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TOP TEN WAYS TO MAKE MONEY PUBLIC SPEAKING
by Tom Antion

1. SELL YOUR KNOWLEDGE

This is my overriding principle that came from years of hard knocks trying to get people to hire me to speak. I get more speaking engagements than I ever had before when I quit trying to sell them and began selling my knowledge in as many different formats as possible. The idea is that infinitely more people can buy what you know through books, tapes, CDs, Ebooks and videos than could ever hire you to speak. Your name recognition because of your knowledge distribution makes speaking engagements much easier to come by because the people that could hire you have already heard you and your message on your knowledge based products. In the mean time, the money from the product sales keeps your business thriving.

2. GET SPONSORSHIP

You can get other companies to sponsor your speaking fee so they can be associated with your message when you speak. Stop and think of what kinds of groups would want to be associated with your message. Let’s say you speak to the banking industry. Maybe mortgage, or mutual fund companies would sponsor you. Maybe bank equipment companies would. Think of anyone who would want to have exposure to your target audience then simply make a proposal to their public relations department.

3. GET DIRECTLY PAID

This is pretty straight forward. As a motivational speaker, you speak to a corporation, association, civic group, or anyone who would hire you and they pay you directly. Most of the time you should try to get a deposit up front of about 50 percent and the balance either before the event, or the day of the event. You will use various methods to get hired. I have had the greatest success in my career getting hired to speak by promoting myself properly on the Internet.

4. SPEAKERS BUREAUS

A speakers bureau is a for profit organization that locates speakers for paying clients. The speakers bureau normally takes a percentage of your gross fee. The percentage is usually in the 15 to 30 percent range with the average fee being 25 percent. It is very difficult to start with speakers bureaus unless you are a bonafide celebrity and your fees are substantial. You must remember they get paid on straight commission and the higher your fee, the more they make. Also, unless you have a proven track record, a speakers bureau will be afraid to put you in front of one of their clients because if you bomb they could lose many more bookings from the same client. You must also supply the bureau with promotional materials that don’t have your contact information so anyone that sees the material will contact the bureau directly and not you.

5. PUBLIC SEMINARS

This is another fairly simple idea, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple to do. Basically you promote your seminar to the public and they buy tickets to attend. You could also promote it to corporate management and get them to buy tickets for their employees to attend. I avoided public seminars for years because of the risk and expense involved in printing and mailing brochures. Now I do lots of public seminars because I can promote them at no cost through my website and email magazine.

6. TELEPHONE SEMINARS

This can be a form of public seminar, or it can be done for private groups. You arrange for a telephone bridge line (very inexpensive), or a conference call (can be VERY expensive). You have participants call in and you deliver the seminar over the telephone. This saves a tremendous amount of money on travel expenses for you and the participants along with all kinds of savings for the participants (travel, time, etc.) For visuals you can have the participants sitting in front of their computer while on the phone. You tell them what web page to visit to see your visuals. 

7. WEBCASTS

This is similar to telephone seminars except you are using the Internet instead of a telephone to hold the seminar.

8. TRAINING COMPANIES

In this case a company hires you to deliver their programs to public seminar participants, or to participants all from the same private company. Career Track, SkillPath Seminars and Fred Pryor Seminars are examples of companies who hire seminar leaders. In some cases you can develop programs for the seminar company and get a higher fee for delivering that program and a fee each time it is delivered by another seminar leader. You also get a percentage of all the back of room products you sell. These companies can keep you on the road quite a bit so you better be ready to travel and don’t think each event will be in the Bahamas . . .Your events are more likely to be in places like Toledo, Cleveland and Columbus. These are relatively low paying jobs when compared to the kind of money you can get promoting your own speeches and seminars.

9. MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS SPEAK FREE TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Many professionals (including professional speakers) speak or give free public seminars to help get clients. Attorneys, doctors, dentists, accountants, real estate agents, lawyers, home builders and many other people from a wide variety of professions give seminars to promote their business and to gain clients directly from the seminars. To do this effectively you must not spend the entire seminar promoting yourself. You must give the participants good information with the idea of establishing yourself or your company as the expert. There is certainly nothing wrong with showing people how complicated things are and even though they can do it themselves, it might not be a wise thing to do. For instance, you could be a plumber giving a seminar on how to remodel your bathroom. You tell the participants every little detail of how to do it and also tell them the perils if they do it wrong. No one will complain that you were just giving a sales pitch, but many will think to themselves, “Maybe this is too much to tackle by myself. Maybe I should hire this person to either help me or do it for me.”

10. SPEAK AS PART OF YOUR JOB

Many companies have their own speakers bureau. Normally the only reason it exists is as a public relations tool to provide a good image of their company to the community. One of the ways you can speak for pay in your company is to volunteer to be in the speakers bureau. As long as you are on company time when you are speaking, you are indirectly getting paid to speak. If they always ask you to speak after hours on your own time, well that’s a different story. You still might want to do it to continue to become a better motivational speaker. Another way to get paid to speak in your job is to join the training staff of your company, or start one if one doesn’t exist. You can simply target a problem the company is having and work up a program to train others in the company on how to solve the problem. Suggest a few sessions to your boss to see how it goes. If you get results, chances are they will want you to do the same program for others in the company.

Speaking - From FREE to FEE 
by Lenny Laskowski  

Many people often ask me what it takes to get people to
“pay” you to speak. Before an organization is willing to pay
a speaker they need to feel there is value in what the
speaker has to say. Keep in mind speaking for free
does NOT mean that you do not offer something of value.

The goal of speaking before a group should not always be motivated by money. I can remember situations during my career where I would have been willing to pay for the opportunity to speak to a group. One thing that always occurs when you are speaking before a group, whether being paid or not, is that you are making impressions to everyone in that group. The more people that hear you speak, the more people there are who can refer you to others who CAN pay you.

Organizations such as Rotary, Elks, Lions, Moose, Chamber Of Commerce need speakers all the time. Several non profit organizations and associations have meetings every month and often have trouble looking for speakers. Contact all your local associations and introduce yourself. Many of the members of these associations have businesses of their own and often have the ability and authority to “hire” speakers to speak within their own organizations.

The speaking business, and I emphasize the word “business” is a heavily referral based business. Most people prefer to have a friend or colleague refer a speaker to them that they have actually heard speak. The more people that hear you speak and are familiar with your abilities and message the more people there are who can refer you to paying clients. Whether you get paid to speak or speak for free you should focus on delivering your message to each audience.

Most audiences have people who do have the ability to hire you or know someone else who can. I can honestly trace paid speaking business to many of the free speaking engagements I have performed. Over the years I have learned various methods and techniques that help me to maximize these free speaking engagements.

Often these same organizations that do not have budgets for the speaker can offer other “in kind” services that are worth more than your actual speaking fee. For example, I have spoken for an organization who did not have a budget to pay speakers but did have the resources (people & equipment) to professionally videotape my presentation. In the end they provided me with an original recording along with several copies of the video of my presentation. Had I hired someone to professionally videotape my presentation, it would have cost me much more than my regular speaking fee.

Many speaking bureaus will not hire you until they have seen and heard you speak. They may hire you if someone they know refers you but typically will still ask for a demo tape (audio or video). Whenever I am speaking at an association meeting in a new city, I try to contact the local speakers bureaus and let them know I will be speaking in the area. After getting permission from the client who hired me, I offer the speakers bureau the opportunity to come and hear me speak.

When you do speak to any organization, bring plenty of business cards. Have your name, address and telephone number on all your handout materials. I also include my web address and e-mail address as well. It still amazes me the people who have attended keynotes I have delivered 3 or 4 years ago contact me because they saved my handout. I have had people who have attended one of my sessions give copies of my handouts to other people they know because they felt the materials I provided were worth sharing. These people, just based on the handout, called me and hired me to speak to their group.

Speaking to associations is a key part of my marketing efforts. Let me explain. The bulk of my speaking services (about 60%) is providing “in house” workshops and seminars to the corporate market. Another 25% is “keynote” speaking to associations and organizations. Providing “one-on-one” coaching to executives and individuals accounts for 10% and the remaining 5% is providing local continuing education seminars. These four types of speaking provide a constant source of referral based leads for my business. The percentages do vary from year to year. Some years I may spend 40% of my time delivering keynotes, 20% coaching individuals and the balance of 40% is providing “in-house” corporate programs. A lot will depend on associations. Most associations will not hire the same speakers as they hired last year. If they do hire you again it may not be until 3 years later because they like to have different speakers each year. On the other hand there are associations that I have spoken to each year for the last 4 years, but I will usually provide a different program.

Not all speakers can provide “in house” seminars and also provide keynote speeches. The speaking skills involved for delivering a keynote and not the same as those skills required to provide a “hands-on” workshop. The keynote speaker is usually hired to entertain a group at some special function. That is not to say, that the keynote speaker does not offer substance and education value, but the speaking delivery and approach of a keynoter requires some different skill sets. This is important to understand from a marketing perspective since the people you may be marketing to are different.

Corporations typically hire trainers and workshop leaders. They generally do not hire keynote speakers for “in house” programs. They are looking for people who can provide some type of training for their staff.

Associations generally hire keynote speakers, lunch time speakers and after dinner speakers for one of their regular meetings or special annual meetings. Some associations will also offer some special training seminars to their membership in conjunction with their event. The speaker who can provide both a keynote and training session will often be hired because they can meet the needs of the client for both speaking situations. For example, in October of this year I will be providing three half day seminars for a client as part of their annual conference. On the last day of their conference, I will also be providing the lunch time keynote. Because I was already being paid my full fee for these three seminars and needed to be there during lunch, I offered to provide the lunch time keynote at no additional fee. This is a “win-win” situation for both of us

Keep in mind, many of these association members also work for corporations who need “in house” programs. Speaking at association meetings continues to generate leads and actual work for me as an “in-house” trainer. I have even provided many FREE lunch-time 45 minute programs that have lead to multiple “in house” seminars. The condition of providing the program FREE was to require that key decision makers attend these lunch time programs and hear me speak, especially those people who have the authority to hire me. I also make sure I am introduced to these people during the lunch time event and follow up with them afterwards. This was the way I “broke into” the corporate market and established some credibility as a corporate trainer. These corporate executives then referred my name to other corporate executives, which in some case were either their next door neighbor of a member of the same church they attended. As I mentioned earlier in this article, this is a referral based business. I can trace many of my best paying clients back to some “pro bono” speaking I provided either that year or a few years earlier.

Many of these associations will often provide you with the names & addresses of their entire membership list. I also ask the person who hires me to provide me the names and contacts of other people they know who they think may be interested in hiring me. I also ask that they make the initial contact with these people. When I do call them, it is not a “cold call” but a follow up call to the one initially made by the people who hired me. I add the names of these people to my mailing list, especially the members who attended my session and heard me speak. If you do offer to speak for free, ask that the person who hired you provide some kind of press coverage and place an article in the local newspaper announcing your speaking engagement. Always try to have them include a photograph of you as part of the article. An article with a photograph always draws more attention. It also helps you establish a “celebrity” status, at least in the local newspaper. Other executives, both corporate and associations will read this article and may contact you just based on the article. This article will more effective in attracting other business, than a classified ad you would have paid a lot of money for.

You can even call the local newspapers and mention that you will be speaking in the area and offer to write a short article about your topic that they could publish in the local newspaper. The article should not be too promotional but offer some sound advice to the typical client you would like to attract. Have them include your name, address and telephone at the end of the article so people will be able to contact you. This also lets the newspaper know that you would be available as a good contact for future articles and believe me they will contact you.

Another effective method is to become an active member of key associations who have the types of business contacts that may be good for your business. Becoming an officer in the association affords you the opportunity to become first known as a member of this association and get to know the members personally. Through this professional association, the other members become more familiar with your speaking services and what you have to offer. They are then in a better position to either refer you to someone they know or even hire you for their own company.

The moral of the story is to speak every where, even if for free. It works. The more people who know about you the more people there are who can tell others. Continually build your network of business contacts and soon you will be asked to speak for your full fee. The key is to learn how to “leverage” these FREE speaking engagements into generating PAID speaking engagements.

—–

Lenny Laskowski is an international professional speaker and the author of the book, 10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking and several other publications.

25 Ways to Sell Your Book
by Jeff Magee

It has been said that an expert today, is someone who has read more than five books on the same subject. Imagine what one would say about the individual who has done the body of research that goes into writing the book and has the moniker “author.” As the definitive authority or author, you can utilize that book to build a new career, lifestyle and experience.

The book is the vehicle by which I have learned one can get doors to open, that would otherwise be closed. With the book, I am able to attain a level of acknowledgement and respect that would potentially evade me. With the book, I can get placement onto bookstore shelves, in distribution houses, on direct mail lists and have visible on the back of the room (BOR) product table sales at speaking venues or consulting engagements with clients.

All of these options translate into one common ingredient: more income! With a body of work that makes a solid contribution to the market place, you give others a viable reason to invest in your printed word, if in exchange the information provides them with a better life. Whether you explore the fiction or nonfiction market, if you can fulfill a need and illustrate to others that they have a need to which you have some answers, than you and your work will always be in demand!

Here are 25 ways motivational speakers can sell more books.

ONE - From the platform, while in front of an audience, I can always find an opportunity which does not violate my presence before them to address their needs by way of sharing a nugget of information or a story from one of my works, and subtly reference - explore a certain product/resources at your leisure at the back of the room.

TWO - If my staff is attempting to penetrate a new market, we have found that by sending an autographed copy of one of my books to the decision-maker, it always gets through to their hands; no screener/support staff/assistant/secretary is going to be responsible for throwing away a personalized book! Include in that complimentary book an order form to induce additional bounce back purchases.

THREE - Maintain constant instant access. To have in your briefcase (at all times!), serves a powerful purpose, as casual social dialogue may also provide opportunities to credential building and networking, when you can immediately produce your latest book for someone - anyone can say they are writing a book or have a book, but being able to produce it may quite often be a new story. With this book include an order form to induce additional bounce back purchases or a note card to suggest that this reader buy a copy as a gift for someone special in their life

FOUR - Arrange for pre, post or advanced sale copies for a client and now you have the opportunity to generate additional income as a speaker to an event or to compliment any speaker fees you may be receiving to engage a group. When you can arrange for a copy of a book to be bought for each delegate in your audience prior to arriving, you have sold your book in quantity and made good money. You can use your book as a good follow-up vehicle to reinforce a presentation, talk or meeting by suggesting to delegates, or your client, to buy a copy and have them sent to people afterwards.

FIVE - As one of the leading authorities on managerial-leadership coaching effectiveness (the leading seminars, books, video training series and audios being sold by the leading two seminar houses in North America, are my products!), I have been able to provide my clients with significant additional development opportunities from my printed words and generate significant additional income annually without having to be in front of the audience. Personally contacting all consulting, speaking or training clients about a new book that will aid them, based upon past interactions with them, gives me the opportunity to advise them to purchase book(s) and this too may increase sales.

SIX - Have bookmarks available at your signings, and place them in the books. Use the bookmark as a feel-good reinforcement for your client by having a picture of the book they just purchased along with other companion products (books, audios, video, merchandise, etc.) on the ‘bookmark’ as well. On the reverse of the bookmark have multiple contact data available for post purchase opportunities.

SEVEN - Develop bookmarks with your book on it and multiple order options on the reverse (through your Web site, fax, phone call, physical mail, via a book distributor or clearing house like amazon.com or BarnesNoble.com on line book stores). Place the bookmarks in all places where your target audience might beon store counters as impulse grabbers, in newsletters, inside every letter you mail out for any purpose to someone as a sort of statement stuffer and in other peoples books and magazines.

EIGHT - Bundle your book with another collateral product item that an individual would want. In essence, piggyback it with another product or service.

NINE - Develop a simple or intricate newsletter as an author to send to your fans, advocates, past and present customers that promotes your book with some vignettes in it and directed ways to buy the book at special price points if done so through that newsletter offering.

TEN - Contact other authors of books that their audience would be the same as yours and offer to them your book at substantial discount as a motivator for them to buy your book and offer to their clients as another product they can offer and make money off of!

ELEVEN - Offer special reduced priced books to the national bookstores in your community, as most have local author sections and love to spot light quality books. You may also be able to arrange a special book signing with them as wellfor example most all Barnes & Nobles booksellers have at each store a Community Relations contact that would work with you!

You can also do the same with often over looked local vendors, consider offering special reduced priced books to the local independent owned and operated specialty or novelty bookstores in your community, as most also have a local author sections and love to spot light quality books from local talent. You may also be able to arrange a special book signing with them and gain local radio coverage.

TWELVE - From the list that you maintain of your own raving book fans, prior customers or data base clients, you can send special pre publish offer for a reduced priced book personalized to them or a special someone that they want to pre order a copy for!

THIRTEEN - Identify local specialty stores in your community, at shopping malls, in strip centers that feature various products from your community or region and contact that local proprietor about providing them copies of your book at special prices or even on consignment.

FOURTEEN - Design an email feature promotional offer on your new book and wrap it around some text that the reader would see as informational, inspirational, motivational or entertaining and send out to your email list of contacts. Offer a special discount to those people that order back to you via email. Then, grow this same selling strategy by designing an email feature promotional offer on your new book and wrap it around some text that the reader would see as informational, inspirational, motivational or entertaining and send out to your email data base with a request that those people send it onward to their email lists. Offer a special discount to those people that order back to you via email.

FIFTEEN - Send complementary signed copies to your advocates and include order information with it. This can also be used as an approach to local televisions and radio human interest and community interest shows (this may be the early a.m. or Noon shows). As a guest on the airwaves you can provide them with intriguing interviews and suggest places in the community to buy your book. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hanson of the famed Chicken Soup For Your Soulseries, first self-published made their national impact in this vary manner!

SIXTEEN - Identify every affinity contact/organization that may have a direct mail newsletter, magazine, local press or eZine that would be a target buyer/reader of your book and offer to write an article for them in exchange for your book being featured and order information listed. Also, with every affinity group design a new book press release and send it along with three copies (personalize one copy to the potential book reviewer/editor) of your book for review and possible exposure within their affinity press.

SEVENTEEN - Identify those catalogs that have readership that would be interested in your book and offer to them special quantity per unit price points to be carried in their catalogs. There is a catalog available at your local bookstore that lists all published catalogs and then you can determine which ones are appropriate to market your book to. You can move a large quantity of books annually through these affiliations.

EIGHTEEN - Add a book by line to your emails that follows your signature line that promotes your book, has the ISBN number and price point, with a directed statement as to where to buy it and how! Also, make sure that you add a book by line that follows your signature line in all letters/correspondence that promotes your book, has the ISBN number and price point, with a directed statement as to where to buy it and how!

NINETEEN - Shrink wrap your book with either another one of your slow moving books or that of a colleagues and offer a two for one special or two at a special price that entices buyers to grab both!

TWENTY - Add a short statement on your telephone answering system, whether that be at home or at work that says, Be sure to check out my latest book (title) on (subject), that you can get at (identify a point of purchase) today!

TWENTY-ONE - Consider having your book cover layout converted into a logo for printing onto a shirt, hat or other apparel item that you would wear and which would draw inquiry into your book. Now you have a selling opportunity.

TWENTY-TWO - Create a one page promotional flyer that advertises your book and send it to individuals that might be interested in buying copies from you and having you personalize that copy as a gift item on a special occasion to people.

TWENTY-THREE - Have special 3-by-5 direct mail cards produced (I use 1-800 POSTCARDS for this service for two-sided, four -olor, 5,000 units for $250) that promotes your new book, where to find them and how to order copies. Use these as a low cost, high quality direct mail vehicle to your contact names, names in your Diary/Rolodex/Computer database. You can also use these direct mail cards as inserts to newsletters, as statement stuffers, to leave at bookstores on their counters or to have as hand-outs for the general public.

TWENTY-FOUR - Provide copies to your local library system at either a significantly reduced fee as a local author or even free. With the books on their shelf and in circulation, you may see an increase in awareness and thus purchases of your book by library readers that would actually want a personal copy on their bookshelf.

TWENTY-FIVE - Design your own note card that can be used to send as a Thank You a Follow Up or used for any General Purpose that has your name and contact data on it. Then on the outside back of the note card have your book(s) cover promoted with some promotional text about what it is, where to buy it and what the cost is. Now every time you send a note to someone you will be soft selling your latest book(s) and stimulating additional book sales.

So ask yourself how you can use your product to establish yourself as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), generate significant income trails and serve others needs!

Jeff Magee, PDM, CSP, CMC can be reached at Jeff@JeffreyMagee.com or toll free at (877) 90-MAGEE.

Jumping Aboard the Net Meeting Bandwagon
by Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC

The verdict is in; the Internet will absolutely and fundamentally change all aspects of the meeting industry. So much is changing so quickly that the typical speaker arises each morning feeling as if he or she will never stay on pace with technology developments, particularly as they relate to the meeting industry. Yet, by staying focused on broad-based emerging issues, even solo speakers with no staff can maintain a firm handle on where to focus their time and attention.

Here are the four issues and opportunity areas of which to be aware:

#1 All Functions to the Web
All meeting planning functions will be transferred to the web–given this reality, and that it is happening faster than anyone could have supposed just a few years ago, as a Speaker it becomes fundamental to have all the materials in your business web-ready. This means converting all of your prespeech materials, such as contracts, agreement forms, presentation questionnaires, survey forms, product bordering information, room diagrams and so on into PDF format so that any form can be sent to a meeting planner quickly and easily in the form of an email attachment.Fortunately, conversion to PDF format is a painless process once the proper software is installed. Adobe systems is the leader in this area, and you can gather all the information you need at www.adobe.com.

#2 Prepare Dual Formats
Prepare all speech related materials in dual format–hereafter, whatever you would prepare for an onsite audience needs to be recast for delivery over the Internet, and for a net audience. If you use Corel Presentations, PowerPoint or other online slide show software, you are already ahead of the game as they readily lend themselves to usage over the Internet. Extend the process further by ensuring that your professional photos, handouts, or participant materials as I like to call them, charts, graphs, exhibits, article reprints, and other paraphernalia used in front of a live group can be easily conveyed over the net.

When to Say No! (and Why)
an Article for Professional Speakers
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

People ask me, “Do you ever bomb?”

Yes, once in a while. But even the worst experience, with a little time lapse, can become funny, and always a learning experience. Once I spoke for a group of men who worked in a gravel quarry. I told the organizers, “No, I don’t think this is my kind of audience,” but they were insistent. Finally, I gave in and said “yes.” (I admit to this defect in my character: when clients keep begging me to take their money I can only refuse for so long!)

How bad could it be? I rationalized. I went early, set up the environment, changed the lighting, schmoozed with everyone. I’m not saying they weren’t nice, hard working, tax paying Americans, but it looked as if their friends had given them subscriptions to the Tattoo of the Month Club. Fortunately, there were a few wives. One woman, very thin, sat in the front row. “Ah, she must have heard of me,” I thought. So I asked her if she liked speakers. “Oh, no,” she said, “My husband is a bit deaf, so we have to sit close up.

So I kept schmoozing, especially with their shop steward and a man they called “The Preacher.” When I met their president, I asked him why I was being paid so much money for just a fifteen-minute speech. He replied that honestly he didn’t think I could keep their attention for more than fifteen minutes. “Boy,” I thought, “this man hasn’t seen me Fripnotize a crowd!” Then I started speaking. It was horrible!

No one in the room stopped chatting with their neighbors. I learned that any time you have an hour-long open bar for a blue-collar audience before a speech, your chances of success plummet.

After my speech, awards were given out. I couldn’t slip away because my handbag was up front. The first recipient was the hard-of-hearing man who told the owner of the company, “I haven’t always agreed with you guys, but ………” Sorry —I really CAN’T tell you. The second award winner was the shop steward who said, “I don’t know why you bring in these motivational speakers. We’re all motivated enough to turn up at work every day.” Finally came the “preacher.” He said, “Most of you weren’t listenin’ to Patricia. You should have done because she was very good. Now, I have 12 points to make…” His speech was longer than mine.

From the car I called my friend Susan RoAne. “It was awful!” I moaned. “Should I send their money back?”

Susan’s reply: “You were fine. They failed. You suffered. Keep the money.”

MORAL of the story: as the late, great Bill Gove said, “You are responsible TO your audience, not FOR your audience.”

So, YES do take MOST of the opportunities you can to speak. But learn to discipline yourself not to take all the money offered. Say “no” based on your own past experiences—and mine.

This is a test. It is only a test. Had it been an actual job, you would have received raises, promotions, and other signs of appreciation.

– Anonymous

If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.

– Malcolm Forbes

A lot of times, leaders feel aggravated, unappreciated, and feel they’re working with people who desperately need a clue. Guess what?

You’re the clue. And it IS hard - you know what hard means, right?

You will feel depressed, worried, aggravated, uncertain, and sometimes downright sad.

And it’s OK.

You’re there to do the work. And do it professionally and with positive energy.

If you can do that day after day, you pass the test!

Question: Which of the following concepts is the biggest JOKE at your company:

* Quality
* Continuous improvement
* Teamwork
* Learning organization
* Servant leadership
* Creativity and Innovation

Why is that? How could you turn that around? What’s stopping you?

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.

– Albert Einstein

What kind of leader would you be if you specialized in the small, the simple, and the gentle solutions?

Or does your style lean more towards the thicker report, the more complicated answer, the more expensive technology, and the more complex project plan?

Winston Churchill was asked how much time he would need to prepare a talk.

He replied that his preparation time depended on the talk’s duration.

When asked about a 2-hour speech, he said he could deliver that immediately.

When asked about a 2-minute speech, he said “I should need a fortnight to prepare.”

The short, simple, direct answers are often the most valuable - and take the longest time and the hardest work to prepare!

Question: What could you simplify right now that would make a difference to you and/or the people you work with?