Podcasts about service corps

the Service Corps of Retired Executives donates time to entrepreneurs.

Get More Mileage from your Gas Tank! https://www.getmoretank.com/ Save 10% with code SGT   The actionable information shared in this interview has the power to change your life for the better. Activist and researcher Christopher James returns to SGT Report to expose the income taxation scheme, NWO service corporations masquerading as governments, breakthroughs in light technology medicine which is curing people with chronic pain, and much more. Don't miss this one. Thanks for tuning in.   RELATED LINKS: MasterPeace: The HOLISTIC supplement for a toxic world https://masterpeacebyhcs.com/?ref=4094   TAXATION IS THEFT http://tinyurl.com/2p9b7xcb   Dr. Nixon: https://drdavidnixon.com//1/en/topic/can-you-identify-me   Breakthroughs In Light Medicine: Treating Dementias And Pain http://tinyurl.com/3eue83rc   Firefly technology: https://balesphotonics.com/ https://www.bitchute.com/video/kyGoQplsoiWI/

The Chicago Youth Service Corps is a year-round program run by the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services to provide paid opportunities for youth ages 16-24 to engage in community service, project-based learning, and leadership development. Catholic Charities is an authorized agent, working with a non-profit called Future Ties to enrich the lives of 60 participants in this program. Join Phil Zepeda and Katie Bredemann as they welcome Johnita Lindsey and Jennifer Maddox to discuss all of the progress made in the Chicago Youth Service Corps since it was started in 2020.

Dr. Paul Dillon, a Certified Management Consultant with more than 47 years of experience in the professional services industry and a U.S. Army Reserve Veteran who served in Vietnam as a 1st Lieutenant and was awarded 2 Bronze Star Medals. Paul is also an Adjunct Instructor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.In todays' episode Tyler and Paul talk about:  What are the characteristics that make veterans great entrepreneurs; What's the current landscape regarding veteran entrepreneurship today; and What resources are available for veterans who want to start their own businesses.Veteran Led Incubators—Bunker Labs  https://bunkerlabs.orgThe “Launch Lab Online” program  https://bunkerlabs.org/launch-lab-online/ Veteran Led Accelerators—Vet-Tech  http://vet-tech.us  is the nation's leading accelerator for veteran-owned businesses.University Programs—Syracuse University's Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities  http://ebv.vets.syr.edu  is one of the most extensive programs in higher education for veteran entrepreneurship.Community Colleges—Community colleges around the nation offer veteranentrepreneurship courses and programs, typically through their small business development centers.Government Services—The SBA's Boots to Business programhttps://www.sba.gov/sba-learning-platform/boots-businessOnline Resources—The Warrior Rising VeToCEO programhttps://www.warriorrising.org/vettoceo-business-accelerator/ The American Legion Entrepreneur Video Serieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b41aCjXB-MICommunity Based Organizations—SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives Veteran Fast Launch Initiative https://www.score.org/content/veteran-fast-launch-initiativeCoding Bootcamps - Code Platoon in Chicago https://www.codeplatoon.orgSupport the showThank you to BetterHelp for sponsoring today's episode! Coming Home Well listeners can get 10% off by visiting betterhelp.com/cominghomewellFinancial Aid is availableVisit our webpage at cominghomewell.comGet the ammo you need to seize your day at Soldier Girl Coffee with an automatic 10% off at checkout!Follow us on our socialsYouTube @cominghomewellmilitaryInstagram @cominghomewellorganizationFacebook at Coming Home WellLinkedIn at Coming Home WellTwitter @ComingHomeWellThank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!

“Fun translates into good performance.” The four things every marketer should know before starting their career: Find a skill (channel) that is the most fun to do. Then specialize. Specialization brings money. Specialization solves hard problems that matter. You take this even further by also specializing in a specific industry (e.g. I specialize in marketing for fintech and insurance orgs at the moment). Understand the business you're marketing. Do your best to think like the CEO. Find an excuse to meet other experts. Personal branding is the easiest way to grow your network of mentors. Create a swipe file. This is not a new or novel suggestion, just one that works. There's a reason other marketing experts do this! Key moments from marketing experts: Mark Stouse, Episode #93 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/mark-stouse-defining-a-recession-proof-career-things-to-know-as-a-new-cmo-ep-93/ Steve Toth, Episode #99 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/steve-toth-understanding-in-seo-can-lead-to-exponential-growth-ep-99/ Jacob Warwick #91 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/jacob-warwick-how-your-career-narrative-can-help-you-become-a-vp-ep-91/ Maya Grossman, Episode #84 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/maya-grossman-the-career-advice-you-need-if-you-want-to-be-a-marketing-leader-ep-84/ Sara Pion, Episode #86 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/sara-pion-navigating-the-startup-world-as-a-new-marketer-ep-86/ Lea Pica, Episode #81 - https://kennysoto.com/podcast/lea-pica-using-data-storytelling-to-spur-action-ep-81/ My “swipe file” of favorite marketing newsletters: Nik Sharma's DTC newsletter - https://www.nik.co/subscribe Why We Buy - https://customercamp.co/newsletter/ Dave Gerhardt's B2B Marketing Advice - https://dgmg.davegerhardt.com/email The Marketing Brew - morningbrew.com/marketing//r/?kid=9f1e7657 Stacked Marketer - https://www.stackedmarketer.com/friend-recommended/?utm_source=sparkloop&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=sm_daily&rh_ref=2b82a0e9 SEO-specific newsletters I use for work include: WTF is SEO? - https://wtfseo.substack.com SEONoteBook - https://seonotebook.com Jeremy Moser's newsletter -https://www.jermoser.com Other marketing podcasts to subscribe to: Exit Five - https://open.spotify.com/show/0OJJbQlcUlHiLSvNZoJTYf Marketing School - https://open.spotify.com/show/1NulSGKhstJuty8iYPBMo5 Marketing Against The Grain - https://open.spotify.com/show/3bMqKPfI45OmTK5hENtIOk *Quick editing note: I got the acronym for SCORE incorrect! It's actually the Service Corps of Retired Executives. I ended up clipping that audio out of this episode. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode of the YouthDownSouth Podcast we talk about all things SSC (Salvationist Service Corps). To learn more, visit https://www.youthdownsouth.org/  

Comments, Suggestions on Topics or Questions You'd Like Me to Address on the Podcast? Leave a Voice Message Here ______________________ Who doesn't want to retire happy? There's no magic formula. You have to determine what the key ingredients are for you. But there are clues that can help you discern what will lead to happiness and satisfaction in your retirement life. And one thing often leads to another. For Carol Colburn, a big one has been travel, and that's led to new pursuits in writing and photography. She shares her insights on a longer list of the keys to a happy retirement. Listen in. It just might unlock your ability to retire happy in your own way. Carol joins us from Arizona. _______________________ Bio  Carolina Esguerra Colborn had a distinguished career in Philippine business before migrating to the US in 2004. She was former President/CEO of BayanTrade, e-procurement hub of the Philippines; Managing Director of SAP Philippines; Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue; General Manager of MegaLink, the ATM transaction switch of banks, and Vice-President of the Development Academy of the Philippines, the government consulting arm. She also worked for Andersen Consulting, IBM and NCR. Twice a recipient of the Most Powerful Women in IT Award, she represented the private sector in the National Information Technology Council. Carolina settled in Seattle, Washington where her eldest daughter lived. While babysitting a grandson, she also taught as adjunct professor in business at Seattle Central Community College, Central Washington University, and Renton Technical College. She even volunteered at SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, as a small business counselor and lecturer on marketing. In 2007, she met Bill Colborn and married him a year later. Soon he sold his business, and they embarked on a five-year cruise of North America in an RV. She not only soaked up great American sights in forty-nine American states, nine Canadian provinces, and six Mexican states, but also became deeply immersed in American culture and history. Within the cozy confines of a 350-sq. ft. motorhome, life lessons came as fast as scenes changed. In 2015 this epic journey was chronicled in her travel book Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream. This year she released a handy booklet, Cruising in an RV. the basics you need to know, for those looking to start RVing. This will soon be followed by her second travel book, Cruising Past Seventy. It's Not Only about Outer Journeys. It's Also about Inner Ones. She continues to maintain a travel blog, Cruising Past 70, several posts of which also have been republished elsewhere. She also writes bimonthly for travelawaits.com, an online travel magazine. Bill and Carolina now use Phoenix, Arizona as a base for their travels within and outside the US. From there, she has traveled to thirty-eight countries. She holds a BS in Mathematics, MBA, and DPA abd from the University of the Philippines. _________________________ For More on Carol Colburn Cruising Past Seventy: It's Not Only about Outer Journeys. It's Also about Inner Ones Expert Contributor Articles on TravelAwaits.com Blog  Website _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson The Power of Fun – Catherine Price With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra Cooking Up a Storm in Retirement – Chef Dennis Littley __________________________ How to Win Your Own Retirement Game  Thank you for making Win the Retirement Game a #1 Amazon Bestseller (in a few categories). Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org Here's what readers are saying: "A wonderful guide for the soon to be or recently retired..." "Definitely the best book I've read on the non-financial aspects of retirement." "The storytelling format makes it fun to read,

Host Tricia Pritchard sits down with Russ Hearn to discuss how a group of  business mentors are helping people start or grow their businesses.Get FREE Advice from Business Experts | SCORE

The return of Kelsey Davis, today representing Blue Ridge Service Corps, on behalf od the Diocese of Western North Carolina! Sermon begins at 16:22.

Today we learn about the new Indian Youth Service Corps program; Honolulu Civil Beat takes a deep dive into the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council; volunteer manpower helps cull over a million coconut palms on Palmyra Atoll; Manu Minute features the long-billed shorebird, Kioea; local filmmakers create a screenplay focused on the five local young men involved in the 1930s Massie Trials.

Sydney Leardi catches up with the 2021-22 Alumni Service Corps members Alex Campbell, Haley Guinasso, and Jeffrey Pelayo. Find out who loves Harry Styles and more about next year's Alumni Service Corps.

The image of Korean citizens helping their allies during the Korean War by hauling supplies on wooden "A-Frame" backpacks remains one of the enduring symbols of the Korea-U.S. alliance. The people in those black-and-white photographs were part of the Korean Service Corps, which remains a critical element of the alliance, and is connected to 19th ESC through the Korean Service Corps Battalion. On this episode, we speak with the leadership of the KSC BN, Lt. Col. John Cooper, MSG James Clevinger and Mr. Yi, Chin-U. During our conversation we do another round of 50 Meter Targets Questions (7:55); explain the wide ranging mission of KSC BN (12:45); the experience of working with Korean allies (18:55) and what it's like to work and live on Camp Humphreys (25:45). Don't forget to subscribe to the Every Soldier Counts Podcast so you don't miss a single episode, and follow the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command on Facebook.

Episode 270: Acquiring An Entrepreneurial Business Acumen, Part 4 of 4 Last week, we left off with Jim Conn’s longtime friend and mentor, Dick Harper, a clinical psychologist, helping Jim implement an open-book management system at BW Integrated Systems. Jim worked closely with the owner, Mark Johnson, to grow revenues from $7M to $13M with 60 employees. People, products, and performance continue to be the company’s success formula as an industry leader in designing and manufacturing end-of-line packaging equipment and robotic automation solutions and the execution of integrated packaging systems. The open-book management system was the vehicle that empowered employees to be accountable and educated in how their efforts contributed to the bottom line. After five years and a heartbreaking departure, Jim does something completely different. He and Anita return to where his childhood venture began, Alexandria, MN. For six years, Jim does odd jobs as a contract pilot and becomes primary caregiver and executor-manager of his parent’s estate, as the eldest of six siblings. His parents needed day-to-day care as their health declined and helped in managing their estate. To do this, Anita and Jim bought a cabin and year-round home in Alexandria. Around 2007 and after his parents passed away, Jim meets a retired financial executive from 3M while working as a SCORE counselor (Service Corps of Retired Executives). SCORE is a non-profit organization founded in 1964. It has the largest network of volunteers in the U.S. Members of SCORE are current or retired business owners and corporate executives who specialize in various business skills. The SBA partners with them to build vibrant small business communities across the country through free consultations, mentoring, and education.  The Great Recession hit in 2008. Jim describes his journey to becoming a 20% owner and managing partner with Thawzall, LLC, a Glenwood, MN company purchased by Tamarack Industries in 2018. They provide ground thawing and space heating equipment for the rental and construction market to keep builders building year-round. One usually doesn’t factor in an economic downturn before it happens when you perform due diligence on a venture opportunity. Jim found that out with Thawzall, LLC. His last venture before retiring was a short stint with the aviation company Tanis Aircraft. Jim intended to buy the company but used his investment monies to keep Thawzall, LLC afloat. He retired in 2012 after a year with the company. A tragedy occurred in 2017. Anita and Jim’s only son, Brian, dies from an opioid overdose at age 42. A big trauma like this takes years to untangle as a parent, and complex questions that arise can never be answered with satisfaction. Jim reflects on Brian’s spirit and kindness in helping others, how he could have been a better father, and what his two daughters, Laurie and Jackie, are up to. You will learn how Jim is volunteering as a pilot with a purpose and his four takeaways from a 60-year entrepreneurial career in eight ventures (Angleworms and catching frogs for Norm Lund at Lund’s Bait Shop at age 8 to Lakeside Spraying from 12 years of age to 18. Wood & Conn Corp., Rice Lake Weighing Systems, BW Integrated Systems, Streamfeeder, LLC, Thawzall, LLC, and Tanis Aircraft). You can follow along as Jim talks about each lesson. Jim’s Four Entrepreneurial Life Takeaways: Everyone needs a mentor, even if you feel you don’t need one. You need one, especially when times are tough. Proactively reaching out is never regrettable with so much help available. Jim says, “if I had the skills to manage emotional difficulties, I probably would have been richer in all areas of my life.” How do you measure success? Business acumen and emotional intelligence. The ready, fire, and aim approach didn’t work well for Jim. He suggests building your business acumen and emotional intelligence together. Choosing the right venture based on the marketplace vs.

This podcast is part of a three-part series on the various parts of the Tech New Deal. This episode explores the necessity of digital service in the U.S. How do we establish programs that improve upon the tech pipeline, while at the same time, ensuring that we have enough workers to nourish and grow our burgeoning broadband networks and services?Further, how do we ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate to make national service an over-arching bridge builder as we make our way out of this pandemic and the more prominent racial divides that we are currently experiencing?In this episode of Tech Tank, Nicol Turner Lee speaks with Amanda Renteria and Nick Sinai about a digital service corps. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Resources: SCORE Website: https://www.score.org/ (https://www.score.org/) Find a SCORE Mentor: https://www.score.org/find-mentor (https://www.score.org/find-mentor)  SCORE Resource Library: https://www.score.org/content/browse-library (https://www.score.org/content/browse-library) Browse SCORE Workshops: https://www.score.org/content/take-workshop (https://www.score.org/content/take-workshop)  Book: “https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Writing-Successful-Business-Step/dp/0989946037/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=hal+shelton&qid=1600207903&sr=8-1 (The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan That Gets Results)” by Hal Shelton (not an affiliate link) SCORE & Len's Contact Information: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SCOREMentors (https://www.facebook.com/SCOREMentors) Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCOREMentors (https://twitter.com/SCOREMentors)  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/score_mentors/ (https://www.instagram.com/score_mentors/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SCORESmallBusiness (https://www.youtube.com/user/SCORESmallBusiness)  Email: Len.Johnson@scorevolunteer.org In this episode, I talk with Len Johnson, who enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam era, trained as a photographer during his service, became an entrepreneur after exiting the military and then decided to give back to the entrepreneurial community as a mentor for Service Corps of Retired Entrepreneurs, also known as SCORE. Listen in as we learn about SCORE from Len!

This week John and Jess discuss John Lewis' legacy and a potential future National Service Corps. Hear about our personal experiences with service corps and the positive history of service corps in our country. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Guest homilist Megan Laney shares her experience over the past year with the Seattle Service Corps. During her service, Megan worked with the Seattle Seafarers Center.

On this episode of “Learning Curve,” Caputo sits down with Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir to discuss the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the work the Administration is doing to support testing capacity during COVID-19.

Laney and Emily of the Seattle Service Corps describe what it’s like to live in intentional community with the other corps members, what they do in their service organizations, and what they’ve discovered in their time at Saint Mark’s.

We are talking about volunteering with a Legionnaire who knows something about that subject. We will talk about how volunteering helps the community, the Legion, and the volunteering veteran. Simone will also remind us that these things are important for the entire Legion family. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dalydose/message

Podcast Episode 02 In Episode 02, I talked about coaches and how they have helped me.  Without help, I would not be where I am today.  This episode is not a how-to lesson on getting started in voiceover.  I’m just sharing my story. My first motorcycle was a Honda Shadow VLX.  Now, I drive a BMW C400X scooter. I took the Basic Rider Course through the Ohio Department of Public Safety.  Some call it the “Motorcycle Ohio Program.”  motorcycle.ohio.gov  I like structured programming that is organized into bite-sized chunks, experienced teachers, hands-on training, and peer support.  Facebook Groups and accountability buddies are helpful.   For anyone making a career transition or learning a new skill, keep an eye on what is working and what is not.  Have clear goals, and recognize when something isn’t a good fit.  The right coach can really help, and it’s ok to revisit missed opportunities at a later time.   My first business coach was Sandra Wharton at the Women’s Economic Opportunity Center at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center in Ft. Wayne, IN.  I found her on the Small Business Administration’s website in June 2017. I starting working with Marty and Jack from the Northwest Ohio Chapter of SCORE in April 2018.  SCORE stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives.  To learn more about the Northwest Ohio Chapter of SCORE, visit northwestohio.score.org.   I trained with a voiceover coach named Nancy Wolfson January-November 2018.  To learn more about Nancy, visit braintracksaudio.com.  Jonah Rosenthal at the Global Voice Acting Academy (GVAA) helped me set up my Blue Yeti USB microphone. His Audacity webinar helped me learn how to record, edit, and produce MP3 files.  David Rosenthal taught the group medical and technical narration class I took through GVAA.  To learn more about GVAA, visit globalvoiceacademy.com. To learn about Hillary Huber, visit hillaryhuber.com.   To learn more about Jeffrey Kafer, visit audiobookmentor.com.    Sean Pratt is my non-fiction audiobook narration coach.  To learn more about Sean Pratt, visit seanprattpresents.com and check out his YouTube video, “So…You want to be an audiobook narrator?”  https://youtu.be/NPzPi-_0Xi8  I met Dr. Erin L. Albert at the Medipreneurs Conference in April 2019.  To learn more about Dr. Erin L. Albert, visit about.me/erinalbert.  Dave Jackson is my Podcasting Coach.  To learn more about Dave Jackson and the School of Podcasting, visit schoolofpodcasting.com.  Joe Brookhouse got me started with Studio One.  To learn more about Joe, visit voicework.me.   Don Baarns is my audio engineering coach.  His webinars are titled, “Studio One Jumpstart,” “Studio One Advanced,” and “RX Jumpstart.”  He runs Facebook Groups for Studio One and RX.  To learn more about Don, visit redbaarnsaudio.com. As, I transition from pharmacist to voice actor, I like to find people I trust and listen to them.  I’m human, though, and I do make mistakes.   Beware the illusory truth effect (“validity effect,” “truth effect,” or the “reiteration effect”).  People believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure.  I like evidence-based decisions.  When learning something new, find experts.  Do research.  Don’t make major purchases or decisions without thinking them through.  It’s not a race.  I’m 2.5 years into my journey, and I’m still not where I want to be.  To learn more about the Cleveland International Motorcycle Show, visit https://motorcycleshows.com/cleveland.   

Adam Conley: Directing the Service Corps  Adam Conley tells us about how he got started in the Episcopal Church, his journeys through England and Saint Paul’s in Seattle, and how being the director of the Seattle Service Corps is a kind of homecoming for him.

NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) is mandatory on all graduates in Nigeria. Also known as a National service year, it is a one year scheme for skill acquisition, established by the government on 22 May 1973 to involve Nigerian youths in the development of the country. On this podcast episode we invite Mr. Akinremi Quadri, the overall best graduating student of the University of Ilorin 2017/2018 session, B.Sc. Food science. Akiremi Quadir recently completed his NYSC program, where he served in Ebonyi state; Abakaliki, of the Eastern part of Nigeria. He shares his experience here with us on this episode #06 of Fertile Podcast, to prepare the fresh graduates on the challenges to expect, scarcity of resources, opportunities, and more benefits that he discussed on this episode Enjoy!

The SCORE association (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a non-profit association with 389 chapters in locations throughout the United States. Local chapters provide free counseling and low cost workshops in their communities.The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) Chapter 68, is a locally-chartered volunteer association and resource partner of the Small Business Administration.  SCORE Memphis offers free and confidential counseling to start up businesses and existing small businesses that seek advice.  SCORE Memphis serves the Tennessee counties of Shelby, Tipton, Fayette and adjoining counties in Arkansas and Mississippi.How did you get involved with SCORE? A little about the backgroundWho benefits from SCORE?Other basic information: How big is the chapter? Does it have an office in town?Big events coming upHow can people get in touch to request a mentor, check the workshop schedule or even volunteer?Learn more:  https://memphis.score.org

NYSC is for graduates after school to show their selfless service to the community ,it's involves people of different backgrounds ethics. Which is amazing but is the drilling compulsory, plus please better food and accommodation. Get the queue for registration moving fast!!

This week we welcome former Tyson House resident Will Root to tell us a little about his experiences in teh Episcopalian navy! Thanks for tuning in.

This week we welcome former Tyson House resident Will Root to tell us a little about his experiences in teh Episcopalian navy! Thanks for tuning in.

The case of Laquan McDonald, a black teen shot by police officer Jason Van Dyke who was still on the beat despite numerous citizen complaints and investigations, continues to rock Chicago and the country with similar examples. Activist and Torah scholar, Aryeh Bernstein, explores what the Torah has to say about accountability for law enforcement, how the existing police contract is antithetical to it, and why it's so vital according to our tradition that we get this right. Filmed at Repair the World: Detroit. Aryeh Bernstein is a fifth-generation Chicago South Sider with extensive experience in Torah education and organizing progressive Jewish communities. His primary employment is with Avodah, as Director of its Justice Fellowship and Yo'etz Ruach of its Service Corps in Chicago. He is also Educational Consultant for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, where he organizes on police accountability, Founding Director of the Hyde Park Teen Beit Midrash, Staff Educator for Farm Forward's Jewish Initiative for Animals, and Coordinator and Teacher of Mishkan Chicago's Social Justice Beit Midrash. He was previously Mechon Hadar's Director of Recruitment and Alumni Affairs and an Editor-Translator for Koren Publishers' English edition of the Steinsaltz Talmud. He has taught at Drisha, the TAKUM social justice beit midrash, and campuses, communities, and organizations around Israel and the U.S., especially Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, where he co-founded and co-directed the Beit Midrash Program and Northwoods Kollel. Aryeh is a Senior Editor of Jewschool.com.

How to give away expertise for free and make good money doing it Talking Points Selling more in less time without pushing How having a mission can help you strategically The roles that writing a book can play in a business How to give away expertise for free and make good money The importance of a good mailing list One way to constantly be in creation mode Quotable Quotes "I didn't sit down one day and decide I wanted to be well-known."—JK "How can I help these people and not go broke?"—JK "People in the consulting business fundamentally think about sales in the wrong way."—JK "Sales is a skill. If you don't learn it, you can't create a sustainable career."—JK "Sales is not pushy. It's consultative."—JK "Your clients don't want what you have to offer. They want outcomes."—JK "I'm well aware that my books are the lifeblood of my business, but that's not why I write them."—JK "About 15 years ago, I asked myself 'How can I give my expertise away for free and make good money doing it?'"—JK "I have passed up a significant number of revenue generating opportunities."—JK "It's all about creating a conversation with someone you want to reach."—JK Guest Bio After an award-winning sales career in the technology and services sector, Jill is now an internationally recognized speaker and sales strategist. She’s a bestselling author of four books—Selling to Big Companies, SNAP Selling, Agile Selling, and More Sales Less Time. Recently, LinkedIn named Jill as their #1 Business-to-Business Sales Expert citing her 1/3 million followers. Salesforce selected her as one of Top 7 Sales Influencers of the 21st century. Plus, she’s featured in the just-released “Story of Sales” documentary. As a consultant, Jill has worked with companies like IBM, GE, and Staples as well as many mid-market firms. Her expertise has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, ABC and Fox News. To sum up her career, Jill is constantly searching for fresh strategies to enable sales success n an ever-changing business environment. Related Links Jill's Website Jill's LinkedIn Selling to Big Companies Transcript Jonathan S: 00:00 Hello, and welcome to the Business of Authority. I'm Jonathan Stark. Rochelle M: 00:04 And I'm Rochelle Moulton. Jonathan S: 00:05 Today, we're joined by Jill Konrath. After an award-winning sales career in the technology and services sector, Jill is now an internationally-recognized speaker and sales strategist. She's the best-selling author of four business books, most recently More Sales, Less Time. LinkedIn has named her their number one B2B expert, and Salesforce selected her as one of the top seven sales influencers of the 21st century. As a consultant, Jill's worked with companies like IBM, GE, and Staples, as well as many mid-market firms. Her expertise has appeared in Forbes, Fortune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Inc, Entrepreneur. The list goes on. We're super happy to have Jill with us today. Jill, welcome to the show. Jill K: 00:46 Hey, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. Rochelle M: 00:49 Jill, I just have to comment on your big idea on your website, which kind of sums up everything Jonathan just said about you. Sales Accelerated. Yeah! Love it! Jill K: 01:00 I do, too. In the niche that I'm in, it's about how do we make more sales and do it in less time. How can we make it faster? To me, it's not just faster, it's really about how do we have a better conversation that's more focused on the customer. That's what makes it faster, not just push. Rochelle M: 01:21 Love it! Before we get into all this, maybe for some of the members of our audience who might be experiencing you for the first time, will you tell us a little bit more about who you are, how you work, what you do? Jill K: 01:35 Who I am. I am a sales consultant. I have been in the sales field pretty much my entire career. I never wanted to be in sales. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but they told me when I brought my business plan into SCORE, Service Corps of Retired Executives, that it was a really good idea, and then they said, "How are you going to sell this?" I looked at them. I thought, "I thought you said it was a good idea." They said, "It is, Jill, but somebody has to sell it," so I said, "All right. I'll go into sales for one year. I'll learn everything there is to know and then I will get out of it." Anyway, I never left. Jill K: 02:14 I found it to be fascinating and totally different than I thought it was. I assumed most salespeople were slimy, manipulative con artists like you see on TV or the movies. I found out that, in the business-to-business field, salespeople are intelligent, creative, concerned about their customers, focused on their customers, trying to help them make good business decisions that enhance the quality of their work, and it was fun. I sold directly for a few years, like eight years, and then I actually started my own company, working as a consultant and did that for a long time, specializing in a very specific area of new products. Jill K: 03:01 Then, my business crashed. I got totally wiped out because my two biggest clients came under pressure from Wall Street at the same time, and it took me a few years to get going again. I had to reinvent myself, and in the new iteration, I became me that people see on my website, which is not what I was doing before. Rochelle M: 03:20 One of the things that's so fascinating to me, Jill, is that it feels like from the outside looking in that you've made some interesting pivots in your career. What made you start your own business? Leaving Xerox had to be a big deal. Jill K: 03:36 I actually went into technology sales after Xerox. What caused me to start my own business was really, I have an extraordinarily low boredom threshold, and I'm a really rapid learner. I would throw myself into every new sales position, quickly learn it and, as soon as I learned it, I was no longer interested in it, which is not a good career choice then if you're constantly leaving as soon as you get good at something. Jill K: 04:08 What I discovered was that I had the ability from a consulting perspective to go into massively complex situations, challenging business environments, and assimilate a whole lot of information about the buyer, the product, the sales process, the marketplace. I was so good at rapid learning, I could assimilate that all quickly and put it into a structure that would help my clients be more effective faster. I became a consultant, really to satisfy my need for continual interesting and challenging projects to work on. Rochelle M: 04:48 I get you. I was thinking as you started to say that, "Well, gee! That's the definition of consultant." We keep creating our new assignments. Jill K: 04:58 Yes, it's all about creating your new assignment. To me, to find a niche and to go off to the niche and to build it out and to get good at it and then to continually have new projects feeding me all the time, it was like, oh, I was in heaven as a consultant! Rochelle M: 05:14 That sounds familiar. There's a description you have on your website, and I'm not sure why I hadn't seen it before, where you describe yourself as going from a quiet, unknown consultant, which I think some of our listeners might relate to, to this recognized international authority. Jill K: 05:36 Yeah, I know. Rochelle M: 05:38 I'd love to hear more about how you did that. Jill K: 05:43 Let me just say, it was step by step and it wasn't part of the game plan. It was never my intention to be where I'm at today. I didn't sit down one day and say, "I want to be well known, and I want to have four best-selling books." I thought I wanted to write a book, and all I had to say in the whole wide world could be encapsulated in 60,000 words. Then, I wouldn't have another thing to say in my whole life. What happened to me is, I sort of got caught in a couple mission type of things in my mind that I was on a mission to do things. Jill K: 06:18 There was, at one point when I very vividly remember one year where all these conferences had all these bald white guys speaking. It was like all these male sales reps that are older and bald. I was like, "Where are the women? Where are the women? There's 20-30% of the sales force is women. They need women sales models." This is my, my quiet person out in White Bear Lake was doing good work. I said, "Ann wrote a book. Why doesn't she become more visible. Susan wrote a book. Why isn't she more visible." They didn't want to be more visible. They just wanted to write a book and disappear and do their work again. Jill K: 06:57 I finally went, "Oh, crap! It looks like if the women need a visible person to look up to, that it's going to have to be me because it seems to be that I'm the only one on this bandwagon. It's like, where are the women? Where are the women?" That became a responsibility of mine. I actually felt a very strong responsibility to be a role model for other women in sales because I had so desperately wanted to see women when I was growing up in my career, so that was one thing that happened. Jill K: 07:31 I sort of got hooked into another idea, too. I did a pro bono project. It was to help a magazine that served the small and medium business community, and I discovered through that what was happening with entrepreneurs and other consultants and people in small businesses and how they were trying to grow. It seemed like there was always a bottleneck that they were running into that they didn't know how to sell. I mean, they reach a point where their business can only grow so far, and they're just working so darn hard for the amount of money that they're getting that they go back to the corporate environment. Jill K: 08:06 I just thought, "That's terrible! This is a sales issue. How can I solve this? These people don't have a pot to pee in. They can't afford me. I'm used to the corporate rates, and they can't afford me, so what can I do to serve these people and not go bankrupt," which was a driving force of mine. This was back 10, 15 years ago. For months, I spent 80 hours researching things, and I couldn't find an answer. I kept saying, "How can I? How can I? How can I help these people and not go broke? How can I help these people and make some money." Jill K: 08:41 One morning, I literally woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and a voice in my head spoke to me and said, "Thou shalt create a website called Selling to Big Companies, and your tagline will be Helping Small Companies Win Big Contracts." I saw the whole thing. It was just like it came to me in just a bundle. I created just in time content for people, and I just created this really nice website, put the website up and I'm so excited about it! I put the website up, and it's got this great content for consultants and people like me who I know how to help. The day the website went up, I went, "Oh, my God! I have just created a wonderful website and not a person in the whole world knows it exists except me." Jill K: 09:28 I devoted six months entirely to creating the website and writing content and putting stuff up. I mean, literally shut down my business to do the website. At that point, I went, "Well, I better figure out how to become known because this is a website to help these people and they don't know, so I have to become more visible." That was the other impetus to become visible out there in the world. One thing led to another and, I guess, once I dumped everything out of my brain in my first book, a few later, new ideas started creeping in. Jill K: 09:59 Because I saw another problem that wasn't being solved out there, I had to tackle that problem because it was challenging to me, and I like messes. It's messy, so I had to tackle that problem. Once I figured out what would work, then I thought, "Well, I have to write a second book," so I wrote SNAP Selling, which is all about how do you sell to busy buyers who are too busy to talk to you on the phone or talk to you about going ahead with the project, and then they never get back to you because everything else is going on in their company. Then, I thought I'd said everything I needed to say. Jill K: 10:35 After I wrote SNAP Selling, that book, people said to me, "Jill, this is really good. It's really helping me get in to see these people. It's helping me keeping the conversation going, and now we're closing deals, more projects." Then, they'd go, "But," and it was like this 'but' was a huge 'but'. It was, "But, I'm crazy busy, too. What do you have for me?" I looked at them in horror, and I'd say, " Oh, I haven't a clue! I'm going nuts just like you are!" Jill K: 11:05 You know, you keep hearing that long enough, and then that might create a brain starts working in the background, so I think, "I know one thing that can help with this. I know one thing. I know how to do rapid learning. I know how to get into a sales job and get up to speed fast because that was what I did with all my consulting work, quick emersion, pick out the salient points, and how to align them so you can figure out what to do," so I wrote a book on that called Agile Selling, which is how to get up to speed fast in a new sales position. I thought I was done, that I'd said everything I needed to say. Then, I was still crazy busy myself and miserable. Jill K: 11:44 Finally, one day I woke up and said, "Well, this is no way to live." Maybe I should study that and how I can change my life so I'm not going nuts all the time. I studied that and, of course, every time I figured something out, I'd feel this compelling need to share it with the world, so that's what I did. Rochelle M: 12:05 Are you working on number five? Jill K: 12:07 I am not right now, no. Rochelle M: 12:10 I can't wait to hear what it's going to wind up being. Jill K: 12:13 I have no idea. I have to wait for the problem to emerge. I don't have a problem screaming at me right now. The biggest problem and challenge I have right now is I'm selling my house and downsizing, and I have three weeks to get out. Rochelle M: 12:28 Cool. Jill K: 12:33 That's all I'm thinking about right now. Rochelle M: 12:34 That's huge. Thank you for making the time to talk to us in between. Jonathan S: 12:39 Your story, sort of the way you punctuated there at the end with you're waiting for the problem to reveal itself, that really speaks to sort of dogfooding your own material. I'm a huge fan of the Selling to Big Companies book. I recommend it to students all the time, and it's all about that. It's starting with what's the benefit, what's the value proposition, what is the ... Don't talk about your competitors and how you're different from your competitors. Talk about the status quo and how you're different from that. Give it to them in tangible terms that define business outcomes if you're selling to businesses. Jonathan S: 13:21 It's one of those sort of slap yourself in the forehead types of things when you read it. It's like, "Well, obviously!" I believe that it stems from that, like what's the problem? Hopefully, it's an expensive problem. People have this big expensive problem, the kind of thing they're losing sleep over, and then when you stumble ... Obviously, your radar is finely attuned looking for that kind of thing, so I think a lot of people just sort of zoom right by them and don't pick up the signal. Rochelle M: 13:57 I'm not sure. Yes, my radar's really tuned because I've been in the sales field a long time but, what I think is really going on for a lot of people who are in the consulting business is they think about sales the wrong way. I mean, they fundamentally think about sales the wrong way, which is the used car. I got to talk about myself and tell them about how unique I am and my wonderful services, and then they feel like frauds because they don't feel unique, and they don't think that their services are really all that different, and they hate blathering on and on about how wonderful they are, so they don't feel good about that. Then, they don't want to sell. They'd just as soon just keep doing projects, but the reality of it is, if you don't learn, and sales is a skill, if you don't learn and tackle it as a skill, you cannot create a sustainable career. You have to look at it directly and say, "It's a skill. I can learn it. Other idiots are learning it, too, and they're no better than me. They just figured out how to get work and, if I can focus on that, I'll do fine." Rochelle M: 14:58 You have to realize that it's not pushy. The best salespeople are consultants. I mean, they're consultative in their nature, and they've learned how to take a consultative process that they use with their clients and move it into a sales methodology about understanding the business issue. Anybody's who's doing consulting is working on an issue. That's why they're there, so the challenge is to stop talking about, "Oh, we have this really unique methodology that we just love" or, "We're so creative." Rochelle M: 15:28 It's really talking about the issue and what they can't do, what they want to do, and what they're going to have trouble doing because of how they're currently set up as an organization, the methodologies that they use, everything that you could look at that could be a problem. If somebody would realize that selling is really consulting and get off that, "I hate selling! I hate selling" bandwagon and just say, "Look, I am really good at this, and I want to be able to do this with my life. I want to have a sustainable income. I need to learn the skill, and I need to approach it as a disciplina- ..." Jill K: 16:00 I need to learn the skill and I need to approach it as a discipline that just is part of running a business. Rochelle M: 16:06 Yeah, I think a lot of consultants get kinda tossed around with this idea of their process, because as a soloist you typically have to have some expertise and you have to have a process on some level that you follow, and so the typical consultant things, "Well, I've gotta tell the client about my process and there's 17 steps and it looks like this." Jill K: 16:24 Oh God, let's complicate things, 17 steps and a busy buyer will go, "OH my God, 17 steps." You know, and then they'll be intimidated and bored. Rochelle M: 16:36 Exactly. It's focusing on outcomes and Jonathan and I both, you know we preach that to the heavens. It really is as simple as that, when you think every consultant and I grew up in a big consulting firm, so I learned the selling piece, consultative selling in relationships early, and once it becomes a natural part of who you are, you can't turn it off. Jill K: 17:03 You can't, right. Rochelle M: 17:04 And that's a good thing. Jill K: 17:05 Yes, it is a good thing, because being consultative it's a wonderful skill to be able to ask questions and figure out where the issues are and then to be able to step back and think, "How can I help it?" You know, that's what sales is too, and if you can take and just reapply those same skills that you have that make you a good consultant, you can get business, but you gotta get over yourself, you know and that you hate it. Rochelle M: 17:30 Yes, and the 17 step process. Jill K: 17:33 Oh, God no, nobody wants your 17 steps. All you need to talk about is how do you get started. Let me suggest this as the starting point, you know, we have other things we can go on, but here's basic starting point what we have to do to get going on this project. Rochelle M: 17:46 I hear you. So what I'm wondering is, could we talk about your business model for a minute, Jill? Jill K: 17:52 Yes, we could. I mean I have an evolving business model, cause my business has changed dramatically over the years. Rochelle M: 18:00 Oh, I'd be amazed if it hadn't. I mean, one of the things we talk a lot about on this show is different, creating digital products and books and obviously books are a key part of your business strategy, I mean you've got four best selling books in 12 years, so we all know that's a huge investment in time. I'm wondering if you can walk us through the role that books play in your business model. So just as an example, some people think of books as really a standalone revenue stream and they look at books as, you know I need to make money from this book and this is my plan and it's a revenue stream, and others say, "Listen, the book is really more about feeding my speaking business or my consulting business, it's a calling card. And I don't worry so much about the revenue from the books, what I look at is how it supports the other things that I do." Jill K: 18:56 Yes, so that's what you wanna know about my books, how I look at my books mostly? Rochelle M: 19:00 How do you think about them, I'm curious? Jill K: 19:04 Okay, how I think about it is different from both ways that you described it. Rochelle M: 19:08 Good. Jonathan S: 19:08 Perfect. Jill K: 19:09 So we have plan C over here and plan C is, I like puzzles and problems, and I like to figure them out. And every time I figure them out I have a compulsive need to share the answers with people, so I write books. Because what good does it do if I know the answers and have ideas that can make a difference to a whole lot of people, so to me it's a mission driven thing to write the books, I'm compelled to write the books. However, let me say the big however. However, I am very well aware that they are the lifeblood of my business. But I don't write them for the money and I don't write them exactly for getting the business, I write them because they need to be written. Jill K: 19:55 Because I have tackled an issue that people are facing and that I know that they're facing and that they can help people. So that's why I write them, but because I'm a salesperson at heart, you know, I truly do understand that there will be great payback, but it's not my driving force. I mean, I've written some books that ... I mean I actually wrote a book in 2008 for people on how to use selling skills to get jobs when the stock market crashed, or not stock market, but the whole economy crashed, I put a book out there for free. Why? Because people needed to know that you couldn't just go onto Monster.com, you know and put your resume out. They needed to know that they could target companies they wanted to work for and go after them and create job opportunities on their own. Jill K: 20:40 So I wrote a book and just gave it away. Jonathan S: 20:43 Yeah and that's sort of a good segue into the absolute wealth of information and variety of formats that you have organized on your website. I mean it's almost overwhelming, you have it organized very nicely so it's not overwhelming but it's just a massive amount of information. Jill K: 21:02 Yes, okay so here's some of the things that you need to know. I have said before that I'm on a mission type thing, and I feel compelled to do this, you know write the selling to big companies book, put stuff out there. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I can't remember exactly in the time frame, I said to myself, "How can I give my expertise away for free and make good money doing it?" Which is an interesting question to pose. Cause it's doesn't sound like there's an answer. How can I give stuff away for free and make good money doing that? Jill K: 21:40 And at that point I didn't know the answer, but one of the things I've always done is I've posed the question to myself, you know, like I said, how can I help these small businesses who don't know how to sell and don't have any money, how can I serve them? And you know, my brain works on it for three to four months and suddenly one day the answer miraculously appears. So anyway, I did I posed the question, How can I give away my expertise for free and make good money doing it? And a few months later a company contacted me about writing an e-book and they said, "We will market it to the VP of sales." Which is my target demographic and I knew that their technology, you know, it was good for them to bless my work and for me to create an e-book for them. Jill K: 22:29 SO I wrote an e-book for them, put it out there and three months later D and B called, Dun and Bradstreet called and said, "We saw this book that you wrote for this company and we would really like you to write an e-book for us and we'll share it with our readers." And you know, for Dun and Bradstreet to say that it was pretty cool, right? I mean, again, they had a division that was going after VP's of sales, my target readers. And so we talked and kinda focused on what the e-book would be like and I'm talking an e-book probably of two to three thousand words, just for context for people. And they would do the design of the e-book and I would simply do the words. Jill K: 23:05 So we got done talking, had honed in on the topic and then the lady from D and B said to me, "How much do you charge for this?" And now I thought I was doing an e-book from a pure marketing perspective and when she said that I stopped and I said to myself, "Oh my God, people pay for this kinda stuff." And so I said, "3,000 dollars." And she said, "Oh, we can afford that." Okay, that's interesting. Jill K: 23:41 So I wrote a nice e-book sharing my expertise, Dun and Bradstreet gave it away for free and I made 3,000 dollars. And it was a one week project, not bad. Cause that's also becoming a marketing piece for me out there, do you know what I'm saying? Jonathan S: 23:57 Sure. Jill K: 23:58 Now I'm giving away my expertise for free to people who need it and I'm getting paid for it. So then the first company that asked me to write the e-book called back said, "That e-book was the best thing we've ever had, we've had more downloads from a lead generation standpoint, it has been tremendous, we would like you to write another one." And I said, "I would love to do that, but you know I'm really busy right now, and I'm gonna have to charge you to do it, cause it would take away from my work time." And they said, "Oh, how much?" And I said, "4,000 dollars." And they said, "Yeah, we can afford that." Jill K: 24:36 So I took another week and wrote another e-book, you know didn't write the whole time but just kinda thought about it, gave it some structure and then filled in the meat. Again, two to three thousand words, and then I realized that my expertise was a revenue source, and it didn't hit me til that point. So what most consultants don't understand is that there are companies, first of all they serve a certain demographic, like I serve and am an expert for sales people and somebody else might be an expert in pricing, somebody else might be an HR consultant on laws of some sort. There are people out there who sell things to the people we're trying to do work with, you know, like there's a whole bunch of technology people that sell things to my clients, you know, the kinda people I work with, the kinda people I write for. Jill K: 25:27 And so I literally created a business model where I did a couple things, number one I created content and I still do, I create content for companies who are trying to reach salespeople, and I get paid really good money to create e-books. My daughter when she was out of college, in her 20's went to work for a company that was an agency and she actually wrote articles and blog posts for Linkedin and e-books for Linkedin and her agency was paid 20,000 dollars to write an e-book, so now I raised my fee. Rochelle M: 26:02 Yeah. Jill K: 26:04 And get paid 20,000 dollars to write an e-book. Because kids that were right out of college were writing these e-books from agencies and they were getting expert opinions and putting it together where I who am the expert can sit down, you know and write e-books and then they have the authority of my expertise as opposed to just Linkedin e-books. So they can market it better. So lead generation is crucial for a lot of companies today, they're desperately searching for content, content can be delivered in multiple formats, I have written e-books, now I'm doing interviews with people as part of my content, I've done video segments from a content perspective. I've done podcasts, you know, I do webinars, I get paid to do webinars, which they use, "Oh we're having a webinar with Jill Konrath and you know sign up, it's free." Jill K: 26:53 But it's free for the people who sign up, but it's not free, I'm not giving away my time, I'm being paid to do it cause I'm an expert in this field. And so I have an entire business model that is set on giving away stuff for free and making good money doing it. Rochelle M: 27:08 Wow. I love that explanation, Jonathan I'm picturing our listeners going, "really? I can do that?" Jill K: 27:16 Oh my God, you guys there's so much money in lead generation, people are paying 10 or 20 thousand dollars to have an e-book and you don't even have to be an expert, you know like a well known expert, you could easily charge like I said, I started at 4,000 dollars to have an e-book that was marketed to my target market. So other companies are blessing me by saying, "here's an expert" they're putting me in front of my targeted client who's getting free advice and I'm making good money. And word comes from that, that's what you've gotta realize, it does come back to me in a different way. Jill K: 27:52 The other thing I've found and a lot of people don't realize this too is the importance of having a good database as a consultant, a database, a newsletter list. Because and here's what I can tell you I discovered, again I reach a certain demographic and a few years back after I asked that question, "How can I give away my expertise for free and make good money doing that?" You know, I write this newsletter and somebody approached me and said we have a client who would like to know if you would write about this e-book in your newsletter, or if you'd promote this e-book in your newsletter. And I said, "I don't promote other people's stuff in my newsletter, you know, I just write my stuff." Jill K: 28:35 And they said, "Could we pay you to do that?" And I said, "Why don't you send me the e-book and I'll take a look at it?" And they sent me this e-book that was written and it was perfect for my audience, I mean they would love it, it was well written, it wasn't promotional at all, it was really excellent content and they paid me 4,000 dollars to do that, you know it's like, oh my God, all I had to do was send a newsletter to my database, all I had to do, "Here's a really good e-book on this. When you read it you'll discover ..." And I had three bullet points and then at the bottom I'd write complements of my vendor, and I'd have a link, you know. Jill K: 29:15 And I'd be paid to do that. So once I discovered that my database was an asset, I started building my database so I could charge more. I know, but it allows me to give away good stuff for free and to get paid doing it, which allows me to stop and create more new content. It's the creation stuff that's fun for me, so how can I constantly be in a creation mode and give my stuff away for free so I can create new stuff. Rochelle M: 29:43 Well and this sense of mission that you have just kind of bleeds into everything which I love, I feel like that's your fuel. Jill K: 29:51 Yeah, it is my fuel, I mean you know money used to be my fuel and since I discovered, I mean when I got hooked on helping small businesses, which ultimately I did this selling to big companies stuff, suddenly everything changed and my business kind of exploded on me when I was really trying to be more generous with the world, does that make sense? And so something and it really did explode on me and everything changed and I became the internationally recognized person, but that was never ever my goal. But I became that. Rochelle M: 30:27 Wow. Jonathan S: 30:29 How do speaking engagements figure into the mix? Jill K: 30:32 Well I don't do consulting anymore, okay, I literally had to make a choice a few years ago, probably seven years ago now. Much as I love doing consulting work, what I discovered was that doing consulting work was ... my whole brain got wrapped up in my client, you know what I mean? You get so immersed in the work and every creative thought I had was, "Oh God how am I gonna solve that? Or what am I gonna do? How do I fix that?" And it took up all my creative energy and I had made a decision then that I could either serve one client really well or I could serve a variety of people out there. And so I made a choice to serve a variety of people and to serve the world as opposed to my one client, which meant I had to walk away from consulting entirely and move into speaking, which is not something I'd done too much of, you know. Jill K: 31:27 So then I had to become a speaker, which is something I never wanted to do, but I became one because I wanted to share what I learned. I feel like I'm a real oddball here talking, but it's like if you're sort of on this mission and you've learned this stuff about you know how to sell to these companies, or how to be more successful or how to, you know how to get your life back in order, those are important things. I want people to know then so they don't have to go through the same learning curve that I had to go through. Jill K: 32:01 So how does speaking fit in? Speaking fits Jill K: 32:00 ... curve that I had to go through. How does speaking feed in? Speaking feeds in because I get paid well to do it and it gives me a chance to be in front of more people, and to have a broader impact. But it pays really, really well. Rochelle M: 32:16 You've got an international footprint, yes? Jill K: 32:18 Yes. Last month I was in Milan, Italy. Wrapped a nice vacation around it so it was a lot of fun. Jonathan S: 32:27 Nice. Rochelle M: 32:28 That sounds perfect. Jill K: 32:29 It was perfect. Jonathan S: 32:36 It feels like each of these different sorts of packaging of your expertise, each of these different offerings if you will even if they're free, blogposts and e-books and worksheets and videos and speeches and books. They all ... sort of like what people refer to as a flywheel effect where you've got this very, very clear focus at the hub, in the center. And everything just revolves around it. It's adding a little bit. And once it's going, adding more energy to that motion just keeps it in motion, keeps it accelerating. Jill K: 33:15 Yeah. It does. Jonathan S: 33:16 I'm curious if there were any spikes or anything in particular that you noticed really noticed upped the ante for you? Was very successful for you and got you to a new level? I don't know, one of the books perhaps being super successful. Or was it ... Was there anything in particular that you could share with the listeners that you look back and say, "That ..." Maybe you didn't know it at the time but, "Man. That was smart. That really worked out for me." Jill K: 33:45 Oh man. A lot of things have worked out for me. Jonathan S: 33:53 It seems that way. And that was a perfectly good answer. I'm kind of hoping you say, "No," because- Jill K: 33:58 There's no magic here. Jonathan S: 33:59 Right. Jill K: 33:59 I mean like I said, this wasn't my goal. My goal was to do the work and to get paid a living wage. Have a good enough income that I felt decent about the work that I was doing. Jill K: 34:09 I have passed up a significant number of revenue opportunities that have come my way. And I have chosen not to do certain things because of lifestyle choices. You know, I do speak but man, I'm not promoting myself as somebody who's on the road 250 days a year. That's like crazy for me. I don't want to do that. Speaking 20 times a year is sufficient. You can tell I'm not totally driven by money but I'm making really good money, you know? I have been approached numerous times to do online training courses and I have not done them. I've not done them. Jonathan S: 34:46 What's the thinking there? Jill K: 34:48 Well because I have seen a lot of people do them and I am very aware that it's not about the training program. A lot of people have created really good training programs. They've invested a ton of money in these things. And then in order to be profitable, they have to go into marketing mode and they have to have a large enough footprint out there from a database perspective or they have to be constantly marketing. And I don't want to do that. I want to give away my stuff for free and make good money doing it. Jill K: 35:21 It's more fun for me to give it away. So I found another way so I don't have to keep selling programs. I just keep giving away stuff. And I go to companies and say, "I have an idea for something on how I can help you," and I pitch my ideas to companies about how I can create content. How I can create content that they can leverage. And what people don't realize is the lead generation machines of companies are desperate for content. If you have a niche and an expertise in a certain area, there are somebody who's trying to reach the person that you work with. I don't care if it's auditors or warehouse foremen. Somebody's trying to reach them. Jill K: 36:08 And who are these companies who are selling to these people and how can you create some good content that they can give away for free to attract these people into their database because they need to talk to them. They want something that is good. We're experts and we don't value our content. But they're paying kids out of college big bucks to write articles or to write e-books or to do things that we, who are experts, could do and do it so much better than. Jill K: 36:39 I mean to me that's an opportunity that virtually every consultant is totally blind to. I went to speak at National Speakers Association at one of their events a few years back. And I was explaining this to people. And again, most people look at me like, "I couldn't do that. That's really weird." But one guy came up to me afterwards. He said, "I am an expert in aging population and how to take care of aging parents." That's his expertise. And he said, "I have a 30000 word document right now that I was thinking of putting out as a book." He said, "What you've done is you've given me an idea." And he went to New York Life Insurance company with his idea because they had a product on elderly care product. And he sold them, his first time out contacting New York Life, going after the lead generation or demand generation department in their marketing arena and talk with them about creating an e-book on how to take care of your elderly parents or how do you decide on which senior place is the best for your elderly parents. And $30000 you know? On his first time out. And he already had the content. Rochelle M: 37:51 Not bad. Jill K: 37:52 You don't make that much from writing a book usually, you know what I mean? Jonathan S: 37:56 Not your first one. Jill K: 37:56 Not your first one. No. Rochelle M: 37:56 Exactly. Jonathan S: 37:59 I'm having my own light bulb moment here because I've actually been hired to do things like you're describing. And it never occurred to me that they were anything other than random one off edge cases where I've written a bunch of books. The target market is always software developers, specifically web developers, and have been hired by big companies to essentially do exactly to the letter what you're describing here. Jill K: 37:59 And? Jonathan S: 38:26 And it was great. It's great money. It's exactly what you're saying. It's great money. It's great exposure. You get to share ideas for free. You get the third party endorsement of whoever, Nokia or Cisco or whoever else, Intel. Jill K: 38:44 Yeah. Right. Jonathan S: 38:46 But the shoe that never dropped for me, was that you could actually go after that kind of work specifically. It just seemed to me so random and so ... I mean now that you're saying it, it's obvious that it's not. But it never even occurred to me to think like, "Oh. That could be my whole business." It surely could have. Jill K: 39:08 I mean the two things about leveraging my database and sharing information about good webinars that are coming up or good e-books that other companies have written and the combination of doing my own content creation for companies was 50% of my revenue last year. And it was fun work. Jonathan S: 39:25 Right. It is fun. Jill K: 39:26 And you know some of the projects, some of the e-books that I wrote in the last couple years and talking with people, I interview some of their best clients. And I write up like ... One e-book I did was for a company called Velocify that does software for inside sales, inside sales people that call on the phone. And they had me interview five VPs of Sales that are running high performance teams, sales teams. Jill K: 39:55 And I wrote an e-book. It was fast, it was fun to do because I got to talk to all these five people and get inside their brain. And these are, again, people like my customers, you know. I got to interview them and then I got to write up seven things I learned from them in an e-book. The 7 Characteristics of Top Performing Sales Leaders. You know it was like, "Oh that was fun. It gave me more recent connectivity with my base. I got to ask insightful questions. They were delighted to be included in the project. It's like, "Man. This is cool work." Rochelle M: 40:30 Win, win, win. Jill K: 40:31 Win, win, win. Win, win, win. Yeah. Jonathan S: 40:33 So if someone was going to ... I know specific individuals who are more ... I think they would refer to themselves as copywriters or data analysts and they don't see themselves as maybe as big of an expert at their area of expertise than I would consider them to be. Who I imagine will listen to this and not perhaps be skeptical or clueless about what next steps to take if maybe they are interested in experimenting with these ideas. As a sales expert, what would somebody in a situation like that do as a first step? Jill K: 41:12 First. So if you wanted to do this to make money doing? Like what I was just describing? Jonathan S: 41:19 Right. You know you said that companies are desperate for lead generation. Jill K: 41:23 They really are. Jonathan S: 41:23 College kids to do it. I know for sure that there are tons of listeners of this show and also another show that I do that are just ... They say all the time, "People don't value what I do. What I do is a commodity." They're trying to sell themselves by the hour on Upwork. They're competing with people in the Philippines who are charging $3 an hour. They feel like giving up frankly. And this is a very, very interesting approach that has never occurred to me consciously before but I wouldn't know where to recommend that they start. Jill K: 42:01 Right. Most people don't because they don't understand sales. They don't understand lead generation either. They just don't think that people are doing that. But if they understood, first of all, that companies are desperately trying to get people in to their database so that they can initiate conversations with them about potentially buying a product or service. Jill K: 42:25 The first place you have to start is saying, "Well who are the people that I'm continually working with? Is it Purchasing? Is it Marketing? CMOs? Where am I working?" And you have to say then, "Who is trying to sell these people things?" And honestly, if you're working in Marketing and selling with CMOs, you could talk to the CMO and say, "You know, what kind of things do you make decisions about?" And they might say, "Well, we make decisions about technology. There's a lot of marketing technology right now. Or we make decisions about this or that." Jill K: 43:01 Whatever they tell you, then you have to find out what companies are in that business. But if you're selling to the CMO, which technologies are trying to reach the CMO? Or if you're selling to an attorney or law firm, which companies are trying to reach law firms to sell them what? What products and services? And you have to just start thinking about it and start researching the companies. And there's no shortcut to do that. Jill K: 43:26 But once you start researching the companies and you say, "Oh this company sounds like ... It's kind of aligned with what I do. And we're kind of talking the same thing. I'm just helping on the edges of it." Then you have to look and you have to go to LinkedIn and you have to look and google things like demand generation or lead generation and find out who's in their Marketing department. And take a look if they have any -- I go to their website and I'd take a look -- are they offering any e-books? Do they have webinars? Do they have infographics. I've been paid a lot of money for one page cheat sheets too. Little one page cheat sheets. Blah, blah, blah. I can't talk. A little one page cheat sheet that I've written. I got $3000 for writing something that I already knew and that didn't take very long. Jill K: 44:21 But just going to the website and seeing are they doing lead generation on their website. And you can tell they're doing it if you have to fill out your name for something and give them an email address. Then you know they're doing lead generation, right? Jonathan S: 44:35 Sure. It's obvious. Jill K: 44:36 It's obvious. So once you know, yes they are leveraging lead generation and you don't want to talk somebody into it because they don't get it. You want to always work somebody who gets it. And see what they have. And see if you can think of an idea to add something else. Jill K: 44:55 Like the one I was talking about before with Velocify. I went to them with an idea because I checked out their website and they didn't have anything on onboarding sales people. Nothing. Nothing. And so I suggested that they might want to consider that and let's talk. You can send out an email to the head of lead gen. By the way not just one because if you look at any of my books, you'll find out it takes eight to ten touches, contacts in order for this person to get back to you. But you initiate contact and you suggest an idea, then you state that you've been on their website, it looks like their doing lead generation. You have some ideas on how to create an e-book or do a webinar, whatever it is that you want to create yourself. And just suggest that you set up a time to talk. It's not pitching them on your writing skills. It's suggesting that you have an idea that might help them generate more leads. Jonathan S: 45:54 And generating more leads, as we all know, is a very desirable business outcome for certain people. Jill K: 45:59 Oh my God. Yes. It's what they want. And if it's in your area of expertise, you know this stuff and you can write an e-book and being paid $10000 or whatever to sit down and write an e-book in one week, that's 2000 to 3000 words. Jonathan S: 46:14 Mm-hmm (affirmative). Right. Jill K: 46:15 That's not a lot of writing. My first two books are 60000 words and my second two are about 40000 to 45000, so. Jonathan S: 46:26 Yeah it's super doable. It's just great. This is great. Rochelle M: 46:29 I just want to point out to our audience that the key is knowing who you're serving. Knowing who your sweet spot is. Being crystal clear is going to help you. You can't start this without knowing that. Jill K: 46:42 You can't. Jonathan S: 46:48 Yeah, it's critical. The whole idea falls apart if you don't have that. Jill K: 46:48 It sort of goes back to ... You talked about selling to big companies at the onset. I mean selling to big companies is about really knowing who your target market is. Who am I going after? Who is this company? Who is the specific buyer? What value do I bring? It's about focusing and creating a conversation with somebody you want to reach. It all goes full circle. Jonathan S: 47:12 Well that's a perfect segue into a wrap-up. Rochelle M: 47:16 That's where I was going. [inaudible 00:47:18] better myself. Perfect. Jonathan S: 47:20 Well thanks so much for joining us Jill. This has been solid gold, just really, really great. Where should people go to find out more about you and your books and all the other wonderful things that you have available? Jill K: 47:31 JillKonrath.com. That's it. JillKonrath.com. Jonathan S: 47:35 Perfect. Jill K: 47:35 Konrath with a K. Jonathan S: 47:37 Yes. We will absolutely link all of this up in the show notes. Jill with a J. Konrath with a K. Jill K: 47:44 Yeah. Jonathan S: 47:47 Alright great. Well thanks again for joining us. Rochelle M: 47:49 Thank you so much. Jonathan S: 47:51 That'll do it for the Business of Authority. Thank you so much for joining us and we'll talk to you again next week. Bye. Rochelle M: 47:57 Bye bye.

Noel Hidalgo will journey through two fellowships — his Data & Society Fellowship and construction of a new fellowship for 21st century civic hackers. The first half of the discussion will focus on detailed lessons learned from working within the City's civic technology community, collaborating with CUNY's Service Corps students, building a municipal open data curriculum, and developing partnerships with the Mayor's Office, Manhattan Borough President, and various City agencies.

Founded in 1964, the IESC is a non-profit that applies private sector solutions to improve standards of living around the world, to create and preserve jobs and help robust, sustainable enterprises grow.

Joseph C. Mandarino is a Partner with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, in Atlanta. Mr. Mandarino's practice focuses on tax and finance. He is well versed in a wide variety of businesses and transactions. Mr. Mandarinos practice also includes representation in tax controversy work. Mr. Mandarino writes and speaks extensively on a wide range of business, tax and finance topics. He has published over 100 articles in journals and in-house newsletters, and has participated in over 150 presentations and seminars. His articles have appeared in the National Law Journal, Mergers & Acquisitions magazine, Tax Notes Today, the Journal of Real Estate Taxation, the Journal of S Corporation Taxation, the Journal of Multistate Taxation, Tax & Finance Newsletter, the Journal of Taxation and Regulation of Financial Institutions, the ABA Probate & Property Journal, and the NYU Institute on Federal Taxation. In addition, he has spoken at meetings and seminars organized by numerous organizations, including the American Bar Association, the White House Conference on Small Business, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Georgia Electronic Commerce Association, the Federation of Exchange Accommodators, the International Reinsurance Conference, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, the American Health Lawyers Association, the Southeastern Health Law and Policy Forum, and the United Way, as well as several panel-type TV discussion programs.

It is often called a "best kept secret" for entrepreneurs. In fact, you may be amazed at how the helps entrepreneurs — whether you are simply in the planning stages, have started a business as a solopreneur or own a fifth-generation firm with up to 500 employees. Although I had personally interacted with the SBA as an entrepreneur—particularly in seeking a mentor through their free Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) program when I started my first business—frankly I was not aware of the depth and breadth of services the SBA offers. So I was very excited when Christopher Hatch, the regional communications director for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Mid-Atlantic Region, reached out to me recently about doing an interview. I was honored to get the chance to speak with , a decorated administrator as well as a highly successful entrepreneur herself. This is one of the best interviews I have had on the Go For Launch podcast, and I hope many entrepreneurs will get value from our conversation! Natalia Olson-Urtecho is the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, one of 10 Regions of the SBA in the U.S. Appointed in 2012 by President Obama, she is responsible for delivery and management of small business programs, financial assistance and business development initiatives for a population of nearly 30 million people in seven district offices throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Washington, D.C. She oversees more than 180 SBA offices, SCORE chapters, Business Development Centers and other resources while managing a field staff of more than 100 loan, business, community outreach and support personnel. She works with local lenders and successful firms across the region, overseeing more than $34.2 billion in federal government contracts for goods and services purchased from local entrepreneurs. Prior to joining the SBA, Natalia was founder, president and CEO of EG, a company dedicated to helping public and private entities become more profitable through environmentally friendly and socially responsible planning and strategies. Before founding EG, Olson-Urtecho was a transportation and land use planner at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and was director of global initiatives at H2L2, an architectural and planning firm with projects in 42 countries. She has more than 18 years of experience working with international, regional and local entities in the mid-Atlantic region and abroad in Latin America, Central Europe and Asia. While at the U.S. Department of State, Natalia worked in Budapest, Hungary, on NATO accession, economic and political policies, environmental issues, science and technology property rights, infrastructure development and served as chief of protocol. She was recently recognized as a “Latina Powerhouse” by the Maryland Hispanic Business Conference, was named one of Delaware Valley's Most Influential Latinos in 2014, and received the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2010 Minority Business Leader Award. She has lived in seven countries and speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese. Topics We Discuss About the SBA In our discussion, I learned that many SBA leaders were successful entrepreneurs before the joined the Administration There are more than 28 million small businesses and counting in the United States These represent 50% of all U.S. businesses Two out of three people work for a small business in the United States There has been huge entrepreneurial growth in the past few years (since the Great Recession) The SBA has enjoyed five years of record lending to small businesses — the most in their 60+ years in existence; in fact, Congress passed a bill in just two days to raise the amount of money available through SBA loans Lots of large businesses and even entire industries/regions (e.g., Silicon Valley) get help from the SBA in their early stages In the U.S., small businesses are classified as under 500 employees and under $30 million in revenue The SBA is the largest backer or guarantor of financing/loans to small businesses in the United States Loans range from $50,000 or less (through their Microlender program) up to $5 million, all backed by the government Among their many programs for entrepreneurs are the following programs and services: Business guidance and business planning — You can take advantage of this even if you just have a business idea and need their advice (and all information is kept 100% confidential) Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) — Get from mentoring from retired executive around the country Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) — These research centers, typically housed in universities or in regional department of economic development, offer a range of consulting and advisories services, like MBA students who can help businesses with free marketing studies or data analysis U.S. Centers for Export Assistance — According to Natalia, 95% of consumers live outside the U.S. and there are amazing opportunities for many entrepreneurs to export their products overseas Women Business Centers — as the name implies, these are aimed at helping female entrepreneurs, but Natalia told me the secret that you don't have to be a woman to get help there! Veterans programs — The SBA is very actively involved in helping military veterans start and grow businesses

An interview with previous YASC'ers. The Young Adult Service Corps  The Young Adult Service Corps brings young adults into the life of the worldwide Anglican Communion and into the daily work of a local community.  At the same time, it brings the gifts and resources of the church into the lives of young adults as they explore their own faith journeys. http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/young-adult-service-corps  

  A business plan is a necessary roadmap for entrepreneurs and small business owners.   A business with a business plan has a greater chance to succeed than a business without one.  For many entrepreneurs and small business owners, developing a business plan can seem like a daunting task.  Jack McSunas of the Service Corps of Retired Executives or SCORE explains that putting together a business plan is not as overwhelming as it seems.  

  :  For many entrepreneurs and small business owners, getting expert advice on how to start or run a business can be difficult.  Many startups, entrepreneurs and small business owners can turn to the best kept secret in the United States -- the Service Corps of Retired Executives or SCORE.  Dennis Wright -- Assistant District Director of SCORE Orange County, Inland Empire, and Coachella Valley -- explains the services SCORE provides free of charge or at a nominal cost.  

1 Peter 5:6-9

Titus 2:11-3:11, Ephesians, 2:8-10, 2 Timothy 3:16-17

 The Los Angeles District Office serves Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties. As District Director, he is responsible for the delivery of SBA programs and services to aspiring and existing small business owners, SBA lenders and partners, which include business advisory services, capital access programs, entrepreneurial development, international trade development and contract procurement assistance .The Los Angeles District Office territory includes eight Small Business Development Centers, four Service Corps of Retired Executives chapters and four Women’s Business Centers.

This week, Aaron Herman had the opportunity to attend Avodah’s Partners In Justice event, and had an opportunity to speak with a number of people involved in the program. We had the opportunity to speak with current and former AVODAH fellows about their experience and why they decided to participate in this important inititive. AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps strengthens the Jewish community’s fight against the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. We do this by engaging participants in service and community building that inspire them to become lifelong leaders for social change whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. Participants in our service Corps program live out and deepen their commitments to social change and Jewish life through a year of full-time work at anti-poverty organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC. This work partners Corps members with service providers and residents in low income communities and equips our Corps members and alumni to emerge as lifelong agents for social change, whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. After participants complete this intensive year-long program, Pursue: Action for a Just World provides a broad platform for long-term leadership in social change and Jewish life.

This week, Aaron Herman had the opportunity to attend Avodah’s Partners In Justice event, and had an opportunity to speak with a number of people involved in the program. We had the opportunity to speak with current and former AVODAH fellows about their experience and why they decided to participate in this important inititive. AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps strengthens the Jewish community’s fight against the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. We do this by engaging participants in service and community building that inspire them to become lifelong leaders for social change whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. Participants in our service Corps program live out and deepen their commitments to social change and Jewish life through a year of full-time work at anti-poverty organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC. This work partners Corps members with service providers and residents in low income communities and equips our Corps members and alumni to emerge as lifelong agents for social change, whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. After participants complete this intensive year-long program, Pursue: Action for a Just World provides a broad platform for long-term leadership in social change and Jewish life.

In this EOT we sat down with members of the Peace Corps and Teach for America to talk about how students could get involved after graduation. Community Canvas covers the production of Into the Woods. Michael and Alyssa cover cytunes.org in Hear This.

In this EOT we sat down with members of the Peace Corps and Teach for America to talk about how students could get involved after graduation. Community Canvas covers the production of Into the Woods. Michael and Alyssa cover cytunes.org in Hear This.

In this installment of Spirit of the West, Commissioner Swyers discusses several of the youth programs that are coming up soon with Territorial Youth Secretary Kyle Smith. Additionally, Rachel Giffey-Brohaugh and Craig Rodriguera from two of this summer's Service Corps mission teams describe their experiences.