Achieving Business Excellence

In one of the greatest self-help books ever written, Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich,” the author states that one of the Universal Master Keys to Success is creating mastermind groups (a small group of experts, advisers and mentors that focus on assisting you with your business, career and life). I could not agree more, as I’ve stated many times the most important thing I’ve ever learned is: You become what you focus on and like the people you spend time with. Along those same lines, it is also my firm belief that one of the Universal Master Keys to business success is: Referrals. Continue reading “A Universal Master Key to Business Success” »

I have just returned from two days of facilitating a strategic planning retreat for the board of directors and staff of the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA). This is a great organization that has been around for years and years, with absolutely fantastic people in the tree care industry. As part of the planning process I did a survey to more than 1,000 of their association members to ask a few questions about where they saw the industry heading and what they were looking for from their association. I cannot express to you how valuable the feedback we got from the membership base was, and how important of a role it played in setting the strategy for the next few years of the association. My point? Even though this is a highly successful organization that interacts a good deal with their membership they realized they were not doing nearly a good enough job of actually… listening to their customer. Continue reading “Would You Like To Double Your Profits?” »

I have just returned from presenting a workshop at the Apple Specialist Marketing Conference (what a great group of people, and I got to meet Steve Wozniak while I was there – a really fun and interesting guy!). The session I delivered was on “Building  Increased Accountability” and was extremely well received, so I thought I’d share a couple of the key takeaways with you here on my blog. Continue reading “Creating MORE Accountability” »

Some of you might recall that about six months ago I wrote a blog about a friend of mine that owns a local restaurant that was struggling. I told him that until he nailed the four key “Moments Of Truth” for any restaurant: quality food, good service, reasonable prices and exceedingly clean… that he had no right whatsoever to expect his business to grow… or even survive. Well, I stopped in his place this morning for breakfast and unfortunately it will likely be the last time I ever step foot in one of his restaurants. Continue reading “Bad Employees = Bankruptcy” »

John Spence is named one of Top 100 Thought Leaders

 Gainesville, Florida – January 19, 2011 – John Spence has been selected as one of Trust Across America’s “Top 100 Thought Leaders”. Trust Across America is dedicated to unravel the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, and selects the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. These people collectively represent a group that can genuinely transform and reverse the cycle of mistrust in business.

According to Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, “This year’s recipients include leaders from the public and private sectors as well as authors, consultants, researchers and academics. Each recipient has made extensive, positive contributions to building trust in business.” Some distinguished individuals in the company of John Spence include Jim Collins, Warren Bennis, Bill George, Tony Hsiesh (CEO Zappos), and Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

 The Top 100 Thought Leaders represents the culmination of two years of research. Trust Across America sought the counsel of and requested nominations for this honor from over 150 professionals across the nation. The list was narrowed through an extensive vetting process.

According to Barbara Kimmel, “These individuals are inspiring organizations to look more closely at their higher purpose…to create greater value for, and trust from, all of their stakeholders. We congratulate all of the honorees whose work is shining a spotlight on the importance of trust and providing a roadmap for everyone to follow.”

The full list of honorees can be found HERE.  

About John Spence

John Spence has earned a reputation as a leading authority in the areas of Strategic Thinking, High-Performance Teams, Advanced Leadership Development, and Delivering Consistently Superior Customer Service, making him one of the most highly sought after executive educators and professional speakers in America. John is the author of “Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action,” and “Excellence By Design – The Six Key Characteristics of Outstanding Leaders.”

After yeas and years of research and talking to dozens of experts about what truly motivates employees, I’ve boiled it all down to what I feel are the three most essential, core things that every employee… every person… deeply craves. Continue reading “The Three Keys to Employee Engagement” »

Several months ago I put this video together, mostly to test a new tiny video camera I had bought for Skype calls, but also to deliver a John Spence “Rant” on terrible sales technique! I hope you’ll enjoy this short video — and find value in the sales advice I offer at the end.

My next blog will be a very important piece on the need for Disciplined Execution!

Hope this video gave you a little laugh with some solid sales advice. Take good care – John

I love it when the video preview stops on a really stupid looking picture of me… ha! Well, I promise the contents are much better than the picture below would have you assume. Hope you enjoy the ideas in this podcast.

Take good care — John

Review of the book: Soup from John Spence on Vimeo.

I have been a fan of Tom Peters since his first book, “In Search of Excellence” was released in 1983. Since that time I have had the opportunity to meet Tom on several occasions and discuss business and leadership with him. Tom is a bona-fide Guru, a provocateur, a thought-leader and curmudgeon. I personally love his style of simply hitting you right in the face with what he wants you to pay attention to.  At the end of last year Tom published his Recession46 at tompeters.com, aimed at giving people suggestions for dealing with the recession. I think there are some really, really good ideas here – definitely worth reading and paying heed to! Have fun reading Tom’s list and pass it around to your friends and colleagues – we could all use a few good ideas to help us keep motivated and moving forward! Continue reading “GREAT Advice From Uber-Guru Tom Peters” »

Here’s the toughest question in business:  “Why you?”

In a marketplace where customers see sameness everywhere, we’re all just a commodity.  A pound a nails.  All you can do is play the price game.  Unless…you’ve got a tiebreaker.  Better still, a bunch of tiebreakers. Whether it’s a new prospect you’re trying to win or a long time customer that you want to keep, you’d better have tiebreakers and you’d better be using them now. Continue reading “Top Tiebreakers from Joe Calloway” »