead slides. Remember what the overhead projector was that he was using overhead slides? So I took my book, and I said, Mr. Ziegler, would you signed my book for me, and he signed and it was just him and I in the whole place. So we spent maybe five minutes chatting, then he excused himself because he had to get ready and people were starting to come in. So that's that was my entire experience with him at that time. Now, it was over a year later, and he was speaking in Ottawa, my own town. So I thought to myself, you know what, it worked once it auto work again, right? So I showed up to the place an hour early and I cracked the door and I can get in and no one's there and I walk up to the front. And there he is on the stage. And now Mr. Ziegler would travel like how many people what he needs in a year, right millions of people he would meet in a year. This was over a year later. He looked down at me and he said, Hi, Steve. Yeah. And that that's what I did. And so to me, that was the essence of a quality being. And so that's one of the reasons why, you know, other than his speaking and all that that was probably what solidified him in my mind as somebody I wanted to aspire to be. Now, sadly enough, I don't remember my own name, and I have your name across the screen so I can remember it. I'm teasing. I'm kidding. But I'm not very good at remembering names, but but the level of integrity that he displayed every time I saw him was very inspiring to me. So I think if I could choose anybody to sit beside me on the airplane, it would probably be Zig James Taylor fantastic, great, great, great potential passenger to be beyond that long haul flight with together and what about in your speaker bag, what is in that bag with you that you carry with you to all of your various speaking engagements. Steve Lowell Man, there's, there's a whole bunch of them but there's there's two that that are really old that I always go back to And one of them is the science of getting rich by Wallace D wattles. And there's just something comforting about about that message. And I listened to it on audio books. And the other is called the master key. And the master key is even older, it was written in, I don't know, 1812 verse or something. And it's very old colonial sort of English, it's hard to follow. But it's, there's something about those books, they're, they're not tactical, they're, it's more about belief systems, and it's more about that type of thing. And I've got all kinds of books on strategy, you know, Blue Ocean Strategy and never split the difference. And, you know, all of the Robert Cialdini stuff and all of those and they're all awesome, and I read them all and I listen to them all and I love them all. But when I'm feeling just like I need, you know, I just need something other than intellect. I usually go to those to the science of getting rich, or the master key and I listened to those because they just get to the core of The beliefs that that drive, you know, my ability to stay with it when when sometimes because, you know, we all get the doubts, right? And, and that's though I think those are my two go to books. And then Zig Ziglar, his first book, see you at the top used to be my go to book. But what would happen James is I would buy it and then I'd lend it to somebody and never come back. So I buy another one, I must have given out 300 copies of See you at the top. So I just sort of memorize the whole thing. And so even I don't buy it anymore. But those are the ones that are sort of most valuable to me. James Taylor And what about mobile apps? Are there any apps online tools you find very useful for yourself as a speaker? Steve Lowell Yeah, there's one that I just got. I can't show it to you now. But yeah, there's a lot of apps but there's one that I just picked up at NSA influence convention last week, and it's called savvy card as a VVY card. And what it is is like an online business card, so it's meant to replace paper business cards. But what's cool about it is you know, you meet somebody in the hall and they say, hey, do you have a business card? And I say, yeah, just give me your number. I'll send it to you, boom, boom, boom, I send it to them. And now, they're in sort of a, like a database. But the other thing is that I have their phone number, and I and I get to see what kind of activity they use with my card. And because it's an online card, it's got my videos there. It's got all my contact information in there. It's got all my websites there, everything is there, and I can watch their interaction with it. And I can follow up with them on it. In addition to that, it's not really an app. It's actually a website that looks like an app. So every time somebody looks at my card, it elevates the ranking on Google. And so it's actually got this practical application behind it. It's called savvy card sa ve ve y card. I saw them at NSA influence. I went down, talk to them signed up and I absolutely love it. James Taylor Fantastic. I'll put a link to that here as well. And finally, Steve, let's imagine you woke up tomorrow morning and you have to start from scratch. So you have all the skills or the knowledge you've acquired over the years. But no one knows you you know no one will would you do? How would you restart things? Steve Lowell The very first thing I would do James is that assemble the right team. Because I spent all my life trying to do it myself. And and it was, it is not good. And then when I met my wife, Jane, you know, she comes from a very successful business background. So she understands business at a level that I just don't. And what I had to come to the realization with is, you know, James, I'm only good at a small subset of things. And that's my speaking of training it like my content like that. But when I try and run the business, I'm not good at most of that stuff. And I had to come to that realization, but what I know now that I wish I knew then or I wish I was smart enough to be aware of them was getting the right people in the right space doing the right things, people you know, people will there are people who will play at the things that you have to work at. So what we need to do is find those people who play at the things that I have to work at. Jane is a master at that she knows exactly what she can play at What she has to work at, and she farms everything out. So when that element came into my life, it just it changed everything about my business. And so she and I run our business together. But that would be I think the main thing is get the team in place. And there's a number of things, of course, but that is definitely the biggest mistake that I made. And if I had to do it again, that's what I would do. James Taylor build a team. And if you want to learn more about you, your speaking programs, the other things, you've got your training and connect with you. where's the best place to go and do that? Steve Lowell Yeah, go to my website. Steve law. COMM it's all there. James Taylor Yeah. Well, Steve, I know we're gonna meet each other somewhere. It might be Namibia, it might be some conference somewhere. Who knows? Who knows. But thank you so much. And thank you for bringing the all your knowledge and I know how much you serve. Also the community of speakers as well. We didn't even get a chance to talk about that side of things, but you put a huge amount of service into helping other speakers be the best and get their message out into the world and You know, take their mission and take it further. So thank you so much for the work that you do and I look forward to sharing a stage somewhere in the in the near future together. Steve Lowell Well thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to it as well. James Taylor Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more. More of Steve Lowell Learn More About SpeakersU #speakerslife #speakersU

First Principles Of Speaking In today's episode Jim Cathcart talks about The First Principles Of Speaking. Ever wanted to know what the first principles of speaking are? You know, the timeless strategies for building a successful speaking business? In today's interview James Taylor interviews speaker Jim Cathcart about: The giants of professional speaking What really matters in the speaking business Creating a body of work Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl062-the-first-principles-of-speaking-with-jim-cathcart/ James Taylor Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode. Hey there, it's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to welcome Jim Cathcart. Jim Cathcart CSP. CPA is one of the most award winning professional speakers on planet Earth. His TEDx video is in the top 1% or 130 130,000 videos. And in addition to this, Jim is in the speaker Hall of Fame. Say And Monty Hall of Fame and has written 20 books. He speaks several weeks a year all across China and his entrepreneur in residence for the School of Management at California Lutheran University. And if this wasn't enough, he's also a professional guitarist, Mountain Trail runner, and motorcyclist. And it's my great pleasure to have Jim with us today. So welcome, Jim. Jim Cathcart It's wonderful to be with you, James. Thank you. James Taylor So share with everyone what's happening in your world just now. Jim Cathcart Oh, war. Wow. Let's see. Well, the mountain trail running. I did that yesterday morning. And then I've been planning my next trip to China, which is August 26. And I'll be doing two or three cities over there speaking to thousands of people at a time with a translator standing at my elbow. So I do one paragraph, another paragraph. All day long. That's a little awkward at first, but you get the rhythm down after a while and I've got seven books in the works. I've been written and published 20 books. Let's see. I'm looking for co authors. So if there's someone in my field who knows me and my works, and they're interested in collaborating with me, then I'd be interested in hearing from them and I'm playing rock and roll spent a couple hours doing that with colleagues yesterday and God's great beers delicious. James Taylor So life is good. So I mentioned you are a CPA, he became Hall of Fame. So for people that don't haven't heard of CPA, what is it and the history Jim Cathcart it comes from an organization called the National Speakers Association, which is a US based but now worldwide, as well. association of people who speak for a living you know, speakers and trainers and keynote speakers. And consultants and entertainers and all kinds of people from all walks of life. They're about 5004 or 5000 members in the US, and several thousand more around the world. And I'm a past national president of that group. I joined back before the invention of dirt. I joined in 1976. I was 30 years old. I'll save you the math. I'm 72. And I joined in 76, when we had about 200 members and then many years later became their national president. They bestow an order of honor each year called the speaker Hall of Fame Award and its designation is CP a II Council of beers award for excellence. And then CSP is certified speaking professional which is an earned designation rather than an award. And you get that through years of study and practice and success. And that little fella over in the corner you can see over my shoulder, there's a statute. That's Cabot Robert. He's the founder of the National Speakers Association. He passed away about age 97, several years ago, but he started it all. And that's an award they give each year to sort of a lifetime achievement award to the person that feel as behave most like our founder in supporting and encouraging others. James Taylor So I was I was in India last week. And while I was there, I was speaking for some other conferences and events and clients about why I was there, I managed to go and hang out with some of the members of the professional Speakers Association of India, which is wonderful member of the global speakers Federation just started. We were just talking about our speakers we admired as you can look for, and I mentioned a couple of other, the older names from the I guess from the world of speaking and Match some of these names in a second. And they hadn't heard. So I thought one thing I'd love to do on this call because because you have this this kind of deep history with the speaker's community, and with the National Speakers Association, who take us back a little bit for those who are some of those kind of early speakers that maybe are not with us anymore, that any speaker that's watching this just now, they should go find those YouTube videos, find those audio audio tapes, if there's only tapes, mp3, they should go and check them out, because that maybe we've kind of forgotten what the what the game is about speaking, Jim Cathcart right? Yeah. By the way, last week in Denver, Colorado, I was at the global speakers Federation meeting. I was I was making a presentation on behalf of the new China Speakers Association that I'm co founding with, with people there. When I joined the NSA National Speakers Association, there were, as I mentioned about 200 members. Well, all my heroes were among those 200 members. And my speaker heroes were the Great's of the day. You know, people like Zig Ziglar, who was new at the time, and Zig passed away now but he became a good friend of mine over time. Og, man Dino, oh gee, man Dino. His real name was Augustine men Dino and he was the author of many, many million million dollar books, the best known of which is the greatest salesman in the world. Gosh, W Clement stone was the owner of combined insurance company of North America and it made well it actually became the sort of the bill gates of his day was the richest man in America for a while, and I got to know him and work with him briefly. Earl Nightingale was my personal mentor, the main one that inspired me he was on radio more than on stages, but enormously influential, you should look up Earl Nightingale comma the Strangest Secret And there were YouTubes of these folks. You can see them, you know, gosh, Dr. Kenneth McFarland, he seldom mentioned but he was one of the people that inspired all those other people I just mentioned, and I had a chance to briefly know him. Have it, Robert, the not Roberts. But Robert, like a first name. That's his last name Cabot, Robert. He was the founder of the National Speakers Association. There's one more guy who was the one who invited me in. And that's bill go g o v. And Bill was the first president of NSA. And just funny as could be, he was a sales motivator. And all of those people, I was standing around looking up to them, you know, and thinking, gosh, could I touch the hem of your garment? And I went to my first convention, and I was I'm a rosy cheeks, 30 year old newbie, right? And I'm there around all these people that I've known about how Heard recordings off. And I just, I was just amazed to be there and a little odd. And so I went to all of the meetings of the convention that I could. But there was one meeting that I couldn't afford it was $40 extra. Whoa, in 1977 $40 extra was a lot of money. And so I went across the street and bought a hot dog from a street vendor. And I came back and I stood outside the meeting room for the $40 banquet. And as the door would open, people would come and go, I would listen to the speakers speaking. And I remember when people would come out, I would hold the door for them for a moment and let it close more slowly so I could hear a little bit more, because as soon as it was closed out, closed out again, you know, so long since finished my hot dog but thinking back on that now I've been the the president of NSA received the golden gavel award from Toastmasters International, I've been celebrated all over the world as a successful speaker in one way or another, you got 20 books and 3200 paid speeches to my credit now. And reflecting back on that. I still feel a little bit like that guy inside, you know, the one that was standing in the hallway. I still feel like what an amazing privilege to be in this and to be getting away with being considered an insider. James Taylor But But it's interesting because you obviously have this interest like I do in music. And often they have these documentaries where they look at the the musical, the tree, the musical tree, oh, bang. And, and I often wonder, I don't know if someone's done this in terms of the speakers because there's oftentimes I'll hear a speaker who's a new speaker, rather the new speaker I'll hear them say a line. But I'll be having a conversation with them. And they'll say, I really like what you did. Then he said, Oh, I got that from this person. Right? It actually it didn't come originally came from like Zig Ziglar, or it came from somewhere else is kind Jim Cathcart of Zig got it from, you know, Norman Vincent Peale, or Dr. Peale. Got it from Napoleon Hill who wrote thinking grow rich or whatever, you know, it goes all the way back. For others. We've been able to trace these things back is to the late 1800s, early 1900s, a man named Samuel smiles. And he was one of the early early success gurus in America. And another one that came along that was a huge influence. Elbert Hubbard Hubbard died of when they sunk the Lusitania ages ago, back the beginning of World War One, that timeframe. Yeah, it's just an amazing legacy. James Taylor So now you're going out to you in China a lot. You're helping set up the China's Speakers Association, and which is, obviously, there's a whole new flourishing of new countries bringing new Speakers Association, lots of new speakers coming up. What are some of the what are the big differences that you notice a new speaker starting now as opposed to when you when you were first getting started? And also what some of the the opportunities, some things that you didn't you didn't have that the speaker today has? Jim Cathcart well consider that when I started. I had been a trainer, I was teaching other people's courses and I thought this is fun. I like this. I don't want to be a teacher in a school system. But I but I love teaching and I love helping people succeed. But there was no internet at all. There was no there were no cell phones. Everything was home phones, you know dial phones, or pay phones. We put in the coins which to a lot of people Today is a foreign concept phone books. What what's a phone book, you know, this was before fax machines. So there was no email. People if you wanted to communicate it with snail mail only you write a letter or you take a document, you put it now envelope, lick it, stamp it, take it to the post office or give it to your post man. And, and they were all men at the time. And then, you know, you wait. So the time gap between wanting or intending something, and achieving or receiving it was huge compared to today. I mean, this morning I i've been online I've communicated with probably 25 or 30 different people direct one to one communication, not real time, because they'll probably read it later today or maybe even tomorrow. But they were able to send me a message and I got back to them. Like that. Plus, if I needed information before responding, I went on line. Siri, hey, what's James Taylor's middle name? And what's his jacket size right now and and she probably knows that she's searching for that as we speak. By the way, I know Siri. honest truth. I know personally no Siri, the lady that made voices in Zurich. Her name's Karen Jacobson. She lives in New York and she is the Australian accented voice of Siri. She's also the GPS girl who's in a billion. Let that sink in GPS systems around the world. She's the one that says recalculating. Yep. So what's the difference today and then then it was slower then. You had to go to the library to do research. physically go to the library. Today, you can find answers instantly while you're sitting at the dinner table, which is rude. But possible, and that Wow, what a different world. Now you say okay, yeah, but there's so much more competition today. Granted, there is when I became a professional speaker, motivational speakers we're not even known Have you would tell someone, I'm a motivational speaker and trainer, what's that? Well, I deliver speeches and you know, teach people success methods that help them do better. Really, people pay for that? You know, I mean, honestly, it was a there was no file in people's head for that data. And today, everybody says, you may like Tony Robbins, you know, yeah. And who I know, by the way, you know, I've done a firewalk with him. I've had lunch with him and been around him a half dozen times. And he's probably the best known because he kind of a rock star in my field. But today, the opportunity is just enormous because people already believe at all that you is a good idea. I had to sell that idea. Because people say no and I graduated school. I'm done learning I'm going to work now. And companies would say no, we don't bring in outside trainers, you're not in our field. What could you teach us? Well, I could teach you sales techniques. I could teach you effective listening how to be a better leader, how to not know. You don't know our business. And so today, heck, you can know somebody's business fairly well in an hour. Just doing web searches, you know, we know it well enough to at least talk intelligently about it and ask the right questions. So today, I think it's easier but there's so many others out there you've got to you got to really be the real deal and stand out and do your homework and, and be outcome oriented for your client. You got to honestly want to help Zig Ziglar had a famous quote, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Well, I've altered that just a little bit. To make it more directly applicable, people don't care what you know, until they know that you care. So if you sincerely care about helping other people, today, there are more ways to do it more easily and more rapidly than there ever have been in all recorded history. James Taylor So we now have obviously a lot more speed as the velocity is a lot faster, which obviously increases competition because yourself and you know, the even the speakers before you the the Auckland dinos and Zig Ziglar as they kind of laid the groundwork, they were the path founders there as well. But I'm also wondering, what you know, people will like scientists will often talk about first principles, things don't really change or someone like Charlie Munger, who's Warren Buffett's business partner, right? Well, he says, always look at what the first principles, you know, what's the what's the things that remain? So what are some of those first principles that regardless of whether you are a speaker in 1960, or you were the speaker and now in 2020, that don't really change Jim Cathcart that. That's a great question. By the way, whenever I'm doing speaker schools and I do that pretty frequently teach other speakers how to do their, what they do. Um, the first thing I start with is I tell them, Look, let's talk about what matters. The speaker doesn't matter. The audience doesn't matter. The message doesn't matter. And they go away, wait, wait, hold it, there's nothing left to wait for it. What matters or at least matters most all those things matter. But what matters most is what the audience can do with the message from that speaker. So that's a first principle, the only thing that really justifies all these people coming together. And you being in front of them with a message is whether they can benefit from the message or not. Because if you're just there to tell stories and put on a show, then bill yourself as an entertainer and get a smaller fee, or become a big, big celebrity and get a large fee. But if you're there as a speaker, professional speaker, your job is not to make sounds is to have an impact on the listeners to make a difference for them. So someone says, Jim, you're a motivational speaker, motivate me? And I tell them no, and they say what? So motives aren't something you give people, there's something you stimulate that live within people. If If I come to you and I put a gun to your head and ask for your money, if you don't want to continue to live, the guns not a stimulus, it's not motivating you. So you're just saying Take your best shot, right? But if you want to stay alive, you'll probably give me your money. Now, I didn't motivate you. The desire to live is what motivated you. And the gun was just a stimulus that threatened the desire to live. Right? So how do you motivate employees find out what they want, find out what they care about, find out how they'd like to be treated, find out what makes them go home at the end of the day, saying, Man, that was a good day. I'm so glad I work here. Or wait till I tell you what I was able to do for a customer today. You know, when you find those motives inside your people, then you can stimulate those motives with the right kind of actions, right kind of rewards, right kind of incentives, things like that, and the right kind of human treatment. You know, most people don't leave when they leave a company when they quit. They don't leave the company, they leave a person. They leave somebody they don't want to work with anymore. And look at it that way, it makes things a whole lot simpler and easier to understand. Oh, here's another first principle. Customer Service should be given, not pursued. Customer Loyalty should be given, not pursued. So when you say we want to increase customer loyalty, I'd say great. How are you going to be more loyal to your customers? And they say to me No, no, no, you don't get it. We want the customers to be more loyal test. Okay, got to start somewhere. How are you going to be more loyal to them? Like when on the days when they're not buying? What are you going to do that makes them know that you care? No, Jim, you don't get it. We just want them to buy from us again next time. Yeah, yeah, that's called greed and selfishness. Right. Let's talk about customer loyalty. What would make somebody say I am so glad I do business with this person or this company. The way they're treated and the way you honor your word. James Taylor And sometimes these, the unexpected. I mean, I think some of the actually, even some of the bureaus that I work with is bureaus. the good ones that are you know, that there's some things that they're just, they'll see something and they'll just, they'll send some something to me, they email me something. And it's nothing about it's not transactional in any way. But they know I'm interested in that or they know that my partner is interested in something just now and it's and it can help grow up it can help grow our business. So it's just about showing Ron Kaufman the speaker, he talks about he talks about careology which I love. Yeah. Jim Cathcart Very, very dear friend of mine. Yes. He James Taylor talks about his idea of moving away. We can just be in customer service, but actually what his customers have you break it all down is Caring is really a very, very deep level. Jim Cathcart One of the books that I'm best known for is this one, relationship selling. And the whole idea of relationship selling is not just being nice to people, that would be courteous selling, I guess, relationship selling is based on the idea that business is about serving people and gaining profit by doing so. So business is all about making the world a better place and being rewarded for having done that. So relationship selling assumes a relationship is an asset or it could be a liability. But if you look at all your connections with with all your customers and would be customers, as the beginning of an enduring, long term relationship, then yes, you can intelligently cultivate each of those connections to where there's an acquaintance And then from an acquaintance to an affinity or you know, you like each other, trust each other a little bit. And then over time you get to where you rely on each other. And then you don't ever want to lose each other, you know, so you can take it from just I see you, I'm not a threat to you, you're not a threat. To me, that's the basic beginning of a possible relationship to I do until death do us part, you know, and between those two extremes, there's a whole lot of trust building. And you don't build trust from the outside you earn it and it's given from the inside so the other person always controls whether there's trust being bestowed or not. James Taylor And has as the the whole the area of selling in selling your speaking programs wherever they may be. Has that changed significantly over the years or are we still Is it still pretty much a very similar type of thing you the individual techniques and may have to But fundamentally, the strategy is the same. Jim Cathcart Well, fundamentally, the strategy is the same, but the steps required are so vastly different. Like I used to make, I don't know how many phone calls a day, but I was in a typical year delivering about 120 speeches in different cities around the country. And I was mostly domestic us back then. But I was constantly on the telephone. And I would call a company, you know, just completely out of the blue, I would call someone for the first time ever and say, Excuse me, do you hold conventions for your company or your industry? Well, yes, we do. Well, which department handles that? Oh, that comes from the executive department. Okay. Would you please transfer me to them? So I get transferred to the executive department and I've got my own little checklist of the questions I need to ask not a script, but a guide, you know, kind of like speech notes, but not a speech script. I would I would talk about meetings and I would ask them, Do they ever use outside speakers? And what is the purpose of the of the meeting typically? And how do people respond? And what do you consider, you know, the most successful recent meeting you help? So I would have to interview people quite a bit just to find out, is there a possibility they're going to book an outside speaker, and most of them didn't. And I had about five sales to make sell them on the concept of using an outside speaker on the the belief that teaching soft skills like human human relations skills, and such would be a useful thing. Instead of teaching the latest engineering technology, I had to persuade them that having an outsider who was beginning to understand their business could still benefit them because he's teaching universal principles, and then teach them or convince them that a keynote speech could lead to a seminar could lead to a group Discussion could lead to everybody reading a book and discussing the book and applying it in there that about you know, so I had all these things to convince them off and I was selling audio cassettes and they had reel to reel they had record players and they had eight tracks. And so I had to sell them not only the recordings, but the idea that listening to a recording could teach you something because that was not considered a given. And then I have a kick to sell them a cassette player and batteries. I honestly did. I had to sell a cassette player and batteries so they could consume my product. James Taylor As I'm hearing you talk about this chip, I'm just thinking, Wow, we have it so easy now online courses, online memberships. We I could think of an idea this morning. I could film it this afternoon and have it being sold later this evening directly to the car. Jim Cathcart You could be sitting there saying okay, I want to sell to IBM Corp. gration or Apple or somebody, you know that some huge enterprise, that's okay I want to sell to Amazon what, you know what are the principles? And you're asking Siri what are the principles of enterprise selling? And she comes back with a whole bunch of websites and you click on there and there's articles on when selling to a huge enterprise. This is what's different from selling one to one to a small business. And then you say, Okay, well how do I find the headquarters office of Apple corporate and you know, Apple computers, and who's in charge of their training department thing, and it's there. Wow. James Taylor But regardless of whether you're doing it back then, or whether you're, you're doing, you know, kind of selling now as I'm looking through in terms of strategy, you know, you got moving things from suspects to qualifying to prospects to come estimate to reflect customer and referral. So some other things stay the same. So there's an there's an intent, it has to be you say like an intentionality. To this there has to have to have a system. Jim Cathcart That comes back to my earlier statement you asked about first principles in speaking. And I said, it's about what the audience can do with your message. In other words, it's about serving people. Well, the same thing is true in selling. If you are there as a partner in problem solving, if you are looking for people to help instead of people to persuade, then you will be welcomed more often than rejected. But the key to it is your mindset. You've got to in your heart and mind, honestly want to be a value to someone else. And be willing to find a creative way to do that so that you can get compensated. And so if you go in as a partner in problem solving, you can talk to anybody whether you have a sale in mind or not. generate some pretty amazing conversations. I was once on the plane next to Kenny Ortega. Kenny Ortega was the man who produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He's also the guy who designed the orchestration of the fountains in Las Vegas in front of Bellagio hotel, and produced the movie. This is it with Michael Jackson. And he was he's an amazing guy. So I'm sitting on a plane flying from LA to Las Vegas. And he sits down next to me and we just start chatting. And I said, so what's what's your field? He said, Well, I, I create things. So really, what kind of things and he told me those things. And I thought for a minute and I said, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Wow. I said I would think That the biggest challenge was keeping the flame alive inside each of the people. In other words, keeping the spirit of the Olympics, foremost in their minds and hearts, through all the 10s of thousands of people from all the countries all over the world, keeping that one central focus in everybody was probably your biggest challenge. And he looked at me and his mouth dropped open. He said, Nobody notices that. He said, that's exactly what the job was. He said, my biggest challenge was keeping everybody engaged like that. Wow. He said, Here's my card. If I'd never be helpful, give me a call. Well, okay. Now imagine If, on the other hand, I said Hi, I'm Jim Cathcart. I'm a professional motivational speaker motivation is a very valuable thing in our society. Wouldn't you agree? How do you motivate the people in your organization? I mean, just that, right? Instead, I'm just talking with a guy and looking for something to admire and compliment. And as I heard it, I thought about it, and I thought deeper what's the first principle? And then I commented on that, and it blew his mind. And he offered me his card. I never didn't even have it in mind to ask for it. James Taylor That reminds me if I think Stephen Covey, I think he was a CPA as well as people of faith Jim Cathcart No, but he was definitely a major influence in my field. I knew him he hired me a couple times to present on programs appeals, and I shared the platform with him. amazing guy, James Taylor so he had that phrase, seek first to understand then be understood. Jim Cathcart Right goes that, James Taylor you know, rather than the, the selling as well and actually say something I'm thinking about something like Stephen Covey, and I'm thinking about some of those other names that We'd mentioned earlier. And I think some of those names that we did you know, the ones that you just said right towards the end like the Samuel smiles, for example. Yeah. And I'm guessing and I haven't seen it, but I don't know if Samuel smiles has a book, you know, what, whether there is or does Jim Cathcart not. In fact, I think the title of it was access. Okay, so it was a long time ago before anyone knew what that word meant. James Taylor So that leads me to my next thing, which is about what is the role of creating a body of work, and something that is going to go live live beyond you? that people can look back and actually, you know, 100 years 200 years time, there's some universal principles, evergreen principles that you can say, right? Wow, that feels like that was written yesterday, just like today, you know, I that's so interesting. You you've written 20 books. And I think, I often think our speaking is an amazing thing, but it's quite an effect. All, like going to live concerts like you experience this thing and it's fantastic. And then there's a way for them. Yeah. But then his music is gone is gone. And we think about all those great music artists over the years who we were taught with fantastic life, but we have nothing to remember them by or to think. So. Where do you see where you are in your career just now and looking at looking back and thinking, what advice you can give to other generations? The role of work in today where maybe the person is the book? Jim Cathcart Yeah, you know, the famous, the secret the movie that came out. Rhonda Byrne did that a few years ago and, and it was focused on a principle from a book in 1910 called the science of getting rich by a man with the unfortunate name of Wallace wattles. It's like, you know, john Thompson or something more Mainstream Wallace wattles but Wallace wattles had a very profound impact on on people's thinking. His book, The Science of Getting Rich talked about the law of attraction, and how in in science or whatever in philosophy as well, that when a desire or a focused idea is is created, the energy from that draws to it other things. It's like when you get a new car, and let's say you get a blue Toyota, well, the minute you go on the road with your blue Toyota, you will start noticing blue Toyotas everywhere. Now, they were there already, but you never noticed them before. But now your attention is different. And so you're seeing those opportunities where you never saw them before. Same things true in business when you focus on a goal. When you say I will become a professional speaker, full time professional Speaker and earn my living by sharing truths and motivating audiences. Well, that's a big goal. But once you actually commit to doing that, you'll start seeing opportunities to do it. So how do you write a best selling book, you say I'm going to become a best selling author? Well, there's a difference between writing a best selling book and becoming a best selling author. Let me explain that difference that I have many friends who are best selling authors, and many of them have best selling books. But some of them don't. Here's the difference, a best selling book, if you put it in a bookstore or online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or whatever, it'll sell. Because it's a best seller. It's got a popular title. People love it, and they're interested in it and they do. internet searches to find it. Okay, it's a best selling book. a best selling author is let's say it's you and so you decide to Write a series of books you write your first one. And it pretty much captures your your life philosophy and your business strategy and your main story. And you go out and tell people about this book and you do the practices that would lead to selling many, many books. Well, it may never hit a bestseller list, but you'll be ordering thousands of them to deliver to your audiences and to fulfill through your website and to sell in your own ways. It's kind of like being a best selling act, you know, perform musical act. You can sell out houses and sell tons and tons and tons of merchandise from your concert, but never hit the main charts. And you can think back over the years there have been really noteworthy musical performers that have been that type. They never really were a chart topping performers But they made a fortune. James Taylor Yeah, that's that's interesting distinction I think about a good friend of mine who is not he's not. He's not known as a as a best selling author. Yet his last book sold 250,000 copies Jim Cathcart or beyond best selling. Yes, James Taylor it's and because he was looking for a different thing he was looking for impact rather than maybe some of the bells and bells and whistles or making a New York Times bestseller. And because that book has been so it's it's a worldwide book. It's not focused on just a particular one particular market. I think he said the other day he said one in 10 people in Iceland have got a copy of his book, which Jim Cathcart you've got that my friend Alan peace out of Australia is like that. Yeah, he's got a book called why men don't listen and women can't read maps. James Taylor Yeah. I've ever seen him. I think it was hit with a him and his wife. We used to go out Jim Cathcart together. They still do. And I just got an email from him this morning. And his book is the number one bestseller in France right now. And he didn't even know that it was selling in France, James Taylor is that difference between writing a best selling book and being a best selling author? Interesting. That's an interesting kind of distinction there as well. Jim Cathcart Because if you're a best selling author, then you're cultivating in you the qualities, the skills, the strategies, the business practices that will constantly sell whatever it is you're selling. If you're selling coffee mugs, it'll still sell well, because you're the kind of person that knows how to do that, and has the work ethic and all the things that are needed to do it. So you'll be a best seller. But your book won't necessarily make you famous. Like mine. I've sold hundreds of thousands of books and recordings. Over the years, I've delivered all those thousands of speeches and received all these big awards. But if you were to ask a person on the street, in a business community or just in the social community Who's Jim Cathcart? They would say, No clue. Because I'm not famous in a public sense. You know, I don't appear in newspapers and magazines and television shows on mainstream media like, like, some people do like a Tony Robbins, for example. But I got a hell of a life going, you know, this has been great. And my colleagues admire and respect me and I love them and and respect them. And, you know, this just ain't a bad deal. Oh, and I did a TED talk. I was asked to do a short TED talk and I did an eight and a half minute TED talk in Delray Beach, Florida TEDx, the independently organized TED event, and it went viral. It I've had 1,700,000 views of my little eight minute TED Talk which netted me zero dollars, much credibility and so many Any referrals that have made, you know, 10s of thousands off of it. And it's just a little eight and a half minute thing called How to believe in yourself, James Taylor you can finally say you become an overnight success now, Jim, definitely 42 years. So let's get some final questions, some quick fire questions. I'd love to know. I want you to imagine you're on a long haul flight, maybe go in nature next flight to China and you can choose on that you're seeing a business class or first class flight and you sit next, any speaker living or dead, you could be sitting next to them for the duration of that flight and they could be sharing with you you could be having a conversation. Who would that speaker be? Jim Cathcart Wow. Ah, another way I've done that with many of my heroes, you know, had long flights sitting seated next to them and just capturing the pearls of wisdom. I would think it has to be Zig Ziglar because he's so much fun. You know, if I wanted to be inspired, I would go with Dr. Kenneth McFarland wonders most people today have never heard up, because he's just so profound and he's so absolutely meticulously skilled at delivering a idea or a message. I knew not to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and had a chance to work with him a little bit, and he would certainly touch your heart and inspire your mind. augmon Dino was a man. So easy to love and admire. But I think Zig would be the most fun so the flight would go fast. We would have a great time. He would appreciate my stories from the southern United States and I would certainly appreciate his because we both grew up in neighboring states, Arkansas and Mississippi. He was from Mississippi. James Taylor So I want you to tell us what's in that in your speaker bag. What's in that bag that you carry with you to all of your various speaking engagements. You're You're never leave home without Jim Cathcart actually Well, I never leave home without Is my notes to myself, I have a lot of thinking time, you know, I always have I, that's how I started my career. Earl Nightingale said spend one hour extra every day studying your chosen path. Five years from now you'll be a leading authority in that path. And sure enough, that worked for me. And I continue to do that to this day. And so I'll take a blank sheet of paper. And I'll just start thinking of all the projects and all the activities and all the goals and all the primary relationships in my life. And I'll just list them all like crazy. And get them on there, maybe two or three pages worth. And then I'll go back and look over that. And I'll circle the ones that are truly like a killer app in a computer, you know, the ones that or that one drives so many of these others that I really have to achieve that one or nurture that one around. Whatever. And then I'll look at the connections between all of them and do sort of like a big bizarre Mind Map, drawing lines and connectors. And then I'll just keep that paper, I always date every every note page, so that I know when it took place, and I go back many times, 20 3040 times over a few years, and look at that same page and make other notes, and then create a new page that's simpler and more organized, so that I can focus on that things on that new page. And that's just been a great, great practice for me over the years. And I consume magazines, I don't read them. When when I get it, I get several magazines monthly. And when I get the magazines, I immediately meaning that day, sit down with the magazine and start scanning it to see what's of interest to me. And I try to read some of the things that aren't of interest to me just to keep my mind better exposed to new ideas. And then, as soon as I'm done with that magazine, you know, I may tear out one article that I haven't gotten to yet, but I toss the magazine and go on. So my wife has a whole bunch of women's magazines that she'll keep them to go back to the articles and so she's got a stack this tall of her collection. I have a stack this tall of mine. And I get more information than she does. It was about and then talking about reading material. If you were to recommend one book, and one of your own books or a book to our audience, it could be a book on speaking or book on mindset or topics that you speak on. What would that one book be? You mentioned Stephen Covey. You know, his book that he's best known for is the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And that's an exceptionally good book. We talked about augmon Dino, the greatest salesman in the world or any of his subsequent books, but I would start with the greatest salesman he I asked him one time what's your favorite of all your books? Which one had the biggest impact on your career? He said, Well, you've read all my books. Jim, what would you say? I said, Well, my favorite of all your books is the choice. And no, no, excuse me, my favorite of all your books is the Christ commission, which is a story about a guy that didn't believe what the Bible was saying. And and then he had an experience it was yanked back in time to Biblical days. And he went around and interviewed all the people that knew Jesus. What an amazing concept. Right? So this guy was an investigative reporter, and a non believer and somebody in in you know, the ethers grabbed him and took him back in time and said, Okay, here, talk to Paul talk to Mary Magdalene and talk to this guy. He was at the when the stone was rolled away, you know, talk to this guy, he was healed by him. So I said that was my favorite book, but the one that had the biggest impact on me was your first book, greatest salesman in the world. I said, Sony Now what what's your answer? He said same as yours. He said the one I enjoyed the most was the Christ commission the one I that had the biggest impact on my life was the greatest salesman in the world. James Taylor different books different books and as Jim Cathcart you mentioned having neither one of them requires that you be Christian. Yeah, yeah. But first principle James Taylor was open the road the the was the book about Babylon that the no that was Jim Cathcart a place in George claisen who co wrote a book called The Richest Man in Babylon which was a similar parable to the greatest salesman in the world in that it was set back in biblical times with you know, a guy following the the camels on a merchant train that kind of stuff. Yeah, I'm James Taylor gonna I'm gonna have to go and download the Oakland Deena book now as well just to trap myself. So you talk about Siri earlier. What is is there isn't a particular app or tool or A mobile tool, an app that you find particularly useful for doing the work that you do. Jim Cathcart It comes and goes, You know, I look at the apps that I use from year to year. And it it it's not the same each year. So I don't know, I just rely on the fundamentals, you know, just email and photos and, and Facebook and LinkedIn and things like that, that that's pretty much me. You know, of course, I've got lots of videos on YouTube and, and that sort of thing, but I try not to get lured into becoming an Instagram Rockstar, or making Twitter which you have to feed all the time like a hungry little animal. You know, making that my main. No, James Taylor that is a big difference, obviously, from going back times. The old man, dinos and Zig Ziglar says, Wait, they would be thinking about these ideas all the time, they'd be speaking but then they're there. Waiting output it was either in the form of a speech or maybe a radio series or maybe a book that was there that was there was Jim Cathcart an article or a newspaper article magazine article, that sort of thing. So and there were there were films, but there were actual films, you know, reel to reel movies, and they would film a speech or whatever, and then they would rent it to companies to go and show at their company meetings. James Taylor Okay, okay. So I guess big difference now because I can also see what a lot of speakers it whether it's an a Twitter or Instagram, I can almost see them working on their ideas, as they're doing them and especially on Twitter and slow form, I can see all that that's things linking to that. And then, you know, a few months later, you see them speak up, okay. It makes sense now, because but they're actually they're kind of rehearsing in public or public. Jim Cathcart That That reminds me without Vimeo, And YouTube, I would feel severely handicapped. Because I have so many videos that I've either created or that have been done of something live that I was doing. They are a vital part of what I do now. You know, I've created online courses and video training and such. There's a publisher mentor.com mentor ed.com that publishes one of my series here in the US. And those are just super important podcasts and, and online shows like this. That's that's the cassettes today, you know, those are the records those are the, those are the pamphlets or the books or the magazines of today. And and so you just hop on the train, or plane, you know, and you've got this little guy when I say train, I'm thinking of the bullet trains in China, as opposed to Amtrak going across America cuz people don't do it as much here. But that's that's your whole suite of services right there. James Taylor Love that. Basically I think I think all these tools that we now have at our fingertips new online courses, including memberships and podcasts and video series and an online summit, like like this, this one, for example. And it wouldn't have been possible, unless people yourself and the zig ziglar is an earl Nightingale's had to first push that through. So people today know that they have a problem know that there's something to be worked on where previously the university didn't even know that they had a problem. And yeah, that was the first step is going to say Actually, Jim Cathcart that's the thing today, the big decision is not whether we should train our people. It's which training should we do next? And who should we go to? Jim Cathcart Yeah, is it there is a different level of fees, just just make yourself the best choice and then they'll say Well, yeah, now of course we need it. So let's go with you. So a final quick, James Taylor final question for you, Jim, I want you to imagine that you woke up tomorrow morning. And you have to start from scratch. So no one knows who you are. But you've got all the skills you've acquired over the years, but no one knows who you are, you know, no one you have to completely restart. Perfect. Would you do? How would you restart things? Well, first off, I'd be excited, not depressed. Jim Cathcart I would when we moved from La Jolla, San Diego to Thousand Oaks back in 2001. We didn't know anybody but we moved here so that we wouldn't have Los Angeles between us and our grandkids. And we wanted to be able to make that commute more easily. So we moved up here, and I said to my wife the first day I said, you know what I like about this. The uncertainty. I don't know anybody yet. Yet being the operative word, right. And now I know people all over the community and they know me back. What I would do if I started praying Tomorrow with my skill set, and nobody knew me, and I had no business assets other than what's in my mind and heart is I would immediately start going out and interviewing people about their problems, their challenges their issues. Because I know I would uncover some of those that I could I had a solution for. And then I wouldn't try to sell something, I would look for a way to become their solution and get compensated for it. So that's the thing if you're a problem solver, you'll never be out of work ever. I gave my my grandson who's now 18 business cards when he was 10 years old. And I gave him a box full of business cards. That said, Jason Cathcart problem solver. I'm looking for one right now. I know I've got one here, nearby. Now I haven't found it and I'm not going to do Take up your time with that. But anyway, I gave him a box of business cards. And he said, what's, what are these? That's their business cards. He said, What's a business card? And I explained it. And he said, Well, what's Cathcart Institute? I said, That's grandpa's company. What's a company? And I explained it, and what's jason@cathcart.com? So that's your email address for real. He said, I've got an email address. I said, Yeah. And he said, Well, it says, problem solver. What does that mean? I said, Jason, you're a thoughtful guy. When you look at something, you don't just dive into it and start doing things with it. You kind of observe it and study it. And then you get involved and you seem to be a natural problem solver, and said, The world needs those. And that's how people get paid. If you're a problem solver, you'll always be able to find work. He's super cool. And I said we'll have a nice birthday and then I went on my way this was at his screen. In the morning on his 10th birthday, and his mother's a teacher at that school. And so I called later that night and I said, Sonia, what happened after I left? She said, Oh my gosh, every kid in the schools got one of Jason's business cards. What do you think Whitney James think about this 10 year old kid gets a box of business cards for his birthday has no clue what that is. But it's a novelty and it's got his name on it. So he starts showing it to the other kids. every other kid says, What's a business card? He explains it. What's Cathcart Institute? He explains it. What's Jason at Cafe? He explains it. What's problem solver? He must have explained that 30 or 40 times that day. Now, how deep is that impression in his mind? At age 10, which happens to be one of the strongest imprint periods of your entire life. Yeah. Yeah, James Taylor that's it as an amazing, amazing story. Well, Jim, thank you so much for coming on today. If people want to learn more about you learn more about Cathcart, cute and all the other things you've got going on just now where's the best place to go and do that? Jim Cathcart I would say, Cathcart comm is the easiest start because it's just my name. And if you type in Jim Cathcart comm, it'll get you there too. But I own the domain for family name. And LinkedIn is another good one. Because on LinkedIn, I have a very robust profile. And it has videos that they can watch for free, and all kinds of other items in it like that. And I'd love to be helpful also that, you know, I'm so omnipresent on the web. You know, you can find me on YouTube, Vimeo, wherever, and watch videos and you hear me playing guitar and singing and all kinds of other things James Taylor they have. That conversation is just anyone watching this and listening to this just now especially if you're just getting into the world of speaking You are part of a lineage a part of a heritage the good way is right. or other speakers who, just like us, we've used our, our voices, our bodies, our ideas on stage to be able to transform audiences. So you are not alone. You're part of a great lineage. And so Jim, thank you for being part of that. That story and sharing that with everyone and I really look forward to us sharing a stage together in the future. Jim Cathcart Me too. Thank you so much. It's been an honor. James Taylor Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more. More of Jim Cathcart Learn More About SpeakersU #speakerslife #speakersU  

Sonja Piontek is a keynote speaker on unleashing potential and UltraCreativity. During her years as Marketing Director for BMW Asia, Sonja was responsible for the brand's strategy and marketing activities across Asia, including the introduction of the BMW brand into new markets. Today when not inspiring audiences, you'll find her travelling the work taking photographs or helping business build their brands through her consulting firm Sonnenkind. Brand strategy Naming strategy Sonnenkind Brand tours Singapore speakers community APSS The power of a premium speaker brand The corporate market for speakers Understanding your clients challenges LinkedIn marketing for speakers Onboarding your virtual assistants Professional speaker videos Speaker Bag: Selfie Stick, Camera Tool: WhatsApp Book: TedTalks by Chris Anderson Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl050-the-power-of-a-premium-speaker-brand-interview-with-sonja-piontek/ Hey, it's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to have on the Speakers Life Sonja Piontek. Sonja Piontek is a keynote speaker on unleashing potential and ultra creativity. During her years as marketing director for BMW Asia. Sonja was responsible for the brand strategy and marketing activities across Asia, including the introduction of the BMW brand into new markets. Today, we're not inspiring audiences, you'll find that traveling the world taking photographs, or helping businesses build their brands through a consulting firm sonnen kind and it's my great pleasure to have Sonya with us today. So welcome, Sonja. Hey, James, great to be here with you. So share with us all what's happening in your world at the moment. Well, first of all, it's been the most incredible journey, something I could not have dreamed of when I left BMW. I mean, obviously coming from such a comfort Life being the marketing director for BMW in Asia, to to leave that world was quite a big step for me. And as I started considering that step outside my comfort zone, a lot of people actually told me Nanananana, you're not gonna leave BMW, you're not going to leave that career. And it took me a few months to actually get to terms with that decision, and gather the guts to step outside that very, very comfortable comfort zone and start up a totally new life. And the last two years have just been phenomenal. So take us back a little bit, you know, how long were you at BMW before you kind of left and kind of went on to do your own thing? And and did you always kind of come from this world of branding and marketing? Was that what you were going to train initially? Well, the funny thing is, I'm originally from Munich, the hometown of BMW. I did not start my BMW career in Munich. I actually started my career with BMW New Zealand, the first of those across the world. So I started in New Zealand as the the events and CRM manager many, many years ago, I then worked for BMW in various different roles in different countries, always on the marketing side in a lot of strategic roles. That my my last big role in Germany was, I was the head of naming and branding for the BMW group globally. And amazing job where I sort of learned a lot about brand strategy about naming strategy about a lot of visionary topics that were happening within the BMW group globally. fantastic job. And that was before I came to Singapore as the Director of Marketing for the Asian region, and that obviously was an absolute dream come true. Being responsible for one of the world's most prestigious brands in one of the most amazing fastest growing, vibrant, vibrant regions of the world. That was just it was too good to be true in a way. But at some point I just got this feeling of, there's got to be more in it for me in my life in terms of unleashing my own potential, doing more things that I really deeply, deeply care for. And whilst building a brand and creating unforgettable experiences for customers has always been something that really drove me. It was sort of it came to a point where I said, I really want to want to just do the things I personally care for. I want to do them in a way where I'm not slowed down by politics, by structures by by things that just happen in big organizations. And I don't mean it in a bad way. I mean, a huge organization like BMW only works because there are so many structures. There are so many discussions. There are so many me things and so many people involved. But I just I wanted to move things quicker, to be more impactful, and to really do things where I could add tremendous value in relatively short time also. So that's when I left BMW. I started off I'm setting up my own agency and it's called zonin kinte, which basically means child of the sun. And it's the it's the nickname my dad used to give me when I was a kid. Very, very positive. And it was it was a bit of payback time and to say thank you to my dad, for a lot of things I caught my first companies on in kin, which in English also is quite nice on and kind sounds quite okay. And what we do with with Solomon Kane is we basically create incredible tours to the most amazing countries like Mongolia like New Zealand, like Nepal, and we take brands and their most VIP on most treasured customers on these tours. And the whole idea is to turn customers into total fans of those brands. Be it for brands like Land Rover, Lamborghini, the silent carriage brand, or I also do a lot of work for like a camera. It's it's the most amazing, stunning tours. But we're not a travel agent with a true brand building. agency that fully understands the power of brand building and the power customers have and the revenue customers give you once you've managed to turn turn them into fans. So that is something I've I've just always been passionate about. And now I can actually make money creating those incredible experiences for top notch brands worldwide. It's beautiful, it's just beautiful. And in terms of this, this you know, this passion that you have unleashing potential not just in yourself but in others and in organizations as well. There's obviously so many different ways that you could do that. speaking and writing experiential workshops, there's so many different ways you could you could do that. What made you decide on the kind of, I guess the delivery modes that you decided on which is around definitely around the speaking and those kind of experience, the experiential side, the experiential side setting up that agency, basically, it just came naturally I left BMW A week later, one of my my friends here in Singapore asked me Well, can you please help me I want to want to take this trip to Europe with my entire family. And we just want something special. I don't just want to book yet another boring holiday can you create a special experience and I've done a lot of those specially curated VIP trips for BMW during my time, I set up the largest driving activity outside of headquarters. So this came naturally and the speaking funnily enough, I started doing the keynote speeches sort of in my last year at BMW, but very clearly, they were not really interested in me. They were interested in the marketing director of BMW Asia. That was all it was about. So they booked me, I went on stage I delivered. And when I left BMW, my feeling was that, obviously, I'm not gonna get booked again. But Funny enough, they all kept calling me again. And they were like, Sonia, can you come to this? And that event? Can you come to our conference, we would like you on stage and said, Guys, nice, thank you for calling. But I'm no longer with BMW. You can't put the title on your, on your invitation and sort of, they're like, no, but we don't care about your title. We care about you. And I'm like, hang on, hang on. What do you mean, but I'm no longer the director of marketing. They're like, yeah, it doesn't matter. We want you on stage because we loved what you did. And we want you on stage. We want you to inspire all audiences. So I was totally taken. I really didn't actually spected so I'm like, oh, wow, well, if they really want me, then I'll come go on stage and I'll share my message. So I started well, I continued doing my keynote speeches. Obviously, in the beginning, a lot of those were on brand building, how to actually create true return on investment through a different kind of marketing, not just the boring old stuff, but really new creative ideas. But then, as I as I kept doing those, and as I kept getting, getting feedback from audiences, the one thing I kept hearing over and over again, is how I was able to touch people into deeply inspire them. And it got me thinking that the inspiration was probably not so much the marketing content, the brand building content, but it was my way of thinking. And I spoke to a few people in the audience that had given me that feedback and they were all like, the way you think is so different. The way that you triggered something in us is so powerful. Full, that we just want to do things differently now. And that was how I got into motivational speaking. And very quickly afterwards, I had sort of done my first speeches on what I called soar, because you can simply because it was part of my story to unleash my own potential to just sort of tap into my, my, my strength and, and just let out what was what had always been there. And within another half a year or so, I kept getting getting booked a lot more for my motivational speeches and it's, it's so much more rewarding. Even then the brand building because in a way the brand building is a lovely technical technical skill. And I can I can definitely inspire people to do things differently and to come up with totally new ideas. But when you when you talk about unleashing potential and locking ultra creative activity in people is so much more powerful. And I've just I've just enjoyed this journey so much, being able to inspire people being able to help them be open for change, have an edge on mindset, and just tap into their ultra creativity that I deeply believe every single one of us has, if only we would start to allow it. And I think that journey that you went on, of, obviously, when you initially started speaking, speaking on the topic that was, was your job title that you always had real strong domain expertise, but then gradually over time, kind of finding and feeling your way actually, what what do I resonate with as a topic? What is the audience resonating with? I think it's actually a very common thing and I think it's actually quite a quite a good way to do it because it allows you to get out there to start building your craft as a speaker, getting those the experience of getting front of audience and having a sense of confidence that Okay, you might be learning different things in terms of technically as a speaker, but the actual content you feel solid on. And then gradually over time, you start to make yourself a little bit more uncomfortable, push yourself into new places with the, with the actual topic. You live in Singapore, that's a city, a country where you have so many different speakers. And that's smoke as you've seen people. And I also think when I travel there, I think it's both both a wonderful thing. And also, obviously a bit of a curse as well, because you, you're in a very competitive space, geographically there as well. But it also gives you the ability to be able to see lots of different types of speakers who have very different types of business models. And as you were kind of looking at your members of your community of fellow speakers, whether with a particular speakers either in Singapore or speakers around the world that you said, that's the kind of either the kind of Speaker I want to be or that's the kind of speaking business that I want to build Or that's the way that I want to build my own speaking business. Well, what you said about Singapore? It's definitely true. I mean, there's it there's a huge speaker speaker community, which is beautiful in in many ways because you've got a lot of people you can mingle with. You've got a lot of people you can learn from, but you can also share your learnings with, but obviously also you've got a lot of in house competition in a way. What I did from a very early stage of my speaking, is I basically, I never had this one speaker where I said, Oh, one day I want to be like such and such, but I allowed other speakers to deeply touched me and inspire me. I technically obviously learned from various speakers. I had to look at different or I still am looking at different business setups that that different speakers have And sometimes you come across speakers where you say, hey, great, it works for you, it certainly wouldn't wouldn't be what I would want to do. One thing, for example, that that really surprised me that the denomination, CSP, for me was sort of the top notch speakers. But the way you can earn that that title is basically through a rather rigid number of like, you need to have a certain amount of income plus a certain number of speeches. But it turns out that most of the titleholders in Singapore, actually predominantly trainers. So that was something that I was actually quite shocked about, because for me, it was sort of like that, that mega title for speakers, but then most of them are actually predominantly trainers. And that's something was it. Okay, so that is actually part of that industry as well where, for me, it was really In the beginning only if I'm talking about a speaking career, I want to make this a speaking career. And yes, I also do some trainings, I do some coaching. But for me at 90% of my speaking career actually needs to be speaking. Yeah. And that's something that I have defined for myself. And I think that's, I mean, essentially, people come at it from, from different perspectives. And one thing I'm wondering is, obviously, when I came into speaking, I'd background in things like online marketing, and so that even though I don't speak about online marketing, it gave me a little bit of an edge in relation to other speakers at once. I'm just comfortable with online marketing and digital marketing. Now, I would say one of your edges, not just one, but one of your edges is around branding, you have to understand at a very deep level, you've done a very, very high level. And so I'm wondering as you were starting to think about yourself, as a brand, I don't want to have sense of brand you're here or anything as well. What you yourself into the third person. But at the same time you would have been looking be able to see around lots of different speakers and see what some speakers are doing right around branding and some speakers want perhaps doing quite as well. What did you decide to do for your your own branding? How do you think about your own brand as a speaker? very vital point and I'm glad that you start. Start talking about it. Because what a lot of people do they're sort of very concerned about getting the the keynote right getting the topics sorted out getting possibly their their nice, sorted, which already is a big step. But what most speakers don't really understand is the power of a professionally set up premium brand. And I was just giving a speech in India last week actually, about building premium brands in the digital age, what it takes, what it means and why it is so important. To do, I mean, if you want to play on the top, you really have to set up your brand properly, professionally, and you have to set up a premium brand. And that's something that obviously with my background, for me it was it was something so easy to do, because I've been doing it all my life. But when you then see how some some of the speakers, even established speakers totally struggled with it. It got me to a point where I said, You know what, I'm actually also going to start offering branding services, simply because I see there's so much need. So we've now created a service called the brand aficionado, aficionado, standing for someone deeply passionate as well as knowledgeable about a topic. So the brand aficionado we basically help aspiring speakers as well as established speakers and trainers and other businesses to build professionally build their premium brands. And sometimes it comes down to simple things like getting the quote identity, right? What does that mean? Like basically having the rules in with what you communicate, like, What colors do you use? What font do you use? What's your tonality? What's your visual language? And it's, I mean, even just going to that, through that, those steps of thinking about it, what color language do I want to use? What visuals do I want to use? A lot of people just do what they feel like at the very moment, but to systematically and strategically set that up will set your brand apart. And it's it's beautiful to see how with a few little pieces and, and a few sort of the basics how much difference it already makes. And what was your thinking, a brand like a BMW, it sits in a position it's a it's an aspirational brand. It says it's a luxury brand as well, but at same time is a consumer focused brand. So I'm wondering who your own What you do on the topic of unleashing potential, because in one if you first hear that, that can feel like a very direct to consumer, I can imagine, you know, speakers speaking around that topic to you know Tony Robbins style very consumer focus, but then your background is having deep a deep understanding of those, that corporate market and understanding that kind of higher in the mind. So, how did you decide because unleashing potential deciding which market did you want to serve first? What was your thinking around that? So, a market that works extremely well for me and where I get most of my bookings is obviously the corporate world. What they appreciate a lot is the fact that I understand them I speak their language. If when I meet the board member to pre discuss and align on the keynote on the objectives on the challenges they are facing, they immediately understand that I under stand them. And I've had it so often these discussions where they they just look at me and go like, Okay, you've been in similar situations before you know how the corporate world works. And it's extremely helpful for them to be able to speak with a speaker and brief a speaker that understands their world that understands their challenges, and that knows how to solve them and how to craft a keynote that will then fully support their objectives. And that's something where was, yes, obviously talked to the individual and help the individual unleash their potential. In the end, I really help the organizations, increase profitability, have much better working teams, and have teams that trust themselves to achieve totally new heights. So whilst it seems like my end client is the the individual audience member, it's really the corporate In their strategic objectives, and I understand coming from that background fully understand what they need in order to reach those objectives, objectives. So it's really, for me, the corporate world that works best. And it's interesting as you say that and I'm suddenly reminded of a great speaker, Sally hogshead, who came from albeit the world of avatar, advertising that was her world and come New York advertising. And she knew very well that what the thinking was in terms of brand managers and marketing direct, she knew that language instinctively. And when she decided to become that speaker, on topic around branding with like fascination, she knew the lingo. She knew the language so well. Like, I'm not just speaking, I'm not just having a conversation or a discovery call with a speaker. I'm actually having it with someone who really has felt my pain as as experienced that as well. And that's a very different type of conversation that you have on a discovery call. Yeah, and I have that so often all So in, in discussions with very high ranking managers, board members, where, for example, the team was like, Oh, yeah, yeah, no, we don't have any challenges in the team. It's all good. We just want to have a bit more motivation. At the moment. The, the board member, for example, stepped in, they looked at me, they said, she speaks our language, we need to be open, we've got massive challenges. These are our challenges, keep them keep them to yourself, obviously. But this is exactly what we what we struggle with at the moment. But it also asked the right questions because I could just walk in and say, Okay, let me do my motivational bit. And let me just sort of get a few laughs and get people motivated a little bit. But that's not what I want. What I want is I really want to help them reach their objectives, and help that the employees become part of the process and part of the team. I think that's impressive. That's a very powerful value proposition, going to a client having having that type of discussion. And I'm wondering as you're talking with all these clients, now For a speaker on the topics, the use of Econ, what are those kind of key challenges that you're hearing time and time again from those guys because if you work with different types of speakers, often they when they're working with clients, they're hearing like three or four key challenges coming up time and time again, one of those for you and the clients you work with. Quite often it's the, the lack or the, you know, the lack of in employees to be open for change. So what I can really help with is opening up for a more change focused mindset having more agile mindset, because a lot of lot of organizations are struggling with huge technology changes with huge internal restructurings and from for most employees, and I can totally relate to it. They've been in certain positions for 10, sometimes 15 years and all of a sudden someone is shaking Shaking on their chin going like Hey dude, why don't you move somewhere else? Why don't you do things differently now and people are scared so quite often the discussion is around Can you please help help us make our teams or our employees more more agile in their in their thinking more open towards change so that's that's a very very big topic in many of the of the of the corporate clients I deal with. Now your speakers you member as well and usually the when I'm working with speakers who've been speaking for a while the two questions I normally ask them is which of your speeches because they may have multiple speeches that point is the one you're getting booked for is it was almost like this is the easiest thing to put you can book it, you know, clients just would just happily book it day in day out. And then the second question I usually ask is What is your number one lead source how people finding out about your offer your brand your keynotes and which ones is really Converting best so on that second question is someone the journey that you're on and also someone that has a very strong experience in understanding marketing? What are the the the marketing channels that you're finding is currently working best for you. Um LinkedIn works really well for me um, personal recommendation is probably my number one source still. And the whole area of full on online marketing is something I understand I need to milk a lot better. So the first two years after being w i was i was so busy running my agency that I simply did not have enough I didn't put in enough time in properly setting up my my marketing my back end sales and marketing for my speaking career. Also, because it just the gigs just came coming in so nicely that I Slightly neglected that part of the business. And I've only just started properly professionally setting up my speaking business as a business. I've got two ladies from the Philippines now working, I'm working 24 seven on this topic with me. And we are just sort of setting it all up as we speak basically. And what with a lot of earnings and it's To be honest, yeah, I mean that that, that are interesting, that step of Actually, I know a lot of our speakers, you members, the the often be quicker, they'll bring on a virtual assistant or VA or whether it's from Philippines or somewhere in the world just to start to kind of leverage their time a little bit better. So and, and we hear I hear lots of different experiences from and obviously I try to pray kind of guidance on that side as well. But what has been what has been your experience of doing that in New York, obviously, you live in Asia, you're very familiar with culture as well, but There's always teething challenges. So So what has been your experience of working with VA? First of all, I don't call them vas because mine are a lot more than just assistance. Mine are full on employees that deliver on a very high level, it took me a lot of time to find them. I didn't just sort of reach out to the first first one that sounded okay. I allowed for about three, four months for every single one of them to find the right person. And then what I also do, the moment I had them on board, I flew them to Singapore for for one week onboarding, which proved to be highly, highly efficient. Because also, I mean, if you just have a virtual assistant that that helps you with some calendar bookings, and sort of does some research with you, for you fine, but I wanted them to be full members of the team to fully understand why we're doing it, how we're doing it. So I invest A lot of time in them. And we've become a very close team. And every two, three months I host a, we call it the boot camp, simply because we all get together. And we just work 24 seven on on the latest topics. And that is something which is extremely valuable for the progress of the business for the team spirit, but obviously it also costs a lot of money to do these things. And it's something where if you want to do it, right, you just got to invest that kind of money. So my experiences with my team has been fantastic. But I've also heard a lot of horror stories from people that didn't go through that filtering process in the beginning that didn't do the onboarding, that don't don't invest in actually meeting their teams. And that that don't spend the time in working together with their teams. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. Yeah, I certainly find that with the team. I think all all of our team members have been with us over three years now. So they'll be with us for five years as well. And it's definitely as a building that relationship. And the thing I often find very interesting working with sisters, if I'm not physically in the same place as them is that that role of the coach or the mentor to that employee has a slightly different flavor to it than if you were actually sitting across from each other, every day as well. And what I personally find very rewarding. And I think this is where, where it's great to hear that you've, you've had a fantastic experience working with your book putting a team together, because that's not always the case. And sometimes when I hear that the hasn't been the case that they had a good experience is because they've assumed that one system or one system can do every thing, the social media and everything possible. Rather than thinking Actually, this is something they're going to have a core set of skills, but I really want to invest in that person and as you say, what you're about which is unleash the potential of that team member. And another thing that I always teach or talk about during my talks is focus on focus on strength. I mean, there's certain things that that my two ladies absolute shit it, there's certain things I'm absolute shitted like, and I would never force someone to do something they're not good at. For me, it's always Okay, what are you good at? What are you passionate about? Where can you create the biggest value? If I forced a super creative person to sit down and fill an excellent list with 5000 bits of information, that person is only going to fail and be unhappy, and I'll still have to pay for it and get get a correct result. So for me, it's always been see and talk openly. And that's something I always do talk openly about the topics people are dealing with and are always awesome. He said something you should be comfortable with. Is that something you're good, good. And can we spread it in the team different I mean, certain things just have to be done if we need to do a translation into German I mean, it's me because I'm the only one that speaks German. And sometimes it's, it annoys me if I do a speaker information pack, and then a bureau in Germany says, Oh, can we have it in German, please? And I know that I'm the one that has to then translate it, unless I give it to someone else. But yeah, but for me, generally with 80% of the tasks, focus on the on the strength and get people to do things that good and passionate about because that way you get most amazing results. And then you're obviously part of that that community of speakers and Singapore's APS there as well, a great organization. What's the best piece of advice that you've received about building a life and a career as a professional speaker? I think I think the best piece of advice or the biggest wow moment for me was when very early into my speaking I wouldn't call it Korea then sort of after I'd left BMW and got my first two Three gigs of being on stage without actually considering myself a speaker, or without knowing what this whole world was all about, somehow, and I can't even remember how I got invited to an APS meeting. And all of a sudden, there were all these speakers and all these super nice people and, and all of a sudden, I realized, well, there's people who actually live off being a speaker, and it's a full on profession. And there was something. I mean, obviously, you know, the Tony Robbins and of the world, but that there's so many people who you create an amazing career around, it was something I was, I was just stunned by. And that was the first time that I thought, wow, this is actually a great thing that that I could do as well and that I actually want to do as well. So this was where that moment when once I had already set up my agency. I also thought, I also want to be a professional speaker. And that that moment was so powerful, and I started like Within the next week, I'd set up my first website of zanya deontic as a speaker, and it just it developed from there. I then took it obviously quite seriously to set up a proper speaker brand and not just sort of fiddle around and see where this was going, but to just properly set it up and, and be taken seriously. And within the first year of being a speaker, I had a lot of global gigs. I mean, I even spoke in the Allianz Arena in Munich, I mean, in an arena, me non footbath and never been arena. And all of a sudden I'm walking into the arena and I'm the big speaker there on stage. I mean, if you do it right, these things are possible. And essentially guys remember when you got that, that opportunity and you know random conversation about how to take advantage of a great opportunity like that where you're an amazing venue like that. What What advice would you give to someone if let's say they get the opportunity to go speak in a great stage where it doesn't have to be in an Rena, it could be just a really nice space. That look really good. What advice would you give to that? Okay, there's just one thing to say, get professional photography and videography. That's the only thing. I mean, yes, you've got to nail it content wise, you've got to be doing all the other things and bits and pieces, right. But for for a venue like this, I employed my own photographer, and I had a team of three people taking videos. And that is, I mean, just the photos that we took during that speech are worth so much in terms of positioning me as a as a premium top notch speaker globally. So get the right photography and videography. Now you're a very experienced traveler, you travel to all these wonderful places, take people to these wonderful places around the world. So I'm wondering, what is in your speaker bag, what is in that bag that you carry with you to all of your various speaking engagements that you never leave home without? Okay, my my my sort of pre packed little remote has a lot of little gadgets, but they're not very fancy. And I say that without being ashamed because one thing I have learned, the best camera is not the fancy one. It's not the super high end one the best camera is the one you carry in your pocket that you actually use. The best equipment is the stuff that you actually understand easily that you can hand over to someone else and say, shoot this without them having to do the degree for that to get it. So my equipment apart from my Leica camera, which I carry, but that never leaves my hands. My equipment is relatively simple. I've got my phone, I've got a cell, sort of a pro selfie stick. I've got a little little camera. I'm probably going to get another camera now. But it's nothing super fancy. It's just stuff that's easy to carry, easy to use, and that's not annoying to us because the moment it starts to get annoying, you're not going to use it and you have another A resource or a tool or a mobile app that you find invaluable to your life as a speaker now? No. I have not found I mean, obviously, I'm using certain different apps. I have not found one where I would go wow, that's an amazing app. For me the most powerful one is at sorry to sound so so funny is WhatsApp because that I communicate with my team constantly via WhatsApp. We share a lot of lot of materials through WhatsApp. I don't have the one great app that helps me as a speaker. Unfortunately, not. And what about a book if you could recommend one book to our listeners? It could be a book on speaking or it could be a book on the topic that you're really know about, which is this this unleashing unleashing people's potential. What would that book be? good books that I've recently read. Um, I really The book tech talks, very powerful one that inspired me at a very early stage of my speaking career. Um, I am you know what? When we talk about books, one thing, one thing I think I wanted want to add here, a lot of speakers globally, have written books, some more substantial than others. But what what I really want to put a focus on is, if as speakers we have that urge of also being published. Can we please all try to just be published with substance? I've been handed so many books that were slightly bigger than flyers that were created in very little time and you can you can you take a book and you immediately see that this is sort of a book that was done in two three weeks. I have to have Respect for quality. Ron Kaufman's uplifting service isn't New York Times bestseller. It is a new New York Times bestseller, because Ron knows what he's talking about that book did not happen overnight. So that's fun for me a big plea for the in the speaker community. Let's all create more valuable content and not just publish books because it's one of the things you've got to do as a speaker. Yes, sometimes that thing of just because you can doesn't mean that you should. You should you can publish a cheaply doesn't mean you should publish. And it might it might look not look nice on your website to say, hey, I've got a book. But when people then hold it in the hands and it's 25 pages out of which five have a commons with 17 typos on the first three pages. It ruins your brand as a speaker. It totally ruins your brand as a speaker. Now let's imagine you wake up tomorrow morning. Wake up, and I hope I do. You've always Singapore or wherever you are, we'd like to wake up in the morning, okay, but on the 64th floor overlooking Marina Bay since then you're going to wake up tomorrow morning as a great view. But you're gonna have to start from scratch. So now, no one knows you, you know, no one. But thankfully, you've got all the tools you feed all the knowledge you've acquired over the years. What would you do now? How would you restart things? Um, I would probably restart with an empty sheet of paper and a pen. I would start putting down the strategic steps that I've undertaken those last two years, I would probably get a great team right from the start. I would probably invest more into one or more I would invest because I don't have that at the moment. In a I would probably employ someone like you, someone who totally nail sales and online marketing and I would just get the Writing together and and just start building it, building my speaking career with the same content, but a more competent team right from the beginning. Well, Sonia, thank you so much for coming on today to the speaker's life. If people want to connect with you, about your Speaker Pro speaking programs, there are things you got going on, where's the best place for them to go and do that? Probably www zanya pyon tech.com and zanya is spelled with a j so sunjai young tech.com. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show today. I wish you all the greatest success with your speaking. Likewise. Thank you so much, James. It's been an absolute pleasure. #SpeakersLife #ProfessionalSpeaking

Today's interview is with Ron Kaufman, Founder and Chairman of UP! Your Service and author of New York Times bestselling Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet. Ron joins me today to talk about uplifting service, building a service culture, some examples of companies that are excelling at this and and why that's important that every company builds their own service culture. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Proactive customer service will pay back ten fold – Interview with Matt Lautz of Corvisa - and is number 132 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today's interview is with Micah Solomon, a speaker, consultant, and bestselling author on customer service, the customer experience, and company culture. He's also a fellow Forbes contributor and joins me today to talk about his new ebook (Your Customer Is The Star: How To Make Millennials, Boomers And Everyone Else Love Your Business), what are the biggest lessons that firms should be learning right now with regards to the rise of new types of customers and what actions they should be taking. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Compliments received are a leading indicator of service culture improvement – Interview with Ron Kaufman of UP! Your Service – and is number 133 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate and deliver great service and experience.

The world of sales is constantly evolving and what worked in the past, doesn’t work anymore which is why sales professionals need to keep on ‘upping their game’. I recently met up with my friend and customer service expert Ron Kaufman from Uplifting Service to discuss how sales professionals can use service as a differentiator. […] The post How Sales Reps Can Use Service As A Differentiator with Ron Kaufman appeared first on SOCO Sales Training.

In today's episode of The Speakers Life I talk with Moustafa Hamwi, speaker on passionpreneurship. Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher Resources Mentioned: Freeing yourself of location and time Buying a one-way ticket to India Seeking your purpose as a speaker Living a life to die for Launching an online talk show Marie Forleo Dr Marshall Goldsmith Doing 30 interviews in one day Co-authoring a book with Brian Tracey Speaker coaching in a taxi to Abu Dhabi You can't have a party on your own Collaboration Co-opetition Creating a culture of service Book: Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Getting Things Done by David Allen Tools: Omnifocus, Outlook, Calendly, Active Collab https://moustafa.com/ CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl029-how-to-launch-your-speaking-career-using-online-interviews/ Hey, there is James Taylor and I'm delighted today to be joined by Moustafa Hamwi. Moustafa Hamwi is considered as one of the world's top experts on the use of passion to spark creativity entice innovation and awaken the entrepreneurial spirit of a true leader. He has been ranked as one of the top 100 leaders of the future by the world's number one executive coach, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, as well as that he received the nickname as Mr. Passion by the great Tony Busan, who's inventor of mind mapping. It's my great pleasure to have Mr. Phone join us today. So welcome, Moustafa. James, and Hello, all the passionate listeners speakers out there. So share with everyone what's happening in your world today. Where are you in the world today? I am in Uzbekistan, in Tashkent, that's in the Central Asian Central Asian country. And currently doing some work with the government here on acceleration startup acceleration. Part of it is speaking part of it is coaching part of is actually me accelerating my own startup. And we're very close to closing a funding round on a on an epic startup. Amazing. So you've lived in different parts of the world, you were in Dubai, no for a long time as well, you know, as it is Pakistan, as a speaker who could pretty much live anywhere you wanted to why did you choose as Pakistan to use as your as your home base? Well, I mean, it has two sides with first side of it is my wife is was Vic, so that was a no brainer. He just come here, it's easy. But also what I realized for a global lifestyle, and and I talked about this in my book, Lyft, passionately, my upcoming book, you really need to know what's really important for you. So it's easy to say no to what's not important for you. And this way, your dollar gives you a lot more mileage also. So I know what I care for, I know what I don't care about, and everything else in between doesn't really matter. It's all customizable. So being somewhere where you're running expenses are very low. Where you You are not having to pay so much as the main major cities, I realized a big advantage because when I need to go somewhere, I get on a plane and go otherwise, most of my expenses are taken care of a lot lower costs. So that gives you options is that get a sense of freedom. You've seen you talk about passion. And I know a lot of something that that ties a lot of entrepreneurs and speakers is this sense of freedom having this kind of personal freedom is autonomy over how they spend their days and their lives. Well, if you want to be free, you have to free yourself from two things location and time. So as long as you can choose your location and time, the amount of money you need is not a lot. It's just about being smart on how to manage your dollars, which means what an entrepreneur that money goes into business. And then slowly, all personal expenses are becoming business expenses, and kind of you have a merge lifestyle. Of course, that's not for everybody. This is for somebody who truly knows their passion and really wants to live a what I call a lifetime die for you really well, because you got to really know what's important and what's not. That applies for personal life that applies to business. But when you apply to both, and you have clear decision making criteria, even yes or no or negotiations for business deal totally different. Now something we share, we actually share a number of things in common. The first is we both kind of came from the world events, live events. For me it was working with music industry and different password. I know you worked a lot in terms of nightclubs events in Dubai and and didn't pass to the Middle East. And then we made a both made transitions in our careers in terms of being speakers and we both did it pretty fast in terms of getting that first stage up. And something that you did very early on I know that can really help you get known in your field and amongst other speakers and experts was you interviewed 160 leaders, top leaders. First of all, tell me about that, that transition and making that decision to going through something as intense as interviewing all these top leaders. So let me rewind a little bit. I mean, you said I used to run one of the biggest event agencies in Dubai around up until about the crisis 2008 to 2010 and did some consulting and then bought a one way ticket to India on my soul search journey. Meta Swami did the whole kind of a you know, Eat Pray Love monk Who Sold His Ferrari journey without getting into the details. But that journey basically made me come back and seek purpose and seek something more meaningful in my life. Because in my previous life, it was all about the business. And it's great. And you know, events are great, but there's an emptiness at the end of every event. I finished the event and I feel really empty. I'm like all the fun and happiness is gone. And I realized what was missing for me is the impact that the events were leaving. I was in entertainment, I was product launches. I was doing nightlife events, and I was missing purpose. And when I came back, I did one talk called Cavalli to Minnelli about my journey of buying one way ticket leaving on my lifestyle going to India and coming back. And few months later, and that talk was just like one of those TEDx type events. And a few months later, random guy sees me in a hotel walks up to me goes, Hey, you're that speaker guy? I said, Yeah, he goes, you did your talk about India. I said, Yeah, he goes, You changed my life. And I was like, wow, that's what I want to be doing. And and from there on, I'm like, okay, I cancelled all the contracts that I had with me. I'm like, this is what I'm going to be doing full time I start speaking about passion about my journey, I realized companies didn't want to pay me to come and talk about how I bought a one way ticket to India. should have thought about that before I quit. Again, product market fit you you quickly found out that the thing you initially went out with it didn't fit wasn't as good for the market. So then you can have figured out what was good what the market like I mean, listen. Yeah. But here's the thing is I was driven by passion. Eventually I became Mr. Passion. So yeah, on a short term, on a short term, it was not a very good decision. But what it taught me is I was sink or swim situation. So I really had to figure out a solution. So it was a double or nothing, I was either either going to get screwed, go back to what I was doing, which I was not willing to do. I bought a one way ticket to India, I do skydiving for fun. So when you jump out of planes for fun, you pretty much got a couple of screw loose screws loose in your head, and you can really make some crazy decisions sometimes. So I decided I'm like, Listen, I'm I'm in it to win it. I'm not quitting on this, even if it costs me What's the worst that gonna happen? I'm going to die. Guess what I want. I want this is where the whole kind of my motto of life to die for came up where I'm like, Listen, I was fed up with my life one way ticket to India, I don't want to end up in the same situation again, I really want my life to be worth dying for. And if it's going to mean I'm going to die, not succeeding in this, I'm still not quitting on it. This was pretty much my goal. And I had to figure out what the heck am I missing? I'm working hard. My story is genuine. I know I'm here to serve people. I was driven by a guy who said you changed my life when I was a successful business died before but I'm unable to get this business off the ground. What am I doing wrong? And and then within a span of it. So there's a lot that contributed to that. And the first thing is I basically launched an online talk show, because when I started my speaking career, I was just emceeing for for as an opener it was it was a coincidence with with our friend Gautam Galanti right selection, and he had Marshall Goldsmith coming into the event. He was speaking at an event and the MC full class minutes. And he calls me and I said, Okay, you know what, I would love to do it. You know, he goes, Well, listen, we you know, this is pretty much type of the kind of brat co branding work or barter work. So if you want to do it, we're not paying because really an MC is not necessary. For us. It's a luxury event is already a free event. So we really don't accumulate costs and it doesn't need a professional MC. I said, So who's speaking he goes Marshall Goldsmith. I'm like, okay, but I have one condition. You give me five minutes to speak my own speech. So I'm not just the mouthpiece was saying welcome. Hello, everybody. I just want to add value for five minutes. You give me five minutes on the clock. It says fine. Five minutes is ok. I prepared for a full week for those five minutes. Like I've been a full week in not exaggeration as a for a full week. Well, I didn't have much to do remember at the beginning, I was struggling getting jobs also because my story wasn't resonating. And I wasn't really an MC. So I'm not. I'm not an MC, but I'm not a father speaker. And I'm like, boom, this happens. So this was I'm gonna blow this out of the house. There's nothing gonna stop me. One week of preparation, I made an opening that when Dr. Marshall Goldsmith came in, it was like probably the best best intro opening that ever happened in the room. And it was an instant kind of clicked phenomenal. We clicked and we flowed. He was I love the guy. I admire him. He's just a phenomenal thought leader. And that was my break into the speaking because what happened is people were like, Oh, we like this guy. So then then got done with call me the next time and he says, Listen, dude, people like you. Do you want to do this next event? Who's speaking? Oh, Ron Kaufman. Oh, next event who's speaking and with every event, my condition became I want 10 minutes. I want 15 minutes. So you see, I'm I gave my credibility because remember, you're talking to one of the top, you know, Speaker bureaus around represent the listener. So they've got to be really protective of their brands. So So I did all what I could do to make sure every time I'm getting more mileage with the audience and with the Bureau and with the speakers. So on the next but something was still not kicking in because only the people would see me in the room would figure out like, Okay, this guy's great. But I'm not getting that big media exposure around that you post on social media. This, I'm like, you know what, I'm a media guy. Originally, I'm a PR guy and events guy, I want to meet the idea. I'm like, you know what, I was looking ready for your Lewis house, all of them have, you know, interview shows, and so on. But actually Murray folio particularly, I like to be on camera. I know how to handle camera. And I'm like, I was standing there defense. I'm like, I've got Dr. Marshall. I can see camera guys in the back of the room that are already part of the whole Barker of the of the event. So it's kind of everybody's chipped in into the part of the event. I'm like Dr. Marshall, do you mind if I interview you on my show? He's like, Yeah, sure. What are we talking about? I said, passion. It was literally like this because I had transitioned from talking about purpose by buying my one way ticket to India, because that was too heavy for corporates, and I realized fashion is a little bit sexier. People like that a little bit more. So I started speaking about passion. And I'm like, Okay, well, passion is purpose for me. So that's part of my whole definition of fashion. Fashion is purpose so fine. You want to you want to call it passion, let's call it passion, but its purpose for me. And the interview was very unprepared. If you go do it now and watch it with this brief you would see it was literally Hey guys, I'm excited here to have we have Dr. Marshall Goldsmith number of goals number one executive coach and I just rolled on with it literally five minutes on the camera woman that was my first and I'm like, you know what I love this speakers are here. Everybody wants to transit Dubai, it's giving me a flow to put myself out there. And I insisted on my interviews being face to face. Because unlike the podcast, everybody's doing podcast, but not everybody's getting face time with these people. So this is going to be my unique point which is going to put me a notch everybody else was doing podcasts. I'm great on camera, they're loving it, boom, you know, immediate niche area. And then I started getting better and better at it to an extent where I started even traveling around the world to film and interview some of those and that I did to the APS SS Asia professional speaker summit. I flew there and I managed to figure out a way and I to eat interview 30 people in one go in one day. That's heavy duty. Someone is this done those types of things before 30 in one day isn't pretty intense experience if you're the if you're the host you're doing it doing the interviewing, here's the thing I thought I want to challenge myself I'm like maybe I got lucky I had too much coffee that they they were great speakers. And, and and the APS serve me in another way because I delivered the talk there. And and the speakers loved it. And a few of those speakers were on the committee that was running the global speakers summit next year in Oakland. So I get invited to deliver a talk over there also, for two reasons. One of them when I was at the APSS people are like, how long have you been speaking for him? You know, we've got Marshall Goldsmith, calling you world's number of you know, top hundred coaches and Mr. And Tony was on calling. I mean, a lot of those happened during my interviews, you know, my interviews gave me access to become close friends. And I'm NT of Marshall Goldsmith. I co authored the book with Brian Tracy, I got nicknamed mr. cash by Professor Tony bizarre, you know, the amount of of what I got out of those interviews, because I was truly passionate about them. It was not just another interview, I was coughing cash out of my pocket to travel and meet people face to face. So I end up on the global speaker summit. I'm like, I want to see if I can do that again. Can I hit my number again, I did. Again, I did 32 interviews in Australia, not to the global speaker summit. But at the Australia speaker summit. I did 32 interviews, again, which some of them became even my business partners and affiliates. And it was just a system. And this was my event site because I learned that one day as an event, from the minute to the registration, you know how you automate a lot of what we did? Well, I took that to the next level because there's physical interaction. reminders, SMS is guidance and the hotel directional signage is waiting area outside the room, having to having two computers with two chips, while the camera guy finishes with one interview me disconnects it so he doesn't run out of battery and other chips. So I basically spent a little bit more the needed on some costs, but that gave me 200% mileage. So I just know I do this, I can like go for a year worth of interview in 48 hours. And anyone watching or listening to this just now the point we want to get across is imagine if you did want to start with it in your area near you. In every area of topic. There's usually a couple of big conferences a year. What if you did a deal with that conference? And listen, I will be the messenger, I'll be Yeah, I'll be the consultant as part of this. And I'm going to do all these interviews and we'll give you you can do low bashing, even getting space. And we'll give a little bit of content that you can use for social media. And then we take the main the main content, and we can use that as well. So just really quick. And I guess this goes to your entrepreneurial nature. You're very kind of entrepreneurial thing that and I'll give you I'll give the folks are watching this. Another little hint into was DARPA's entrepreneurial nature. I was speaking in Dubai recently. And I was actually one night I was in Dubai one day, Dubai next day, I was in Abu Dhabi. And and you came along, we got a chance to meet and you're obviously your speakers, you remember as well above our speakers, you trade. And we were we were talking about Dubai, but you know, it's like events, they're really busy and like how can we how can we spend some proper time together and focus time together? I knew quickly I said, let's let's share cars together, head back to Abu Dhabi, which is about you know, 75 minutes drive or something. And so basically, together, we talked, we brainstorm for that 75 minutes, I think that's, that's that mindset of being open to being creative, to be innovative, to be open to trying different things and being can improvise ation, I think you're you're someone is very good at that. But something also I've noticed that you're quite different from a lot of other speakers out there. Most of the speakers out there are lone Wolf's me, you might call them. But you've always been pretty good at building teams around what you do to kind of support you and one of those is, yo yo yo speaking you have another part of your business as well, which is all around the publishing side. So describe to people you know that that publishing piece, what that's about and how that can support what you do and how you build a team around that. So we basically I mean, first or to your point about collaboration, I one thing I learned from being in the nightlife, you cannot have a party on your own. You know, it is unfortunate a lot of a lot of the speaking industry is changing. But there is a lot of it, as you said that everybody is in that lone wolf space, and they feel lonelier and lonelier. And they don't like it, but they don't know the solution. And the solution is just understand that the pie is big enough for everybody. The business is evolving. You don't know who's going to help you. And I like to call that competition. You know, yeah, we kind of compete, but it's a sport at the end of the day. I don't hate the person who's racing with me in the race. He's got a you know, good luck to the best Professor may the best women If not, it's a sport, you know, I win some you win some, there's enough for everybody. And we grow an industry, that's always been my thinking. And I come from that space. So in the in the journey of getting myself acknowledged, yes, the interviews are great for me. And the more I did, the better I did. And by the way, another use of all of this interviews is now we have a system where we distill those into books. So my upcoming book live passionately, is pretty much a distillation of those hundred and 60 interviews. Some people I actually interviewed twice, once one was about like Dr. Marshall I interviewed twice, one was about passion. The second interview, I actually did a spin off version, which I haven't released to the market yet, but 30 episodes around the world the secrets of the world's most passionate speakers, because I want to know how fashion contributes to making you a better speaker. So it's just that, you know, I already have in the pipeline. So many books out of these interviews, so much social media content, so much like it's been almost a year, I haven't added new content, because I have so much content that I can recycle and cut and chop and play. And with. It's an asset base, and I made some amazing contacts. So I'm like, one thing is missing. A lot of people have I mean, I have a differentiating factor on the video and the personal and the quality and all of this. But here's the thing. Still, everybody's got online content. Everybody's got videos, everyone's got podcast. So you you would it gives me an aha, when somebody sees this, these numbers and they see me next to them. But until they do your drowned in the crowd of internet of everybody interviewing everybody to be everybody, I'm like, I need something else to step up my game. So in one year, I became one of the acknowledged as one of the top hundred coaches in the world. Second year, I speak at the global speakers summit as always great. But there's something else that needs to set me apart. Because as you said, I got in there, I found the industry, not generally but you know, some people, some people not necessarily collaborative. And I'm like, Well, I'm used to working with people. So I don't know what to do, I need to stand out a little bit from the rest. And I realized all those major speakers were authors. And I had seen that Brian Tracy co authored books. So when I interviewed him, I'm like, perfect opportunity. I'm like, Brian, I love you know, I'm a fan of yours. We've been working, I've done a couple of times with him when he came with became very close friends. And I said, How can I co authored a book with you? And then he offered me a solution. So we worked on that collaborative book. And then I became an author. And that immediately took me from just a speaker, because yes, there CSP and all of that. But until you do it, anybody can call themselves a speaker. And I'm like, how can I take that a level up. And the book made me an author, and an author really requires you to produce a book, it's not as simple as calling yourself a speaker, although not all speakers are made equal. But an author gave me that step up above the rest of the speakers that were around. So it made it easier for a client to say, you know, what, if they haven't seen me live before, they would say, well, this guy's an author, he's a, I always say author equals authority. So then a lot of people started coming to me and saying, What's the for? How did you do your book, you know, and then we came up with ways of helping people. And next thing I found myself is producing those books for a lot of the speakers and experts and entrepreneurs that I worked around. And we have multiple solutions, where one of them we could take the interviews, if we structured and coach on how to run these interviews, pre planned, all of those get converted and become a book. And other solution that I collaborate with, with with another partner of mine who I met on one of my interviews where we do a recording system. So as a speaker can come to us give us a we work with them on creating a template, and a blueprint of the book. And then all they do is just record it using their iPhone. And guess what all we need is about five hours, that's not too much for a speaker, five hours of speaking would give you a 200 page book, if done in structured well. And this is something that we've mastered now by producing a lot of books using that analogy, and we do it turnkey. I'm like listen, if somebody is wanting to nickel and dime, they're not my client, I don't want to deal with them, I came up with a mentality of Listen, just put money in invest, if it's an investment, spending a few hundred dollars, or $1,000 more is not going to break the bank. You make money by being on stage, you make money by being an entrepreneur. So really don't haggle. Let us do our job. So I can pay everybody very well around me in the teams that I'm dealing with. So they can give you an internet service. You come to us, you work with us on an idea. Six months later, you have a book printed and delivered to your doorstep wherever you are in the world. And we set up an author page for you. And we set up videos and we do the whole shebang. So thank you solution. So this is really the two things that differentiate us is the fact that we can take your words and convert them into a book in a systemized process. And we do it very cost efficiently, very fast and end to end. So you don't have to worry about the little details. I think something else that you pointed out there. I mean, I love the idea of this competition. And I am a huge believer in that as well. Not just in the speaking but from other business I've been involved in as well. I'm a big there's, there's, there's more than enough business out there followers. And it's about how we build a UC boat, you know, increases the size of the pie. But in doing that you also wreck it you're recognizing who your kind of ideal customers were you said, I want to be what we saw in this nickel and dimed. I remember talking to you before, obviously, there's there's lots of solutions out there for people go to work with a publisher to publish whatever it is, yeah, I mean, there's all there's services out there. But you've picked up something which I think is is definitely strong in the in the Middle East, like places like UAE, and also in number of other countries as well. And when you're working with more C suite people as well, they want a service, they don't want to be going in there setting up their Amazon KDP accounts or you know, all these kind of things that you have to do. They just say, I just want to hire the best, I want to be able to work with that. So you've identified your, your place in the market, your ideal type of customer there as well. And yeah, there's other people out there that let the competition have have them I that's not the customer that I'm I'm trying to go for as well. I'm just pulling back a little bit to your your speaking side, though. So you've been building all these things, the video side during that branding that way, you've been, obviously, publishing pieces, going back to the actual the core of the speaker and getting up onto those stages can tell us about a time when you, you you out there, you're giving a speech, you're working on something, and you put everything into it, for some reason didn't work out like you'd hoped. And more importantly, what was the lesson you took from that experience. So you're talking about every single event know you're living in a dream world of everything goes according to plan. But I've been doing events in different angles, whether on stage or off stage for about 20 years, another single time it goes according to plan. I mean, it goes perfect to plan and something else goes wrong somewhere else, you know, some odd guy opens the door and walks through halfway through the presentations. There it is, is something that's the fun. But I had I had a couple of of good learnings to say on my journey being being a perfectionist, and being so passionate and wanting to always stand out. And what I do, I kind of complicated my life a little bit with the quality of the presentations that I deliver from a fact that they're a little bit more complex that require everything to be theatrically organized. So everything has to be exactly where it's meant to be because I put so much energy and passion to it. And it's more like kind of a show on fire I'm putting it in. So I need a pretty much full production team for something like this. And this is something at this scale, when you go up is what Tony Robbins does. He's got a he's got a front of house team, you know, maybe 2030 people in the back room. It's a rock rock concert type of production. So because of that my presentation runs in an order where I speak in a certain way. So I need my computer in a certain position and I need certain connections. So yeah, talk about being a prima donna in a way. But that definitely makes a huge impact on my business. And at the beginning, I first year, always still but first year, I had almost zero error margin on everything had to be perfect to the point. And guess where the biggest mess up always happens is not relating to you relating somebody else. So you know, somebody from the technical team thought they knew better. Although I asked for something, they provide something else and, and I have a they're like, oh, I'll give me your presentation. I'm like I'm running on a keynote on a Mac, you're running off a PC on PowerPoint, you're talking to me about two days worth of work of redoing a full presentation to give it to you with the animations and everything. It's not going to happen now. I lost my temper and kind of a bit, you know, started kind of yelling at the AV guys and everything. Because it was a big project for me. And they kind of screwed up royally because I was going to go on stage and be below average to see my presentation is not functioning, the the transitions, the fonts, the colors, everything was out. And I had spent a lot of time and money on this. So in a way, that was not really good because it also caused a bit of tension and friction around and of course, the client came and interviewed and he was apologizing. But it brought a lot of unnecessary tension and friction. So I kept on trying to develop a detailed technical writer, then I realized the guys never read it, then I started adding up on the bottom you have to sign I want to know who's the actual person and get their number. So I can call them in on that density or myself. But the end of the day, I'm like, well still messed up. So eventually I'm like, you know what, I started transforming a lot of the things that I started carrying my own stuff, you don't have an HDMI cable, I have a 10 meter HDMI cable wherever I go, you don't have clicker, I have four or five clickers, I have all the adapters, I have all the card readers, I pretty much carry a very heavy bag when I go but I'm like at the expense of losing the energy and the flow. And I made it now something that's a KPI for me that the experience for everybody involved in the event is great. So so and that that became apparent on when a few clients recently the Pfizer didn't invent for Pfizer and buckle in as our vision. And they send me an email. And that was for me like, yes, it took me a couple of years. I'm like, what, what is it that you enjoyed, he says, we got amazing feedback from everybody that was available not only about your talk, the experience of your you being with us in the event from beginning to end, you You came before you stayed after for lunch, you talk to people, the whole experience. And that was a big aha, because you know, evolving from being just about the speaking were fine. I mastered my craft of, you know, putting myself as one of the top in the world in what I do and what I deliver. But then I started moving horizontally as a business and saying, What's my customer experience? And this is something I've benefited when I interviewed Ron Kaufman, you see the value of these interviews is not only about media, when you're doing it with old heart, you're learning you're sitting with the world's best of the best looking them in the eye and asking straight questions. Those hundred and 60 interviews made me a different person. And I evolved from being just a speaker just thinking of myself as a business. And I'm like, what's my customer experience from the beginning? They want to book me to the, to the minute they finished everything. And yes, sometimes the technicals are not going to go perfect, but I've made up for it in so many ways, my speaking is already above average, I'm happy there, let's not complicate it and use the energy in other areas. And essentially, I mean, that that you're absolutely like creating that entire experience. So when the teams after the event when they all do their debriefs as well, and so you know, the speakers Mustapha, yeah, fantastic, you know, really delivered, and also great, because he came in before, and he was speaking to the sponsors, and all that kind of that actually all adds up to a huge amount. And I think when it comes to technology, I'm the same as you I'm, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a lot of things. And so I carry my pad with me, my bag goes with me all the speaking gigs, even though it adds all the weight to the luggage we carry. And I 100, I had to kind of make a decision because I was getting more and more levels of complexity in the types of presentations I wanted to give, and you get certain places I'm in Saudi Arabia speaking recently. And it just that AV team just going to happen. No, it would affect so I've actually moved completely back the other way. And simple, you know, very simple fonts as well, because that's, you know, especially if you're moving back and forth between Macs and things, I can get screwed up sometimes. And I've actually been going a little bit more more minimalist and then trying to then in terms of presentation, the visual presentation is more minimalist. So I can then amp up the actual me the me bit on stage and interaction with the audience. And so yeah, so it's a it's funny, that blend about what's right for you, because sometimes you can go to those events. I spoke at one last week. And abt were awesome. Like, they were just component like, everything was like we knew it before we needed it. But then that's no. But remember, early on I, I didn't know what I didn't know. And the only but I was playing was as a speaker. So really, my goal, you know, I had a certain goal. I'm like, I am going to be one of the best in what I do. Not only because I'm you know, I believe I'm a good natural born speaker, but also their skill you see in passion mastery I talked about you know, there's there's talent, there's knowledge and their skill. A lot of people depend on talent and talents is not not enough. Talent can make you hustle, but you don't play top. You don't play top sports. And you know what I learned this, I did an interview with Tasha Denver's she's a two time Olympian, US Olympian team. So on one of my interviews, she said, she said, she said, you know, in Olympics, everybody's good. You know, it's like, Who do you think you are, you're competing for a split second. So really, it's a it's about a lot more than just how good of a runner you are, there's so many other things around it. And, and being a great international speaker is a lot more than just being a great speaker. It's how you I've seen it, you know, I this is why I love we flipped. Well, it's like, the system ization and how you conduct business as a business not just as a speaker, and funny coming from an events guy and a serial entrepreneur. But at that time, I wanted to build my skill set as the talent as the speaker, and I got it to somewhere my learning is to the other speakers is that try to look at what else represents you as a business person. And what other touch points because it's not only about speaking, it is about you delivering an experience end to end with your speaking because you're brought in to be an inspire a trigger, a provocative thought leader. So really, it's not just about what you say, or how you say it. And it's not just about what happens on stage. What are you giving away, for example, I started throwing in a lot of freebies, online courses, book stuff. So really think about how do you engage to develop fans while you're speaking not just while you're on stage. So a couple of final questions for me. First of all, what if you do recommend one book, your author yourself, but not one of your books, a book that could help any speakers watching this on your developing their craft on the business or mindset? What would that one book be? Very good question. Well, aside from my books, obviously. But if you see, I believe that the Bible of personal development for me is Think and Grow Rich, you can you can never, you know, you can never go wrong with that. It's you study it, you read it, you think about it, because everything that's there makes you a better leader in your own life in every aspect. And when you're at that level, the same thing, when you go to a level where you're playing International, it's not how good of a speaker you are, when you go to a global speakers summit, and you're mingling with all the great speakers, you think, okay, I'm better than this. And this, but this is better than me and this guy that this and this guy did that. So really, you have to find the totality of you are and be so congruent as an inspirational figure, not as an inspirational speaker. Because it's not just about delivering the message, it's about your energy, when you come into the room, what energy do you bring in when you arrive? I'm like, I'm buzzing all the time with this passion that what I'm coming in is the fashion not because of a video or not because of I made it my niche. I'm living it with everything that I'm doing. And I'm so passionate about. So if somebody wants to make themselves Mr. or Mrs. Organization, they very freakin organized in every aspect from the minute you touch every email with them up until after that. And this is where the biggest gap, I believe happens. And this is not going to come from reading a single book about skill set. This is going to come from reading things that create you as a greater person. There's a lot of books that I can recommend. But I'd say anything that you feel enhances you. Productivity wise, I would definitely suggest getting things done by David Allen because you cannot run a successful business. If you don't know how to manage your time solo printers and entrepreneurs or speaker printers, small organizations efficiency is a make or break deal for you. And am I getting things done? When it comes to tools? Are there any tools that you use apps online tools? Do you find very useful for the work? You do? Yeah, I do. I mean, basically, in conjunction with getting things done, by the way, because these tools mean nothing's like a knife if I give you a knife, but you don't know how to fight with a knife. So so the tools that I use is I use only focus as a to do list system and I use Outlook for my emails and folders. Whichever calendar whether Microsoft Outlook or icon, I can leave this is mainly how I manage everything and it has to sit somewhere. It's the way that I make these things work together is where the magic is the connections as well as the way when we set up a system with everything gallantly Of course you can go wrong, you know, Kalonji? absolutely lovely, how much time without what other recommend is active cola. Yeah, active cola was a very simple was base camp is very similar to base camp, depending, but use one of them. One thing a lot of speakers don't do is actually they don't build it as a project business. And at the end of the day, this business model is pure time. And the more time you waste per project, the more messy things happen, your business falling apart. That's great. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming on today on to the show. If people want to connect with you learn more about you as a speaker, but also maybe learn about the publishing side, the passion printing and publishing and maybe working together on a book. where's the best place to go to find out about all of that, so everything they can divert to everything by coming to my website, monster for.com. That's mousdafa.com talk about personal branding. I went for my name.com that was a that was a six month negotiation. So what's the dot com and then from there, they can either go to the services and look up for fashion printer publishing or just go to fashion printer publishing.com and they will learn more about the books but if they want just email me fellow speakers, I'll take care of you personally. So email me directly. My email is Mr. Mr. Father's concerts drop me a line and I would love to support anybody that comes speakers, you will make sure they get a phenomenal deal on the on their publishing packages. Number one, because they came through you for sure not and fellow speaker you members, but also because of the competition concept that I say, you know, you need more you need bigger, bigger, bigger, more professional speakers that have the business card that that that make themselves stand out from the rest of the speakers is the same as a CSP. You know, CSP stands out from other speakers and an author would stand out from other speakers. So I want to create more of those. Welcome, Stephen, thank you so much for making that offer to everyone that's watching just now. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I wish you all the success. We are speaking I'm looking forward to it will be sharing a stage I'm sure at some point in the future somewhere in the world. And have a wonderful, wonderful week. Thank you very much. The thanks to you and to all speakers, you fellow members. How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I've just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world's best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it's an online summit You don't even have to leave home plus it's not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you're going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world's best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you'll get access to archived interviews from some of last year's summit guests. So in total, you'll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You'll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now. #SpeakersLife #ProfessionalSpeaking

Mohsen Arjang completed a bachelor of science degree in industrial economics at Allameh Tabataba’i University in Iran and then started his work as an economic journalist at a local newspaper. Following that he continued his career as a foreign commercial manager at prominent corporations. In 2013, he started his own business as a digital marketing and branding consultant, working with enterprises, municipalities and city councils (engaged in city-branding projects). He established in 2016 the Iran Market Monitor (IMM) group, a leading consultancy with the mission to analyze the Iranian market and provide business solutions for corporations. His international experience includes presenting the “Urmia City Branding Project” at the 12th Metropolis World Congress 2017 in Canada and speaking at the World Wealth Creation Conference 2017 in Singapore alongside respected speakers such as Brian Tracy and Ron Kaufman.   “Do research and get help from specialists in the field in which you are planning to invest.”  Mohsen Arjang    Worst investment ever Two friends involved in the automotive industry approached Mohsen in 2014 to collaborate on and invest in a new production line imported from Europe to make accessories for a car that had achieved great popularity in the Iranian market. While it was a new area for him, his friends had already started to produce one line of the parts and wanted Mohsen to invest in the raw materials, because they had the equipment already. Since he had known them more than five years and had already witnessed their considerable, he trusted their presentation and the facts and figures they showed him. All evidence supported the hope that the business would grow quickly in the near future and the car model’s sales were increasing. He thought there would definitely be good new ahead. We started to buy more raw materials and they built a better mold for the accessory. Orders start to come in for the partner’s cheaper parts Not long after, the partners started to face huge demand evidenced in a large number of orders from customers. This was happening because of the popularity of the car model and our product cost. As the trio were buying large volumes of raw materials, they were able to negotiate better deals and improve their competitive advantage in the market. Further, their production costs were among the cheapest in the industry. Fortune turns as new model of car hits the market, draining their sales However, after three months a brand new model of the same car was launched and sales of the model for which they were supplying accessories started to fade. Although their sales were not dropping sharply, they could see a steady decrease. After six months, their sales had been halved. As a result, the team could not afford production costs because the price also continued to decrease. Mohsen and his partners were astonished about what was happening. Hard call made to stop production Finally, they decided to stop production. From the onset, as they had failed to anticipate this change in their future, they were ill-equipped to adapt their plant to the new accessories for the fresh car on the block. Mohsen lose the whole of his investment. Once bitten, twice shy, but the healing power of logic emerged The ensuing emotional damage was that the experience made him extremely conservative in the years to come, unwilling to take any risks. But as time passed, he realized he should be more logical and not limit myself. Instead, he realized he should do more research and use the expertise of specialists. He realized also that if investors isolate themselves and only take a well-worn comfortable path, they put themselves in a state that is opposed to progress. Some lessons Avoid entering a new market, one that you’re unfamiliar with. If you do, you should do so armed with extensive research and guidance. Mohsen believes he should not have made the decision to invest based solely on his friends’ proposal, but should have done a lot more research and gained advice from experts. Forecast possible futures and prepare yourself for the worst scenarios. Mohsen and his friends were “absolutely certain about the margin” but decided perhaps far too emotionally to move ahead with the plan. Andrew’s takeaways It’s very difficult to fully anticipate what is coming in a given industry. This is true enough for the businesses we’re involved in because we’re so close to them. Andrew has looked at many businesses in his time and most of them don’t look into their customers with perhaps sufficient depth, which means many could be exposed to a similar type of risk. Actionable advice Follow your heart but take your brain with you. “Do research and get help from specialists in the field in which you are planning to invest.” No. 1 goal for next the 12 months Mohsen is planning to expand his business in the Middle East, focusing on Oman. He believes his team are going to see opportunities opening up there because the region is another milestone for development in the World economy. He aims to see his company’s presence in the region grow in a more powerful way and that the next 12 months will see it take the first promising steps to that end. His operation will also focus on the Canadian market. Parting words Mohsen wishes good fortune for all listeners.   You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points   Connect with Mohsen Arjang  LinkedIn  Twitter   Website  Email   Connect with Andrew Stotz astotz.com  LinkedIn Facebook  Instagram Twitter  YouTube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast   

Customer service expert Ron Kaufman once said, “Delighted customers are the only advertisement everyone believes.” No one’s going to believe you or care when you toot your own horn. But when someone who’s not compensated by your jewelry brand tells other people how much she loves your jewelry, that means something. One way to boost your marketing efforts is to focus your time and attention on social proof. Check out the accompanying blog post here: https://joyjoya.com/2019/05/26/how-to-use-social-proof-to-boost-your-jewelry-marketing/

New York Times Bestselling Author Ron Kaufman has built an international reputation as an expert on customer service. Yet his passion for service goes far beyond a transactional exchange. In this high energy and thought-provoking conversation, Margie and Ron unpack what it means, and what it takes, to live life in service of others. If you’re ready to be inspired… listen up! 

Excellent customer service is vital for business growth as cliché as it may sound. Being one of the most important elements in sales and marketing, it needs deep focus and expertise, even in the consulting arena. Ron Kaufman, ranked as the number one customer service guru in the world by Global Gurus, knows the drill. As he dives into his journey from managing Frisbee festivals to exploring and winning in the consulting and speaking fields, Ron provides knowledge and insight for consultants on mastering sales conversations, building valuable relationships, understanding the concept of “service,” and learning to productize your product. On top of that, Ron discloses that the unique approach they use in Up! Your Service is now up for grabs. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Consulting Success Community today: consultingsuccess.com

Excellent customer service is vital for business growth as cliché as it may sound. Being one of the most important elements in sales and marketing, it needs deep focus and expertise, even in the consulting arena. Ron Kaufman, ranked as the number one customer service guru in the world by Global Gurus, knows the drill. As he dives into his journey from managing Frisbee festivals to exploring and winning in the consulting and speaking fields, Ron provides knowledge and insight for consultants on mastering sales conversations, building valuable relationships, understanding the concept of “service,” and learning to productize your product. On top of that, Ron discloses that the unique approach they use in Up! Your Service is now up for grabs.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here’s How »Join the Consulting Success Community today:consultingsuccess.com

Excellent customer service is vital for business growth as cliché as it may sound. Being one of the most important elements in sales and marketing, it needs deep focus and expertise, even in the consulting arena. Ron Kaufman, ranked as the number one customer service guru in the world by Global Gurus, knows the drill. As he dives into his journey from managing Frisbee festivals to exploring and winning in the consulting and speaking fields, Ron provides knowledge and insight for consultants on mastering sales conversations, building valuable relationships, understanding the concept of “service,” and learning to productize your product. On top of that, Ron discloses that the unique approach they use in Up! Your Service is now up for grabs. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Consulting Success Community today: consultingsuccess.com

Ron Kaufman is a Senior Advisor in the Public Policy and Regulation practice at Dentons. He focuses on providing government affairs services to public and private sector clients nationwide. Mr. Kaufman is a highly experienced political strategist who has served as a senior advisor to US Presidents, Governors, Members of Congress, and a host of elected and appointed officials at every level of government. After having helped lay the political foundation for his successful 1988 presidential campaign, Mr. Kaufman served in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, initially as White House Personnel Director and then as Assistant to the President and the White House Political Director. Previously, Mr. Kaufman served President Ronald Reagan as Regional and then National Political Director of the Republican National Committee. Most recently, Mr. Kaufman served as a senior advisor to Governor Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. In addition to his distinguished public service career, Mr. Kaufman has served as chairman of a leading multidisciplinary government affairs firm in Washington, DC. Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show.  Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at: Jim@theLobbyingShow.com Follow The Lobbying Show on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for weekly updates about the show, our guests, and more.

On today's Daily Dose, we talk about the first ever Digmi Personal PopUp Shop that we hosted last night - and share a quote from Ron Kaufman who asks us the meaning of our product to the people who are buying it.

U.S. Customer Experience Guru Ron Kaufman on his journey to Singapore.

Customer Experience Guru Ron Kaufman on how to improve service to maximise profits. 

In deze speciale jubileum aflevering van Over Klanten Gesproken heb ik één van 's werelds grootste service goeroe's te gast: Ron Kaufman. We hebben het over hoe je een klantgerichte cultuur bouwt in je organisatie.

Op de dag dat deze aflevering live gaat, 13 oktober 2016, bestaat Over Klanten Gesproken precies één jaar! Wat cijfers: 25.000 luisteraars, honderdduizenden pageviews op MarketingFacts en CustomerFirst, 31 aflevering, consistent in de top 10 van zakelijke podcasts in Nederland en een 5-sterren rating op iTunes. Ik ben ongelooflijk trots en ook gelijk wat sprakeloos […] Het bericht OKG 31 – jubileum aflevering: ’s Werelds grootste Service Goeroe Ron Kaufman verscheen eerst op Sydney Brouwer - Spreker Klantgerichtheid.

Jason Drohn has been marketing online for 8 years, working with hundreds of businesses and thousands of entrepreneurs through his courses and done-for-you services.  He's best know for his ‘quickest path to cash' strategies where he cuts years of testing and development out of his client's lives, and delivers sales funnels that that are both automated and profitable Ron Kaufman the world's leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service and building strong service cultures. He is author of the book Uplifting Service and fourteen other books on service, business and inspiration Dr. Robert Kriegel  NY Times bestselling author who US News and WorldReport called one of the country's leading authorities in the field ofchange and human performance. He has been a commentator on NPR'sMarketplace program and done two specials for PBS. Bob has alsotaught at Stanford's Executive Management Program and been a majoraccounts executive at Young & Rubicam Advertising. A former All-American swimmer, Dr. Kriegel was the cofounder of thecountry's first sports psychology institute and has been a mental coachfor Olympic and pro teams. The New York Times said his work “spurreda revolution in performance practices.”  His books include the international best sellers Inner Skiing,If it ain't broke…BREAK IT! and the Business Week best seller,Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers. His most recent books arePerformance Under PressureandHow to Succeed in Business Without Working so Damn Hard Chris Martenson co-founder of PeakProsperity.com; developer of the educational video seminar series, “The Crash Course,” and author of "THE CRASH COURSE: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, And Environment

UP! Your Service Founder and Chairman Ron Kaufman has helped companies in every continent of the world for over two decades to build a culture of uplifting service that delivers better business results year after year. Ron is a sought-after educator, consultant, thought-leader and customer service speaker on the topic of achieving superior customer service.  We talk to Ron about making the most of our unique talents, skills and capabilities is a must if we want to live a fulfilling life. He also shares the challenges he and his family have overcome to create an inspirational life. Enjoy!

Most entrepreneurs try to maintain more than 50% shareholding in their startups. They don't want to lose control, they want to maximize the money they will make. We discuss why the founders of most successful startups end up with less than 10% shareholding in their own companies and are happy about it.; we discuss why Uber will overcome the challenges and become a $100 billion company: Where to for Drones?....they will change the way we do business in so many ways…commencing in 2015; What's with AT&T's takeover of Direct TV… a smart move or the death rattles of a dinosaur; Facebooks new App, Slingshot, competition to Snapchat which is now a lot more than just a pest. We also discuss a new entrepreneur in Australia that is about to save citizens of the 500,000 population Gold Coast region a massive $40 million a year in fuel bills, they are our entrepreneurs of the week; where you should be spending your advertising dollars and how to make those decisions. We also have our extremely popular email segment and an excellent interview. We talk to Ron Kaufman, world's leading authority on customer service, author of 14 books, whose new book ‘Uplifting Service' is a sensation. Making transformation his mission, Ron is one of the world's most sought-after educators, consultants, thought-leaders and customer service speakers on the topic of achieving superior service. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today.

Chances are that in the next 10 years movies will have a very short theatrical run before they go to your watch, Smartphones, PC or tablet and from then on you may be paying according to the size of the screen; tablet shipments on the wane; Samsung to one up Apple in the mobile health space? And shopping cart abandonment is on the increase. We also discuss why small businesses should use social media… the five primary reasons; and is giving away free samples of your product a good marketing strategy. We also have our extremely popular email segment and an excellent interview We talk to Ron Kaufman, the world's leading authority on customer service, author of 14 books, whose latest book ‘Uplifting Service' has been a huge success. Making transformation his mission, Ron is one of the world's most sought-after educators, consultants, thought-leaders and customer service speakers on the topic of achieving superior service. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today.

Moe Abdou inteviews Ron Kaufman, world's leading educator and motivator for uplifting service and building service cultures.

Today's show discusses; it's not the size of the budget, but the size of the idea that counts; teenagers whose ideas have made millions; the need to upsell; why you need a mentor; getting people back to work; conducting a SWOT analysis; obtaining low cost, expert advice for small businesses.