March 5th, 2011
I was just doing a quick review of recent and pending activity. I have been busy. I was a featured speaker at the Self Storage Association’s Executive Ski Workshop, where I spoke on the power of branding and how local branding is more important than ever.
I did three sessions for the first Virtual Self StoragExpo with the good people at StorSuccess and Bitsonthewire. I talked about training sales people, specific sales tactics and trends in the industry.
I lead a webinar for my friends at the Mini Storage Messenger on how people still like to deal with people…if they like how those people treat them.
I am getting ready to do two sessions for the great folks at Inside Self Storage for their March world expo trade show. The one session is about conflict in the workplace…how to handle things when you don’t like the people you work with, your customers are rude, and your boss is a jerk. Not that I have first hand experience with any of these scenarios, but I can give a good talk even on things I don’t know personally. ( wink) The other session is a panel on new technologies that I will moderate. We will talk about all kinds of new tools from automated delinquent notices to the new self storage kiosk in a pocket. I hope the attendees will have lots of questions and stories to share about what they are using, what they have tried and what they hope to test soon.
I am doing lots of business speaker activities for the storage industry while helping the crew at PhoneSmart get ready for its busy season. I really like what we are seeing from consumer demand. I really like how well our crew has developed in the last few years and all of our new tools, tactics and processes.
And my favorite business speaking event is not far off. The PhoneSmart Hawaii Un-Conference is coming up June. You don not want to miss that.
Tags: business speaker, inside self storage, mini storage messenger, self storage association, training sales people
Posted in Management, business speaker, keynote speaker, marketing, public speaker | Comments Off
January 14th, 2011
One of my top favorite business speaking jobs is the SSA Ski Workshop. This year I have been invited to speak on branding. The session will be on Thursday the 3rd of February in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It will be a good time. The self storage association is celebrating the 25th annual ski workshop and it will be an honour to participate. As a business speaker, you occasionally have engagements that are a perfect match of venue, surroundings and people. This is one of those. The people who come to the ski workshop are a great group. I love winter sports, so I will be happy to be in Steamboat. I hope yo will be able to join us.
Tags: self storage association, ski workshop, steamboat springs
Posted in Travel, business speaker, keynote speaker, marketing, public speaker | Comments Off
October 4th, 2010
I was in New Orleans recently. It is a city I enjoy visiting for its warm people, rich culture, great architecture, excellent cuisine, varied musical offerings and its energetic hustlers.
Walking in the French Quarter allows you to see, hear and get involved in all kinds of hustles. As a keynote speaker, I love to see how other people address crowds. The callers who try to get you into their clubs, the shoe shine guys who try to shine your shoes for twenty bucks and the people who tell you long stories to beg for money. Hey that’s kind of what a keynote speaker does. We tell long stories, some more interesting and valuable than others, in order to beg for you to buy a book, schedule a follow-up seminar or order our service package. The thing I admire about the street hustlers is their sense of urgency. They are one shot sellers. If they can’t separate some money from you in the first five minutes, they are out of the picture. How do you create that kind of urgency in your business dealings without being obnoxious?
Tags: hustler, new orleans, shoe shine
Posted in Travel, business speaker, keynote speaker, people | Comments Off
August 11th, 2010
I found myself in an interesting situation today where my skills as a business speaker and keynote speaker were going to be very valuable. I had a small but powerful and influential audience. I needed to touch them emotionally. I needed to make several important points that they would agree with and take seriously. I needed to be respected by them and taken seriously. I needed them to alter their position on a major issue.
I attempted to listen and understand before I sought to be understood. Thank you Stephen Covey for that valuable and timeless lesson. I told them briefly what I was going to teach and show them. I attempted to teach and show. I told them what I thought I had just showed them and taught them.
I had some great help in this presentation, so that I was one of a group working on the issue at hand. I tried to use as little time and as few words as possible to make the points and effect the changes.
It is interesting to think about how much time, effort and preparation over many years a keynote speaker takes to create a “keynote speech” that takes only a minute and makes a substantial difference.
Sometimes the less said, the better.
Tags: keynote speaker, keynote speech, preparation, stephen covey
Posted in business speaker, keynote speaker, people, personal growth | Comments Off
August 4th, 2010
A keynote speaker asks if you love work or hate work.
It is typical for people to have a love-hate relationship with their workplace, their co-workers and superiors. If the people running the organization are paying attention, they can use this to improve the business weekly.
Take employee comments seriously. If they compliment you and tell you things that they love about work, try to find a way to do more of the same. If they tell you something they hate or bring up a problem, take this very seriously. Use the problem to find some root causes, expose some weaknesses, uncover some sloppiness. Then do something about it. Create an initiative, a training exercise or a new protocol. Measure results. Reexamine the process and measure results again.
If you do this correctly, employees can love to work at your place of business, even if there are things they hate about it, because you try to address what they hate and make it less hateful.
Do you love to work where you work, or do you hate it?
Tags: employees, training excercise, workplace violence
Posted in Management, business speaker, keynote speaker, people, personal growth | Comments Off
