Sunday, August 17, 2008
Erika Andersen: Growing Great Employees - Blog Business Success Radio
Founder of Proteus International, Inc., and author of the landmark book Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers, Erica Andersen describes how managers can build and keep an all star staff that epitomizes the company mission and how to develop the skills to implement it.
Erika Andersen is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.
The show airs live on Tuesday, August 19, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
Founder of Proteus International, Inc., and author of the landmark book Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers, Erica Andersen describes how managers can build and keep an all star staff. You will learn:
* How to interview and select the best employees for your company
* How to coach and develop employees to their full career potential
* How to develop leaders to build the organization for the future
* How to terminate employees the right way for them and the company
Since 1980 Erika Andersen (photo left) has become known for promoting learning and change in ways uniquely tailored to her clients' challenges, goals, and culture. She focuses on thoroughly understanding each organization and on collaborating with her clients in ways that are engaging, direct, and "learner-friendly."
Erika uses metaphor and models to help people learn about themselves and their organizations, and then to decide how to move toward the future they envision. While she encourages clients to think deeply and to examine their assumptions and patterns of behavior, she also offers practical methods and skills for individuals, teams, and companies to achieve their hoped-for-future.
Much of Erika's recent work has focused on organizational visioning and development, executive coaching, and collaborative change and learning. In these capacities she has served as consultant and advisor to the CEOs and top executives of a number of corporations, including MTV Networks, Hewitt Associates, Turner Broadcasting, MillerCoors Brewing, NBC Universal, Union Square Hospitality Group, CBS, Madison Square Garden,and Comcast Corporation.
Her books and learning guides have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, German, French, Russian and Chinese, and she has been frequently quoted in national media, including Glamour, Fortune, The New York Times, Forbes Online and radio. She is the author of Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers (Portfolio, December 2006) and Being Strategic: Crafting the Hoped-for Future (St. Martin's Press, May 2009).
My book review of Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers by Erika Andersen.
Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.
If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.
To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832
Let's talk with Founder of Proteus International, Inc., and author of the landmark book Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers, Erica Andersen as she describes how managers can build and keep an all star staff that epitomizes the company mission and how to develop the skills to implement it on Blog Business Success Radio.
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Saturday, August 16, 2008
Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen - Book review
Growing Great Employees
Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers
By: Erika Andersen
Published: Dec 28, 2006
ISBN: 9781591841517
Format: Hardcover, 288pp
Publisher: Portfolio
If life were fair, employees would be perfect. Your employees are, like you and I, flawed and hopeful human beings whose success is at least partly dependent on your skill as a manager, writes Erika Andersen in her landmark book Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers. In this destined to be classic work, in the employee relations field, the author uses a gardening metaphor to demonstrate how careful selection, nurturing, and care will produce great employees and future leaders for an organization.
Erika Andersen demonstrates the importance of taking a long term, career based approach to employee management and development. The author shows how the policy short term thinking, and the rapid employee turnover found in many companies, is the wrong approach for a business seeking to strengthen its competitive position. Instead of thinking of employees as a burden and cost, Erika Andersen suggests that growing great employees is the secret to long term organizational success.
Erika Andersen (photo left) teaches the manager the many steps, and long term employee management techniques necessary for developing employee potential. From listening to your employees and discovering their real concerns and goals to selecting and interviewing the best candidates, the author helps plant the seeds of a powerful management team. Through proper coaching, guidance, and mentoring from the first day on the job through the employee's entire career, the person's value to the company and personal career satisfaction can be enhanced.
The author recognizes that problems will arise in any organization, and not all people are suited to working at every company. Along with applying different management techniques to many widely different personalities, the book also includes a section on terminating an employee the right way for everyone involved. People work best and most productively in an environment that values their contribution to the organization, and values them as people. The author stresses the value of long term career planning within a training and career development based company.
For me, the power of the book is its practical approach to the development of great employees. Great people are the competitive advantage of great companies, and Erika Andersen teaches managers how to become great and to develop greatness in their staff. Not only does she teach the importance of mentoring current employees, but also demonstrates how to select and coach future leaders for the company. Great people in your company will give you that crucial competitive edge in any industry.
I highly recommend Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers by Erika Andersen, for anyone serious about developing a superior organization based on skilled employees. The book is without a doubt destined to be a classic in the personnel development field. It's a must read for anyone who manages people within and organization.
Read Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers by Erika Andersen, and select and develop great employees for your company. By nurturing their careers and by enhancing their leadership skills, your company will blossom into a formidable force in your industry.
Labels: book reviews
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Barry Oshry: Seeing Systems: Understanding The Mysteries Of Organizational Life - Blog Business Success Radio
Entrepreneur and Founder of Power + Systems Inc., and author of the classic book about organizational systems and power
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life, Barry Oshry describes how human actions happen in organizations including power, feedback and communications, and how to prevent system breakdowns.
Barry Oshry is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.
The show airs live on Thursday, August 14, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
Entrepreneur and Founder of Power + Systems Inc., and author of the classic book about organizational systems and power
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life, Barry Oshry describes how human actions happen in organizations. You will learn:
* Why it's vital to see systems and end systems blindness
* How to recognize organizational patterns instead of personalities
* How to reclaim your personal empowerment
* How to prevent organizational conflicts through systems analysis
Barry Oshry (photo left) is a ground-breaking educator, author and playwright whose mission for over 30 years has been to unlock the mysteries of human systems. His quest has uncovered core systemic dynamics that lead to personal and organizational dysfunction, along with a framework and tools for mastering those dynamics. His model of top-middle-bottom-customer dynamics has given managers and executives across the globe system sight, enabling them to understand their dilemmas in a new light and providing them with empowering choices.
His journey began in the ‘60’s at Boston University where he developed large-scale organizational simulations for undergraduates in business. He then continued his research and program development at Boston University and the NTL Institute. In 1970 he created The Power Lab, the total immersion leadership development experience that is the subject of the prize-winning documentary, Power Lab: Living in New Hope. He’s also developed The Organization Workshop, a program that’s become an essential component in leadership development curricula throughout the world. The Organization Workshop is conducted by an international network of trainers.
Among Barry’s writings are The Possibilities of Organization, In The Middle, and Space Work. His most recent books,
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life and Leading Systems, have met with critical acclaim, both for their insights into organizational life and for their accessibility.
Two of his writings -- The Terrible Dance of Power* and The Dance of Disempowerment -- have been staged as well as given dramatic readings. His full-length organizational theater pieces include the musicals What A Way To Make A Living and Hierarchy*.
His Seeing Systems Blog is an ongoing seminar on human systems thinking. Barry lives in Boston with his wife and business partner, Karen Oshry.
My book review of Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life by Barry Oshry.
Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.
If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.
To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832
Let's talk with entrepreneur and Founder of Power + Systems Inc., and author of the classic book about organizational systems and power
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life, Barry Oshry as he describes how human actions happen in organizations including power, feedback and communications, and how to prevent system breakdowns. on Blog Business Success Radio.
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Monday, August 11, 2008
Seeing Systems (2nd Edition) by Barry Oshry - Book review
Seeing Systems
Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life
By: Barry Oshry
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781881052999
Format: Paperback, 228pp
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc
A pattern is not personal nor specific to any given organization. It is systemic, writes Barry Oshry in the revised edition of his classic book about organizational systems and power
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. In this definitive textbook on finding and understanding patterns within organizations, Barry Oshry demonstrates how to move past system blindness and the failure to recognize patterns, toward system sight where people live and work together productively.
Barry Ohsry begins with the insight that humans systems creatures. Human consciousness is shaped by the very systems that make up people's lives. Whether at work, home, or leisure, systems evolve in roughly the same format. There are people at the top, the middle, and the bottom, with customers and clients who interact with the systems from the outside. Instead of seeing these systems as personal and ego-centric, the author views them as patterns. The paradox discovered in the book is once system sight is developed and understood, the individual finds more personal empowerment within the system.
Barry Oshry (photo left) possesses the unique skill of taking a potentially daunting subject, systems and organizational behavior, and making the concepts easy to grasp and understand. Through the use of story and analogy, complex issues are rendered into human terms, and reflect the overall themes of the book. The author's story based format is ideal for developing pattern recognition within organizations, by employing that that method to write the book. When familiar patterns emerge based on the overall system, instead of basing impressions on the unknown motivations of individuals, true systems sight and understanding will emerge.
For me, the power of the book is its deep insight into the nature of organizational behavior, and the similarities and common features shared by all systems. Barry Oshry presents complex systems and organizational analysis in a clear and understandable format in the form of story telling. Without the book's emphasis on seeing and recognizing systems, a person can be lost and feeling powerless. By demonstrating the patterns that emerge in all organizations, the author shows how to avoid conflict, misunderstanding, attributing fictional motives to other members of the organization, and how to become an empowered member of the system.
I highly recommend
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life by Barry Oshry, to anyone who wants to understand how systems develop, and how to recognize the characteristics of those systems. By learning how to see systems in all facets of a person's life, the individual can take control of their own actions within the system, ending frustration and conflict.
Read
Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life by Barry Oshry, and learn to see systems, instead of stumbling along blindly believing incorrectly that personalities are in control. This book will help you to see what is really taking place in your organization, giving you the power to be in charge of your own life.
Labels: book reviews
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Elizabeth Gordon & Leanna Adams: The Chic Entrepreneur - Author Interview
1. Your book is titled The Chic Entrepreneur. What do you mean by the term of Chic Entrepreneur?
Chic Entrepreneur: A Chic Entrepreneur is an entrepreneur that is savvy and stylish in her business manner and method. She understands that a business is a living organism, with great potential for growth if tended to properly. She combines her signature style with industriousness to form a strategic marketing plan that will allow her business to grow into an entity that will ultimately function without her. She understands that the true purpose of starting and growing a business is to create an entity of value, as opposed to simply a job for herself.
She also is self-aware enough to recognize her strengths and weaknesses and clever enough to surround herself with people who round out that picture. She sees the big picture and knows her role in it. She knows when to persevere and when to cut her losses.
2. How can a Chic Entrepreneur find and develop a good business idea?
Chic Entrepreneur: A true Chic Entrepreneur sees the world through a business lens. She is alert to the market opportunities all around her and is always looking for ways to solve problems and thus create business value. The business idea(s) that she, Ms. Chic, decides to pursue should be something that she is passionate about and ready to put an incredible amount of energy, brainpower and money into. However, the idea itself is just the beginning.
I find a common misconception many want-to-be business owners have is that it is all about the idea. In reality however, a mediocre idea with a well thought out strategy and solid plan, will ultimately out perform a brilliant idea that lacks those other elements. So it’s important to spend the time and the thought energy to flush out the idea into a plan, and to run it by others for feedback before you invest your life savings, or even just last year’s Christmas bonus into your new business venture.
A Chic Entrepreneur’s business idea dares to be different. She does business with a bold and authentic personality that speaks directly to customers’ unmet needs, and delivers unique value to them. This is the way Chic Entrepreneurs stand apart from the crowd.
Chic Entrepreneurs who know that they want to start a business, but don’t know what kind yet, should consider their passions and do research by working within that field and talking to others. You want to let your passions guide you and then overlay a business framework to test the business viability of your idea. The Flourishing Business Methodology (which is referenced in the book’s conclusion) offers a simple way to take an idea and then map out a business strategy around it.
Elizabeth Gordon (photo left)
3. Should a Chic Entrepreneur concentrate on dominating a niche market?
Chic Entrepreneur: Yes. Trying to sell to anybody who will buy is a losing strategy. The power of focus will propel you further than the temptation to take whatever you can get. I find people often underestimate just how big the market they are in is and just how long or how much money it takes to develop a known reputation. In your early days, developing a sustainable stronghold in a narrow niche where you can count on repeat business and word of mouth to add momentum to your marketing message will allow you to bring in the kind of profits you’ll need to fund your growth.
Ultimately, your goal is to build a scalable business that provides you, the owner, with the maximum amount of leverage possible. To accomplish this, you must choose a niche to focus on and resist the urge to stray. Stick to your niche and become the absolute best at what you have to offer. If you spread yourself too thin, much like Rome, you will collapse in a tough economy.
4. How important is it to start out a new business with a solid business plan and strategy?
Chic Entrepreneur: This is arguably the most important part of a business. While I have met business owners who do not continue to update their business plan or who have never used one, I see many more business owners succeeding because they had a plan, constantly update it and use it as a guide to their success and growth.
That being said, a business plan does not have to be 25 pages long and bound with a glossy cover. A good business plan should also be brilliant in its simplicity. You should be able to fit the core of it on an index card, and everyone within the company should know the business model and their role in making it work.
I hear many new entrepreneurs use verbiage such as “so I thought I’d give this a try” to describe their recent foray into entrepreneurship which is a little scary. Deciding to start a business venture involves risk. The degree of that risk varies by the type of business and the stage of life and financial situation of the entrepreneur.
Most entrepreneurs are not too keen on the idea of planning, but here’s another way to think about it. If you went out looking for a new job and got an offer to work somewhere for 6 months or a year without pay, with the promise that they would pay you once they saw that you were really ‘going work out’ as an employee, you would likely think long and hard before taking such a job. You’d probably want to see their business plan. In the same regard, that is essentially what you are doing when you start a business, you are taking a job that doesn’t pay, with the promise that if things go as planned, you will get paid. You are putting your money, your time and your ability to provide for your family’s livelihood on the line. When you think about it this way, you can see the importance of knowing in much more detail what “as planned” really means, and thus the value of that plan.
If you are in a position where you have a high-risk tolerance and you can afford to cut your losses, feel free to stumble in haphazardly and see what happens in the first few months. If things don’t work out, no big deal, you can move on to something else with little pain. If you do meet with some initial success, congratulate yourself for a good guess and then sit down and plan out how you will continue such success.
The plan itself is not necessarily the most important outcome of undertaking the planning process, the real value is that you force yourself to really do some research and think through what you are doing and why it will work. It forces you to identify what are the critical success factors, what could go wrong and what you will do then. Things seldom go as planned, but having planned better prepares you for making decisions about what to do next.
5. It's a crowded marketplace out there. How can a Chic Entrepreneur set her business apart from her competitors?
Chic Entrepreneur: It is a crowded marketplace and it isn’t. If you develop a unique value, be it a product, service, information or experience, you will be able to define your own market more narrowly and have a clearly defined niche market that you can dominate or at least become known within. It feels a lot less crowded when what you are selling is unlike what the competition is pedaling.
6. Good employees can make a business more successful and bad employees can often do serious damage to a company and its reputation. How can a Chic Entrepreneur attract and keep the best employees to her business?
Chic Entrepreneur: Most small businesses cannot afford to finance laziness or incompetence. By taking the time to screen employees, assess their abilities, find out what motivates them and what their true desired career goals are, you can attract employees that will grow with your company and be with you for the long haul. What a person has done in the past (i.e. the contents of the resume) will give you an idea of their track record and their reliability, but what a person has done is less important than who they are and what they can do. Many skills can be taught but inherent qualities such as a friendly personality, empathy, a good work ethic, ability to perform under pressure or learn quickly, creativity, or a sense of humor can not be taught, so keep that in mind. Cultural fit is just as important as being able to perform. Create an environment in which candidates can see that they will be an integral part in the greater plan and want to see the company succeed.
Getting those first few dedicated employees is critical because they will be your walking billboards for the company. Turnover is a killer. When an employee leaves, knowledge and experience walks right out the door and thus right off your balance sheet. When you have to retrain, you loose continuity with your clients and internally, so it’s imperative to be choosy and find employees that aren’t going to run away for a little more money, a job closer to home or any other issue.
You have to vet employees’ primarily motivational drivers out when you’re hiring your staff. Making sure that your job is going to a good fit for them, is just as important as knowing whether they will be a good fit for the job. Your employees should be with you because they want to, if they believe in what you are doing, they can get excited about the mission, they enjoy the work, and they can grow with you. Good jobs should enable employees to reach their goals. The current CEO of McDonalds started as a fry cook.
A Chic Entrepreneur sees her staff and people with lives and goals and dreams, not just workhorses, although they need to be that as well. Matching people to jobs that will allow them to use their strengths will provide them with satisfaction. Providing them with incentives that will motivate them to meet and exceed expectations will help you get the best out of them.
Leanna Adams (photo left)
7. Maintaining positive cash flow is vital to a business. How can a Chic Entrepreneur create and maintain her cash flow?
Chic Entrepreneur: You hit the nail on the head. Cash flow is the lifeblood of a company. If it stops flowing, it can be fatal. To create and maintain a positive cash flow, it’s important to be familiar with your cash position at all times. This means slowing down the flow of cash going out and speeding up the flow of cash coming in. Negotiate terms with vendors so that you don’t have to front monies before having the cash that comes from sales, or can at least minimize the time gap in between. Incentivize or force your customers to pay prior to or immediately upon delivery of products or services.
Knowing your cash position also means that you must be completely aware of your projected spending. If you’ve completed the business plan’s financial section, have worked out a budget, included all possible expenditures, and know what you have, what you can spend and what you need for the future.
8. Many business people dislike the sales and marketing aspect of business. How can a Chic Entrepreneur make sales and marketing a positive part of the company?
Chic Entrepreneur: Being a good salesperson is an essential entrepreneurial skill, and it can be learned. So if you have not played this role before or have fear or discomfort in it, you need to confront that head on with education and experience. Building a business will force you to go outside your comfort zone from time to time, but that is a good thing. That’s what personal growth is made of. A Chic Entrepreneur not only looks good on the outside, she is also brave and courageous on the inside. She can overcome anything she sets her mind to.
Some people, especially women, are worried that trying to sell makes them come across as being too pushy or even scamming people. Good sales training in the form of books or workshops will teach you that sales is really helping others to find a solution that will leave them better off. If you believe in the value you provide, you will want to help others by showing them how they can enjoy its benefits. Find enjoyment in satisfying customers.
Trying to delegate the sales function too early in the business building process is dangerous. No one is going to be able to sell with as much passion and knowledge as you, so whether you feel like it or not, you are the best one for this job early on.
Ultimately, once you have gotten the business off the ground, you can delegate. By exciting employees in the sales and marketing aspect of the business, you cause them to be tied to the success of the business and get the best ideas they have to offer. Brainstorming and idea sharing should be a big part of your company culture. There should also be incentives tied to both the sales and marketing that your business does. While this is easier to see on the sales side, you can and should offer your marketing team bonus incentives when certain tangible goals are met.
9. Having good systems in place for operating a company is often recommended. How can a Chic Entrepreneur put effective systems in place that keep the business operating as she envisioned?
Chic Entrepreneur: Processes allow you to create consistency. A Chic Entrepreneur doesn’t stumble around with clumsy execution. She is swift and suave. You and your employees must develop a systematic way of doing things, instead of reinventing the wheel each time you start a new project or get a new client. These processes will enable you to perform consistently and provide a reliable customer experience. Customers want to know they can count on getting the same dependable product and service every time they come to you. Consistency builds trust, and trust breeds loyalty. Effective systems are also one of keys for being able to slowly walk away from operations.
Use process maps to pictorially depict the flow of things, and then use your brain to streamline what you’re doing to make it more efficient.
10. If you had one piece of advice for a Chic Entrepreneur, what would that advice be?
Chic Entrepreneur:Your most important accessory is a confident smile. Wear it always.
************
Thanks to Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams of The Chic Entrepreneur for their great and helpful answers.
My book review of The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business In Higher Heels by Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams.
Labels: author interviews
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The Chic Entrepreneur by Elizabeth W. Gordon (with Leanna Adams) - Book review
The Chic Entrepreneur
Put Your Business in Higher Heels
By: Elizabeth Gordon, Leanna Adams
Published: May 31, 2008
ISBN: 9781934759042
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Robert D. Reed Pub
Any woman can be an entrepreneur. Putting your business in higher heels means making it more successful and making it more attractive to others, write Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams in their powerful women's business guide book to success The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels. The authors demonstrate that the feminine approach to building and running a business works precisely because the entrepreneurs are women.
Elizabeth Gordon (photo left) and Leanna Adams recognize that entrepreneurship and operating a business is reaching a series of destinations in a longer journey to success. The book provides the road map to help the chic entrepreneur steer her course safely on that often difficult road. The chic entrepreneur understands that business has risk and reward, and he takes both in stride with style and sass.
In each chapter, the authors compare and contrast different business styles, helping the chic entrepreneur stand out from the crowd. Often going against conventional wisdom, the chic entrepreneur does it her own way, by providing her own unique value, while learning from the successes of others. The authors help guide the chic entrepreneur on her personal pathway to business success.
Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams (photo left) share business ideas that leap from every page, with examples of how providing unique value works for the chic entrepreneur, and how chasing after the crowd will only catch her high heels in a sidewalk grate. From setting up her business plan, to attracting the ideal customers and employees, the authors provide the basics for entrepreneurial prosperity. They take the reader through sales and marketing, cash flow, and the development of business systems without missing a beat.
For me, the power of the book was its practical step by step approach to entrepreneurship, combined with real world examples to back up the concepts. Each chapter is well summarized, and has bonus tips sprinkled through each chapter to stimulate more creative thinking and idea development. At the same time, the authors help motivate the chic entrepreneur, to take the steps necessary, to create her own successful business venture. The book combines realism and optimism, in just the right recipe, for entrepreneurial success.
I highly recommend The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels by Elizabeth Gordon with Leanna Addams, to any women who are serious about starting their own business. The book guides the chic entrepreneur, as she wears higher heels than her competition, and sets herself apart in the market with style and panache.
Read The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels by Elizabeth Gordon with Leanna Addams, for a guide to being the successful and chic entrepreneur you always dreamed possible. Any woman can be a chic entrepreneur and the sky is the limit to her success and achievement.
Labels: book reviews
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Dayna Steele: Rock To The Top - Success Secrets From Rock Stars - Blog Business Success Radio
Entrepreneur, broadcaster, and author of the best selling and highly motivational book Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars, Dayna Steele shares success secrets from legendary rock stars including Van Halen, Aerosmith, and KISS. She shows how you can use their ideas and techniques to become a business rock star.
Dayna Steele is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.
The show airs live on Thursday, August 7, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
Entrepreneur, broadcaster, and author of the best selling and highly motivational book Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars, Dayna Steele shares success secrets from legendary rock stars. You will learn:
* How show business techniques can be applied to business
* The power of networking and getting help where needed
* How to build and protect your brand and its image
* How to organize a business as if it were a rock stage stage show
Dayna Steele (photo left) is an entertaining and inspiring motivational keynote speaker and the author of the best-selling business book Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars. She reigned for years as Houston's “First Lady of Radio”, building a large army of fans known as ‘Steeleworkers’ at rock radio station KLOL-FM.
Her past awards include Local Radio Personality of the Year by Billboard Magazine and Talkers Magazine's 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts. Her radio broadcasts took her from the war zone in Bosnia to the opening of The Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas to concerts and interviews with countless bands and rock stars around the world.
Steele also created the highly successful e-commerce venture The Space Store. Her latest venture is Smart Girls Rock, an online community to encourage girls to make smart the new cool.' She also created Operation National Anthem, a series of videos from US soldiers serving in Iraq, to be played at events prior to the singing of the national anthem. For that website, Reader's Digest named Dayna one of the "35 People Who Inspire Us" in the May 2008 issue.
My book review of Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars by Dayna Steele.
Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.
If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.
To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832
Let's talk with entrepreneur, broadcaster, and author of the best selling and highly motivational book Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars, Dayna Steele as she shares success secrets from legendary rock stars including Van Halen, Aerosmith, and KISS. She shows how you can use their ideas and techniques to become a business rock star on Blog Business Success Radio.
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Monday, August 04, 2008
Rock To The Top by Dayna Steele - Book review
Rock To The Top
What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars
By: Dayna Steele
Foreword by: Gene Simmons of KISS
Publishing Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN-10: 1934812064
ISBN-13: 978-1934812068
Format: Paperback 192 pp
Publisher: Brown Books Pub
When you have passion for a business or a project, it can very contagious to those around you, writes Dayna Steele in her highly motivational book Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars. She goes even further and contends that when passion is combined with hard work, and a little help from your friends, you've found your stairway to business heaven.
Dayna Steele's passion is on every page, as she combines her life story as an award winning radio disc jockey, with anecdotes about famous rock stars. While reaching the pinnacle of her radio career, she learned valuable business lessons from rock music legends including Gene Simmons of KISS, Van Halen, Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and many more rockers and music industry insiders. Their stories provide a powerful backdrop to the multitude of business lessons shared in the book. Dayna Steele recognizes that all business is really show business, and the most successful business people are indeed rock stars in their own right.
Dayna Steele (photo left) saw first hand how powerful personal relationships are in the music industry. Fan bases are built through personal appearances, interviews, tours, give aways, and lots of hard work. For rock bands and for business people, networking, public appearances, and maintaining contacts in the media and in the industry are vital to success.
The innovative techniques used by rock stars, to stay in touch with their fans, can be applied to any business. It's about being the rock star in your industry, and understanding that everything is show business and finding your spot at center stage.
For me, the power of the book is its motivational quality. Dayna Steele is passionate about her career, and that love of life sparkles on every page. Fans of the rock bands, whose stories are included in the book, will enjoy the personal superstar vignettes; each one containing some valuable business lessons.
The book has a crucial practical element demonstrating the use of technology, marketing, and networking to boost a company's success. Dayna Steele also points out the importance of family time, and of thanking those around you for their help in building your success. As an added bonus, I enjoyed how each chapter sub-title was the title of a classic rock song that tied into the chapter's business advice. The songs also help to absorb and remember the business lessons.
I highly recommend Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars by Dayna Steele, to anyone who is passionate about their business and their career success. The advice presented, in an extremely entertaining format, makes the book a delight to read. There's nothing like learning business to the sounds of classic rock songs.
Read Rock To The Top: What I Learned About Success From The World's Greatest Rock Stars by Dayna Steele, and bring out the inner rock star success in your business career. Rock on!
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