Accelerate Your Business Growth

Maria Pesin joins us to share some ideas on building your business through bootstrapping. Maria is a fashion industry consultant and senior apparel industry executive with more than 25 years of field experience. She is the author of 14 Essential Truths Everyone in the Fashion Business Should Know and the CEO of Vibe Consulting. She has constructed and implemented business plans for New York apparel giants like Fleet Street and GIII Apparel Group. Maria has a history of building multi-million-dollar brands and has established herself as an expert in everything from merchandising and sales to product development and budgeting. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Kelly Glover shares how to build your brand and get more clients by being a guest on podcasts. Kelly is the CEO of The Talent Squad: a podcast booking and publicity agency, and has spent almost two decades working in media as a talent agent, radio host, podcast producer, and celebrity interviewer (I'm talking John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix level). Her myriad experiences in media have allowed her to strategize like a marketer, act like a publicist, and teach business owners how to get from pitched to published so they can get more clients and build their brand. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Did you know that multinational companies are looking  to buy goods and services from woman, minority, LGBT, veteran and disability-owned businesses? Some business owners don’t realize these opportunities are out there; others get certified but don’t take advantage of the opportunities. This episode gives business owners practical tools for identifying opportunities for their diverse businesses and making the most of them to win new business. Liz Whitehead is the CEO of 12PointFive, a business development consultancy that specializes in guiding diverse businesses to leverage their certification and benefit from corporate supplier diversity initiatives. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as certified business enterprises who are invested in making the most of their certification. Explore the diversity mastermind groups. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Research  shows  that strategic thinking is the most valued leadership skill in business, yet  only 32% of organizations teach their managers how to facilitate strategic conversations. Rich Horwath,  New York Times  best-selling author,  CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, Trainer and Coach, shares how managers can shift from tactical to strategic thinking to set a clear strategic direction for their teams and succeed. As the CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, Rich leads executive teams through the strategy process and has helped more than 50,000 leaders around the world develop their strategic thinking capabilities. A former Chief Strategy Officer and professor of strategy, his work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review. Rich is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. His four core service areas are strategic thinking, strategy facilitation, strategic coaching and keynote speeches. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

In this episode, Justin Goodbread shares tips and stories to help the listeners increase their business's value and determine the business's worth. Justin Goodbread, CFP®, CEPA®, CVGA®, owner of Heritage Investors and FinanciallySimple.com, is a nationally recognized financial planner, financial educator, wealth manager, author, speaker, and entrepreneur. Armed with 20+ years of experience starting, buying, growing, and selling businesses, Justin spends most of his time helping fellow business owners across the country increase and manage the value of their businesses and personal assets so they can live the life of their dreams now and in the future. Justin wants to make finances simple for small business owners. Justin uses his skills to guide business owners through business sales, mergers, or buy-outs, ultimately preparing them for the next chapters in their lives. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself, your business, and your data. Computer scientist, Brian Gill, joins Diane in this episode to provide you with valuable tips to protect yourself from hackers. Brian is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and angel investor. As an expert in data recovery, he has spent the last 15 years digging people out of data disasters and helping businesses recover from cyber and storage disasters. Brian has dedicated himself to educating small business owners, start-ups, and entrepreneurs about how to protect themselves and their clients from hackers and ransomware. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Defining what’s “passed the startup stage” is challenging. Companies need to prove to their customers, partners and employees that they’ve moved on from the startup phase and are now a sophisticated business ready to take on more opportunities. To do so, they need to follow a few best practices, such as establishing formal HR policies, processes and training, and looking at potentially rebranding the company to reflect its growth and sophistication. Sean Chou serves as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Catalytic. Prior to Catalytic, Sean served as the Chief Technology Officer of Fieldglass, and served as its Executive Vice President of Professional Services. Sean was responsible for product (development, hosting), strategy (marketing, product management), and services (professional services, support). Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Kris Kluver joins me to discuss how to think like a client to distinguish oneself in the market and solve a problem better than anyone else. Niching down on opportunities to address client’s pain points using your own unique skill set is the key. Kris is a seasoned solopreneur who started his first company at age nineteen in Omaha, Nebraska. Since then, he has been directly involved in the creation, operation, growth, and occasional sale of more than twenty successful businesses raning from commercial real estate development and management to content marketing and daily social media operations. Kris is also the author of The Aspiring Solopreneur Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Author and Entrepreneur Chris Meroff discusses why alignment is so important in building a great organization where employees and team members are not only engaged, but fulfilled. Chris has spent more than 25 years supporting leaders in education at both the campus and district levels. Through his work in 17 states and across thousands of school districts, he’s seen firsthand the frustration administrators feel when their efforts don’t produce the alignment they desire. He’s made a career of testing new leadership ideas to see what works—and what doesn’t—in service-oriented leadership. His business, Alignment Leadership Consulting, exists to teach leaders how they can boldly pursue a workplace culture that prioritizes employee fulfillment. You can learn more at www.AlignLeadThrive.com. And be sure to check out his new book, Align. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Steve Kosch joins us to share some practical advice on how to present yourself to others. Steve knew what he wanted to do at an early age. That was to talk about the weather. He became a TV weatherman at age 15. Ten years later he was forecasting for ABC in Los Angeles, then Daily Reports on CNN. Now off the air, Steve guides CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs to look and sound their best in presentations, in a speech or while giving the media an interview. Check out his YouTube channel. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Rob and Kennedy are with us today to share how to create deeper relationships with every subscriber on your list, and some creative campaigns that you can use to make more profit per subscriber – whilst making your list love you more. While surveys represent the ‘dead-end' in almost every business on the planet, Rob and Kennedy will share with you how you can use surveys as an incredible segmentation tool to make more sales, and shorten the time it takes you to get an ROI for every subscriber. Rob and Kennedy are the most unlikely entrepreneurs you'll ever meet. Sporting hairstyles that look like comic-book characters and backgrounds in psychology, hypnosis, and show-business – it's hard to believe they're serial entrepreneurs with an uncanny knack for building businesses with riotous email marketing. Visit their website to explore the possibilities. And check out this special offer for Accelerate Your Business Growth listeners. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Aviv Shahar joins me to talk about leadership. He offers great insights and ideas around how business leaders can be more successful. Aviv Shahar is president of Aviv Consulting and a member of the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame. For more than two decades, Aviv has helped leadership teams at Fortune 500 companies including Hewlett Packard, DuPont, Procter and Gamble, General Mills, Lufthansa, and Cisco create new futures. Aviv guides strategy and innovation efforts in ways that build breakthrough collaboration and dramatically accelerate results. His consulting enables leaders to create purpose-inspired visions and strategies that catalyze growth. He is also the author of Create New Futures. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Brant Pindivic explains how weaving your most crucial points into a compelling, concise narrative structure can make or break your pitch, particularly with today’s “hyper-savvy” consumers. His methods have helped him sell projects and ideas in three minutes or less and can be applied to all aspects of your life from your job to your household. Brant Pinvidic is an award-winning film director, veteran television producer, C-level sales and presentations coach, keynote speaker, top-rated podcast host, and a columnist for Forbes. He has been named to the Hollywood Reporter’s 30 Most Powerful Reality TV Sellers and is widely recognized as one of the great creative sales leaders in Hollywood. His endless energy, quest for adventure, and the 3-Minute Rule have helped make him one of the most sought after C-level consultants in the USA and abroad. He is also the author of The 3-Minute Rule. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

You are a Media Company is a marketing strategy that is focused on 3 things, your target market, understanding of your resources and your goals. Gresham Harkless joins me to explore. With more and more options to choose from businesses and organizations are bombarded with the latest and greatest shiny object (e.g. marketing platform or silver bullet). The secret is not that you should focus on every platform but follow this process to accomplish your goals. Gresham “Gresh” W. Harkless Jr. is the founder of CBNation.co and the founder and digital marketing specialist behind Blue 16 Media. Blue 16 Media is a digital marketing company providing digital marketing services to small to medium-sized businesses and organizations. Central to his marketing philosophy is that You Are a Media Company. CBNation.co is a B2B brand focusing on increasing the business success rate by proving blog, podcast and video content. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.

Kevin Lawrence brings what he’s learned from his extensive work with high-level achievers to today’s conversation. When a CEO begins to unravel, addictions start to kick in to escape the stress and their physical and mental health suffers. If you want to play the bigger game, you just need better tools. CEOs typically place their first call to Coach Kevin with a crisis to solve. They stay because of his business acumen and no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-is style. Kevin’s career spans 20 years, over a dozen countries and four continents. He’s worked with hundreds of CEOs and executives, helping them to break through business challenges, grow their companies and find personal success along the way. These experiences inspired Kevin’s book, Your Oxygen Mask First, in which he reveals the 17 habits every leader must know to transcend the perils of success, and achieve even more. Take the assessment to see how you are faring. Today's show is sponsored by Audible.com. Audible.com is a leading provider of spoken audio entertainment and information. Listen to audiobooks whenever and wherever you want. Get a free book when you sign up for a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/businessgrowth.