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Growth Let me explain. My company is doing well. Really well. We have grown strategically and not overextended. We did not get too big too fast. I am carefully adding staff and trying to balance the impact. I do not want to lose my contact with clients. As my company grows, I am looking for ways to give new team members responsibility and find ways for them to contribute while I stay connected. As a founder and leader, that is a very interesting challenge. I am big into personal growth. I always have at least five self help type books going. I am sure my natural interest in the human condition is what drew me to this business in the first place. There are many different genres of speakers .I particularly love those who give the audience information and material that challenges them to develop. I also love working with speakers who want to grow and improve their trade. I appreciate a speaker that will attend an event to hear another speaker and actually believe they can learn from it. I admire a speaker who can listen to the feedback I provide and really desires to improve versus putting up walls. Recently, I have seen some real growth in some of the speakers I work closely with: Ron White is one of those guys growing and pushing to the next level. We recently traveled to Barcelona, Spain together for a conference. It was one week prior to the National Memory Championship and Ron was incredibly disciplined on the trip. I invited him to dinner and he declined saying he had to train. I asked him why? He simply wanted to grow in his field … stretch himself. The following week he won the National Memory Championship for the second year in a row. Kristina Wandzilak is another example. I have been a huge fan of her story. She and her mom, Constance Curry, wrote a book, The Lost Years, about the period of time when Kristina was 16-21 and her life spiraled out of control due to drugs and alcohol. After Kristina got clean and sober, she graduated from college, started her own international intervention company, and on March 17, she will have her own television series on TLC. Kristina continues to expand her reach and, while not glamorizing her story, tastefully making a difference and providing hope to countless families in despair. I love to watch clients grow, especially those who do annual events. I used to do an annual event for a large corporation. I know how easy it is to subscribe to the formula … “We hire speakers that have name recognition. We hire speakers in this fee range.” I love it when an event planner gains the confidence to suggest something that is outside the parameters of what has been done in the past … and it works!! I did it in 1996 when I convinced the chairman of EDS to do our sales incentive event on a cruise ship. He fought me the entire way. I convinced him and it was a huge hit. We did it again in 1997. I have a client, Elyse Gut, who took a risk with me in 2000 and hired Nando Parrado as one of her keynote speakers. Prior to that, there was a formula in place that said only hire a speaker with a recognizable name. Elyse met Nando, loved his story, and took a risk. Not only was it a success but a representative from the Society for Human Resource Management was in the audience and hired Nando for the SHRM national conference the following year! Growth is good when it is done with purpose and significance. And P.S., if you want to help us grow our GDA fan page on Facebook, click here to become a Fan.
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 Ron White  Kristina Wandzilak & Constance Curry Click here to sign up for Blog Alerts Partnerships Monday, August 09, 2010 An Epic Trip Tom Martinez- A Story of Hate, A Message of Hope Kids and Speakers Ethics Live From New York Customer Service: Going Above and Beyond In Remembrance of Randy Snow A Sense of Connection Event Wisdom: Simple things that make a difference International Events A CEO Who Gets it!!! Celebrating 10 Years of Inspiration Domestic Violence Milestones and Celebrations Meeting...No meeting? Speaker...No speaker? What's a planner to do? It Was No Coincidence Let's Get Healthy with Todd Whitthorne and Gail's Tips for Healthy Meetings Nando, Sonia, Tim and 2008 Timing is Everything ... and Steve Forbes, too. Rex Lewis-Clack and Cathleen Lewis
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