by Kirby Hasseman
If you are planning an event (or planning to attend one) you want to go where speakers resonate. You want speakers that entertain, inspire and educate. We get it. So we compiled this quick list of some of the best speakers we have seen over the last 2 years. This list is NOT comprehensive (there are lots of great speakers out there) but it’s a fun start! Kirby Hasseman: Forgive us for the shameless plug, but it’s true! Kirby has been in demand lately as a speaker! He has given talks on Marketing, the Give First Economy and Building a Business “on Purpose” and more. He has even just written a new book called “Fan of Happy.” If you want to laugh and cry, find out about Kirby speaking here. Bill Petrie: Bill is a rock star when it comes to providing value to an audience. As CEO of Brandivate, Bill works with companies from around the country to help them raise their game through differentiation, process improvement and even social media. He brings this experience with him to the stage. Real stories. Real takeaways. Learn more about Bill Petrie here. Paul Keiweit: There was not a dry eye in the house at a recent SkuCon event where Paul was a featured speaker. Paul gives real talk about the ups and downs of life and business…and how to succeed. In addition, Paul is just a really great guy! Learn more about Paul speaking here. Jason Lucash: Speaking of SkuCon, Jason was another speaker at that event and he brought down the house. Jason is funny, irreverent and relevant and a true entrepreneur. He does a great job telling the “entrepreneur journey” through his own eyes. Combine that with the fact that he is a “Shark Tank Survivor” and a business builder and you have a home run. Learn more about him here. Dave Ramsey: Dave is a ball of energy and a true teacher and leader. Though he is probably most well known for his Financial Freedom program and his syndicated radio show, he Entre-Leadership talk is valuable for any entrepreneur or business owner. If you want to have a better company and be a better leader, it’s worth listening to Dave Ramsey. Jon Acuff: Of all the speakers we have seen over the past several years, Jon Acuff has been the most pleasant surprise. We knew he was a great writer (Start, Do Over, and more), but wow! Combine his message with funny delivery and you have a rock star on the stage. If you are speaking to entrepreneurs or employees that need to find their mojo, Jon can dazzle. Learn more here. Seth Godin: Let’s keep this simple. Seth Godin is one of the most influential people in marketing in the last 20 years. If you can afford him and he will agree, you should hire him. Go! Gary Vaynerchuk: Brash, unapologetic and real. Gary Vaynerchuk (or GaryVee) is a business builder, best selling author and host of the Ask GaryVee show. He has become the simple of the “hustle” entrepreneur. In addition, Gary changes his talk to his audience and loves Q & A sessons. He really brings it. Learn more about hiring him here. Let’s face it. Most of these folks do not need our endorsement. But it does make for fun discussion. Who have we left off? Let us know! Want to keep up all the time? Make sure to join our VIP List! Our VIP’s get an email with the latest content…and other special offers as well. Join here.
by Kirby Hasseman
Each week on Delivering Marketing Joy, I get the chance to interview fantastic leaders, entrepreneurs, authors and thought leaders on the best way to grow and run an organization. What started as an interesting way for me to be able to create great content, has become a weekly class for me to attend. I have learned so much from listening to these leaders. While your best bet to get the most from this #MarketingJoy class is to subscribe to the channel here or to sign up for our VIP list, let me give you some of the most recent lessons I have taken away from Delivering Marketing Joy! Customer Service Drives Sales: In one of the most recent episodes, I had the chance to chat with Ray Jimenez about his sales philosophy. Ray says sales is constantly driven by customer service. If you want to have long-term success in sales, you better take great care of the customer. Listen more here. Be Authentic: and Know Your Audience: It was hard to pick one lesson from this special episode with Bill Petrie and Dana Zezzo. As I have said before, this was like a Master’s class on sales and social. But Dana and Bill remind us to be authentic, but to know our audience in order to be super efficient in sales. Watch the full show here! Own Your Media: One of my favorite new episodes included Joe Pulizzi. He is the King of Content Marketing and he reminds us that we need to have a process in place to actually get our leads to give us their information. If we have Facebook friends, Facebook owns them. Joe goes into more in the full episode here! Make an Impact and Grow: Danny Rosin and I talk about the way to grow your business is in the “right way” here. Danny tells us that he envisions Philanthropy will become the new “marketing done right.” Through making an impact, we can grow our business too. Learn more here. Listen to Your Customers To Drive Business: On this episode of Delivering Marketing Joy I talked with author and entrepreneur Tim Fargo. He told us how his newest venture TweetJukebox took off because he had an idea, then listened to his customers tell him how to change it! Here is the full episode. And these are just 5 great lessons from 6 great leaders. Please subscribe here if you never want to miss an episode. Or you can join our VIP list here so you get into the inner content circle! Let’s grow together!
by Kirby Hasseman
It’s time for our very first Guest Blog on the Hasseman Marketing blog! This one comes from Bill Petrie from brandivate. Bill is a rock star in the promotional industry with wisdom that translates to any industry. Take it a way Bill! Excuses. Excuses are insidious little beasts. They provide convenient, if not somewhat accurate, reasons we tell ourselves – or others – why we can’t accomplish certain tasks necessary to build our business. From the ubiquitous “too busy” to “we’ve always done it this way,” excuses manifest themselves in many different forms. Despite the various excuses readily available to avoid uncomfortable and/or unpleasant business tasks, the outcome is always the same: stagnation.
The real problem with excuses is that they become a habit – a bad one. For example, often people will say they are “too busy” to do something without giving it any thought. The habit of making excuses to avoid difficult or challenging tasks creates a false sense of comfort that prevents growth.
Bad habits, however, can be broken and the habit of excuses is no different. The key is to respectfully challenge the person using the excuse – and that person may be the one in the mirror. Next time you hear an excuse, simply ask, “What do you mean by that?” This will cause the person using the excuse to not only think about what they are saying, but why they are saying it. For example, when someone says they are “too busy,” it usually means that the task really isn’t important to them. By giving pause to understand WHY someone is habitually using an excuse, it will begin to break the habit and stop stagnation.
Don’t make excuses, make time. Bill Petrie is an executive leadership guru in the Promotional Products industry. He has over 15 years of experience helping companies grow, and he brings that experience and passion to brandivate. Bill has a fantastic blog on the brandivate site (that you should read).
Oh, and in one interesting turn of events, we both have Guest Blogs on each other’s sites today. You can read mine (on his) here!
