Archives for 2021

7 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Company When It’s Time to Sell

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If you want to increase the value of your privately held company, it’s not just about your profits. While profitability is critical, there are other factors that can elevate your company’s value when it comes time to sell.

So, what are they?

Well-Organized Accounting

Don’t put off getting your accounting in order. Be ready at all times so that you can respond quickly when information on it is requested. Buyers will see your company as well-organized and will be more likely to pay a higher price when they don’t anticipate unforeseen surprises.

“Your financial records reflect the results of operations as well as the financial position of your small business or corporation. In other words, they help you understand what’s going on with your business financially.” – PDR

Awesome Employees

Your company’s talent is an asset! Make sure your buyers know that. Employees with strong skills add value, particularly when it comes to the sales team or other key roles that drive revenue, efficiency, or innovation within the company.

Loyalty is also a distinguishing characteristic to promote. Buyers want to know that key employees will stay for the long term. If you have employees like that, don’t be silent about it!

Office Culture that Feels Amazing

Enlist the help of a designer to “stage” your office so that the physical space looks great and feels like an incredible workplace. Freshly painted walls, organized shelves, and attractive wall art all add to your company’s image.

“A good leader needs to go out of their way to create bright, colorful offices for themselves and their employees. Do everything you can to avoid stuffy offices and dreary boardrooms in your workspace.” – Cameron Herold

Strong Branding and Name Recognition

The stronger your company’s brand recognition, the better your selling price is going to be. Roll out a stellar PR strategy 12-18 months prior to the start of the selling process to help show that your company is in a growth mode.

You’ll also want to refresh website content and other communication materials so that they’re relevant and in alignment with the message you are promoting to buyers.

Recurring and Diverse Revenue

All revenue is not equal. Buyers will – and do – pay a premium for booked reoccurring revenue. This means ongoing contracts with customers and a track record of predictable growth.

Diversified revenue is also a must. Broaden your revenue base so no more than 10-15% is based on one single customer.

The Company Runs Without You

Businesses that rely less on the owner go for a much higher selling price. Take steps now to increase your company’s independence and ability to remain productive during an ownership transition.

Inc outlines some steps you can take to grow a company that can run without you. They are: 

  • Stop hovering and answering questions
  • Take a mini-vacation
  • Become the grandparent
  • Delegate the role
  • Let failure happen
  • Get rid of anything that can tie you to the company
  • Let yourself go and announce it
  • Avoiding getting trapped in the zone of running things

Share an Inspiring Vivid Vision®

When you have a clear vision for your company, ideally a Vivid Vision® document, it will excite and inspire any potential buyers about the company’s future and abundant potential. This will also help with demonstrating the alignment between you and your employees.

When it comes time to sell your company, make sure to ask yourself, “Have I done all these things?” If not, then what are you waiting for? Who doesn’t want to sell their company for the highest possible price?

Do you have any other strategies for increasing your company’s value? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Why You Need to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone to Create a Great Vivid Vision®

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If you’re running a company, you’re the one responsible for creating your company’s Vivid Vision®. The problem with that is, you’ve probably built yourself a nice office, somewhere that’s nice, clean, and comfortable. It’s your perfect workspace… most of the time, but not when you’re writing your Vivid Vision®.

But why?

Comfort Lacks Creativity

To write a Vivid Vision® that is filled with outside-of-the-box ideas, you need to physically be somewhere that makes you think outside of the box.

Your office space is too comfortable. It’s filled with everything you need to get your day-to-day work done, whether that’s your laptop, your favorite books, or pictures of your family when you need a bit of motivation. The problem is, it takes discomfort to think outside of the box enough to create an amazing Vivid Vision®.

You Need to Go Some Place That Inspires You

“The first thing you can do to unlock your creative side is to get into a creative space. By sitting in the same, old office you do all your work in, you’re going to have a much harder time breaking from the serious, logical mindset that’s required to do all your other work.” – Cameron Herold

To write a great Vivid Vision®, get out of the office and go somewhere inspirational. You could write by the ocean, in the forest, or even in a hammock in your backyard! Anywhere that gets you out of the box that is your office.

Your Comfort Zone Holds Unforseen Distractions

New places ooze inspiration and they lack a lot of the distractions that can be detrimental to your Vivid Vision® process. Your office is brimming with distractions — emails, phone calls, people popping their heads in the door. These kinds of interruptions can shatter your flow and drag the Vivid Vision® process out indefinitely.

To visualize your future properly, you need to really focus.

Trying to conduct the visualization exercises that are essential to your Vivid Vision® process in places like your office or a boardroom doesn’t work. It surrounds you with the minutiae of the office environment — the hum of the copier, the murmur of phone conversations, even the white noise of the air conditioner. These sounds can subconsciously lock your brain into rigid, business-first thought patterns that will stifle the creativity it takes to imagine a bright, exciting future in your Vivid Vision®.

You Need to Remove Yourself from the Rational

Going somewhere new and away from the comfort of your day-to-day allows you to remove yourself from rational thought somewhat.

A lot of leaders are decidedly left-brained. They’ve been successful their whole lives using rational, pragmatic thinking. That’s just the kind of thinking that can ruin the Vivid Vision® visualization process.

The idea is to visualize the “where” that you want to take your company without concerning yourself with the “how.” It’s easy to get caught up in the “how” when you’re surrounded by sales charts and spreadsheets. Freeing yourself from the office, in turn, frees your mind from the boundaries of business metrics. You’ll be able to fantasize without letting reality rain on your parade.

Most people complain that they spend too much time in the office anyway. This is the perfect excuse to get out of it! Enjoy the sunshine, breath in the fresh air, and visualize your perfect Vivid Vision®.

Do you have any interesting places you like to go to get inspired? Let us know in the comments below.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

How to Foster Useful Communication

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Ever notice how the same people tend to talk a lot in meetings and those who are usually quiet never speak up?

Quiet COOs against intense outspoken CEOs are a common example of how communication in most top-level meetings is quite lopsided, with one party doing all of the talking.

So, what can you do about this?

Notice the Value Others Can Have in a Conversation

As the Chief Operating Officer, or as another leader, you might often feel as if you could have added good value to the conversation, if only you were given the chance to speak up. This applies to all of your employees as well.

In other words, if you are a COO who has to remain quiet when the C-Suite team meets, then the least you can do is encourage the quieter employees who report to you to speak up in meetings and join the conversation. Why? Because you know what it feels like to be stuck being silent, so try your best to make sure others don’t feel that way.

If you’re a CEO, you need to seek other people’s knowledge and opinions. You are essentially second in command to no one, meaning that you have no outside perspective if you don’t encourage others to speak up to you.

Engage with All Participants

In order to run successful meetings, you must engage with every single meeting participant, especially the ones who typically remain silent. With some encouragement, these people could really add value to the discussion.

During meetings, foster dialogue with the newcomers or quiet employees first, and then move around the table, moving up in seniority as you solicit feedback.

Leaders should always give feedback last so that they don’t sway the group one way or the other. This is actually one of the key employee management tips that are taught in CEO, CFO, and COO training seminars to help executives build a more cohesive team.

Try the Post-It Note Strategy

Another way to encourage others to share their ideas is through the Post-It note strategy. It’s easy: simply give every meeting participant some Post-It notes and instruct them to write down five to ten ideas, one per note.

Then, get everyone to put their ideas up on the wall and get them to read them aloud. It’s an opportunity for everyone’s ideas to be out there and listened to and if everyone is doing it, it’s a lot less nerve wracking.

“Your employees are going to be much more invested in the ideas this way because they feel as if their voices were heard. If they feel this way, they’ll work a lot harder to make the ideas come to life.” – Cameron Herold

Eliminate Distractions

To foster useful communication it is essential that people aren’t distracted by emails or tests. Sometimes it can be useful for people to bring their phones or laptops to meetings to make notes, but emails and texts distract others and yourself from the task at hand.

If you suspect that someone is emailing, ask them to stop and show everyone what they’re doing. If you catch them emailing, they owe $10 to the company’s entertainment fund or company charity. It works like a charm!

If you call someone out on it and you’re wrong, you owe them lunch instead. It’s a fun way to enforce meeting etiquette without rebuking and insulting employees. Plus, it encourages people to pay attention to the moment. It’s hard for people to want to speak up if they think that no one is going to be paying attention anyway!

Communication is essential in any good company, so it’s important for leaders to know how to encourage it in others.

How do you foster useful communication? Any good tricks? Let us know in the comments below.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2017 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The Secret to Successful One-on-One Interviews

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“What’s your biggest fault?”

“Tell me about a time you disagreed with a supervisor.”

These are just a couple of traditional interview questions asked all the time by highly trained HR insiders. The problem is, traditional, wishy-washy interviews suck.

Sticking to the typical, pre-approved interview script means that the interviewee only says what they think you want to hear. Because of that, you end up missing out on asking a lot of questions you wanted, and needed, to ask.

So how do you have successful one-on-one interviews?

Interviews Should be Serious, Personal, and Intense

Does this mean you should hang a bare light bulb and polish up your waterboarding skills? Certainly not, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be intense. Staffing your company is too important not to push for the best.

Avoiding an intense interview and therefore avoiding questions that could create potentially awkward situations can come back to haunt you. Besides, once the person is hired, things are going to get a lot more intense than the interview, so you’d be better off seeing how they deal with it in the one-on-one interview before offering them a contract.

“Ask unexpected questions. Get your applicants to tell you about the time they disagreed with a customer and how they handled it. Ask them their top three workplace accomplishments. They’re all great, tried and true interview questions. You’ll be surprised by how much more you can learn with these!” – Cameron Herold

Find a Balance

The secret to a successful one-on-one interview is balancing a professional, respectful approach and also getting what you want.

One of the most important things to know before going into an interview is that almost everyone lies, or at least exaggerates. The key is to listen to your gut and dig deeper when it tells you that something is fishy. It’s easy for someone to claim they’re good at a skill, but when you ask them something that requires them to prove it, that’s when you catch them in a lie.

Does your interviewee claim to be great at time management? Then ask them what their time management strategies are and how they put them to use in the workplace. Make sure they give concrete examples. Vague answers are an answer themselves — the answer being that they’re lying.

Yes, the interview might get awkward, but that’s the cost of finding the perfect candidates. If you simply stick to a traditional interview script, it’s easy for people who only exaggerate their skills to sneak their way into the job.

Use Pregnant Pauses

Another good technique for one-on-one interviews is to use pregnant pauses to your advantage. Sometimes it can be useful to count to ten in your head after an interviewee finishes an answer to see if they volunteer more information into that pause.

Sure, it definitely creates some extremely awkward silences, but the information you can garner not just from the additional information they’ll volunteer, but also from how the individual responds to the pause is so valuable to you in the interview process.

Don’t shy away from the intense and the awkward. It’s a job interview. Sometimes you have to get intense to find the best people you can for the job. It’s worth it.

Do you have any other interview strategies that you use? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Your Company Needs a Better Office and Here’s Why

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If you are trying to create a fun and fostering environment in your office, the kind that will inspire your employees to creative brilliance, you have to think a little outside of the box.

Okay, maybe a lot outside the box.

Dreary Offices Stifle Creativity

A good leader needs to go out of their way to create bright, colorful offices for themselves and their employees. Do everything you can to avoid stuffy offices and dreary boardrooms in your workspace. If you’re not excited about working in that environment, then why should your employees be?

Nothing stifles creativity more than a drab, boring old-school office. Those cliché motivational posters on your wall are doing quite the opposite. More likely than not, those are only motivating your employees to rip them to pieces.

“Driving for success is much deeper and more individual than these “slogans for the masses”. Motivational phrases and beautiful photography does not get people closer to that goal. In fact, displaying these kinds of posters is really a mistake for the small business owners and can become a point of ridicule.” – Forbes

Dreary Doesn’t Attract Top Talent

You better have a crazy compensation package on your dreary, white table if you think you are going to attract any top talent to your little, beige office. These top talents read enough blogs and watch enough TV to know what kinds of environments the best, cutting edge, start-up companies are offering.

“Google is arguably the best company to work for in the world. Their offices are renowned for their funky design and cutting-edge amenities. The level of autonomy and focus on innovation is legendary. And, yes, their above-average compensation and stock options don’t hurt their chances of finding top-tier talent either.” – Cameron Herold

Think about ReThink

ReThink is one of the top advertising agencies in North America. To keep their place at the top, stakeholders have gone a little crazy when it comes to their office space, to say the least. Unless using a ping-pong table for a boardroom table or installing artificial turf for carpeting sounds normal to you?

ReThink is using a brilliant strategy. They’ve created a physical embodiment of a corporate culture that insists on doing things differently.

It’s also quite brilliant because it didn’t cost them thousands as you’d expect. You don’t need fireman’s poles or foosball tables to compete with these people, either. Bright paint, funky furniture, and an open concept can go a long way in establishing a unique working environment.

Name Your Office

One of the easiest ways to show how quirky you are is to let go of tired naming conventions for your offices and boardrooms. Some offices have named their meeting rooms after planets, the farthest and smallest aptly being named Pluto (not officially a planet, but you get the idea).

Have your employees brainstorm ideas for names or make it a contest to see who can come up with the best options. Who doesn’t like a fun, little contest?

“Of course, an office is more than simply the place where people work. It is now seen as a visible manifestation of a company’s brand and culture, and in being so says something significant about the employees there.” – Annual Leave

Socialization, Food, and Naps!

Some people balk at the idea of making your offices and workspace more fun and easier to socialize in, but leaders that know its benefits are huge proponents of it. One of the easiest and most authentic ways to build a world-class culture is to bring in a barbeque and use it often. The break from the grind is welcome, the conversation flows naturally, and who doesn’t love a free lunch?

It’s also a great idea to stock your lunchroom with fresh fruit and healthy snacks, as well as build “nap rooms” into your offices if you can. If you expect your employees to work long hours to help you build your business, then you have to provide amenities that make it easier and healthier.

You aren’t an old-school company, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need an old-school office.

Do you do anything interesting with your workspace? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The Best Strategy to Engage Your Team and Save Money

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One of the biggest questions that CEOs and other business leaders ask is, “What can I do to quickly engage my team around saving money now and do the same with profit?” It seems like a big, complicated question, but the answer is much easier than it seems. The best part is, it’ll take you 60 minutes or less! So how do you do it?

Give Them Post-Its

The first thing you want to do to engage your employees is to give them Post-It notes. Sounds odd, but it works and this is how:

Gather all of your employees in the boardroom and then give them each 10 Post-It notes. Ask them to write down specific ideas, one per Post-It, on what the company can do to save money, increase sales, and increase margin.

Good ideas take time, so be patient. Give your employees at least a full five minutes to come up with their ideas before you move on to the next step.

Share

Once all your employees have finished writing down their ideas, have each person stand up and read what they have written on their Post-It notes. Then, ask them to put them all up on the wall.

After all the notes are up on the wall, have your employees vote on them. You can vote by putting a tick mark at the bottom of the Post-It notes. The number of Post-It notes divided by the number of people equals the number of votes each person should get.

Eliminate and Implement

Once the voting is complete, count up the tick marks and eliminate the Post-It notes with zero or very low votes. Then, pick out the Post-It notes with the most votes and act on the ideas that are easy, fast to do, and cost little or nothing at all.

See? In less than an hour, ideas were found, voted on, and chosen to be used. Alone, you’d never have the variety of options you’d get this way and by allowing your employees to participate, they feel a lot more connected to the ideas.

“When employees are engaged, they are more likely to invest in the work they do which leads to a higher quality of work produced. Engaged organizations have double the rate of success compared to less engaged organizations” – Social Chorus

Your employees are going to be much more invested in the ideas this way because they feel as if their voices were heard. If they feel this way, they’ll work a lot harder to make the ideas come to life.

Do you have any other strategies that you use to gain ideas and/or engage your employees? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Why You Shouldn’t Hire for Attitude and Train for Skill

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The old adage of “hire for attitude, train for skill” doesn’t work anymore, if it even ever did. A good attitude can’t overcome a lack of skills no matter how upbeat and charismatic they are. When you’re growing at 100% revenue growth a year, you need people that will get the job done right away.

Faking It

A good attitude can be faked, skills cannot. This is not to say that you shouldn’t hire based on attitude, it means that you need them to provide the skills on top of that to ensure they’re not all bark and no bite.

To test if they’re faking it, ask a variety of questions beyond the basic ones that everyone knows to prepare for. Ask questions that switch it up and make them think on their feet, such as the Best Interview Question. You have to make sure the good attitude is honest if you’re going to let it partially influence your hiring decision.

It’s not impossible to find people that have both a good attitude and the skills for the job, so why listen to the hire for attitude adage?

You Might Miss Out on the Best Employee

People often associate different attitudes and personalities with different jobs. So, if you’re looking for a specific attitude for a specific job, you’re going to miss people that may not traditionally fit that description, but have all the skills and motivation to succeed in the job.

“People with different attitudes and personalities are often successful in the same job. That’s one reason hiring for attitude often falls short in identifying top performers; it causes you to overlook highly capable people who might not fit a specific hiring profile.” – Employment Technologies

So, what should you do? A good attitude doesn’t make up for a lack of skills, but having the skills and also having a bad attitude is just as bad. You need to find a balance of both attitude and skill, but how?

Topgrading

Brad and Geoff Smart wrote a fantastic book called Topgrading. It’s one of the best systems for interviewing candidates and determining why you should bring someone into your organization. So, what’s Topgrading?

Topgrading recommends ‘leaning out’ two years into the future with every prospective candidate and determining what they have to achieve for you to be happy that you hired them at the end of those two years.

Once you’ve started this ‘scorecard’ for the role, then construct your job description around the milestones your candidate needs to have achieved after two years. That provides you with a tight and specific job description. Once you’ve got that, then you can interview against it to make sure that candidates have what it takes to achieve these things in a timely manner.

Assessing both the attitude and the skill of your candidates is the only way to truly find the best people to hire. It’s not as difficult to hire for both as the adage makes it seem.

How do you assess skills and attitude? Do you value one over the other? Let us know in the comments below!

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The Five Worst Body Language Mistakes to Make at Work

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Poor body language gives a bad impression to others and can easily lead to misunderstandings in the workplace, especially if you’re a leader. To encourage a better work environment and happier employees, pay attention to your body language.

In particular, pay attention to these five worst body language mistakes you can make at work and how you can fix them.

Keeping Your Cell Phone in Sight

A common body language mistake people unknowingly make is keeping their cell phones in sight during meetings. Even just leaving it on the table in front of you or solely using it to check the time sends the wrong message to the people around you.

Keeping your phone in sight subconsciously makes them think they’re not important to you and that you’re more interested in your cell phone. They will think that if it buzzes or rings or gives some other notification, you will check it rather than focusing on the meeting at hand. Even if you don’t, it’s hard for people to see that and not think that you will. It makes it harder for people to focus and believe that what they’re doing is important to you.

Therefore, you should always keep your cell phone out of sight during meetings. If you need something to keep track of time, wear a watch.

Never Smiling

People feel far more at ease when you’re smiling during communication. This isn’t to say you have to smile the entire time. In fact, smiling the whole time would most likely make someone feel extremely uncomfortable.

Instead, just allow yourself to smile if the other person smiles, or smile at another appropriate time, such as when the person makes a joke. You don’t have to give big, toothy grins either. A slightly upward curve of the lips is fine as long as it looks genuine.

When you’re talking on the phone with someone, don’t forget to smile, too! Even though they can’t see you, your body language transfers to your voice. If you never smile during a phone conversation, it’s likely the other person will feel that as it usually causes your voice to be more monotone.

Contradicting Your Words with Inappropriate Body Language

Your body language should match your words. For example, if you’re praising someone for doing a good job, don’t sound monotone about it or have a scowl on your face. Your body language should indicate that you’re happy with their work, so keep your arms uncrossed, smile, and let your voice be more enthusiastic.

“Crossing your arms, which many of us do out of habit, can indicate defensiveness and self-protection. Instead, try to adopt an open stance with your arms by your side, slightly out from your body. This shows openness and confidence. Try holding something such as a notebook during important face-to-face conversations to keep your hands occupied.” – Vault

People usually believe your body language over your words because body language tends to be more subconscious while words are easy to fake. So, even if you’re not intending to send the wrong message, others might subconsciously receive it that way.

Failing to Mirror the Person You’re Talking To

Another important body language mistake people make is failing to mirror the person they’re talking to. Throughout the conversation, you should match the other person’s body language so that they feel like you understand them.

Aspects of the other person to notice and mirror are tone of voice, posture, tempo, and movements. For example, if someone is talking excitedly about a new project, match that excitement with a higher tone of voice, faster speech, and more movements depending on how the individual is expressing their excitement. You certainly don’t want to remain monotone and calm or else it makes it look like you don’t care. Is that really a message you want to spread, even unintentionally?

Lack of Facial Expressions

The fifth body language mistake to avoid is a lack of facial expressions. If your face is blank all the time, people will think that you’re not interested in what they’re saying.

Some body language tips for showing interest including raising your eyebrows, leaning forward, and nodding your head. It’s also important to make eye contact during conversation. When you need to glance away, look either left or right. Never look down because it signifies a lack of confidence.

Changing your body language can make a positive difference in the workplace. A small smile at the right moment and a nod of the head sometimes makes the difference in making someone feel like you’re interested in what they’re saying. Avoiding the above body language mistakes at work will make you and your employees happier and more productive.

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Why You Shouldn’t Use the Phrase “No Problem” in Business

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Tons of people say “no problem” – seems innocent enough, right?

So why should you stop? In business, “no problem” is more than just two words.

It has more meaning and effect on marketing than you’d expect, but how?

The Principles of Marketing

People take action based on how they feel unless they are forced otherwise. In business, however, you are unlikely to force your customers to like your products. It is only accurate to say that purchasing decisions are made depending on how the product makes the customer feel. You want the experience to be a positive one.

That is the principle used in marketing. The language that you use is only as successful as it is capable of influencing the feelings of the people targeted. Why then, would the positive effect be limited only to marketing? Why would you opt to go negative with your clients and team members?

So, where does the phrase “no problem” come into this?

The Double Negative

“No problem” is inherently negative! When you say “no problem,” you choose to use two negative words in a row, even if you don’t intend for it to be negative.

Both “no” and “problem” are negative words. Negative phrases, words, or expressions pose several problems in any form of communication. For one, they can root a misunderstanding. Take the phrase “no problem” in its literal form. It leaves one wondering, was there supposed to be a problem? What problem? What was their involvement?

It is meaningless to tell your clients or team what they don’t want to know–that there was a problem. Rather, tell them what they want to know. Tell them what they need to know or what they’re supposed to know.

What Do You Say Instead?

Jack Daly suggests a better way to go about addressing your team and clients. He suggests using phrases like “for sure,” “happy to,” “absolutely,” “my pleasure,” and other positive words instead of negative.

These positive words endear you to your clients and team. Naturally, such positive language tends to work in your favor. They dissolve the possibility of conflict, reduce defensiveness in other people, and help to improve communication. They portray you as a credible and respectable person and make it easier to drive your agenda home.

When you are addressing your team or clients, you are calling upon them to take a certain action or accept a certain idea. The last thing you want is a bad image. The safest way to win them over is by taking a friendly line. Only positive language can create that picture.

What positive phrases do you say instead of “no problem?”

If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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Meetings Suck: Turning One Of The Most Loathed Elements Of Business Into One Of The Most Valuable

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We all know that meetings suck, right?

You hear it all the time. It’s the one thing that almost everyone in business can agree on.

Except it’s not actually true… 

Meetings don’t suck.

We just suck at running meetings.   

When done right, meetings not only work, they make people and companies better.

In Meetings Suck, world renowned business expert and growth guru Cameron Herold teaches you how to use focused, time effective meetings to help you and your company soar.

This book shows you immediately actionable, step-by-step systems that ensure that you and everyone in your organization improves your meetings, right away.

In the process, you’ll turn meetings that suck into meetings that work. 

In life, we always hear about people who’ve made huge decisions from their gut – without data.Today, I want you to make a decision, not only from your gut, but also from some data.  A decision that is only $12 per employee but will be priceless for your business.

Right now, your gut is telling you something is wrong with your company’s meetings.  You KNOW everyone complains about meetings.

People HATE going to them, they HATE running them, and they really have NO idea which meetings are truly necessary but they hold meetings simply because they think that is what they SHOULD do.

Even some of the smartest CEOs in the world complain about meetings – Elon Musk publicly told employees at Tesla & SpaceX to walk out of meetings if they weren’t being run properly.

I sent Elon a message saying that wasn’t going to fix anything – the key is to fix the root of the problem – NOT continue to ignore why meetings suck.

A Meeting is – Any phone call, video call or occasion where 2 or more people meet to discuss or work-through office topics.

Most employees on average spend 1-2 hours per day in meetings.

And likely, none of those employees – front-line staff or leaders – have had any training on how to attend meetings or participate in them, LET ALONE How to RUN THEM.

Consider this…

If the Average employee spends just 1 Hour per day in meetings – that’s 1/8th of their time.

If the Average employee earns $50,000 per year.

And they’re spending 1/8th of their time in meetings, that means you’re paying $6,250 dollars per year for just ONE employee to attend meetings.

The reality is, employees spend 1/8th of their time – and 1/8th of your company’s payroll – doing something they have literally NO idea how to do.

The Reality is…

95% of employees are booking & leading meetings – and they have NEVER been trained on how to run them.

95% of employees have had NO training on how to show up and participate in the meetings they attend daily.

And 95% of employees and companies have no idea what meetings are even necessary to hold.

Meetings CAN be hugely effective – IF you know how to run them

Meetings don’t SUCK, we just SUCK at running meetings. 

Investing $15 per employee – to help ensure the $50,000 a year you spend on them is an obvious and easy choice.

This could be the most impactful $15 you’ll ever spend and will save the company’s money, time and resources instantly.

Buying a copy of Meetings Suck for 100% of your employees and having them read it this month will have a huge impact on your company’s success.

book-5

Free PR: How To Get Chased By The Press Without Hiring A PR Firm

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Public relations has always been an essential part of doing business which is probably why you’re shelling out big money to an outside PR firm. But the truth is that you don’t need them. You already have all the necessary tools in-house to do as good a job as the so-called experts. 

Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic have taught thousands of company execs how to exploit free media coverage and ditch these expensive, often ineffective outsiders. 

Cameron & Adrian have also built in-house PR teams, spent decades learning how to generate Free PR and how to leverage public relations to complement their sales and marketing strategy. 

In Free PR, you’ll learn how the media world operates while you gain invaluable insider knowledge and actionable advice on how to: 

  • Build your own in-house PR team
  • Provide effective interviews
  • Score great media coverage for free with just a few easy steps 

Landing public relations coverage for yourself and your company is a powerful tool to help elevate your personal brand. PR is easier to generate than marketing, PR is easier to leverage than marketing and PR is more cost effective than marketing. In other words, Public Relations is more critical than ever in growing your brand and your business. 

You’ve got more passion, commitment, a larger stake, and a deeper understanding of your business than any outside PR firm could ever have. So stop wasting money and take the reins yourself.  Learn the secrets to landing TONS of Free PR for your company.

What they’re saying:

“I think PR is the core for promoting any business. Public relations acquires customers! That’s what’s cool about this book.”

– Kevin O’Leary,  Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank

“The ultimate guidebook for those looking to get press, grow their brand, and get in front of the masses. Free PR is the roadmap you’ve been looking for.”

– Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

“Adrian and Cameron will show you the secrets of getting massive exposure for your business. This book is packed with actionable insights from two guys that actually know how to to do it.”

– Dan Martell,  Serial Entrepreneur & Investor (Intercom.io, Unbounce)

“I told Cameron to write the book on generating free PR. I’m excited to see that he’s finally sharing his secrets with the world. This is a must read for any entrepreneurial company and marketing team.”

– Verne Harnish, Founder of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)

book-3-1

Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future

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Many corporations have slick, flashy mission statements that ultimately do little to motivate employees and less to impress customers, investors, and partners. 

But there is a way to share your excitement for the future of your company in a clear, compelling, and powerful way and entrepreneur and business growth expert Cameron Herold can show you how. 

Vivid Vision is a revolutionary tool that will help owners, CEOs, and senior managers create inspirational, detailed, and actionable three-year mission statements for their companies. In this easy-to-follow guide, Herold walks organization leaders through the simple steps to creating their own Vivid Vision, from brainstorming to sharing the ideas to using the document to drive progress in the years to come. 

By focusing on mapping out how you see your company looking and feeling in every category of business, without getting bogged down by data and numbers or how it will happen, Vivid Vision creates a holistic road map to success that will get all of your teammates passionate about the big picture. 

Your company is your dream, one that you want to share with your staff, clients, and stakeholders. Vivid Vision is the tool you need to make that dream a reality.

miracle-morning

The Miracle Morning for
Entrepreneurs: Elevate Your SELF to
Elevate Your BUSINESS

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READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.

READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

Hal Elrod’sThe Miracle Morning has helped redefine the mornings and the lives of millions of readers since 2012. Since then, careers have been launched, goals have been met, and dreams have been realized, all through the power of the Miracle Morning’s six Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

THESE SIX DAILY PRACTICES WILL FUEL YOUR EFFORTS TO CREATE AND SUSTAIN POSITIVE CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE.

Now The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs brings you these principles in a whole new light—alongside the Entrepreneurial Elevation Principles and the Entrepreneur’s Elevation Skills. These are essential skills that you need to create a successful business and personal life. Cameron Herold— Bestselling Author and a widely-respected expert on entrepreneurial mindset—brings his wisdom and insight to you using Hal Elrod’s powerful Miracle Morning framework.

DEVELOP A VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS, AND BECOME THE INFLUENTIAL AND INSPIRING LEADER YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE.

The principles and skills you’ll find in this book will help you to channel your passion and achieve balance in a remarkable new way. – Learn why mornings matter more than you think – Learn how to master your own self-leadership and accelerate your personal development – Learn how to manage your energy—physical, mental, and emotional – Learn how to implement Hal Elrod’s invaluable Life S.A.V.E.R.S. in your daily routine – And much more… You’re already an entrepreneur. Now discover how to take your success to the next level by first taking yourself to the next level. The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs is your roadmap to masterfully building an empire with a powerful vision, utilizing your areas of personal genius, with the right team at your side.

Start giving your business and your life the very best opportunities for success, right now.

double-double

Double Double: How To Double Your Revenue And Profit In 3 Years Or Less​

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free chapter 1 pdf
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A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.