We are looking for #3: Visionaries who don’t see the future.

We are looking for visionaries who don’t see the flaws in others and in their context, but who rather observe how they can help better them.

We are looking for visionaries who will not want to change everything, but who rather understand what are the great things they can leverage and which ones they do have to change.

We are looking for visionaries who don’t want to have best practices and success case studies but who rather create success stories.

We are looking for visionaries who understand that it can take up to 6 or 10 or more years to have success overnight.

We are looking for visionaries who are conscious that in order to write success stories, one has to work hard every day, innovating and taking risks.

We are looking for visionaries who will not settle with doing the same as the rest just because that is the way things have been done for years.

We are looking for visionaries who want to be the first to make a mistake, because each time you make one, you are learning and moving closer to your goal.

We are looking for visionaries who no matter how many errors they’ve had in the past, keep working hard, bringing with them the experience, lessons and in-sights they gathered in their past tries.

We are looking for visionaries who don’t pretend to impose their vision of things on others, but who rather listen, observe and comprehend so they can determine what that vision should be.

We are looking for visionaries who can see the talents of others and better yet, who know how to help them develop those skills.

We are looking for visionaries who are aware of the importance of establishing authentic personal relationships with their clients, partners and associates.

We are looking for visionaries who will not preach about how they suppose the future might be, but who rather see the opportunities of the present.

We are looking for visionaries who don’t pretend to be prophets and promise impossible changes, but who rather work in favor of the world we are all living in, by doing greatly what they know how to do great.

We are looking for visionaries who don’t see the future, but who can see how great the present is.

And talking about visionaries, today I have a special surprise! Last week I had de huge honor of personally meeting Mitch Joel, thinker, strategist, digital marketer, author of Six Pixels of Separation - Blog and Podcast and President at Twist Image in Montreal, Canada. And not only was I honored to establish a good friendship with Mitch, I was also able to interview him, so I can share the thoughts of a great visionary with you.

Enjoy!

We are looking for #1: Sales people who don’t want to sell.

• We are looking for sales people who don’t want to sell, but who rather want to develop true business opportunities.
• We are looking for sales people who are not worried about their month’s quota but rather about helping their clients, prospects and partners.
• We are looking for sales people who are not capable of selling even their siblings for a few thousand dollars more, but who are run their business with honesty and integrity at all times.
• We are looking for sales people who will not promise anything more to close a sale, but who after closing it will deliver to their clients even more than what they were looking for.
• We are looking for sales people who don’t remember their client’s names…just for the new month’s purchase order call, but who really deeply know their clients as if they were their closest friend or family, who know their history, needs, motivations and dreams.
• We are looking for sales people who will not take any more purchase orders but who will work hard to really understand what their clients are looking for, even when the last, don’t do a great job at explaining themselves; and who will work on creating a complete, detailed and personal proposal for their clients even if they’ve done it in the past.
• We are looking for sales people who will not deliver on time, but who will go farther than that, surprising their clients with each new delivery, providing them with a great experience that will leave them saying WOW.
• We are looking for sales people who don’t want to work hard, but for whom working hard, with honesty and integrity is a way of life.
• We are looking for sales people who don’t have “important contacts” with people with last names like Slim, Gates or Schmidt, but who appreciate with full humbleness working with any person regardless of their name, position or title.
• We are looking for sales people who are not after a sales bonus, but who rather plan their work with the purpose of helping and collaborating and not focused on how much they’ll make.

We are looking for sales people who don’t just want to sell. If you fit this description please don’t come looking for anew job, rather stay where you are, preach by example and work hard.

Where you are now and where you are going in life.

I ask: Are you not comfortable where you are right now in life? Are you not happy with the way things work at home, at school, at work or with a relationship? Is it just that you don’t like certain things or forms or id there a deeper reason for your dislike?

I suggest: Maybe where you are right now, as much as you dislike it, is precisely where you need to be. Maybe you are right there to prepare yourself for what’s coming next, to learn and be able to take the next step.

So you might ask: But how can I know that if I don’t even know what my next step should be? Heck, I don’t even have the slightest idea of where I want to go in life!

I reply: “There is nothing more useless as doing efficiently that which you should not be doing in the first case” said Peter Drucker.

So I suggest: Do a profound analysis of who you are. Learn what moves you in life, what task fills you with passion and moves you from within. Determine what your calling is, what your personal legend should be.

When you are clear on this and really know what you want to do with your life it’s really easy to determine whether the position where you are in today is just a building block for your personal growth where you will learn and gather the experience you’ll need to overcome the challenges of tomorrow, even if you are there to help someone too before you can move on.
Or understand that where you are standing right now has nothing to do with where you want to go. And if this is the case it is time to celebrate because you will not be wasting anymore time because now you’ve earn the opportunity to make the right choice, to take a deep breath and a huge leap of faith towards your personal legend.

Are you the leader of your Group or just the boss?

Don’t deny it, through out the years you’ve seen how a lot of group managers, area directors or event company presidents could only brag about being the boss but never about being a leader. You’ve heard them brag about the power they have over their teams because of the title they wear and you have profoundly criticize their huge lack of involvement with you and your colleagues.
For a long time you have broken down and gossiped about your bosses every little fault, every single mistake, his rudeness, his abuse of power, his work style and his lack of decision making, plus his lack of knowledge and ability to do his job and his misunderstanding of yours.
But now something is different, you can’t quite tell what…oh wait right! Now you remember! Now you are the boss.

Now you are on the position that, closer or farther, you always aspired to. Now you are on the spot, subject to all the scrutiny and the toughest analysis. But don’t worry becuase now you also have the enormous opportunity of choosing whether you want to be just another manager or become a great leader for your team.

Of course, there are a lot of people (and this is the ideal situation) who act as leaders no matter whether they have the formal title within their organization or not.

But just like you today, they once had to choose to become a leader, and the decision is really not that hard. Choosing what path to walk is easier than you think, you just have to choose between option A) being a boss or B) being a leader.


A) A boss give orders and instructions, he micromanages each project and continually asks for performance reports in which to look for the slightest opportunity to reprehend his team so he can show them why only he is capable of doing the job of “the boss”.
A boss never gets involved with his team mates, some times he won’t even know their full name, much less their history.
A boss when ordering a task imposes his time line, even when he knows, or even worse when he doesn’t know how long that task really takes.
A boss constantly criticizes his team and, sometimes without even realizing it, will leave the team feeling bad, because he simply is not connected to his collaborators.
A boss imposes his vision, his decisions and his way of doing things.
And a boss lasts a very short period in his position and even a shorter time in the memory of his team.

B) A leader involves all of his team when developing their vision, as a group.
A leader is a facilitator to his team, he never imposes a way to do something, he teaches, shares his opinion and makes suggestions and then he lets his team use their own talents, experience, knowledge and creativity to get things done, and by this, a leader helps his team develop their skills, while at the same time learns from them.
A leader really gets involved with his team, and even if he doesn’t become a close friend of them, he knows and understands their history, their dreams, needs and aspirations, their family and even their friends, and by this a leader helps his team realize their personal dreams.
A leader, when asking for a new project, will not impose his timings, he will ask the owners of the project how long they will need and what resources they’ll require, and not only this, but he will make sure they get them.
A leader never criticizes the weaknesses of his teammates, on the contrary he identifies their greatest strengths and helps them develop and maximize them, and with their opportunity areas, he knows how to address them without being insensitive and, more frequent than not, he will work with them to surpass them.
A leader does not need to have an official director, manager, president or CEO title to act as a leader; he will be a leader from any position in the organization.
A leader, just like a simple boss, might not last too long in a position, but he will always remain in the minds and heart of his team.

And yes, like I said, choosing what to be is a very easy decision to make, a no brainer really. But once you choose, what’s really hard is acting with integrity, congruency and consistency with your decision of becoming a true leader. Sure, sometimes you’ll make your share of mistakes, but what’s important is to start each day with the absolute conviction of acting as a leader and an authentic calling to serve your team and help them realize their full potential.

So, what will you choose to be?

Delivering great presentations.

I just spent a few days at a conference in Miami, called “Thought Leadership Forum for Digital Marketing”, organized by one of the top global media agencies in the world (where I also had the opportunity to deliver a training seminar on on-line marketing as part of their post-conference agenda, but that is another story for another time).

A forum created to bring media, advertisers, media specialists and marketers together to discuss the trends and potential of digital marketing today.
Many ideas, concepts, theories and success stories were shared by some of the most important industry leaders in Latin America today, who by the way had no easy task at hand, since they had to sow in the minds of the more than 200 people in the audience a clear vision of the strategic role that interactive marketing plays in any brand marketing mix.
But did they really achieve this? I don’t mean to debate whether their proposal was right or not, I myself, as a marketing professional in this industry am an evangelizer of this very important fact.
What I ask is: Did they really clearly communicate the important message they had to communicate?
Not all of them, I think.
I mean, the content was there, but even when the key messages where right there, not all of them were able to bring them out to light.
Why? Because not all of them were prepared enough to do so, not all of them had a clear idea of the messages they wanted to share and clearly not all of them had taken the time to prepare their presentations and rehearse.

So I thought that it would be a good idea to share with you 5 points I think are key to deliver really successful presentations, no matter whether it is to more than a 100 people, a training seminar for just 30, a sales pitch to an audience of 5 or even a lunch conversation with just one person.

1. Before anything else, clearly define the objective of your presentation. Ask yourself: Why are you going to talk about what you want to talk about? What do you want to communicate? What ideas or messages do you want the audience to take away? What reactions do you want to provoke? What actions do you want people to take as a result of your presentation?


2. Know who your audience is. Who are you going to address? What is their background? How familiar are they with your subject? Why do they want to be there listening to you?


3. Have a solid, clear and to the point content. I’ve seen too many professionals, even at this last conference, waste a great opportunity to share great content by trying to make a commercial about their company or products. Believe me, making a credentials presentations to an audience hungry for intellectual content will not help you at all and will only make you loose credibility in front of everybody, whereas on the other hand if you leave the impetuous hunger of just selling, at the office and focus on really sharing your knowledge with the audience, they will not only accept what you have to say but probably will want to learn more about your company and what you can do to help them afterwards.


4. And speaking of content, keep it simple. Remember, people will hardly remember 3 messages from your presentation so think hard about what you want those three messages to be and frame them under a clear “why should I care” context for people to take.


5. Become a great storyteller. People, we don’t always understand numbers, trends, statistics, politics, etc, just out cold. But we listen to, absorb and understand stories. Do you want your audience to still be thinking about your message the next day? Tell them a story they can relate to. Don’t just stand in front of them to read power point slides out loud to them. Know your material and your message. Use impactful visual resources and tell a great story.

Bonus point: rehearse, rehearse and then rehearse some more. The better you know your stuff, the better you will deliver it.

Interested in learning more about great presentation skills? Visit:

http://www.presentationzen.com and watch Steve Jobs at his best.

Oh or contact me about my one day seminar to build great presentation skills.