Handling sales objections, magnetizing yourself with power of story, developing leadership skills/communication, honing your focus, and building great company culture; complimentary concepts that, while important, have likely been the topics of countless previous dull presentations attended by anyone involved in sales, project managing, or running a business. Well aware this fact, visionary hosts of Elevate Now, 2016, Terry Bean, Jeff Clatterbaugh, and Jeff Zupancic were determined to develop a fast passed, interactive presentation with each subsequent speaker building upon the next, each loaded with practical advice that could be used to increase productivity in any businessperson’s career. To the great delight of capacity crowd at Automation Alley in Troy, MI, they exceeded all expectations.
The big surprise to anyone who failed to read the entire event description was Hailey Zuriech, the expert in…IMPROV! While many attendees likely assumed she was added to the lineup as a surprisingly interesting reprieve from the invaluable business advice provided by the previous four business experts and to get laughs, she shocked everyone by how well she was able to make the connection between the three rules of improv—1. “yes, and” statements 2. always support the line 3. TRY!–and all previous material. This small business owner is excited to directly incorporate her theories and interactive games into his future presentations, and she also more than lived up to the expectations of laughter, which happened time after time.
Any regular presenter would have found it impossible to properly follow anyone as engaging as Hailey but, then again, Terry Bean is no “regular” speaker. Armed with “content so fresh, you could eat it raw,” and a wide selection of clever (and at times hilarious) slides perfectly matched to his every point, his culminating presentation on finding focus not only tied into to everything that proceeded it, but the simplicity and the truth to his message will resonate with this fortunate participant for the rest of his life.
Cedric McSween from McSween Coaching clearly explained why “trying to sell” virtually guarantees one won’t make a dime, and the one thing one must do instead that’s the fastest path to incredible sales. Jeff Zupancic from Profit THRU Your Purpose, gave plenty of examples as to why hiding one’s personal story is costing sales and how one’s story magnetically can attract prospects. Kris Powell from HPPro/BenePro, demonstrated how building a great company culture can become a tremendous advantage in the market. Jeff Clatterbauch explained the most powerful way to unleash one’s full leadership potential.
EVERY presenter performed educational magic at Automation Alley in Troy, MI, on September 14th, 2016. They accomplished what few business people are capable of; distilling successful careers’ worth of hard-earned lessons into invaluable, applicable advice presented in a functionally dynamic fashion.
If metro Detroit’s entrepreneurs are lucky, they will have future opportunities to attend subsequent Elevate Now events, or other conferences hosted by Terry Bean and his amazing team. A businessperson can hope, right?
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James M. Stange writes for GreeningDetroit.com
