My Quest for the Best with Bill Ringle - the podcast for ambitious business owners.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Fred-Wilf-20170612.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/AAEAAQAAAAAAAADnAAAAJGI4OTM2OTBjLWJhZjUtNGU2Zi04NGQxLWNlODcwN2M5ZDIyYg-210×200.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

In this episode of My Quest for the Best, Fred Wilf discusses recent data breaches and the unique nature of privacy policies in the U.S., and explains what could cause a lawyer to develop such an interest in technology.

Key points that you’ll learn from this interview:

• 1:20 Wilf tells about his early work experience.
• 2:18 “Policy was always something that interested me in terms of how the policies chosen by governments and by people affected others. And in many ways, long term policy decisions will lead to short term life and death decision.”
• 3:30 [On an early fascination with technology] “I was always a bit of a tinkerer, and known for pulling stuff apart from an early age.”
• 4:44 “People didn’t understand why a lawyer would have any interest in computers.”
• 5:22 [Profiles of the Ideal Client] – “There are are several profiles for my ideal client. One profile is the funded startup, they have some money, they’re able to carry out their strategy, they’re moving towards sales and revenue positive as quickly as possible.”
• 5:42 “For the larger companies that I work with, a number of Fortune 500 companies, I tend to be more specific as to their needs, filling in where they don’t already have someone in house or outside.”
• 6:35 Healthcare company case study, and how Wilf used his expertise in privacy and copyright law to help them problem solve.
• 8:00 The two ways Wilf helps with clients.
• 8:51 Wilf describes some common areas of legal misunderstanding.
• 9:38 “Privacy law has the foundation from country to country, state to state, but implemented in a very different from manner from state to state and country to country, and most people don’t know when they get into this how to navigate those changes.”
• 10:36 “One of the principles in privacy law is that a company or entity that controls individual personal info must explain to those individuals how that information is being used, processed, and stored.”
• 11:22 The importance of transparency, and privacy policies, in handling consumer information.
• 12:45 “Users can certainly educate themselves and have a better understanding of how their data is being used. Maybe that will change who they share data with, and maybe it won’t.”
• 13:24 “The transparency is not there because all consumers will use it, because frankly consumers won’t, the transparency is there for those users who want to control how their data is being used.”
• 13:50 How UBER failed to be transparent in their use of consumer data.
• 16:15 The case of Target’s privacy breach, and how the technology of the time couldn’t have prevented it, but whether the executive decision makers could have.
• 17:19 “One aspect that needs to change is that businesses need to use as much security as they can afford.”
• 17:44 “Consumers need to understand that some of these attacks can be prevented, some of these attacks, I don’t think they could’ve been prevented really.”
• 18:11 “The reason why we know about the Target case, and this is an interesting aspect of policy, is that we now have a series of laws called data breach notification laws where Target, or any other company who is breached, is required to notify all the people whose information is in the database that’s been hacked.”
• 19:18 [On Data Breach Notification Laws] – “If if wasn’t for that change of policy, I’m not sure we’d have as much interest in privacy or security that we have today,”
• 20:31 The differences between US and EU Privacy Law.
• 23:52 “Different governments in different countries have their very different view on foreign privacy.”
• 24:08 “The more stringent a privacy law is, the more expensive it is to implement those laws to the businesses who have to implement them.”
• 25:56 “Some of the technology needs to be changed so that clicking on a link…isn’t going to affect the servers containing personal information.”
• 27:05 “Whatever you’re doing with policy, whatever you’re doing in technology, this has real world consequences for users.”
• 28:18 “Information Technology is still relatively premature.”
• 28:53 “There’s still a huge gap between the users of the technology, which today is everybody, and those who use the technology well.”
• 29:27 “Because we don’t know how the technology works, it’s on the tech professionals to make the technology easier to use and more bulletproof.”
• 31:53 “The government has shown, perhaps wisely, that it’s not very good at defining technology standards, they’ve mostly left that up to the tech companies to define their own standards.”
• 33:00 How governments can encourage the development of technological standards.
• 34:32 “Governments, through it’s contracting process, and buying technology, can encourage the developments of better, stronger, more secure systems.”
• 35:10 Sources where people can stay abreast of privacy and security issues.

For more information, visit Fred Wilf’s company website.

Web address: http://www.wilftek.com/

Travels from: Worcester, PA

Phone: (215) 205-0059

Social media: Twitter | LinkedIn

• USPTO.gov
• copyright.gov
• ftc.gov
• iapp.org

Dr. Janice Presser talks with Bill Ringle about Teamability® and reveals some essential tips and tricks for team success on My Quest for the Best<

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

[zoomsounds_player source=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Janice-Presser_20161107.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/DrJ-2013sm-292×300.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

• The connection between employee satisfaction and engagement, and meaningful work
• The 4 elements of teaming that are essential for team chemistry and success
• New methods for testing new hires for collaborative work
• The crucial differences in showing that appreciation and respect for the people on your team
• The formula for understanding team characteristics and successful teamwork

• 1:09 [On Presser’s early life experiences“My earliest questions didn’t have answers, I had to spend a lot of time seeking them out myself.”
• 2:00 “Everything is about people interacting with other people. And why is it sometimes that you have this amazing feeling that you’re yourself but you’re like the best you that you ever are when you’re doing it with these people?”
• 3:00 Teaming up with Dr. Jack Gerber.
• 4:15 [On being a female entrepreneur during the women’s movement] “We were on a mission to change the world.”
• 5:15 [On the power of teams] – “Everyone else did all those other things that I didn’t do very well. I was great at coming up with ideas, but you have to have people who will lead the execution, or who make sure the details get followed up on, or the person who handles the emergency as it happens.”
• 5:53 “It was so gratifying, not just because it was my mission in life, but that I also could do it with people who felt that the way in which they were contributing to this thing that was bigger than any of us, that that was meaningful to them, and that’s a very contagious feeling. That feeling that what you’re doing is meaningful and important.”
• 7:36 “Teaming is a science. Great teamwork, that great team chemistry that we want, there’s an operating system for it.”
• 7:55 [On incorporating the formula for teaming] – “Whether you’re a startup or a huge multinational, it doesn’t matter, we all start new things at different times.”
• 8:20 [One of the most important question to ask about people] – “How do they really make meaningful contributions to something bigger than themselves?
• 9:18 Two more important points to think about when evaluating the people on your team and their level of contribution.
• 10:17 “It’s not that people are good or bad or indifferent, it’s that everyone has an optimal place that they’re going to make a better contribution from the standpoint of the team, but also do it in a way that’s fun for them.”
• 10:50 Presser uses herself as an example to describe teaming characteristics.
• 14:34 “If you want to understand anything about someone, all of the ways that existed prior to tenability are some variation of directly, or indirectly, asking someone what they’re like.”
• 15:26 “It’s not good for businesses to not have their needs met, and it’s not great for people to be in a job that isn’t going to be satisfying to them in at least some way, and to have that feeling of at least doing something productive.”
• 16:43 The characteristics which don’t factor into Team ability.
• 17:18 “If you ask someone how good they are at something, very often you’ll get something completely incorrect because people do not know what they do not know.”
• 18:01 [On objective evaluation] – “The fact is, evaluating yourself you use yourself as the reference point.”
• 19:57 [On hiring for skill-based work] – “Think about what’s important, what is truly important, in this job. If it’s something like lifting boxes, then ask someone to lift the weight of a typical package, or the heaviest package, that has to go on. That’s a pretty good test. But if the test is: Will they smile at the person they’re delivering it to? Do they have to deal with any regulators on the road? Ask yourself, ‘To be successful at this job, how does this person need to interact with other people?’”
• 21:46 How teaming characteristics affect personal interactions.
• 21:52 “Rethinking what we expect of people in terms of personal interactions or long term relationship is really key, because, you know, why do people leave jobs? Because they don’t like the boss or the people they’re working with. Most people don’t leave because, well, they don’t like the actual task that they do.”
• 22:33 How Presser’s clients use her expertise on Team ability.
• 24:54 The 4 components used for the Teamability Playbook.
• 25:30 [Basis 1 – Well fit] – “Give people actual work, tasks, day-to-day things to do that align with the way in which they contribute. They will be happier and so will you.”
• 25:46 [Basis 2 – Team Fit] – “Make sure every person on the team is meeting one of those key needs that that team has.”
• 26:34 [Basis 3 – Team Chemistry] – “If we try to do everything we don’t succeed very well and we feel like we’re being stretched in too many directions. When we find our role partner…then one person starts, and the other person finishes.”
• 27:55 [Basis 4 – Role Respect] – “Role is the way you make that contribution, and role respect is the way that a manager can manage, communicate, respect, appreciate any other person on the team in a way that aligns with the way in which they make their contributions.”
• 31:00 How to appreciate the people on your team in the role that they play.
• 33:41 “If you want to have better teaming, make it real, make it visible. Acknowledge people for the parts in which they contribute. And, by the way, if you start to do this at work, you will start to do this in your personal life.”
• 34:13 How growing up in your family structure creates the foundation for your views of teaming.
• 34:48 “If you want to leave a legacy, leave a legacy of great teaming.”
• 35:00 “When you make the workplace a better place to work, you make the world a better place to live.”
• 37:32 “If you are wanting a successful company, or division, or team, or anything, if it’s successful you are very likely doing something right, wouldn’t you like to know what it is so you don’t have to go through the aggravation of ‘Why did this work so perfectly last time and now it doesn’t?’”
• 39:56 “When you think of any sports team, you tend to think of the players that are on the field, but for every player on the field, how many people are there supporting them?”

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Dr. Janice Presser is CEO of The Gabriel Institute, a behavioral scientist, and architect of the technology that powers Teamability®. She has studied team interaction in academic, clinical, and business settings for over 40 years, and has applied her expertise in the areas of HR metrics and measurements, workforce planning, and the future of work. Dr. Presser has authored seven books, most recently, Timing Isn’t Everything. Teaming Is (July 2017). In an era of digital disruption and transformational change, Dr. Presser’s integrated technology and management methods create a collaborative culture, generate extraordinary business results, and open new paths to meaningful work and organizational health.

• Primary Website
• Travels from: Philadelphia, PA
• Phone: (215)-825-2500
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter

Scott Ginsberg talks with Bill Ringle about approachability, embracing failure, and the advantages of “Try-Listen-Leverage” as a business tactic.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Scott-Ginsberg_20110425.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/scott_ginsberg.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

• The importance of “I did” versus ideas.
• The advantages of just jumping into the abyss with “Try, Listen, Leverage”.
• About joining versus buying brands.
• What is a “brand tag.”
• How you can learn to fail with style.

• 1:04 How Ginsberg’s fascination with approachability led him to conduct some ultimately successful experiments in college.
• 1:55 [Ideas vs. Execution] – “You don’t need an idea, you need an I did.”
• 2:54 “It is a mindset, execution, it’s sort of a way of life, and there are key distractions and things people need to get rid of. And it’s not about productivity, it’s not about ‘getting things done,’ it’s about creating a filter for your life.”
• 3:21 “It’s about being willing to delete the people, being willing to delete the processes, and deleting the irrelevant stuff that’s just killing you.”
• 4:27 [On ready, aim, fire] – “A) you’re never ready, B) aiming is overrated, and C) fire burns people.”
• 4:37 “Try, Listen, Leverage.”
• 4:45 [On Try, Listen, Leverage] – “You just try stuff, you just jump, you take the risk whether it’s a blog post or a new product or an idea or you wanna create a group on Facebook. Just try it. You listen, you see what happens, and then you leverage it. If it works, then great! If not, you move on.”
• 5:25 “You gotta fail yourself to success.”
• 5:40 “I’m actually not afraid of failing. I fail all the time. I love failing. I feel like failing is the best way to learn. I think it’s more fun. I think it makes a better story.”
• 5:59 “Can you imagine anything more terrifying than getting exactly what you want?”
• 6:40 [Paraphrasing Estée Lauder] – “Men buy brands, but women join them.”
• 6:48 “We should invite people to join our brand, not ask them to buy it, because it’s a totally different mindset, not to mention heart set.”
• 7:12 [On branding his company] – “What I wanted to do was create a piece of art that makes the mission more than a statement. It’s not just some sense that people memorize or something people stick on the wall.”
• 7:50 [On brand tagging] – “I don’t think people should wear a name tag every day. I think they should find something that takes their identity and shares it.”
• 8:40 “My job is to come in as both a writer and translator to interview the key people and hang out for a couple of hours and find out: who are these people, what’s important to them, why are they. What’s the why behind what they do?”
• 9:25 “Never fall in love with your own inventory.”
• 9:48 “Every brand tag has an intentional typo. It’s put in there as a reminder to be human, to be imperfect, and that’s a good way to get conversations started too.”
• 10:50 The importance of injecting life into your company mission with the use of a brand tag.
• 13:20 “Execution and commitment are part of my constitution. It’s not just what I do, that’s who I am.”
• 13:53 [On creating motivation for yourself] – “I don’t have deadlines, I have smell dates.”
• 15:15 Ginsberg’s experience giving a speech to a Rotary club, and how an audience member’s encouragement made him think.
• 15:45 “When you have a topic like an approachability or you address an issue like execution, you frame it in a way where you can meet people where they are, and you can let them put themselves into your equation.”
• 16:40 “You open yourself to a lot of new markets, and a lot of it has to do with your willingness to just stick it out there and to be open and to be welcoming when people add different angles to your theme.”
• 17:34 “The first word after no is next.”
• 18:00 “I don’t work with people I don’t like, and I don’t have clients that annoy me to no end.”
• 18:18 “Part of execution is knowing when to say no. I’d rather be known for things I don’t do.”
• 19:02 “I think the secret is coming to this realization that saying ‘No’ to the good you make room to say ‘Yes’ to the best.”
• 19:38 “You gotta know where you suck.”
• 19:45 “I’m not much of a team player, I work really well alone. It’s my style, it’s my personality type. I love people, I crave human interaction and I have to have it every day. But when it comes to my work, I have to do it alone.”
• 21:39 Ginsberg’s daily routines for success and productivity.

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Scott Ginsberg transformed wearing a nametag into a six-figure enterprise. His publishing/consulting company, HELLO, my name is Scott! offers an array of products and services. Dubbed “The Authority on Approachability” and voted as St. Louis’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2008 by The St. Louis Small Business Monthly, Scott is the author of twelve books including HELLO, my name is Scott, The Power of Approachability, How to be That Guy and Make a Name for Yourself.

Scott gives presentations, breakout sessions, keynote speeches, and seminars to tens of thousands of people each year. Companies and organizations worldwide, including Staples, Verizon Wireless, and Boeing, have been successfully implementing their programs on approachability since 2003. He is regularly interviewed by and writes for major media outlets.

Scott is the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7 to make people friendlier. (In case you’re wondering, he has a nametag tattooed on his chest for certain occasions.)

• Business Phone: 314-256-1800
• Web address: Hello, My Name is Scott
• Travels From: St. Louis, MO
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Chuck-Wall_20130725.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/chuck_wall.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

Founder of Customer CEO Chuck Wall talks to Bill Ringle about brand recognition and the ridiculously high cost of not listening to your customer.

• The big idea behind why Starbucks ≠ coffee and how it has helped the company prosper
• Insights into the Clayton Christensen model of looking at what work needs to be done
• What it really means when a company is customer-centric and how that becomes a competitive advantage
• The transformation you can use to turn pain points into gain points at your company
• How to avoid the trap of becoming overly dependent on big data analysis

Chuck Wall is the founder of Customer CEO, a customer insight, engagement and marketing consultancy. For the past 15 years, Chuck has passionately taught organizations about the genuine value of understanding their customers in order to facilitate growth.

Based on his work of more than 100,000 customer interviews and suverys, Chuck’s new book Customer CEO: How to Profit from the Power of Your Customers explores how companies can navigate the new business dynamic that customers are primary decision makers in business.

As an expert in explaining unmet needs of customers through primary research, Chuck translates his knowledge into actionable insight to help organizations design innovative products, services, and experiences. He aims to serve every customer with gratitude and humility, inspire through example and teach practical business solutions that will help contriubute to a better world.

Prior to launching Customer CEO, Chuck started six other enterprises across multiple industries, including manufacturing, media, technology, marketing and insurance. A serial entrepreneur, Chuck has a deep understanding of entrepreneurship, business, strategy and marketing and is passionate about sharing that knowledge with others.

Chuck has shared his knowledge working as a business strategy and marketing advisor to companies of every size. His clients have included HP, Intel, Campbell’s Soup and Yahoo!.

For more information, visit Chuck’s blog.

Travels From: Austin, TX

Web address: CustomerCEObook.com

Follow Chuck:

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Brian-Klapper_20130607.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Brian-Klapper-Headshot.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

Internationally recognized expert in operational and cultural transformation, Brian Klapper talks to Bill Ringle about how to implement effective organizational change.

• What professional incident created the turning point for why he must start his own firm.
• How Brian redefined success for his firm and how that’s made all the difference for his clients.
• What makes The Q-Loop different from the thousands of other business books in publication.
• What he does for a “mental cleanse” on a regular basis that you can do, also.
• The secret to effective organizational change: people hate implementing things that they haven’t had a hand in creating, but can’t wait to do it when…

Brian Klapper is the President and Founding Partner of The Klapper Institute and is an internationally recognized expert in operational and cultural corporate transformation. Brian has worked with global companies in a variety of sectors including financial services, consumer products, manufacturing, food service, utilities, retail, and healthcare. While Brian’s experience spans all elements of the value chain, as well as all customer touch points, his work primarily focuses on helping his clients create a culture of Execution Excellence.

His clients have included Bank of America, Avon Products, New York Life, Corning Glass Works, Hartford Financial, KFC, Bassett Furniture, and Northeast Utilities.
Prior to founding The Klapper Institute, Brian was a Partner in the Financial Services practice of Mercer Management Consulting (formerly Strategic Planning Associates now Oliver Wyman). Brian has been profiled in several publications including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and Forbes.Brian holds an MBA from The Wharton Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University

For more information, visit Brian’s blog.

Business Phone: 203-966-4113

Web address: TheKlapperInstitute.com

Follow Brian:   

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

Magic Illusion Designer Mark Levy talks to Bill Ringle about marketing, Jerry Garcia, and how to get narrower in order to perform bigger.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Mark-Levy_20130617.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Mark-Levy.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

• How one consultant’s business went from earning from about $1800 to over $ 100,000 each month.
• The single most important thing a business can do to have others seek them out for business.
• What one consultant did to become #2 best-selling author on 800-CEO-Read.
• How Jerry Garcia compares the Grateful Dead to licorice to help him think about marketing.
• The “mentoring perspective” and how it helps stripe away generalizations and hyperbole.
• The importance of immersing yourself in reading.

• 1:22 [On what it means to be a positioning expert] “[A positioning expert/consultant is the one who finds] in a business the big, sexy idea of what that business should be about. The thing that people are going to talk about, the differentiated point…and bring that to the fore of the business  so it comes through loud and clear.”

• 2:14 The story of Bill Treasurer, aka Captain Inferno, and his career evolution from stunt performer with a fear of heights to management consultant to courage builder.
  
• 4:32 [On Bill Treasurer’s Big Sexy Idea] “All of Bill’s workshops, all of his keynotes, all of his consulting, all of his material started to revolve around ways of driving fear out of the workplace.”
• 6:00 Levy describes his early days in the publishing field.
• 6:55 “The interesting thing in the field I came from, the books I had were identical to the books my competitors had, and identical to the ones my customers had…I had to bring ways of making my product stand out from other people’s products.”
• 7:57 “After I left the book field, I just took that knowledge of how to sum up what the story was behind something, and whether it should be sold or not, with me.”
• 8:13 “So it’s like, here’s your compelling idea, here’s what you need to go to market with it.”
• 8:52 How spotting a trend and taking a risk in the publishing industry helped Mark win over one of his best clients.
• 10:15 [On taking the leap from publishing to his current career] “I remember that someone hired me to write a book with him, and that gave me the courage to jettison this career…I didn’t leave my work to go to nothing, I had one big client.”
• 12:04 How attending conferences, and speaking at conferences, helped Mark to jumpstart his “point of differentiation” consulting business.
• 12:46 “What’s your big idea? And how do you write about this big idea?”
• 13:19 [Common obstacles and blind spots] – “When people come to me they often think they want to be differentiated, they think they want to stand out, but they don’t really. In order to stand out, you have to have a very specific message, but it has to be for a very specific audience. People are often scared to choose who it is they’re speaking to.”
• 14:30 “You have to talk to an audience in such a clear way about their problems and their vision and their worldview, and you have to talk about it with such precision. You can’t use the same language and the same ideas for everyone that you’re speaking to. It’s just not going to resonate.”
• 14:40 [On narrowing your focus] “It seems counterintuitive, but again, because you can’t reach everyone…you just have to be accepting that way to success is too narrow rather than to expand.”
• 16:11 How Mark helped Sales Training Consultant Lisa Earl McCloud narrow her focus and harness the power of her big idea to have more success in her field.
• 18:19 “You have to get narrower if you want to get bigger.”
• 19:16 Mark explains the benefits of targeting subgroups within larger groups.
• 19:55 [Paraphrasing Jerry Garcia] “The Grateful Dead is like licorice, now some people out there hate licorice, but the people who love licorice, really love licorice. So you find the people who really love licorice, and give them licorice.”
• 20:54 [On Why People Hire Mark] – “If people knew what their big sexy idea was, they would already be using it. They wouldn’t need to hire me.”
• 21:38 “[On finding the big sexy idea] –  “I instantly assume that whatever their directly saying is not working to the extent that it should be. So what I need to do when I’m working with them is I question them from such a variety of angles…I try to take backdoor routes to get them to be more honest about what they’re actually saying.”
• 22:38 The one question Mark asks people to get them to realize their true focus.
• 24:20 [On why facts are more compelling than hyperbole] “I say to them, ‘Look, I believe your service is remarkable, you even use the word remarkable, what would I see if I watched you delivering this remarkable service? What would I actually see you doing.”
• 26:57 [On spotting trends in your own business] “I didn’t come up with a claim and find ways of justifying it. I dispassionately looked over my business and asked what are all the ways I’m helping customers?”
• 28:08 How Mark’s book Accidental Genius helps readers use free writing to take off the limits of their thinking.
• 30:26 [On the extensive reach of Accidental Genius] “I can’t be everywhere in the world, but the book gets to places I don’t know about and acts as an emissary for me.”
• 31:01 How Mark uses free writing to stay productive in the midst of a busy schedule.
• 33:55 [On the importance of varying your inputs and also being immersed in your field] – “It’s very hard to create in a vacuum.”

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Mark Levy is the founder of Levy Innovation LLC, a positioning firm that helps consultants, authors, and other thought leaders increase their fees by up to 2,000%.

Marshall Goldsmith, named by the London Times as one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world, says “Mark helped me understand who I am, establish my brand, and communicate my brand to the world.”

David Meerman Scott, who authored the biggest-selling social media book ever written, calls Mark “a positioning guru extraordinaire.”

TED speaker, Simon Sinek, says, “Mark helped me find my why.”

Fast Company “Expert Blogger,” Cali Yost says: “Mark helped me rethink my entire business in a day. He’s a miracle worker.”

Before devoting his work full-time to Levy Innovation, Mark served as Chief Marketing Officer at an Inc. 5000 experiential branding organization whose clients include Bank of America, Samsung, Time Warner, Tivo, and Harvard and Stanford Universities.

Mark has written for the New York Times and has written or co-created five books. His latest book, “Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content,” has been published in eleven languages.

Mark has also taught research writing at Rutgers University.

In addition to being a positioning consultant, Mark creates magic tricks and shows. His work has been performed in Carnegie Hall and Las Vegas, and on all the major TV networks. He also co-created the off-Broadway show, “Chamber Magic,” which has played for twelve years and is the longest-running one-person show in New York City.

For more information, visit Mark’s website.

• Primary Website
• Travels From: Clinton, NJ
• Connect on Twitter

Below are key people, places, books, quotes, websites, and other resources that we discussed so you can explore further.

• Bill Treasurer’s Courageous Leadership
• Lisa McCloud’s Selling with Noble Purpose

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Felicia-Slattery_20161010.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” playerid=”” waveformbg=”” waveformprog=”” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-Felicia-Slattery-cropped.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

• What to ask instead of “What do you do?” for better networking connections.
• How to make your best impression at a network event.
• When to use the FORM technique to create more points of interest with a new contact
• How to make the most of follow-up
• The best advice Felicia ever received about connecting in person: relax and be yourself

Felicia Slattery is on a mission to help business experts and celebrities to create meaningful connections through effective communication and public speaking.

The two-time Amazon #1 best-selling author of Kill the Elevator Speech and 21 Ways to Make Money Speaking has shared her ideas across the United States and abroad. Felicia presents to audiences on communication, speaking, and being a successful entrepreneur in spite of every twist that life can surprise you with. As a cancer survivor,  Felicia’s enthusiastic passion for communication is contagious because she knows that one important message delivered with power can transform a life

For more information, visit Felicia’s website.

Web address: http://www.feliciaslattery.com

Travels from: Chicago, IL

Phone: (630)-464-0199

Contact:

Mark Sanborn talks to Bill Ringle about how becoming a more effective leader means focusing less on the future, and more on the present.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth. My Quest for the Best is a top-rated small business podcast with over 300 episodes of thought-provoking and insightful interviews with today’s top thought leaders and business experts. Host Bill Ringle’s mission with this show is to provide the strategies, insights, and resources that will unlock the growth potential of your business through these powerful conversations.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Mark-Sanborn_20111107.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/mark_sanborn.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

• What clients really want to hear from consultants and what audiences want to hear from speakers.
• Ways in which change itself has changed.
• A key question that effective leaders ask daily to build a shared sense of vision and progress.
• How leaders at any level can share what matters most to help an organization move more rapidly towards business success.

• 1:35 Sanborn describes how the origins of his career path began with public speaking in 4H.
• 2:21 “The reason why that’s important is that the [experience in 4H] got me down a path of learning how to speak well. Through speaking I started to understand the process of mastery.”
• 2:50 “[Youth Organization Leadership and public speaking] combined together to create a great interest in how leaders communicate, how leaders influence others, how they create great organizations that deliver extraordinary service.”
• 3:21 [On his company] “We work with leaders at every level, showing them through my speaking and through my books and my advising, how to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.”
• 3:41 “For anyone to get better at anything, [it] begins with desire.”
• 3:51 “Those people who want to improve have taken the first and most important step in the process. But they now have to figure out how to channel that desire into action.”
• 4:15 The two reasons why there’s no better reason to be alive if you want to learn how to lead than now.
• 5:01 “I think probably today the biggest challenge [if you want to learn how to lead] is evaluating which ones are really good…the real challenge is to find those resources which will best help you with your particular needs and desires become better at leading.”
• 5:42 [On the biggest roadblocks for leaders] – “Today leaders struggle with uncertainty. There’s always been uncertainty in the world. I’ve heard some of my colleagues say we’ve always had change, change is nothing new. I think change itself has changed. I think it’s more complex. I think it’s happening at a greater speed. I think that there are challenges happening with change that we didn’t have 5 years ago, much less 50 years ago.”
• 6:16 “I think the very nature of change is that uncertainty has become so unpredictable that’s it’s hard to know day to day, week to week, month to month what we should be doing.”
• 6:23 “One of the things that I’ve tried to do in my work focuses less on trying to predict the future, less on being a futurist, and more on being a presentologist. A presentologist isn’t somebody that predicts the future, they’re somebody who’s pretty sure, based on what’s going on, in what they can foresee in the future. They’re sure about what needs to be done now.”
• 6:51 [On the importance of creating shared focus] – “Leaders not only have to be focused on doing the right things, but they need to create shared focus. In other words, they need to identify what we should be doing now, to hedge our bets, assure our success, mitigate the downturns, if you will, and then they need to make sure that those things are being done.”
• 7:28 [Paraphrasing Scott Ginsberg], “What are the three or four things you do every day to ensure your ongoing success.”
• 8:07 “The reality is that there are a few, a very few [things we do every day] that really create the majority of our results and our success.”
• 8:15 The significance of creating a structure that creates focus in times of potential uncertainty.
• 8:41 “If business development is key, you need to make sure that everybody from the person who answers the phone, to the salespeople, to the ones who work in the warehouse know their job perspective…Everybody needs to know, even if their job isn’t specifically business development, how their job impacts business development.”
• 9:55 [On building the structure that supports the philosophy of focus] – “What I suggest is you work with each of the people you lead, begin with yourself, but each of the people you lead to identify their MVP activities. We know in sports being an MVP is for the most valuable player, but in this sense, it stands for most valuable and profitable activities. And that simply means that you look at all the things you do every day through that lens of focus and you say ‘What are those key things, those most valuable and profitable activities, that will give us the biggest payback on our investment of time and energy and expertise”
• 11:00 “If you could spend 60-80% of every day on your most valuable and profitable activities, you would a) be almost laser-like in your focus, but more importantly you would increase dramatically the results you enjoy.”
• 11:40 [The difference between activity and accomplishment] – “Life isn’t about how busy you are, it’s about the results you create. There are times when we can accomplish more by doing less, by editing out the unimportant, or the trivial, or the insignificant.”
• 12:53 Sanborn describes his experiences in branding himself as an author and discusses some of the key points of his most famous works.
• 15:10 “People are less interested in what you and I have learned or done, what they ultimately want to know is what they can learn from what we’ve learned or done.”

My Quest for the Best is the podcast where ambitious small business leaders discover strategies and tactics to unlock their growth potential.

Give us a 5-star rating and positive review to make it easier for other small business owners to find and benefit from our work!

See all listening options (Overcast, Pocket Casts, TuneIn, and more)

Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE, is president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea studio dedicated to developing leaders in business and in life. Mark is an international bestselling author and noted authority on leadership, team building, customer service and change.

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA), is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame, and recently served as the president of the National Speakers Association. He was recently honored with the Cavett Award, the highest honor the NSA bestows on its members, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the speaking profession. Mark is also a member of the exclusive Speakers Roundtable, made up of 20 of the top speakers in America.

Mark is the author of seven books, including TeamBuilt: Making Teamwork Work, Sanborn on Success, and Upgrade: Proven Strategies for Dramatically Increasing Personal and Professional Success. Mark’s book The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Make the Ordinary Extraordinary is an international bestseller. His most recent release, You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader, is making an impact on leadership development at every level. He has created and appeared in 20 videos and numerous audio training programs. His video series Team Building: How to Motivate and Manage People made it to the #2 spot for bestselling educational video series in the U.S.

Mark’s list of over 1,500 clients includes Capital One, Costco, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, FedEx, and many similar major players.

• Business Phone: 1-800-650-3343
• Web address: MarkSanborn.com
• Travels From: Denver, CO
• Connect on LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-Interview-Gerald-Chertavian_20130617.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gerald_chertavian.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

Gerarld Chertavian talks to Bill Ringle on My Quest for the Best about talent, opportunity, and turning your passion into your career.

• What he is doing to redefine who is talented.
• Why you should never “let them see you sweat.”
• How sensitivity and respect lead to opportunity.
• What skills companies are in demand of and how we can give those skills to America’s young adults.
• That turning your avocation into your vocation is possible.

Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the opportunity divide that exists in our nation. To that end, he founded Year Up in 2000 and subsequently wrote the book A Year Up: How a Pioneering Program Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs-With Real Success.

Year Up is one of the fastest growing non-profits in the nation. It has been recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations using business excellence to engineer social change. Gerald himself is the recipient of the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Manhattan Institute and the 2005 Freedom House Archie R. Williams, Jr. Technology Award. In 2006, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs, and in 2008, he was appointed by Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the MA State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Gerald began his career on Wall Street as an officer of the Chemical Banking Corporation. Following graduate school he co-founded Conduit Communications and fostered its growth to more than $20M in annual revenues and more than 130 employees in London, Amsterdam, New York and Boston. From 1993 to 1998, Conduit ranked as one of the UK’s fastest growing companies. Following the sale of Conduit to i-Cube in 1999, Gerald turned his full attention to opportunities for others.

For more information, visit Gerald’s blog.

Web address: TheOpportunityMovement.com

Travels From: Boston, MA

Follow Gerald:

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes and more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

[zoomsounds_player source=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/MQ4B/MQ4B-interview-Victor-Hwang_20130318.mp3″ config=”skinwavewithcomments” thumb=”https://myquestforthebest.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Victor-Hwang.jpg” autoplay=”off” cue=”on” enable_likes=”off” enable_views=”off”]

Victor Hwang talks to Bill Ringle about Silicon Valley, breakthrough technologies, and the nature of the innovative ecosystem.

• Why some places thrive and others struggle with comparable levels of the talent pool and opportunity.
• What is a trust network and why it matters.
• The surprising key to an innovative ecosystem
• A simple belief to cultivate that makes an ecosystem sustainable

Victor Hwang is CEO, co-founder and Managing Director of T2 Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley venture firm that builds startup companies and the ecosystems that grow them. T2VC mentors and invests in innovative companies with breakthrough technologies. But unlike any other firm of its kind, T2VC also leverages the practical knowhow of company-building to design innovation ecosystems around the world. This expertise includes capital formation, innovation policy, and entrepreneurial development for partners such as the World Bank, USAID, and numerous governments and corporations.

Victor is primary co-author of the book The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley (Regenwald, 2012), which explains how society can foster innovative economies.  The book has been praised as “an insightful, forward-thinking assessment of what makes Silicon Valley tick” (Kirkus Reviews) and “a detailed analysis of the power of environment on startup success” (Forbes).  Victor is author of the follow-up book, The Rainforest Blueprint: How to Design Your Own Silicon Valley (Regenwald, 2013), a short, full-color, lively do-it-yourself guide to catalyze innovation in any company, organization, or region. Victor is also a contributing columnist to Forbes magazine, where he authors the blog Riffs from the Rainforest. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur.

Victor graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. with Honors, studying Government plus additional studies in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, and Operating Systems Design. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Chicago with a J.D. He was appointed as a Law Clerk in the General Counsel’s office of the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1997 and served in national politics from 1995 to 1997.

For more information, visit Victor’s website.

Web address: Innovation Rainforest

Travels From: Silicon Valley, CA

Follow Victor: