Advantage Media Group - Fall 2015

Th e M a r k e t i n g M a g a z i n e f o r E n t r e p r e n e u r s , Bu s i n e s s L e a d e r s , a n d I d e a - M a k e r s

Issue #32

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Fall 2015

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In this issue...

8 | The Makings of an A-Team

Business success starts with hiring the right people for the right roles. Hiring and retaining a team of high-quality professionals is essential to the growth of any winning organization. By Christina Wells

4 | Adam’s Advantage

No matter what they do, every leader is in the same business: the people business. By Adam Witty

DEPARTMENTS

6 | Publicity Speaks

Want to find the best people for your company? Tighten up your job descriptions. By Karen A. Young

14 | Closing Questions

Advantage Arrivals 5 New releases from the third quarter of 2015

Noise Makers 7 A look at recent print, radio, and digital media hits for Advantage Authors

Advantage Team 7 Meet Advantage's new editorial manager

Amy Pearl, Stephanie Phibbs, and Diane Roesch know a thing or two about the value of collaboration. It's only fitting that they co-authored The Collaboration Breakthrough. They spoke with Advantage Magazine about their book and their passion for preaching the importance of workplace collaboration.

Event Calendar 10 Dates of note and Author anniversaries in the upcoming months

Advantage People 12 A fun and fast-paced summer helped the Advantage Family beat the heat.

Authors on Books | Natural selection...

"Books choose their authors." — Salman Rushdie

Opening Number: That which is left unsaid...

96

Percentage of executives who cite a lack of collaboration and ineffective communication for workplace failures. http://www.onedesk.com/2013/07/teamwork-and-collaboration-revealing-statistics/

843.414.5600 advantagefamily.com ADVANTAGE MEDIA GROUP

We help busy professionals Create, Publish, and Market a book to Grow Their Business

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CEO

Director of Publi shi ng

Editori al Di rector

C opy E di t or

Editor & Art Di rector

Marketi ng Edi tor

Guest Contri butor

A ssi st a nt Desi g ner

Adam Witty George Stevens

Advantage Magazine Issue 32 Fall 2015 © Advantage Media Group. All rights reserved. Trademarks used by permission.

Patti Boysen

Christina Wells

Scott Neville

Karen A. Young

Nate Best

Katie Biondo

FA L L 2 0 1 5 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | 3

Adam’sadvantage

Grow your people and watch them grow your business.

K a r s o n P h oto g r a ph y

You are in only one business

B

usiness gurus, coaches, and consultants will serenade you with a panoply of principles, rules, and "laws" you must follow to succeed in growing a profitable enterprise. Indeed, starting and growing a business in the US is a tough feat. Of the 28 million businesses in America, only 4 percent ever exceed $1M in annual sales. Only 0.4 percent ever exceed $10M in annual sales. To join the exclusive club of $50M in annual sales or greater, it is just 17,000 of 28 million, or 1 of 1,647!

As Advantage marked our ten-year anniversary on July 19, 2015 and having had five years of entrepreneurial experience prior to that with TicketAdvantage, I can safely say that to succeed you must keep it simple. We are in only one business: the people business. If you recruit, hire, train, and retain a team of people that love what they do and look forward to Monday, there is no limit to where you can go and what your business can accomplish.

Recruit. What does recruiting have to do with teamwork? Everything. Have a bench of B and C players? Good luck trying to win the game! To attract the best, you must create an environment that attracts recruits like a magnet does iron. This is where culture comes into 4 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

play. Is the culture of your business created by design or by default? Do people look forward to Monday or celebrate "hump day"? Have you created an environment that challenges, rewards, and recognizes people?

Hire. What does your hiring process look like?

That's right, your multi-step hiring process in which a potential team member has to cross through lots of thresholds, interview successfully with at minimum of five people on your team, and pass at least five reference checks with former bosses or coworkers. People are the key to your business success. You must have extremely high expectations and only hire the absolute best. Settling for B players should never be an option.

Train. Your job is to grow your people. Like a plant, your people need to be watered, fed, and given ample exposure to sunlight. At Advantage, we require a minimum of a hundred hours of professional development annually.

That equates to 2.5 weeks of ongoing training every year! If you are thinking you can't afford for them to be learning 2.5 weeks and not working, you are walking past dollar bills to pick up nickles. Better trained and educated people are more productive, provide better service, commit less errors and rework, and are

overall much happier. Grow your people, and watch them grow your business.

Retain. It can be easy to focus all of your time and attention on new people and forget about the ones you've already got. If you have an A player, you must put lots of time and energy into retention. Consider the cost to replace an A player. The time and agony of having an open seat. The time and money in recruiting, hiring, training, and developing that person.

The cost of losing an A player can easily be one to five times their annual salary. Don't be penny-wise and pound foolish.

Teamwork is all about people. Recruit, hire, train, and retain to attract and grow great people that work as a team to take your business to higher levels. After all, every entrepreneur is in the same business. The people business.

Thinking you aren't is a fool's errand.

Adam D. Witty, Founder & Chief Executive Officer awitty@advantageww.com Next spring, Adam will be releasing a new book tentatively titled Thank Goodness Its Monday: How to Attract and Retain A Players That Will Grow Your Business. Adam is looking for reviewers. If you would be willing to read and review his book, please email Adam directly at awitty@advantageww.com

Advantage arrivals Title

Author

Get Retirement Right

Joseph Ablahani

How to Avoid a Fall From Grace

Sarah Bartholomeusz

Change is Great, Be First

Richard Batenburg

Cut The Cord

Vincent Battaglia

Orchestrate Your Legacy

Bob Crosetto

Microslices

John Dillard

The ABC of Business

Tony Falkenstein

Biz Dev Done Right

Carl Gould and Karyn Copp

We’re Going to Have to Let You Go

Isaac Hammer

Recharge

Heidi Hanna

The Three Challenges

Nicolas Hauff

Money Malocclusion

Jake Jacklich

Analog Advice in a Digital World

Rick Jones

Proceedings of the 8th Annual Microcurrent Case Conference

Edward Kondrot

Financial Reset

Nancy LaPointe

So Much to Smile About

Julie Marshall and Doug Baxter

Giving Back

Linda Marshall

The Enduring Organization

Hal McLean and Frank Mellon

How to Not Get Your Ass Kicked in the Real Estate Business

Willie Miranda

Your Family Business Your Family Net Worth

Gary Pittsford

The Styleprint Design System

Karen Powell

The Freak Factor

David Rendall

Lost Your Teeth But Not Your Appetite?

Michael Scherer

Gratitude Marketing

Michael Sciortino

Like. Love. Follow.

Courtney Spritzer and Stephanie Abrams

Protect Your Family!

Adrianne Stahl

Defiant Second Daughter

Betty Lee Sung

Imagine Financial Security for Life

Brent Welch

Handling Bad

Dan Weiss

Vince Lombardi on Leadership

Pat Williams

Stop Knocking on My Door

Karen A. Young

feat u r ed r el ease

The Collaboration Breakthrough

Think differently. Achieve more.

A my P earl , S tephanie D. phibbs , D iane R oesch

Exclusive interview with the authors: p. 14

FA L L 2 0 1 5 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | 5

publicityspeaks | Karen A. Young Billing the fit

The critical role job descriptions play in creating a winning team Excerpted from Stop Knocking on my Door by Karen A. Young, SPHR, SHRM-SCP (Advantage Media Group, 2015)

J

ob descriptions are at the hub of the wheel of successful human resource management. Everything else that you deal with comes out of job descriptions and works in concert to form a functioning unit. Lose one or two spokes, and you can hobble along. Lose the hub, and you’re in the ditch.

You can recruit all you want, but your recruiting won’t be successful unless you know exactly what you’re looking for. Going forward, unless new employees understand exactly what their responsibilities are, they won’t have successful onboarding/orientation periods. Without solid job descriptions, your coaching and mentoring lose their focus—you may advocate one thing one day and another thing the next. No one can be successful in an environment like that, and if you intend to discipline an employee for poor job performance, both of you need to have a deep understanding of what the job’s expectations really are. And if someone is leaving their position (even when retiring or being promoted) or you have to terminate an individual, you want to fully understand what the job’s responsibilities are and what will be required to fulfill them.

The best way to create a job description is by determining the essential functions of a job.

Essential functions are a lot more than just the tasks of the job; they are the basic reasons why the job exists. To capture them, a job description should be written much like a résumé. For example, instead of saying, “Push the first button on the phone to answer an incoming call many times a day,” you should say, “Answer heavy call loads.” You don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty of the actual process 6 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

of the job, but you do want to describe the overall idea of the task or responsibility.

An added feature that you can include in a job description is what’s called scope—the depth and breadth of the position, such as how many people report to the position and the sales volume the position is responsible for.

Describe some of the quantitative aspects of the job. This helps you in hiring and allows applicants to make their own determination about whether or not they’re a good fit.

I also highly recommend including knowledge, skills, abilities, and qualifications (KSAQs) in a job description. This is where you talk about the soft skills necessary for the job— the characteristics, traits, knowledge, and/or education that support an individual’s ability to be successful in the job—such as excellent time management skills or in-depth understanding of a computer programming language. These are the building blocks that employees bring with them, ready to put to use.

When a company has fantastic job descriptions, some really good things happen.

First, your employees are crystal clear on their responsibilities and the responsibilities of their coworkers and supervisors. It brings a great deal of clarity to interpersonal work relationships, defining where one job stops, where another begins, and how they are all interconnected.

It gives employees boundaries; they may offer to help another coworker with his or her task, but they are no longer obligated or pressured to do so.

Great job descriptions also make it simpler to do performance evaluations. Instead of wasting time thinking about what should be evaluated, it’s all right in front of you. Job descriptions can also help you uncover redundancies and duplicated efforts between departments.

With a little forethought and diligence, you’ll find that the work you put into defining job descriptions now will pay off time and again in the months and years to come.

Karen A. Young is the founder and president of HR Resolutions, a full-service human resources management company.

Karen has over twenty-five years’ experience in human resources, having worked with distribution, service, and manufacturing organizations along the East Coast to lower HR costs and increase bottom lines. In addition to her consulting and speaking work, Karen has been recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business.

HR Insider Tip

Key Points to Writing a Good Job Description When writing a job description, here’s a quick list of what to include:

DD Job title DD The supervisor’s title DD Essential function or functions of the job DD Secondary responsibilities DD Knowledge, skills, abilities, and qualifications required for the position DD The physical and work environment

noisemakers | Advantage Authors in the headlines Kevin Harris

Had the day of his book release party, July 21, 2015 designated as "Kevin Harris, The Forever Home Day" in Baton Rouge.

Steve Lishansky Achieved #1 Amazon Best Seller status in multiple categories including Sales & Selling, Business Leadership, and more.

Anne Malec

Gained media appearances with Investor's Business Daily, Elle, The New York Post, and is now a regular contributor for Hitched.

Randy Nelson

Keynoted two Veteran Entrepreneur events, Patriot Boot Camp at UNC Chapel Hill, and VetStart in Durham, NC.

Jennifer Carroll

Was recognized at the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for her significant accomplishments.

advantageteam |

Have you been making noise in local, regional, or national media? Let us know, and we’ll feature you in next issue’s Noise Makers!

E-mail: jash@advantageww.com

Advantage Team Member Profile

K a r s o n P h oto g r a ph y

As editorial manager, Elise interacts with Authors on a daily basis while reviewing, tracking, and managing the editorial life cycle and ensuring editorial support and excellence throughout the process.

Elise Nissen Editorial Manager

Elise comes to us from the world of educational publishing and has a passion for teaching and learning. Originally from Ohio, Elise loves hosting and entertaining friends and family and exploring Charleston’s beaches and seafood restaurants with her husband.

Learn more about the various products and services that our team can suggest for your business. | p. 2 FA L L 2 0 1 5 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | 7

The

MAKINGS of an

n today’s competitive job

and your company’s mission. Like any sports

1. Put Team Member

marketplace, it can be a chal-

team, you can’t win a championship without

lenge to attract and retain

the right pieces in place: skilled, motivated,

Happiness First.

top-quality candidates. Be-

and empowered players.

tween recruiters, LinkedIn connections, and a plethora of job-listing websites, the best professionals are steadily tempted to test the market. So how do you stand out? How do you attract, build, and maintain an A-Team?

Even as we’ve continued to grow over the past ten years, our focus has always been on people. Ask us what our number-one priority is, and we'll tell you "people." If you ask what our number one hurdle is, we'll give you the same answer. Finding the best individuals

If your team isn’t fulfilled, you’ll see a dip in enthusiasm, motivation, and eventually, results. Commit to doing everything in your ability to ensure your team members know their contributions are worthwhile and that their time and efforts are what continue to drive the company’s success. Without a thriving, motivated team, it's possible to achieve

isn't easy, but it's essential. The truth is, all

results, but it will be a much more painful

It starts with attracting the right people and

businesses are in the people business. It ap-

process, take longer, and create more head-

leveraging the culture that comes along with

plies to start-ups looking to build a team or

aches than you’d like. Think of a winning

that as a tool to make your company a des-

a tenured company looking to expand. No

football team. When a coach gets a high per-

tination, not a stepping stone. It is the basis

matter your situation, consider the following

formance out of a player, they'll be recognized

for being able to prosper as a company and

tactics to create a winning team and culture

with a game ball. Motivated players make for

count on skilled people to support themselves

of A-players:

successful teams.

8 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

2. Create Transparency Around Success.

order for your core values to truly take hold,

see their individual and group goals. If we’re

you must incorporate them throughout your

successful in achieving our goals, we celebrate

organization in materials, training, market-

BIG! Another way to showcase your success-

For a team to be successful you have to equip them with goals and metrics that are so clearcut and defined that at no point will they have to guess how they’re doing. For some teams, it’s easy to pinpoint what key metrics drive their success. For others, you may need to get

ing, and service delivery. These fundamentals

ful team environment is to go after awards

are used to ensure that everyone is acting in

that recognize your team and why they love

the best interest of the company. These values

to work with you. Let prospective candidates

are your playbook. You'll come back to them

take a sneak peak into a day in the life of your

a bit creative. For example, a salesperson’s success is ultimately measured by their ability to sell. A shooting guard’s success is driven by how many points they can score. However, consider an administrative assistant whose success may be measured by how many calls they route or how many projects they support or the amount of time they’re able to save other team members. No matter the metric, make sure all roles in your organization are outcome-based and share those outcomes regularly, without reservation.

3. Live by Your Core Values.

Core values should resonate throughout your organization as the truest embodiment of your company, service or product, and people. In

time and again to guide your team to victory.

team members; with all of the focus you place on team, this is sure to attract top talent.

4. Take An All Hands on Deck Approach.

Building a team-centric environment not only

Any professional sports team features subsets

more selective as talented professionals begin to

of skills and motivators, and it must combine all those skills and positions into a wellrounded operation. Bringing this approach to your organization will enable you to ensure

breeds A-Players but creates a magnetism that will attract others to join. It will allow you to be recognize your company as a dream job. When you have a well-oiled machine where the top priority is team member happiness, transpar-

cooperation and cohesion while creating an

ency exists, core values are at the heart of all

environment where everyone helps everyone

you do, and dependability and loyalty are val-

win. It’s important to engender a mind-set of

ued above all else, the fruits of your efforts will

support throughout your team so that every-

be realized. The results are a winning team and

one is working toward one goal.

culture, and when those components are in place, top candidates will naturally gravitate.

5. Show Off Your Wins.

Take pride in your team and their successes by showing them off. We set company goals each quarter, then pull them back for each department and even each team member to

Christina Wells is director of infrastructure at Advantage Media Group, leading the company’s efforts in systems administration, processes and onboarding and training of Team Members. If you would like to connect with Christina, you may reach her at cwells@advantageww.com or 843.518.6788.

FA L L 2 0 1 5 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | 9

MON

TUE

WED

THU

oct.

1

4

5

11

6

12

EO Alchemy Conference

13

7

EO Alchemy / Million Dollar Round Table

14

8

15

Happy Birthday to AMG's



19

Rekon Excel Conference

20

Rekon Excel / Gazelle's Fortune Growth Summit

21

Rekon Excel / Gazelle's Fortune Growth Summit

26

27

EO NY & NJ Conferences

22

AMG Team Member Anniversary:

AMG Team Member Anniversary:

2

1

Allison Looney

25

2

S AT

3

9

EO Alchemy / Million Dollar Round Table

10

16

17

23

24

30

31

28

Susan Tuskan

29 Author Success University



Teleseminar—4 PM ET

Halloween

1

AMG Leadership Team Retreat

2

AMG Leadership Team Retreat



8

nov.

3

AMG Leadership Team Retreat

4

5

6

7

12

13

14

19

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AMG Team Member Anniversary:

Katie Biondo

2

Daylight Savings Time

9

Adela Naranjo Alain Samson Susan West Carolyn Finch Doreen Lehr Vladimir Zakharov Cliff Slaten Rodger Friedman Graham Symmond Lisa Miller Lisa Parker Steve Musick Bob Ingram Lucas Boyce Kirk Laman Joseph Marcius Carol Desmond Steve Bosley Tony Leone Yolanda Harris Chris Hurn Jason Stapleton Pat McGuire Paul Davey Jennifer Myers Kayla Mai Frank Patrick Larry Kesslin Eleazar Kadile Lynne Lambert Tim Thayne Mike Sprouse

Matt Zagula Nancy Eberhardt Greg Lawlor Matt Dicken Ed Basler Corinne Sandler Patrick Began Milo Hamilton Charlette Manning John Cotton John Lorenzen Jackie Lapin Jim Mathis Kim Mathis Tanya Jones Jim Jacobus Patrick Barrett Dr. Julie Marshall Cal LeMon Courtney Cole Marianne Ragins Gary Newell Olimpia Zuccarelli Allyson Tomkin Scott Keffer

Adam Witty

Columbus Day

18

EO Alchemy / Million Dollar Round Table

FRI

OCTOBER

SUN

Mary Beall Adler John Decky Shannon Susko David Benzel Sandra Mullen Robert Lalor Sonia Kwapisinkski Mike Woodward Peter Weschler Tara Shollenberger Dan Ohlwiler Carol Miller David Eisner Sebastian Rusk John Dolan Mary Lamontagne William Smith Chris Ruisi Sid Fuch Dale Wong James Ziegler Frank McKinley Jessica Munday Ken Hardison Richard McFarland Rob Konecny Roger Denk Gerald Difusco Keith Ayer DJ William Sandra Herron

NOVEMBER

Event Calendar

DECEMBER

AUTHOR ANNIVERSARIES

10

11

AUTHORity Marketing Summit

AUTHORity Marketing Summit

Book Marketing Blueprint Day



Veterans Day

15

16

17

18

Author Success University Teleseminar—4 PM ET

22

23

24

25

26



AMG Team Member Anniversary:

George Stevens

8

Thanksgiving

29

6

30

1

2

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Big Idea Focus Group

dec.

7

8

Happy Birthday to AMG's

9

4

Big Idea Focus Group

5

10

11

12

17

18

19

25

26

Allison Looney

13

Happy Birthday to AMG's

14

15

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Author Success University Teleseminar—4 PM ET

Brette Rowley

20/27

21/28

22/29

1 0 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

23/30

24/31 



Christmas Eve New Year's Eve

Christmas

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Advantagepeople

1

2

4 FALLING INTO AUTUMN:

5 1: In July, Author Kevin Harris held a book release party

at Louisiana's old State Capital Building in Baton Rouge. 2: Advantage Team Members [L to R] Christina Wells, John Witty, and Katie Biondo traveled to the state capital to accept the Best Places to Work in SC award, on behalf of Advantage, for the third year in a row. 3: Advantage founder & CEO, Adam Witty got in on the action with sledgehammer in hand as the renovations to the second floor of the Advantage Center began. 4: Project manager, Allison Looney, was rewarded for her hard work and dedication with a wish from her dream board. She received a $1,000 shopping spree and stylist consultation with Best Kept Self.

5: Director of author marketing, Jenn Ash, assisted Dr. Michael Burgdorf as he completed his marketing blueprint during our July conference. 6: [L to R] Co-authors Stephanie Phibbs, Diane Roesch, and Amy Pearl displayed their marketing blueprint with Advantage Team Members, Jenn Ash and Adam Witty. 7: Author Karen Young showed off her Charleston themed Rainbow Row nails during the champagne toast at the July Book Marketing Blueprint Day. 8: In August, Author Rachel Sapoznik visited Charleston and met with the

3 1 2 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

Advantage team to discuss her book project. 9: The Advantage Team enjoyed a beautiful July evening on the open water during a sunset cruise of the Charleston harbor.

6 7

8

9

For a full slate of new releases from the third quarter of 2015, turn to page 4.

CLOSING QUESTIONS Diane Roesch, Amy Pearl, and Stephanie Phibbs

know a thing or two about collaboration. It's only fitting that they coauthored The Collaboration Breakthrough, released this fall. They spoke with Advantage Magazine about their book and building the bonds that are vital to success in the workplace.

How did you become fascinated with the idea of collaboration in the workplace?

In working with companies in almost every industry, from Fortune 100 companies to small not-for-profit organizations, we’ve discovered the most successful organizations are those that truly value the input of each and every employee and intentionally implement practices to capitalize on those contributions. We don’t mean practices like performance reviews and incentive programs but rather frameworks that are used daily to do things like setting expectations and solving problems in a truly collaborative way. Their team members have complete confidence and trust in one another. They share a clear and common purpose. They have the right conversa1 4 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | A D V A N T A G E F A M I L Y . C O M

tions to build commitment. Ultimately, their collaborative spirit leads to higher levels of productivity, efficiency, innovation, accountability, and profitability. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch our clients achieve their goals by making the shift to a collaborative workplace.

our breakthrough tools to help people build workplaces they love regardless of their titles or positions in their organizations.

What inspired you to become Authors?

The biggest challenge in the publishing process was finding the courage to dive head first into an industry we knew nothing about. We understood our content, since it had been the foundation of our employee surveys and other work for a long time.

But how to package it in a book and how to initiate this enormous undertaking was a daunting prospect. It was our good luck to be referred to Advantage. Suddenly we understood what steps we needed to take

Today’s employees don’t want a hierarchy of managers to solve their problems. And they certainly are hungry for more than simply earning a paycheck. They want to have the opportunity to be treated fairly, to contribute, to enjoy what they do, to learn and grow, and to take pride in their work. They are searching for the Collaborative Workplace. So we wanted to share

What were the challenges of publishing? What was your favorite part?

and what to expect along the way. The

to initiate a movement where people cre-

Book Marketing Blueprint Day™ was an

ate more collaborative workplaces all across

awesome experience, and the collaborative

the United States and Canada. Nothing

team members at Advantage truly amaze

would mean more to us than knowing that

us in every conversation. But nothing beat

those who have read our book have discov-

the thrill of seeing the finished product…

ered methods to find success, happiness,

actually holding the book in our hands for

and fulfillment in their work.

the first time. That’s when we understood

Finish this thought: If The Collaboration Breakthrough was your dreams, even if they lead you into required reading for the United uncharted territory.

States Congress...

If you could offer one piece of adOur taxes would be much lower. In fact, vice for someone considering pubmany times in our workshops, the US govlishing, what would it be? just how satisfying it can be to follow

ernment is cited as a perfect example of

Go for it! Believe in what you are doing.

the worst workplace. We call it a Defensive

It takes a lot of dedication and hard work,

Workplace. It’s a place without trust but

but it’s worth the struggle. This is your

full of conflicting priorities. Communica-

opportunity to influence and inspire oth-

tion is divisive and the real decisions hap-

ers with your thoughts and words. Never doubt your capabilities or the unique message or perspective that is yours to share.

You just need the courage to make it happen. After all, what have you got to lose?

pen behind closed doors. Watered-down solutions take way too long to implement.

As a result, the system is expensive and inefficient. Imagine the people who represent us channeling their passion toward creat-

What is your goal for success?

ing a clear vision for our future and using

Of course, we’d like to inspire people

structured processes to build commitment

to take action to create a Collaboration

to each other’s ideas. Wouldn’t it be great

Breakthrough for themselves. Our goal is

if “reaching across the aisle” was a reality rather than just a catchphrase and total transparency was the norm? Solutions that meet the needs of a broader constituency would come much more quickly and costeffectively.

I’d love it if they just reviewed our Con-

The Collaboration Breakthrough

2015, Advantage Media Group

fidence Busters and Confidence Builders to identify ways to strengthen their levels of trust. Perhaps Collaboration Congress should be our sequel!

FA L L 2 0 1 5 | A D VA N TA G E M A G A Z I N E | 1 5

THE WAY EXECUTIVES USE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IS DYING. Are you ready to get the most out of what comes next?

The longstanding business model of professional services is facing change unlike any other in its century-long history. Over the next fifteen years, unrelenting advances in technology, data science, and corporate culture will fundamentally disrupt your “trusted advisors.”

Exciting opportunities lie ahead for forward-thinking organizations, while disastrous threats await any buyer that’s unprepared to adopt a new service delivery model.

MICROSLICES

is a timely, eye-opening look at the changes that are already revolutionizing the professional services industry. It provides specific steps you must take as a buyer of those services to protect your organization from wasted consulting fees, outdated advice, and generic solutions.

Consulting is dying. Your top adversaries will react to the future; will you?

MICROSLICES JOHN M. DILLARD

AVAIL ABLE NO W!

2 Days of Advanced Business Growth and Marketing Strategies from America's #1 Marketing Advisor, Dan Kennedy

featuring

DAN KENNEDY This two-day conference will teach you how to speak to sell products and services, influence from the stage, create an audience of buyers, and generate new leads.

Wednesday Nov. 11 - Thursday Nov. 12, 2015 Charleston, South Carolina Reserve Your Seat at AuthorityMarketingSummit.org

November 13, 2015 BOOK

MARKETING BLUEPRINT DAY

Offered to Advantage Authors and a guest at no charge, this is one day to create your step-by-step Book Marketing Blueprint that will guide your book marketing efforts for the next 12 months.

For 2016 dates and reservations, visit BookMarketingBlueprintDay.com