Accelerate Your Business Growth

The importance of being able to present yourself, your product or service to audiences large and small is CRITICAL to your success.  Join me and my guest, Debbie Fay, for a lively, down to earth conversation about not only the “why”, but the “how” of successful public speaking.   Debbie Fay is the founder and president of bespeak presentation solutions, llc, providing public speaking coaching, training and presentation development to companies worldwide.  Clients include; Bny Mellon Bank, Sabra Dipping Products, Robert Half International, Moody’s Investment Services, US Fund for UNICEF, and Tauck World Travel as well as entreprenuers, authors and others.   A sought after speaker, Debbie is a contributing author to Forbes.com.     Today's show is sponsored by WIN Cleveland. WIN Cleveland is an organization that empowers female professionals by creating new access points for individual business development. They support one another by providing continual professional growth, sharing a wide variety of ideas and resources and assisting select women-based charities within their community. Visit www.wincleveland.org for more information.  

Where to begin? With Michael Johnson, the publisher of SalesDog.com! On this show, named to the list of the 100 Top Podcasts of 2013, Michael shares secrets obtained from over a 30 year period in sales including tips in leadership, marketing, telephone sales, and pitfall to avoid.  Michael is a successful entrepreneur with decades of sales and business leadership. Among his many business activities, he is publisher of SalesDog.com, a website for sales professionals. Among his accomplishments, he has taken a small publishing company from three employees and two products to a multinational corporation with hundreds of employees and over 100 products. As a master salesperson he has founded several successful businesses and published hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. He is also author of the bestselling book Rules of the Hunt which is available at Amazon.    Today's show is sponsored by The Opportunity Network. This structured, non-competitive referral program is designed to help B2B business leaders grow their businesses through meaningful referrals and coaching conversations. Visit www.SeizeThisDayCoaching.com/Networks to find a chapter near you.

When it comes to business plans, most business owners don’t realize that it’s not about the plan, it’s about the act of planning. Don’t get stuck navigating obstacles while planning, put on your rose-colored glasses and think “Perfect World”.  Join me and my guest Susan Swartzwelder as we explore this critical topic.   Susan is a small business specialist serving the special needs of start-up companies and growing businesses ready to take a fresh approach to reinventing themselves.   Since 2010, Susan has been developing new workshops to teach simplicity around business and strategic planning. Her mission is to get owners to focus on the action rather than the object. And she believes if you aren’t having fun, you should change your approach.   In June 2011, Susan launched a networking group for business women in Geauga County called The Red Key Network. Its primary function is to support women in business in the local community. The group has grown from 10 to 70 members in just 18 months.    Today's show is sponsored by The Opportunity Network. This structured B2B referral program is enhanced with peer discussions around business topics. Visit Opportunity Network to find a chapter near you.

On today's show, Tina Forsyth joins us to share tips and techniques for creating systems and processes in your business. When you are looking to add time to your days, this is the show to listen to! Tina Forsyth is the CEO of a virtual training and consulting company, author of The Entrepreneur’s Trap and creator of the Automate Your Growth™ Formula, where she teaches entrepreneurs her proven step-by-step process to set a strong foundation for business growth. As a formerly overwhelmed entrepreneur and recovering control-freak, Tina is passionate about sharing her experience and helping other entrepreneurs setup the right systems, team and leveraged revenue streams that allow them to stop working so darn hard and have a business that can run without them.

One of the problems in many companies is that most managers do not understand how to run an effective quarterly business review. My guest Steven Rosen will cover some of the pitfalls and strategies for using the opportunity to create a high performance sales culture. Steven Rosen, MBA is the CEO of STAR Results, and is a widely sought after executive sales coach, advisor and speaker. Steven is the author of 52 Sales Management Tips - The Sales Managers Success Guide. Steven is passionate about coaching sales executives and managers to FOCUS achieving STAR results in their personal and professional lives. Today's show is sponsored by Vision 21. Vision 21 is an entrepreneur resource center in Lakewood Ohio. Visit Vision 21 to learn more about the services they provide to help small business owners succeed.

How do you manage stress in the workplace? Sylvia LaFair, award winning author, leadership expert, and executive coach will show you how to get in the “safe stress zone” on today’s show. You might wonder where that is. Well, it’s that middle area between where ZOMBIES and FREAKOUTS live. Most of us grew up learning to handle stress in either Zombieville or Freakoutville. A few lucky ones learned about the “safe stress” zone. Where do you fall on the spectrum? Sylvia will provide: 5 signs you’re in the “high stress zone” 4 attitudes to live in the “safe stress zone” 3 steps to practice safe stress Sylvia LaFair, Ph.D. is President of Creative Energy Options Inc, a global consulting company that targets and transforms workplace patterns for success. Dr. LaFair’s programs and executive coaching impact individuals and teams to decrease conflict and increase productivity. Her award winning book, “Don’t Bring It To Work” 2009 (Jossey-Bass), is listed as one of the top 20 books for emerging leaders.

There's lots of buzz around social media marketing. The question of the hour is: How do you quantify ROI of time spent? Social media naysayers argue "there are no likes in my bank account." If you are spending valuable time on social media channels such as LinkedIn & Twitter, I encourage putting together a system of accountability in place to measure ROI. On today's show we'll spend time with Valarie Sparks discussing a social selling strategy to generate new leads and keep current clients engaged. The end result will be getting in front of decision makers faster and existing clients calling you, instead of the competition. Valarie Sparks recently left a successful 13-year corporate sales and operations management career to start a social selling training consulting business. She is a top producing sales professional first, and a marketer second. Her social selling techniques ensure ROI on precious time spent via social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Using actual examples that made her successful, Valarie trains how to best utilize such sites for lead generation and continuous client engagement. Valarie is eager to share her secrets of social selling success with business owners and corporate sales teams.

On this high-content show, you’ll discover the shortcuts and the exact steps you need to use to break through the self-imposed barriers currently stopping you from growing a successful and profitable business. Learn about the 4 major barriers to reaching your potential in business Discover the #1 habit that will position you to double your revenue in a month The 3 things that are critical to the success of any entrepreneur What you can do next to implement this information My guest will be Pat Mussieux. Pat is a business coach, an acclaimed international speaker, and author and radio host, and founder of Wealthy Women Leaders. Pat has been named, numerous times, as one of the Top 100 Women Entrepreneur Experts to follow on Twitter, is the author of “Who Am I Now?” and “Leadership Gurus Speak Out.” Along with her private coaching practice she leads a number of different mastermind groups, and retreats for women in business. Today's show is sponsored by WIN Cleveland. WIN Cleveland is an organization that empowers female professionals by creating new access points for individual business development. They support one another by providing continual professional growth, sharing a wide variety of ideas and resources and assisting select women-based charities within their community. Visit www.wincleveland.org for more information.

Lee Salz joins us today to discuss the complexities of sales management as well as strategies for success. Lee B. Salz is a leading sales management strategist and Founder of Sales Architects®. He specializes in helping companies hire the right salespeople, effectively onboard them and align their activities with business objectives. Using his sales architecture® methodology, Lee’s clients migrate from being "people-based" to "process-based" resulting in explosive, profitable growth. Today's show is sponsored by Vision 21. Vision 21 is an entrepreneur resource center dedicated to helping small business owners succeed. Visit www.visiontwentyone.org to learn more.

If you are ready to grow your small business or account list to the next level, you will love this show. Shann will share her tried and true, secret recipe for your success in the new year.  You can start the new year off with a bang by incorporating what you learn today in your plans for 2013. Successful television advertising sales director turned transformational coach, Shann Vander Leek is the founder of True Balance International, and author of Life on Your Terms. Shann provides the support you need to live your truth, rock your passion and revel in your true calling. Today's show is sponsored by the Family Business Forum and Life on Your Terms. The Family Business Forum is a group coaching program designed to address the unique challenges faced by family business leadership and next generations. Visit www.familybizforum.com for details. Visit www.lifeonyourtermsbook.net and discover the Life on Your Terms Accelerator Series. A self-paced progressive coaching series developed to accelerate your transformation from employee to entrepreneur.  You can leave the job that is killing your soul faster and easier than you ever thought possible.  

It's that time of year again! Time to set the goals for your business. Join me for this impactful hour when we'll travel down the road of YOUR business goals and action steps for achieving them. I will be leading this process using guided visualization and my signature roadmapping system. Don't miss this opportunity to make sure you have a plan to reach great heights in the new year. Today's show is sponsored by Robert H. Gray, CPA, Inc. Robert H. Gray, CPA, Inc. is a business advisor to new and growing enterprises.  They provide timely, personalized accounting, planning and tax services.  They are also Certified QuickBooks Advisors.  The firm blends their technical expertise with the business owner’s knowledge to become trusted advisors for business and personal issues.  Their focus is on planning, rather than reacting to events.  Please visit www.rhgraycpa.com for more information.

On our show today, Les Szarka of Szarka Financial will be sharing his views on how our subconscious impacts our views of money, investing, and financial security.  Understanding how subconscious influences affect the financial decisions you and your clients/customers make can make you a better and more profitable business owner. By learning about and applying some of the basic principles we will be discussing, small business owners will have the potential to increase customers and ultimately sales.   Les is Chief Executive Officer, founder and co-owner of Szarka Financial. He has been a financial advisor and retirement planning specialist for over 25 years. Les builds deep relationships with his clients and has a profound commitment to help them reach their financial goals and objectives.   Today's show is sponsored by Family Business Forum. This coaching program is designed to help current family business leadership as well as upcoming leadership discuss and plan for the challenges that uniquely face family business. Visit www.familybizforum.com for details about their upcoming open house on January 10th.

Lisa Ryan will be my guest and will be discussing the value of gratitude in business. It's easy to be grateful when things are going well.  The challenge comes when life throws you an expected curve ball - how do you get to gratitude through tough times?  Lisa Ryan shares simple gratitude strategies (grategies) to transform your perspective, improve your health, strengthen your relationships and bring greater abundance into your life.   Keynote speaker and author, Lisa Ryan is a nationally recognized gratitude expert and founder of Grategy®, a company specializing in keynote presentations, workshops, and seminars. A dynamic inspirational communicator, she helps businesses, associations get results by harnessing the power of appreciation. Lisa has written the book, The Upside of Down Times: Discovering the Power of Gratitude. In this book, she includes stories and anecdotes, back up by research that SHOW the reader how a practice of gratitude can improve life quality on every level. Today's show is sponsored by Szarka Financial. Szarka Financial’s 25 years of business have included a strong commitment to educating their clients and others on timely and important financial topics and basic financial principles. They offer a full range of planning services for individuals, employees, and business owners across Northeast Ohio. Visit www.szarkafinancial.com to learn more.  

  Join us as we welcome back Kerry Heaps, President of Kerry’s Network, Inc. We will be discussing follow-up techniques to help you close more business. A part of your business image that people see when you are not in front of them are your follow-up manners. Do you call people back in a timely manner? Saying you are busy doesn’t count. On this episode we will discuss follow-up techniques, scripts and how to keep your database up to date with successful follow-up techniques! Today's show is sponsored by Vision 21. Vision 21 is an entrepreneur resource center in Lakewood Ohio. Offering various business services from Virtual Assistance to Office Space, contact Vision 21 when you want to grow your business. Call (216) 712-4244 or visit www.visiontwentyone.org to learn more.

  Higher taxes and decreased government spending have the potential to derail the economy. Listen to hear Mark Stratis, CFP® discuss what that might mean for the economy and your small business, whether or not we do end up going over the “Fiscal Cliff” at the end of the year.    Mark Stratis is a Senior Financial Planner at Szarka Financial. He has been working with individuals and small businesses in the insurance, employee benefits, financial and investment planning areas since 1979. Mark’s focus is to help people accumulate money, save on taxes and generate a better return on existing dollars, by providing common sense solutions to everyday financial problems. Mark works with each client to determine a unique and comprehensive financial strategy best suited for each of their specific needs.   Today's show is sponsored by Vision 21. Vision 21 is an entrepreneur resource center in Lakewood Ohio providing services that help small businesses grow. From Virtual Assistance to Office Space you'll find what you need to grow your business. VIsit www.visiontwentyone.org or call (216) 712-4244 to learn more.