Thursday, June 28, 2012

Movie Sreening this Friday: The Invention of Lying

Come to this free event and learn how to discover soul-activating insights from the movie The Invention of Lying starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner. This hidden gem of a movie will help inspire you to:

• Speak your truth
• Manifest the reality you desire
• Access the power of your imagination

Location:
Alternative Thinking
758 Bathurst St., Toronto
(just south of Bloor St. West)

Starts 9 pm sharp!
Come early to get a good seat

Facilitated by
Emmanuel Lopez a.k.a. Motivatorman
Motivational Superhero & Movie Blogger
Over 500 empowering movie tips on movie blog

GET YOUR FREE EBOOK:
"15 Movies To Help You Overcome Difficult Times"
Go to this link and scroll to bottom...
www.motivatorman.com

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Pay It Forward

Have you ever seen Pay It Forward, the movie with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt? It is one of my favorites and I was reminded of it this month.

My friend's daughter Jacquie went into a sub shop to order lunch. She ordered a combo meal and then went to pay for it and realized that she didn't have her wallet. She was mortified telling the clerk as the line of people waiting to place their orders stood listening. The man behind her overheard what she said and immediately he asked how much her meal was? The clerk said "$8.50" and the man handed over money and paid for Jacquie's lunch. Jacquie was shocked that a stranger would do that for her. So she decided to pay it forward and the next day when she was at the Tim Hortons Drive-thru window. She asked the server what the next car in line ordered....and she paid for it.

When my UPS delivery man Kevin drops off my shipments, I have cold water for him in the summer, a gift card for coffee in the winter and over the years I have learned that he loves chocolate so I have some of that handy too. He goes out of his way to provide great customer service and if his schedule allows, he will return with the package later in the day if we were not there to answer the door.

Here are some other Pay It Forward examples you can try:
  • Do someone a favour - my friend Audrey is having surgery and I offered to take her so she would have a friend with her to keep her company
  • A friend of ours said he gave a waiter a $20 tip for a $20 meal because he was the only one in the restaurant and he wanted to support their small business
  • Let an employee take a random Friday afternoon off
  • Make a fresh pot of coffee at the office when you take the last cup
  • Treat a co-worker who brings a lunch every day out to lunch
  • Say hi to a stranger - when I walk around my neighbourhood I always say hello to those I am passing. Not everyone responds, but when they do and you get a smile, it is rewarding. My daughter lives in Vancouver, a big, busy city. Many people in big cities walk around with their iPod's on, or have their heads down texting if they are not chatting on their cell phone. Say hello to the person you sit next to on transit, or wait beside in the next line up you stand in. Say hi to people when you get on an elevator.
  • Recognize the good work of a co-worker
  • Send a note of appreciation to someone at the office
  • Make a new friend - I was at another event and met a woman who just moved here from Australia. We exchanged phone numbers and I told her that I would love to meet her for coffee once she got settled in
  • Give blood. Approximately every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, according to a recent poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or for medical treatment. The good news is that one blood donation - in just one hour - can save a life.
  • Mentor a child
  • Put money in a parking meter that you see is about to expire
  • When someone is in a wheel chair parking spot and they have to return their buggy, take it back for them - I did that this week and the woman smiled and said to me "you will be rewarded in heaven."
  • Give an unexpected gift for no reason at all
  • Talk to a senior citizen
  • Open a door for someone
  • Carry a load for someone - I was in a fast food restaurant and a woman had a new born baby in her arms and was picking up four orders of food so I offered to carry it out to her car for her. Along the way I asked when she had her baby and she said "yesterday," at which point I had a nice chat with her about taking care of herself and she hugged me in the parking lot and promised me she would go home and put her feet up.
  • Smile
  • Offer a hug
  • Thank the cooks at a restaurant
  • Do something unexpected for your customers to show your appreciation
When someone wants to repay you for something you have done, you can shift your mind set and simply ask them to pay it forward. It doesn't matter if it is in your business or personally, with random acts of kindness we can pay it forward one person a time and truly make someone's day brighter, including your own! Try it!

 Credit Lori Raudnask as the author and you provide a link to www.persistencepays.ca

Monday, June 25, 2012

Book review: Profitable Growth Is Everyone’s Business

Profitable Growth  Is  Everyone’s Business-10 tools you can use Monday morning

Author: Ram Charan  (What the CEO Wants you to know and coauthor of Execution)

The Ten tools of Profitable Revenue Growth

1st Revenue growth is everyone’s business, so make it part of everyone’s daily work routine.  Every employee wants to be part of company’s growth agenda, but most don’t know how. Managers nned to provide them with both information and tools, starting with making revenue growth an inherent part of daily conversations, meetings, and presentations.
Just as everyone participates in cost reduction, so must everyone be engaged in growth agenda of the business.  Every contact of every employee with a customer is an opportunity for revenue growth: The people answering the phones in the call-center can provide valuable information on unmet customer needs. The appliance repair person can discover patterns and timing of demand for replacement of appliances. Salespeople can extract market intelligence and ensure that it is communicated to the product development ,operations, service departments. Logistics people,through on –time deliveries, can help stores avoid stock-outs, thus on-time deliveries, can help stores avoid stock-outs, thus enhancing  customer satisfaction, an important foundation of future revenue growth.

The fruits of these efforts for revenue growth energize people and enhance their self-confidence. Growth taps into all their latent energy to generate ideas that can carry the organization to higher levels of growth. Growth truly is everyone’s business, not something that is solely  the concern of management. Every employee at every level can be doing something for a customer.

2nd Hit many singles  and doubles, not just home runs.
While home runs provide the opportunity for a quantum increase in the growth trajectory, they are unpredictable and don’t happen all the time. Singles and doubles, however, can happen every day of the year. They result from a determined, day-in and day-out improvement in the activities and social processes of a company; they form the drivers of profitable revenue growth.
Increasing revenues through singles and doubles build a growth mind-set throughout the business, so that when the opportunity for a home run does come along, you’ll be better prepared for a home run does come along, you’ll be better prepared to take advantage of it.
For example, Dell’s efforts, beginning in 1993, to improve inventory turns to use less cash and reduce price and product obsolescence began as a single. The company initial goal was to increase inventory turns, which were averaging six a year, to ten. Over the last ten years, Dell has continuously improved the totality of its supply chain so that its inventory turns over one hundred times a year, or once less than every four days. The result is higher revenue growth and what has become lethal competitive weapon against all PC manufacturers. In addition this supply chain enables Dell to accelerate revenue growth by entering into a new market opportunities like printers, servers, and storage.

3. Seek  good growth and avoid bad growth.
A framework for distinguishing good from bad growth is a crucial element in generating revenue growth. Good growth not only increases revenues but improves profits, is sustainable  over time, and does not use unacceptable levels of capital. It is also primarily organic (internally generated) and based on differentiated products and services that fill new or unmet needs, creating value for customers.
The ability to generate internal growth separates leaders who build their businesses on a solid foundation of long-term profitable growth form those who, through acquisitions and financial engineering, increase revenues like crazy but who create that growth on shaky footings that ultimately crumble.  Many acquisitions provide a one-shot improvement, as duplicative cost are removed from the  combined companies. But few, if any, demonstrate any significant improvement in the rate of growth of revenues.

4. Dispel the myths  that inhibit both people and organizations from growing.
An important part of any leader’s role is to realistically confront excuses such as:”We are in a no-growth industry, and no one is growing”;”Customers are buying only on price”; or “The distributors are the ones in direct contact with retailers, and there’s not much I can do.” Every leader needs a  growth agenda and the ability to communicate an urgency about the need to  increase revenues and build the business so that action-oriented people within the organization find out what needs to be done today.

5. Turn the idea of productivity on its head by increasing revenue productivity.
The old saw says “ we have to more with less”. The problem though, is that the focus is usually on the “less” and the “more” rarely happens. Revenue productivity is a tool for getting that elusive “more” by actively and creatively searching for ideas for revenue growth without using a disproportionate amount of resources. It shows how to invest your current level of resources in a way that leads to increased sales by analyzing everything a business does, from the seemingly mundane to the vitally important.

6.Develop and implement a growth budget.
All companies have a budget. It is, however, astonishing how little detail about revenue and sources of revenue growth you can find there. Almost all the lines in the budget are cost-related. Few, if any, identify resources explicity earmarked for growth. The growth budget provides a foundation that will allow a company to critical actions over the short, medium, and long terms that require resources to achieve revenue growth goals. And there is follow-though that includes rewards for success and penalties for poor performance.
7. Beef up upstream marketing.
One of the key missing links for generating revenue growth at most companies is upstream marketing. What most people visualize as marketing involves advertising, promotion, brand-building, and communicating with customers through public relations, trade shows, and instore displays. Those activities are obviously of great importance but primarily “downstream” in nature-that is , they enhance the acceptance of a product or service that already exists. Upstream marketing, on the other hand , takes place at a much earlier stage by developing a clear market segmentation map and then identifying and precisely  defining which customer segments to focus on. It analyzes  how the end-uses the product or service and what competitive advantage will be  required to win the customer and at what price points.

8. Understand how to do effective cross-selling ( or value/solutions selling).
Cross-selling can be a significant source of  revenue growth, but most companies approach it from exactly the wrong perspective. They start by saying, “What else can we  sell to our existing customer base?” However, instead of looking inside-out your organization, you need to look outside-in. Successful crosss-selling starts by selecting a segment of customers and then  working backward to define precisely the mix of products and services they need and creatively  shaping a value proposition is presented to the right decision makers in the language of the customer and spells out the financial, physical, and post purchase benefits of the offering.

9. Create a social engine to accelerate revenue growth.
Every organization is a social system, the centre of which is a  way of thinking and acting that sets both day-to-day actions and the long-term agenda. When an organization has an explicit growth agenda understood by everyone,  growth becomes a central focus-a social engine-during formal meetings as well as informal discussions. The social engine is then fuelled by growth ideas as one growth initiative builds on another. People at all levels then  see growths as everyone’s job. The social engine and its associated tools provide the mechanism for making revenue growth a reality by developing a laser-sharp focus, aligning individual silo priorities and making the right tradeoffs.

10. Operationalize  innovation by converting ideas into revenue growth.
Innovation is not the private property of lone geniuses working apart from the mainstream of the business. In any company of reasonable size, innovation is a social process that requires collaboration and communication for idea generation, selecting those ideas for revenue growth that are to be funded, and shaping those ideas into product prototypes and  launching them into the marketplace.

Excerpt from the book  Profitable Growth  Is  Everyone’s Business,-10 tools you can use Monday morning.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Champions Workshop June 27th with Klemmer & Associates




Ronnie Doss
Ronnie Doss is an international speaker, trainer and author. With a back- ground in ministry and personal development, Ronnie has trained thousands of people in over six countries around the world. Whether in a church or a corporation, his sense of humor and passion bring about great change for those he reaches. Ronnie lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife Jennifer and daughter Addison

CHAMPIONS WORKSHOP TORONTO

Wednesday June 27, 2012

Registration 6:30 pm

Champions Workshop 7 - 10 pm

Experiential, Inspiring, Interactive, Fun, Thought Provoking, Unique,
and MOST OF ALL, Results Producing!
$20 advance; $35 at door if available
NO CHARGE FOR GUESTS OF
Jim Pagiamtzis, Get connected Make Wealth Happen
null null


Register Now!


*** Endorsed by Robert Kyosaki***
Facilitated by Ronnie Doss

Are you interested in a better business, better relationships, or improved health?

In this interactive workshop you will discover a proven formula for producing massive results in 30 days.
  • Produce a significant increase in sales
  • Lose weight and keep it off when you have tried everything
  • Increase intimacy in a relationship when you might not think it’s possible
  • Reduce your meetings and make them much more effective
  • Discover the way to achieve goals instead of just setting them
Hundreds of thousands have attended this workshop around the world and an outstanding 99% in recorded surveys say that it was worth the time and money invested or more.


At this Champion's Workshop you will explore your beliefs around how to solve challenges and you will discover a “Formula of Champions” used by individuals and companies throughout the world to see measurable change within 30 days.
"Phenomenal!" Barbara Frank
"It was a delight to be in the company of such focused and enlightened people." Gary Pesowski
"I wanted to thank you for hosting such a wonderful and powerful event yesterday. I really got a lot out of it" Walter Bak
"The event was great!"Bill Dietrich
DATE: Wednesday June 27, 2012

TIME: 6:30: Registration/ 7-10 pm: Champions Workshop
LOCATION: Holiday Inn Airport East, 600 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J1
click here for map http://mapq.st/xFbzOK
 Added bonus, 3 great article by Jim Pagiamtzis

Be your own detective
 Your programs run you!

Experiential Learning works!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Get Connected June 3rd Edition

June is turning out to be a Hot, Hazy and Humid month! Lots of great events happening this week in Toronto.

                            
                   Quote of the week

 "You don't know what you don't know, that's why you don't have.
  Because if you knew what you knew, you'd have. 
  Because to know and not do, is  not to know."
                                                  - Casey Combden

 *( feel free to share quote on your social networks)

New blogs:
Book review: Engagement Marketing- Gail Goodman CEO of  Constant Contact
Click here to read article
Click here to learn more about book

I want to have a happy life too! Phei Phie Oon
Click here to read blog

Motivatorman blog aka Emmanuel Lopez
Click here to read blog
*Stay tuned for details of  the next movie night in Toronto at Alternative Thinking

Events:
June 20th
11:45am-12:30pm
Entrepreneur Speed Networking in Mississauga
3 Keys to Email Marketing using Constant Contact
Click here for event details

June 20th
6:00pm-9:00pm 
MetroActive.org
Adding Value to Your Business With French-speaking People
Click here for event details

Next week:
June 27th
Chery Rankin Founder Fit for Business will be sharing "No Dollars Marketing" on June 27th
 with Jim Pagiamtzis sharing Social Media Made Simple with Constant Contact. Free event
Click here for event details

 Book download of the week:
 Pitch Elevation - Michael Weiss
  "Presentation is not a meeting; it's a performance"
 Testimonial from Jim Pagiamtzis
"Michael Weiss covers the A to Z of being being an effective and efficient in  preparation, presenting and results that you want to create to have your audience want more!"

 
  Interview with Duane Browne from the Pool of Wealth  



Duane Browne  interviewing  Jim Pagiamtzis  on Power of Networking

  More information on P-A-R strategy click on the link below to get copy of 1st chapter of my book
 If like more information on PARformance training program email jim@pagiamtzis.com  

Monday, June 18, 2012

Book review: Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World


Author: Gail F. Goodman is the CEO of Constant Contact, a leading provider of e-mail marketing, local deals, and online surveys tools for  more than half a million small organizations.

Being the 21st century it is becoming very evident that created sustainable interest on the internet will be an important area for any business enterprise to succeed.

There are three great parts of the Engagement Marketing that I found of value and especially impactful in creating more effective future campaigns using Constant Contact platform.

1st
Gail F. Goodman says “ In this book, you’ll learn why Engagement Marketing is a real opportunity for fostering deeper connections with your customers, which in turn will drive new business, I can name dozens of books  on how to use social media. This isn’t one of them.  While  I’ll  cover social media tools and how to use them, this information will always be presented in the context of building and sustaining genuine connections with customers.”
Foster deeper  connections  is  such important comment made in the paragraph because it’s not just about creating more connections, followers or fans. The opportunity and the challenge is to create a long-term and deep connections that you can actually engage with campaign with them that can be something  of importance to them or it could be business venture, resource of information for upcoming projects.
Many of the connections I have made on LinkedIn have turned into speaking opportunities for corporate clients and being hired by New York consulting company to do paid consulting via phone to their North American clients.

Building and sustaining genuine connections with customers is a great objective to have in your growth to have products, service or specific events or information they may find of interest. They may know and link you and want to build the ongoing “trust factor” that they not just another connection but an important client that you actual engage and have a two-way online conversation. Ask a question or getting a recommendation.
Read the paragraph again and realize that all the new connections, fan and followers you make are contacts that important to having quality contacts and just have a quantity of connections.

2nd
Gail  goes on to say “Your calls-to action have three major purposes. First is direct engagement with individuals. The more you can get people to participate, the more likely they’ll do business with you again in the future. You have reinforced the relationship, added more value, and reminded them about you. Second, participation from one person inspires participation from the next. If someone Likes and multiple comments on a post, they’re more likely to read the thread and to participate. The third purpose of a call-to-action is the engagement can drive visibility. Some calls-to-action, such as sharing, immediately spread your message or content to wider audience.”

The act of someone hitting the “like” button is casting a vote in your favour, so when you get them get excited!  Sharing feature is a close second due to the fact in creates a ripple effect in your networks of posting your initial information to larger network, the exponential grow beyond your control (that’s a good thing!)

                                 Marc Gordon Author of Edge Factor says “content is king”

3rd
Chapter 8  goes into Engagement Marketing Tips and Tricks and have lots of examples and insights on how achieve attention for your brand in various ways.
Chapter 9 deals with Overcoming Common Obstacles and comes up with answers to questions that many first time users using social media may have  and creative ways to overcome them.
Engagement Marketing is terrific resource for the first time user and existing experience users due to the fact  there a always ways to improve your  email marketing campaigns, surveys and event management  initiatives, it provided useful reminders to assist you to create strong engagement marketing for years to come and provide lasting value for you new and existing customers.

For more information on how to order the book or and read sample chapter go to http://engagementmarketing.com/
 
Jim Pagiamtzis is Authorized Local Expert (Toronto,Ont)  & Solutions Provider for Constant Contact. He has done number corporate presentation and spoke to entrepreneurial group on the power of Social Media Made Simple, 3 keys to Email Marketing and How to leverage Email Marketing. If your are interested in having him speak to your group on the Toronto GTA, email at jim@pagiamtzis.com

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Book Launch: Big Ideas for the Big Stage

It was an amazing experience to be invited to the book launch of Big Ideas fro the Big Stage by Tony Estevez on Tuesday June 5th in Toronto. At the Marche at Yonge and Front. 12 of 13 authors assembled to share their insights and celebrate with attendees this awesome achievement.


                                            Jim Pagiamtzis interviewing Tony Estevez on Big Ideas for the Big Stage

                                           Evening program for the book launch

                                          Business cards and flyers (very impressed!)

                                          12 of 13 author who contributed to the book

                                           Carolyn R. Wilker (edited book) and Jim Pagiamtzis

        For more information got to link below:
        http://speakersthinktank.com/member/store/                   
                                             

Saturday, June 9, 2012

My first Press Release!


It has been exciting year speaking and sharing as an Authorized Local Expert  for Constant  Contact, have had the great experience of speaking to various networking groups, corporate clients and different types of expos throughout the GTA. 

This past Friday May 25th I had an interesting online event occur. I did my first  press release email marketing campaign.  promoting my partnership being Authorized Local Expert with Constant Contact Toronto since January 2012. 

I was supplied a very straightforward press release and made some minor changes where it was  advised. The next decision was when to send it? I had already sent a campaign on Tuesday afternoon for the week and didn’t want to send the second campaign in the same week.  

At  11:00am on Friday May 25th made the intention and hit the “send button “ and of it went into the internet funnel.

 When I came back from running a errand I was surprised to see an email from local community college, (my alumni) interested in meeting to discuss sharing the social media presentation with the entrepreneurship program. I quickly responded and book a meeting on May 31 to learn more details about the program. 

It was exciting to see the power and reach of my 1st newsletter had already brought me a great lead!
I also received an email of  congratulations from Jean Guy Franceour  Author of Messy Manager and great suggestion from  Marta Nowinsak Founder of Swapsity.ca to include a personal quote in the campaign. Below is thee Press Release

Moral of story: Press Release can create great attention to your business and engagement with your online clients.

 
Press Release – Authorized Local Expert
                                                                                                    
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                               
Get Connected Make Wealth Happen Selected as
a Constant Contact Authorized Local Expert

Toronto  marketing expert to help small businesses and nonprofits apply the power of online marketing to grow their organizations

Toronto,Ontario (Canada) —Jim Pagiamtzis  has been selected as an Authorized Local Expert by Constant Contact®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than half a million small organizations worldwide. As an Authorized Local Expert, Jim Pagiamtzis  will offer training seminars on best practices in online marketing in the Toronto area. .
Get Connected Make Wealth Happen is about how to you can create successful online and offline networking of success.
Jim Pagiamtzis dynamic and engaging speaking style is a perfect fit in sharing  his insight and experience on how to create engaging content that you contacts choose to respond to.

Constant Contact Authorized Local Experts are dedicated to educating small businesses, nonprofits and organizations on how to achieve success through email and social media marketing. Local Experts are authorized by Constant Contact to deliver our field-tested seminars because of their proven expertise, passion and commitment to working with Constant Contact in their local community.

Jim Pagiamtzis will host free small business seminars and training workshops in the Toronto-area focused on using email marketing and social media marketing to engage key audiences, drive dialogues, and build relationships.
“We are thrilled to have Jim Pagiamtzis  as part of the Authorized Local Experts program,” said Catherine Kniker, vice president of local success at Constant Contact. “We believe education and training on marketing best practice leads to more success for small organizations. Our Authorized Local Experts are in a fantastic position to serve their local community by sharing their expertise and our successful, educational KnowHow.”
Get Connected Make Wealth Happen
About Constant Contact, Inc.
Constant Contact wrote the book on Engagement Marketing™ – the new marketing success formula that helps small organizations create and grow customer relationships in today’s socially connected world. More than half a million small businesses, nonprofits and associations worldwide use the company’s online marketing tools to generate repeat business and referrals through email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, local deals and online surveys.  Only Constant Contact offers the proven combination of affordable tools and free KnowHow, including local seminars, personal coaching and award-winning product support. The company further supports small organizations through its extensive network of consultants/resellers, technology providers, franchises and national associations.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
Media Contact:
Get Connected Make Wealth Happen
Jim Pagiamtzis