Sales Archives - Connect the Dots

Why The Best Leaders Are Out Of Control

I recently read an interview with Marija Ringwelsky, the co-founder and COO of Remedy, a company that helps protect people from medical overcharges and billing errors. In it, Ms. Ringwelsky said:

“While I thought leadership was about influence and control, starting Remedy has taught me that leadership is quite the opposite—it’s about finding great people who share common values and a shared sense of purpose and counter-intuitively relinquishing control. If you’ve done your job right, the people on your ...

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17
MAY
2017

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Creativity, Leadership, Producing Results, Sales, Teams

attitude, award winning performance, Beatles, Beatles expert, Bill Stainton, business communication, business integrity, business speaker, change, communication, communication skills, creativity, goal setting, goals, innovation, innovative thinking, inspirational speaker, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, leading through change, motivational speaker, producing results, productivity, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success, success, team building, teambuilding, teams, teamwork, thought leader, work ethic

How To Be Better Than Saturday Night Live

Posted by: Bill Stainton

“You guys are better than Saturday Night Live!”

I used to hear that all the time. I still do, although now “are” has changed to “were.”

For 15 years, I was the Executive Producer of a sketch comedy TV show in Seattle called Almost Live!. We were on the NBC affiliate, KING-TV, and for our final 10 years, we aired at 11:30 on Saturday night (we pushed SNL back a half-hour; they aired from midnight to 1:30 am in the Seattle market). ...

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10
MAY
2017

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Creativity, Leadership, Producing Results, Sales, Teams

attitude, award winning performance, Beatles, Beatles expert, Bill Stainton, business communication, business integrity, business speaker, change, communication, communication skills, creativity, goal setting, goals, innovation, innovative thinking, inspirational speaker, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, leading through change, motivational speaker, producing results, productivity, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success, success, team building, teambuilding, teams, teamwork, thought leader, work ethic

Stop Treating Creativity as an Option

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Turning creativity into money.

That’s how I sometimes described my job as the Executive Producer of a hit comedy TV show in Seattle.

Turning creativity into money.

See, our job, week after week, was to be creative—on demand. BUT, that creativity had to lead to profit. If what we created—jokes, comedy sketches, parodies—didn’t draw an audience that advertisers would pay to reach, our creativity would have gone nowhere (and our careers would have quickly followed). But we did draw that audience, ...

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9
NOV
2016

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Communication, Creativity, Leadership, Producing Results, Sales, Teams

attitude, award winning performance, Bill Stainton, business communication, business integrity, business speaker, change, communication, communication skills, creative ideas, creativity, exceeding expectations, goal setting, goals, innovation, innovative thinking, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, motivational speaker, producing results, productivity, professional speaker, thought leader

Profitable Creativity May Be Closer Than You Think!

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Would you like to find a creative solution to your current challenge du jour? It may be as close as the morning newspaper. (Note to younger readers: the “morning newspaper” used to be an actual thing. It was truly a marvelous invention. It appeared magically on your doorstep, required no scrolling, and never needed to be recharged.)

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21
SEP
2016

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Communication, Creativity, Leadership, Producing Results, Sales

attitude, award winning performance, Bill Stainton, business communication, business integrity, business speaker, communication, communication skills, creative ideas, creativity, exceeding expectations, goal setting, goals, innovation, innovative thinking, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, motivational speaker, producing results, productivity, professional speaker, thought leader

A Tale of Two Restaurants…and You

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Today we’re going to talk about two fast-food restaurant chains. They both serve similar products, but one makes way more money than the other. Let’s see if you can guess which one is the big winner:

Restaurant Chain #1:

[unordered_list style=”tick”]

Virtually synonymous with its product
Thousands and thousands of locations throughout the entire country
Open 7 days a week, 365 days a year

[/unordered_list]

Restaurant Chain #2:[unordered_list style=”red-x”]

Virtually unknown in half the country
Fewer than half the number of restaurants as Restaurant Chain #1
Every location closed nearly ...

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2
APR
2014

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Producing Results, Sales, Work Ethic

attitude, award winning performance, Bill Stainton, competition, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, motivational speaker, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, seattle motivational speaker, small business, small business success

Is Your Business Impossible to Ignore?

Posted by: Bill Stainton

When the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show some 50 years ago, none of us could have predicted the unprecedented heights they would subsequently scale. Yet they still electrified the nation. What was it about them that was so captivating–and, more important, how can we apply these lessons to our own businesses?

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12
FEB
2014

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Creativity, Customer Service, Producing Results, Sales, The Beatles

Beatles, Beatles expert, Bill Stainton, business speaker, innovation, innovative thinking, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, professional speaker, success

What Can You Learn from “Shark Tank”?

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Have you ever watched the TV show Shark Tank? Or, if TV’s not your thing, maybe you’ve read the spin-off book: Shark Tank Jump Start Your Business: How to Launch and Grow a Business from Concept to Cash.

Basically, it’s a show where ...

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12
FEB
2014

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Producing Results, Sales

Bill Stainton, business speaker, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, motivational speaker, running a business, running your business, small business, small business success, success

Stop Aiming and Fire the Arrow!

Posted by: Bill Stainton

Lorne Michaels—the creator and producer of Saturday Night Live—and I have several things in common:

We’ve both produced a multiple Emmy Award winning sketch comedy TV show.
We’ve both spawned national talent (in my case, Joel McHale and Bill Nye the Science Guy; in Lorne’s case, everybody else that you’ve ever heard of).
We’re both multi-gazillionaires (measured, in Lorne’s case, in U.S. dollars; ...

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18
SEP
2013

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Leadership, Producing Results, Sales

Bill Stainton, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, leadership training, making decisions, motivational speaker

Dealing with Criticism

Posted by: Bill Stainton

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11
JUL
2013

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Producing Results, Sales, Videos

business motivational speaker, inspirational business speaker, leadership speaker, motivational speaker, Seattle Leadership speaker, seattle motivational speaker, seattle thought leader, success speaker, thought leader, top inspirational speaker, top seattle business speaker, top success speaker

Wanna Buy a Fake Egg? Neither Do Your Customers!

Posted by: Bill Stainton

I’m a geek.

How much of a geek? I am a card-carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM). Need I say more? IBM has a monthly magazine called The Linking Ring, and there’s a regular column that reviews magic tricks, books, and apparatus. In the most recent issue there is a product review that ends with this sentence:

[quote style=”boxed”]So if you are looking for a fake egg that compresses into a relatively small space and pops back into its ... Continue Reading →

13
JUN
2013

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Customer Service, Producing Results, Sales

Bill Stainton, keynote speaker, leadership, leadership speaker, motivational speaker, professional speaker, running a business, running your business, sales, small business, small business success