Category: Top Articles

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After years of working closely with Futurist Speaker and Innovator Kevin Surace to inspire audiences across the nation, BigSpeak is proud to announce we have entered into an exclusive partnership with him for all speaking events.

Kevin Surace is a CEO, futurist and disruptive innovation speaker, creator of one of the first smartphones and AI digital assistant, and innovator of the decade. Surace has disrupted every industry he has entered from communications to A.I. to building materials. He’s been named Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, CNBC’s Innovator of the Decade, and inducted into RIT’s Innovation Hall of Fame. While he has a deep technical background, he has been featured in over 15 TED talks and is a high-energy dynamic speaker and true entertainer who has excited, educated and energized 100’s of audiences to action with his personal brand of “Edutainment.”

Before there was iPhone or Siri, Surace changed the communication and A.I. industries with AirCommunicator and Mary (Portico). AirCommunicator was the first smartphone to transmit data over cellular and Mary was the first AI digital assistant. The technology for all digital assistants has been based on the many patents from Surace’s work.

In the construction and energy industries, he helped develop soundproof drywall (QuietRock) and materials with lower carbon footprints (like EcoRock) and ultra-energy-efficient windows, which his company used to completely retrofit the Empire State Building in record time and under budget and the New York Stock Exchange. He was the co-inventor of web-based multivariate reverse auctions, improving B2B commerce, and has now turned his attention back to AI. As CEO of Appvance.ai, Surace’s company is disrupting the software testing industry by reducing the need for human testers by 80% and improving software quality.

He even leaves his mark on the companies he’s a board member for, such as Coyuchi, which is innovating retail and e-tail models featuring organic linens and providing the world’s first lifetime subscription for sheets and towels: “Coyuchi for Life.”

To top it all off, Surace has a musical touch he satiates through passion projects. He serves as conductor for a 28-piece orchestra, “Big, Bold, and Brassy,”  featuring international jazz star Nicole Henry where they feature new high-power renditions of Broadway and pop tunes for corporate events. His 2AM at the Sands show, about a night in 1966 Vegas, just released a live album starring Andrew Samonsky.

He attributes his continuous industry transformations to a Silicon Valley mindset. He approaches every new endeavour with an open mind that allows him the space to find ways to innovate and make lasting changes for the better. However, an innovative spirit can’t stand alone in any industry. Surace is well versed in change management which he believes is crucial in making any disruption sustainable.

You can learn the ins and outs of Surace’s Silicon Valley mindset along with his other keynote speaking topics here–

• Artificial Intelligence and Automation…Actionable Goals To Improve Your Organization Today
• The Future is Now, and Here is What You Need To Know!
• Bringing Silicon-Valley Disruptive Innovation to Your Organization
• KPI’s, OKR’s, and Disruptive Innovation. Make them all fit together!

To book Kevin Surace for your next event and take a step toward innovation for your company, contact BigSpeak at 805-965-1400 or email us at info@bigspeak.com.

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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Have you ever wondered how creativity works? Or how you could be more creative in your own life or business? In a recent Live Inspired podcast, John O’Leary chatted with none other than BigSpeak’s keynote speaker on creativity and innovation Natalie Nixon to find out.

Natalie Nixon is a thought leader in the field of innovation. She has done extensive study on innovation and improvisational organization while completing her Ph.D., working as a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, writing for Inc. magazine, and being president and founder of her consulting firm Figure 8 Thinking. As a consultant, Nixon advises leaders on leveraging creativity as an innovation resource to rapidly achieve priority business goals.

In the podcast, Nixon gave three suggestions on how we could all be more creative in our lives.

Be curious

Curiosity is the key to jump-starting your creativity, according to Nixon. In life, we have an ebb and flow between our intuition and insights. The road to creation doesn’t happen in a straight line.

So let yourself be curious and ask questions. In life, we’ve been conditioned by our schools to associate question asking with ignorance. You only ask if you don’t know and if you don’t know you’re not smart. But asking questions is actually the key to how we learn more and create more.

Ask better questions

In order to be more creative, you need to ask the right questions. Nixon points to Warren Burger’s book A More Beautiful Question, as a source for asking better questions.

From the book, she takes these three questions. 1) Ask “Why?” In your business, don’t be afraid to ask why you do something a certain way. There may be a good reason or maybe not, but you won’t know until you ask. 2) After you find out why you do things a certain way, go a step further and ask “What if?” to look at alternative ways of doing things. 3) Finally, make something new happen. Ask “How could we do this?” to develop a process for creating new things.

Pay attention to wonder and rigor

Nixon said creativity is a combination of wonder and rigor. It’s not just about the sudden bolt of inspiration. On one side is wonder. Wonder is about dreaming, about being audacious, and feeling free to try new things. Rigor, on the other hand, is about discipline, time on task, and deep skill. But we need both to be creative.

In education, Nixon said many teachers put too much emphasis on rigor and not enough time on wonder. In school, we were taught how to follow the rules—but not how to break them. We were trained to be good clerks and managers, but not to be entrepreneurs and artists.

That’s not to say rigor is bad. You need rigor to be creative. You need to spend hours practicing scales and learning all the chords before you can start improvising like a jazz musician. And in sport, you need to drill and exercise every day in order to make amazing shots.

So put in the work and sweat. But also question things. This will give you the opportunity to challenge the system and develop creative ideas.

To learn more about how your business can innovate, contact BigSpeak Speakers Bureau to book Natalie Nixon for your next event.

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Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

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Adventure racer and motivational speaker Colin O’Brady conquered one of the last frontiers of the impossible and made history when he finished a 53 day, unaccompanied and unassisted crossing of Antarctica. What started as a test of personal strength and willpower turned into a race when British Army Captain Louis Rudd decided to attempt the same trek in hopes of stealing the title from O’Brady.

This last, great unconquered feat appealed to O’Brady as a physical and mental challenge, pushing his limits and relaying on nothing but his own body and mind. It was only days before the expedition that he met Rudd in a bar in Chile where they decided to turn their solo missions into a formal competition.

After their start was delayed several days due to weather conditions the two explorers began the race from the Ronne Ice Shelf on November 3, 2018. Men have crossed Antarctica before, but none have ever gone it alone with no backup or relief. O’Brady was pulling a 375 lb sled, containing everything he needed to survive, for 12-13 hours per day. He knew the trek would be unforgiving, and claims that by the end he lost so much weight his watch was sliding off his wrist.

While racing over the ice shelves O’Brady says he nearly missed many catastrophes. On a particularly stormy day, a white out made his travels nearly impossible. With Rudd at his heels he pushed on and says he’s lucky to have not broken a leg with such low visibility.

Antarctica’s harsh climate added several risks as well. The temperature is so cold that any moisture in the air freezes, technically making the continent a dry desert. It also claims the highest average landmass elevation with its highest peak at 9,613 ft. In this oxymoron of a place frostbite, dehydration, and elevation sickness are all fears one must prepare for. O’Brady took photos of himself with tape on his nose and face to prevent exposure leading to frostbite.

Despite the close calls, O’Brady reached the finish line at the Ross Ice Shelf on December 26, 2018, making him the first man to ever cross Antarctica with nothing but his will and a sled.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.

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Everybody’s talking about it. From coast to coast and around the world, the top speakers are talking about the hottest topics in the business world in 2018. Businesses want to know how to lead better, work together, and innovate faster. They are in search of more motivation and want to know how to connect better with people. They want to see into the future and learn how technology, artificial intelligence, and changes in the political landscape will affect their businesses.

Wherever there is a need, there is an expert, a thought leader, or a proven industry veteran who knows about it, has already done it, and has the speaking skills to teach you about it.

1. Leadership
2. Teamwork
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Celebrity
5. Sports/Adventure
6. Motivational (Inspirational/personal development)
7. Innovation
8. Sales
9. Technology
10. Human Resources
11. Futurists
12. Finance/Economics
13. Emotional Intelligence
14. Politics
15. Healthcare
16. Artificial Intelligence

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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No matter what your field of interest, our top speakers go your topic covered. Wherever you are located, East Coast, West Coast, Europe, or Asia, they are ready to travel and spread their message. These speakers are top thought leaders, bestselling authors, company founders, celebrities, artists, athletes, and former Navy SEALs.

These top keynote speakers have been instrumental in changing the way we view media (Netflix), how we interact with computers (Siri), and how we communicate over the web (Skype). They are changing the way we interact with social media (Socialnomics) and how our brains interact with technology (Emotiv). They’ve experienced rejection (Rejection Therapy) and have been the subject of Hollywood films (Molly’s Game and Breach). They’ve won championships (Adventure Racing) and moved us with their marketing (Beats headphones). In short, they have shown they can change lives, now see if they can change yours.

1. Robyn Benincasa, leadership speaker, Adventure Racing world champion
2. Molly Bloom, inspirational keynote speaker, subject of film Molly’s Game
3. Matthew Luhn, creativity keynote speaker, former Pixar animator/story artist
4. Mitch Lowe, business speaker, CEO of MoviePass
5. Jia Jiang, rejection therapy keynote speaker, bestselling author
6. Marc Randolph, Netflix Co-Founder, angel investor
7. Omar Johnson, marketing keynote speaker, former CMO at Beats by Dre
8. Eric O’Neill, cybersecurity keynote speaker, inspiration for the film Breach
9. Kevin Surace, disruptive innovation speaker, innovator of the decade
10. Nancy Giordano, strategic futurist speaker, corporate strategist
11. Jonas Kjellberg, digital transformation speaker, co-creator of Skype
12. Peter Zeihan, top keynote speaker in geopolitical strategy
13. Natalie Nixon, innovation expert; founder of Figure 8 Thinking
14. Tan Le, innovative technology entrepreneur, founder of Emotiv
15. Guy Kawasaki, branding speaker, Chief Evangelist at Canva
16. Jade Simmons, motivational speaker, rockstar concert pianist
17. Mike Walsh, top futurist speaker, bestselling author
18. Frits Van Paasschen, top business speaker, change management expert
19. Peter Sheahan, internationally recognized thought leader and author on innovation
20. Erik Qualman, top technology speaker, bestselling author of Socialnomics
21. Alden Mills, found of Perfect Fitness, former Navy SEAL
22. Jeff Degraff, business professor and “Dean of Innovation”
23. Robert Sutton, organizational change speaker, author of No Asshole Rule
24. Chip Eichelberger, peak performance, motivation and sales strategist
25. Robert Richman, culture architect, co-creator of Zappos Insights
26. Adam Cheyer, top technology and AI speaker, co-founder of Siri and Viv
27. Bethenny Frankel, reality TV star, founder of Skinnygirl
28. Steve Donahue, story guru, Sahara adventurer
29. Robert Tucker, business futurist, author of Driving Growth Through Innovation
30. Stephen Shapiro, innovation evangelist, business author

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The content writers at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau are Experts on the Experts. They hold doctoral, masters, and bachelors’ degrees in business, writing, literature, and education. Their business thought pieces are published regularly in leading business publications. Working in close association with the top business, entrepreneur, and motivational speakers, BigSpeak content writers are at the forefront of industry trends and research.

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BigSpeak exclusive Jia Jiang is rolling out the official Rejection Therapy Inc. app, DareMe, for iOS devices. Based on his famous 100 days of Rejection project, which in turn became the bestselling Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection, the app challenges users to overcome their fears by deliberately putting themselves in situations in which rejection is likely, expanding their comfort zones bit by bit until they are “rejection-proof.”

DareMe includes hundreds of daily challenges of varying difficulties, as well as advice from Jia  on approaching these, and life’s, challenges with confidence. If you want to prime yourself for success and move forward without fear, consider following in Jia’s footsteps and doing your own course of rejection therapy with help from the expert.

 

 

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BigSpeak Founder and Chairman, Jonathan Wygant, coworkers and friends celebrated and showed their support for a good cause at a company-sponsored table at Heal the Ocean’s 20th anniversary gala. The soiree, held this year in the elegant El Paseo restaurant, drew 200 guests, and raised $200,000 in support for the organization’s mission. This year’s gala featured live music, an auction, and celebrity guests Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jean-Michel Cousteau, ocean explorer and son of Jacques Cousteau.

Heal the Ocean, a Santa Barbara based organization focusing on wastewater infrastructure, was founded in 1998 by journalist Hillary Hauser and lawyer Jeff Young. As a young organization, Heal the Ocean snuck into wastewater plants to nab samples, held parades, and performed outrageous stunts to gain attention for their cause.

Since its inception in response to beach closures due to water contaminated with human waste, Heal the Ocean has grown in scale and influence, driving community action. Their efforts resulted in large-scale change in Santa Barbara county’s handling of its septic systems that left seven miles of coastline waste-free and uncontaminated.

Wygant was a founding member of Heal the Ocean, and currently sits on its Board of Directors. BigSpeak has been a long-term supporter and sponsor of Heal the Ocean and its mission. Staff members took part in the beach cleanup efforts and bucket brigade after the catastrophic Montecito mudslides in early 2018.

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The holiday season is an excellent time to build new client relationships and stoke the fire under the ones that have grown cold throughout the year. Client presents are the gifts that keep on giving because investing in these relationships means return business for you. There’s no better way to get your clients’ attention then with a meaningful gift that speaks to them on a deeper level.

Anybody who has received a necktie or candle knows there’s an art to gift giving…one that many of us are not well versed in. When it comes to a relationship as delicate as your clients, you really don’t want to mess it up. We’ve put together some guidelines to help you navigate client wishlists.

Things to remember when shopping for client gifts

1. Personalize your gifts. Sending the generic Ghirardelli chocolates might put a smile on your client’s face, but it won’t differentiate you and keep you in his or her memory when planning next years big event. If you want to stand out you need to personalize each gift to the client. This may be the only time you’ll ever be upset about having a long client list, but there are quick and easy ways to customize. Take for instance the sock company, Foot Cardigan, who makes fun and quirky socks that can be shipped all over the world. By doing a little social media research, it’s easy to send your dog-loving client pug socks and your beach bum client surf socks.
2. But don’t get too personal. While everyone can appreciate a gift tailored to their tastes, there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. It’s best to steer clear of anything the client is supposed to put on his or her body: perfume, lotions, jewelry. These gifts can turn sour for two reasons. Scented gifts leave room for the client to interpret you think they smell or they may even be taken as a come-on.
3. Use the gift to tell about you. A holiday gift is a way to create a deeper connection with the client. You want it to stay in their memory. The best way is to send a gift that tells your story. If you’re based somewhere interesting send a memento that’s unique with a little note letting them know they’re being thought about all around the world.
4. Keep it non-denominational. It’s hard to be 100 percent sure what religion or belief system your clients’ practice. Just to be safe, stick with something festive for everyone. Nowadays it’s easy to find winter-themed gifts and wrapping that don’t signify any certain religion, yet still bring all the good ol’ fashion holiday cheer.
5. Make it experiential. To help build your clients’ muscle memory around you and your brand give them something they can interact with. An easy and relaxing experiential gift is sending your clients to a spa day or massage. Something a little more out of the box could be sending Vector, a personalized desk robot. This little guy lives on your desk and uses facial recognition and a voice integrated AI to communicate with you.
6. Don’t forget about allergies. Food is always a fan-favorite during the holidays. Everyone loves a good treat delivered right to their office during the time of guilt-free indulgence. So, make sure they’ll be able to enjoy it. Avoid nuts and soy. If you really want to be safe, get rid of dairy and gluten as well. You don’t want to be the reason your client ends up in the hospital on Christmas Eve.

If you follow these guidelines and add your own personal flair to the gift, you’re a sure bet to be the first person your client calls in the new year.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.

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What do you think of when you think of the future? Do you imagine robots, trips to space, and voice-activated computers? That’s the standard responses when anyone is asked about the future. That’s why we decided to also reach out to speakers outside of tech to see what the near future looks like in people terms. We asked experts in creativity, neuroscience, geopolitics and more to tell us what they thought. The answers were as surprising as they were diverse.

Erik Qualman, Top Technology and Motivational Speaker, & Futurist

We will vote for presidents and prime ministers via our mobile devices. Voice search will supplant text searches. We will have more conversations with bots and artificial intelligence than our significant others. Self-driving cars will dramatically reduce pollution, congestion, and accidents. Blockchain will be referenced like Y2K. Despite improvements in holograms, great speakers will still be in demand.

Jeff DeGraff, Top Innovation Speaker and “Dean of Innovation”

More 5 years than 2019:

Boundaryless communication and ever smaller and cheaper microprocessors will fulfill the promise of artificial intelligence: better health care, transportation, and education. Political and economic institutions and systems will struggle to adapt at the speed and magnitude of these innovations. Sustainability solutions will drive the next big growth market.

Carmen Simon, PH.D., Cognitive Neuroscientist and Executive Coach

As a cognitive neuroscientist, I predict that advancements in studying and understanding the brain with advanced imaging technologies and computer modeling will continue to grow, not linearly but exponentially. This will be great news for all of us in business because all your customers have a brain. The more you understand it, the easier it will be to know when to captivate it and when to leave it alone.

Mark Pollock, Explorer and Innovator

Up to this point in history it has proven to be impossible to find a cure for paralysis. Yet history is filled with accounts of the impossible made possible through human endeavour.

The kind of human endeavour that took explorers to the South Pole at the start of the last century. And, the kind of human endeavour that will take a new wave of adventurers to Mars in the early part of this century.

Inspired by those stories of exploration, I began asking myself why can’t that same human endeavour cure paralysis in our lifetime? Today, as we explore the intersection where humans and technology collide, we believe it can. That’s what we’re working on for 2019.

Natalie Nixon, Ph.D., Innovation Strategist & President of Figure 8 Thinking

The most successful companies in the next 5 years will be those that stop planning and start improvising. Plans are fiction: they haven’t happened yet. The competitive landscape will be more ambiguous and complex. Thus, an organization’s Creativity Quotient will be more essential than ever. Use technology to amplify curiosity, intuition and creativity in order to grow exponentially. This will make all the difference in the world.

Peter Guber, Hollywood Legend and Co-Owner of Golden State Warriors and L.A. Dodgers

The adventure of fishing for what lies ahead. The next five years will require one to cast their line over the horizon where you can’t see. When you feel the tug of a dream, don’t try to pull it to where you are…allow it to draw you in and trust that you will have the inspiration and perspiration to recognize and realize it’s potential.

Peter Zeihan, Geopolitical Strategist

Seventy years of global stability will unwind—violently—in 2019. The American alliance system collapses, a hard Brexit devastates London, the US-China trade war turns brutal, and that’s just the year through March!

Robyn Benincasa, Top Leadership Speaker, Adventure Racing World Champion, CNN Hero

Because we’re bombarded with so much tech every day, I think that to really break through the clutter and connect, people go back to writing personal notes and handwritten cards.

Srinivas Rao, Host of the Unmistakable Creative

Artificial intelligence will play a big role in replacing any work that is repetitive. Even cognitively demanding but repetitive work will be replaced by automation.  So creativity will be essential to people’s success professionally and personally.

Tan Le, Innovative Technology and Founder and CEO of Emotiv

In the next decade, emerging next-generation technologies for brain enhancement will transform the way we think, work, and heal in wondrous and unexpected ways. It’s the dawn of a new era I call the NeuroGeneration, and it will be characterized by the seamless integration of the physical, digital, and biological realms—a blurring of human and machine.

Kevin Surace, Creator of the first Smart Phone and Digital Assistant

Artificial Intelligence will continue to creep into our lives, slowly, and augment our workplace to make our lives far better and more productive. While some jobs will be lost, the overall gain in jobs will outpace what AI replaces for the next 10-20 years in the U.S. It’s truly an exciting time to be alive!

Tien Tzuo, Foremost Expert of the Subscription Economy

The GDP will become obsolete in 5 years. The current definition of GDP (much like the current definitions of GAAP revenue) is a past-tense framework. It simply does not capture the value of recurring revenue. To our national GDP, a dollar is a dollar, representing a discrete, finite value. Needless to say, there are no discrete, finite values in the Subscription Economy—the goal is to sustain ongoing lifetime customer value for decades. Subscription companies have all sorts of revenue that they can count on but can’t formally recognize, and if you throw upgrades and bundling into the mix, these revenue figures quickly start diverging from standard GDP metrics. Hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity is not being defined or categorized correctly.
Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass and Co-Founding Executive of Netflix

Whatever 2019 brings for sure there will be some big surprises and shockers.

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With all the holiday cheer comes gift shopping, party planning, home decorating, and a million other to-do’s added to your already pressing work deadlines. Finishing out the quarter and year often means late nights at the office and ever-surmounting stress. During the holidays more than ever, it’s important to put forward a conscious effort to reduce your stress and cope with the chaos of the season. Here are some tips and tricks for keeping your stress in check this holiday season.

Set gift guidelines.

Every year there’s stress surrounding who you should buy a gift for and how much you should spend. Eliminate all of that right out the gates by setting gift-giving guidelines. It’s nice to set a price cap on gifts around the office—something that everyone feels comfortable with. If people feel the need to exceed it, they can give their gifts outside of work. Maybe your office decides there will be no gift exchange during company hours if it’s too messy. Making a team decision on gifts will give you one less awkward social encounter to worry about this holiday season.

Express gratitude.

Keep in mind the holidays are stressful for everyone. You’re feeling all of the seasonal pressures on the home front, as well as dealing with quickly approaching deadlines at work. You should assume everyone’s in the same boat. If you take the time to express your gratitude for your coworkers, you will shift your work environment to a more positive vibe, despite the stress. Positivity is contagious and once you start a trend, others will follow.

Watch your food and drink intake.

There are a lot of temptations during the holidays: chocolates and cookies around the office, big meals to celebrate with family, and lots of alcohol to keep warm. Snacking around the office and sampling each gift that’s sent to your team will catch up with you. Around this time of year, people are getting less sun and find themselves a little more down than usual. If you add weight gain and drinking to the mix, your mood may be severely affected. Of course, indulging every once in a while is welcomed. Just try to be aware of what you are putting into your body.

Keep up your exercise.

The days feel shorter in the winter with the sun setting around the time most of us get off work, but it’s important to keep up your exercise. This, along with dropping temperatures can be difficult for those of us who prefer outdoor activities after work. Well folks, it’s time to join a gym or set your alarm a bit earlier because maintaining an active lifestyle will keep your mood upbeat and help you manage your stress levels. As soon as you abandon your workout routine you take away your body’s best stress outlet. Find a way to burn off that stress energy.

Be inclusive.

With an ever-diversifying workplace, it’s important to keep in mind everyone has a different ideology surrounding the holidays. For some, not knowing the right thing to do or say is a point of stress. Be open and accepting of every culture by asking how each person celebrates the holidays. The best way to make sure everyone feels included and seen during the holidays is to keep your gifts and parties in the workplace non-denominational.

Organize more than usual.

It’s time to crank up your organizational skills because you’re going to have to start fitting ten pounds of activities into a five-pound bag. End of the year means doubling up on meetings, holiday parties, and other time sucks that normally aren’t there. The only way to stay on top of all your tasks, while decreasing work hours because of obligatory gatherings is to over-organize. Schedule out your days down to the minute if need be. Buy an additional planner to map out your workday. Do whatever it takes to keep a clear head.

If things seem to be stacking too high to get to everything, prioritize your family and friends. When it comes down to it the holidays are a time to celebrate each other and according to Dr. Robert Waldginer’s 78-year long study on happiness, healthy and strong relationships with loved ones are what bring us the most happiness. Remember that when deciding between a family moment or a deadline.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.

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Has your sales team hit the wall? Are you having trouble getting the right people on board? Does it seem like your sales, marketing, human resources, and product development teams are speaking different languages? Is it taking too long to get to revenue?

If you have any of these problems, you might be in need of a sales enablement expert. Sales enablement is more than just training. Enablement is about changing the whole sales culture from recruiting to onboarding to decreasing the time to revenue to increasing rep productivity.

Roderick Jefferson has been a sales enablement expert for over twenty years, teaching, training, and turning around the sales cultures of established giants like Marketo, Oracle, Salesforce, and PayPal as well as many, many small and mid-sized companies. Recently, his excellent work was recognized with the award of Leading Sales Consultant in 2018 by SellingPower. Previously, he was recognized as Sales Onboarding Program of the Year by SiriusDecisions in 2015, beating out over 280 companies.

Jefferson took time out of his busy consulting schedule to chat with me about sales enablement.

Not a quick fix

Sales enablement is not a quick fix. Sales enablement consultants do not come in to “fix” broken things. That’s for IT specialists. Jefferson said enablement is about getting the whole organization into alignment. His consulting firm works with small and mid-sized companies to improve the sales experience from recruiting new hires to increasing close sales rates.

Holistic process

Sales enablement is a holistic process. It begins with recruiting the right people, onboarding them properly, and teaching them how to collaborate with other lines of business, including marketing, human resources, and product development.

Jefferson said the process goes in both directions—top down and bottom up, looking at leadership and salespeople—making sure the right people are in the right roles. In the long term, it’s about creating the best delivery mechanisms that are scalable and repeatable and will ultimately lead to increased revenue for your company.

For mature and hyper-growth companies

Sales enablement works for both mature and growing companies. In hyper-growth companies, Jefferson shows how to get people up to speed faster, cutting down the time to revenue. In mature companies, enablement is more about organizational alignment and getting salespeople on the same page as the customer.

Enhanced by technology

Technology has improved sales enablement. Jefferson explained content management systems are automating the processes that used to be manual. He sees artificial intelligence playing a greater role in sales coaching. Not only can automated systems record sales calls, but intelligent systems will help monitor and target the areas that need to be worked on right away.

To learn more about how sales enablement can help your company grow, contact BigSpeak Speakers Bureau today to book Roderick Jefferson.

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Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

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The Dodgers, The Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Football Club—what do they all have in common? Peter Guber is at the helm of their ships. Not only has Guber dipped his toes into all the most popular sports (baseball, basketball, soccer), but he also breached the world of online gaming and esports with Team Liquid and AXiomatic. After taking ownership of an all-star team in almost every sport, Guber is restless to find new avenues for growth in the sports world.

Guber recently released his plans for an 18,000-seat stadium to be built in 2019. It will be privately funded and located in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco. The Chase Center will be home to Guber’s NBA team, The Golden State Warriors, moving them from their home base at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. While it will be primarily used for basketball, it will have a theater configuration and a view overlooking the water of the bay. Construction started in 2016 and it is estimated to be finished by 2020 at the latest.

This isn’t the first time Guber took on a sports arena. To accompany his new L.A. Football Club, Guber backed a $350 million soccer stadium for Major League Soccer in downtown L.A last year. This was the first open-air stadium the city has seen since the 1960s.

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Jessica Welch is the Content Marketing Associate at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Anthropology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her business thought articles often appear on Business 2 Community, Born 2 Invest, and YF Entrepreneurs.