The IABC Long Island chapter, has already had an extremely impressive and diverse lineup of guest speakers this fall.
Beginning on September 29th, at the 300 Bowling Lanes Private Room in Melville, Dr. Dan Schaefer of Peak Performance Strategies spoke to the audience about Leadership Development, Management Strategies, and Performance Enhancement across a variety of disciplines. And he did so in a very interesting and engaging way. Dr. Dan reminded us all that when we meet people for the first time in a business or social environment, we have "6 seconds to be different," and that we need to visualize a strategy to put ourselves at ease and to truly focus on the goal or task at hand. Dr. Dan works extensively with professional athletes as well as CEO's about zeroing in on a specific goal and not losing focus, and getting one's self into that focused place on command. He takes the secrets he's taught professional athletes and has brought it into the business boardroom for companies to stay focused and ahead of their competition.
On October 15th, Michael Gates Gill gave a tremendous presentation at the Hilton Hotel in Melville, "How to Save Your Own Life," a takeoff on his own book, "How Starbucks Saved My Life," which is being turned into a major motion picture that will star Tom Hanks as Michael, the lead character. Michael's story was a fascinating one. He grew up in a family that gave him "the gift of being able to communicate," and his father was a writer at the New Yorker magazine, which was the epitomy of magazine journalism in its heyday. Often, great authors such as E.B. White (Charlotte's Web) and philosophers such as Calvin Trillon would appear at his house while growing up. His career spanned more than 25 years in the advertising business, at J. Walter Thompson, one of the top advertising firms in New York City. Michael alluded to the advertising world as one that was all consuming, and often at a moment's notice he would take off across the world to handle an issue with an account, often at the expense of his wife and his kids. (The show Mad Men on AMC seems to bring to life that world that Michael is referring to, in the 60's and 70's). Then all of a sudden, in the course of a short amount of time, he was fired from his longtime executive position at the ad firm, his wife divorced him (and he really didn't know his kids very well since he spent so much time away from them while they were growing up), and subsequently he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It made him stop and re-evaluate his own life as to what really matters, and then he took his own new path toward healing and recovery. One day in New York City he stopped at a Starbucks and met his future boss, Crystal. After hearing his story, she offered him a job at Starbucks. So here was a top executive from a major ad agency offered a job at a Starbucks, to which Michael said in his presentation: "When you really get into trouble, don't think about it. Just say YES." And he took the job at Starbucks, and discovered that he was very good at cleaning, which became his specialty. One time on the job, he scolded a homeless guy for hanging out and loitering, to which Crystal brought him in the back room, and reminded him to "never disrespect anyone" and that everyone is welcome at Starbucks. In his presentation, Michael relayed so many key lessons: When you feel trapped, leap with faith rather than huddle with fear. Treat everyone you meet with respect. And most importantly, listen to your heart. The world gets so noisy, but we all need to take some time each day and get quiet, and listen to our own heart. Am I happy? What is it telling you. And finally, don't sacrifice your life for anything. Create a life that you love. These are great lessons to live by, and a great reminder to us all about assessing what is truly important in one's life.
Our November 17th presentation was a business lunch at Morton's The Steakhouse in Great Neck, and featured dynamic speaker Juliette Powell, social media guru and author of "33 Million People in the Room, How to Create, Influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking." Juliette co-founded The Gathering Think Tank Inc. to provide a forum for innovation, research and development. PIE Inc. provides consulting services for new programming strategies and Specialty Programming for: The Biography Channel, Women's Entertainment Television and E! Entertainment Television, Cirque du Soleil. So, going into this presentation the audience wonders, Social Networking experts? Is anyone really an expert in this new emerging medium? Well, Juliette certainly knows her way around social networking and how to create business success with it. She really talked about social networking as adding value to each others' lives. She introduced some excellent case studies, including one from UCLA that focuses on the Center of the Universe Theory, with Social Capital and Cultural Capital playing pivotal roles in developing a key network of people engaging in the conversation. The book's name? It refers to 2 to the power of 2 equaling four, and two to the power of 25 equalling 33 million, so exponentially we can have an incredible amount of followers in our own social networks. A significant return on your investment means you only need to dedicate time and authentic-ness and a genuine contribution of your ideas and thoughts. How do you build a strong social network? Engage in topics you are genuinely passionate about, and maybe it's not your job. It could be an intense interest in cooking, or a sports team. Juliette talked about experts such as Gary Vaynerchuk, who grew up learning about tasting wine without actually ever tasting it; instead he tasted the rocks and the dirt that the grapes grew in, and has since developed such a huge following. But Gary talks about sports, the New York Jets, as much as he does about wine. He now does a weekly video blog that has incredible social networking exposure, and he's recently signed a 10-book deal. So much more that Juliette brought to light for this audience, but it's really all about engaging in topics that interest you. She suggested each of us start a blog on such a topic. Social networking is really all about a pull of information rather than a push of information. Follow Juliette on twitter and visit her on Facebook as well.