Michael Gerber: “The State of Entrepreneurship”

Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth series, honored us by dropping in to deliver a rousing rant on the State of Entrepreneurship.

Michael Gerber and John Carlton are joined on stage by Mark Brown (the guy behind the “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” campaign).

This is 30 minutes you don’t want to miss.

John Carlton & Stan Dahl – “The Good Idea Trap”

We kicked off one day of the Action Semainar with a reality check.

The “Good Idea Trap” is a common rut that well-meaning entrepreneurs can fall into. This video segment shows you exactly what the trap looks like, and how to pull yourself out.

John Carlton: “Time for a Reality Check”

John Carlton kicks off with a great discussion of how to do a reality check.  This is a lot more than just “hi, how’re you doing, did you have a good night?” this is 45 minutes of pure gold.

Start with writing everything down, break it down, keep to “Operation Moneysuck”, do you automate…

…way too much to write down here. I took 2 pages of notes and just hit the highlights.

Goal Setting

The Action Seminar is all about taking action, and we kicked it off with a challenge to set verifiable goals and reduce them to specific action steps that will get you focused and started off in the right direction.

We also had our first hot seat, with Brian from Strategic Profits, Mary Ellen from ETR, Kevin Rogers on the panel.  Watch it with an eye toward how you can use this advice in your own business.

This isn’t a game. This is real, hard-core, live Hot Seat-style consulting, performed without a net on the stage…

… so you can see how it’s done by the best in the biz.

Stan Dahl: “Creating and Implementing Your Personal Action Plan”

Stan Dahl kicked off the 3rd edition of the Action Seminar, speaking about how to set goals and create a plan to achieve them.

He stressed that you must follow processes that are proven to work, evaluate your progress (what is working and what isn’t), adjust as necessary and keep going.

The information he shares will help you take notes more effectively and streamline the process by getting you to weed out the extraneous matter and concentrate on what is important.

James Schramko: “The Secret to Getting Rich…Ask better questions and solve more problems”

James is a man who came literally out of nowhere, zoomed to the top based on no advantages at all.  He was holding down a 16 hour a day job.  He blows to dust the idea that someone does not have time to make it as an entrepreneur.

He is in my inner circle.  When he talks, I take notes.

In this presentation, he lays it all out. How to become successful no matter what market you are in. You can’t afford not to watch.

Brian Johnson: “Really Big (I’m Talking HUGE) Marketing Mistakes. How to Repeat Them and How to Avoid Them. It’s All Up to You”

Brian advises some of the largest companies in the world to improve their profitability and overall performance.

In this presentation he discusses, among other things:

• Business cycles, and what should take place within each cycle for the business to succeed
• Planning: how to create bridges from where you are to where you want to go
• Vision and Values: How to use them ethically to move the business forward
• And way too much more to list here…

Million dollar advice for any business person.

Melanie Benson: “Leverage”

We pretty much stalked Melanie Benson until she agreed to share her expertise at this event… because she’s simply the best person we know at this critical part of the entrepreneurial game.

Mel is known as “The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach” because she knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving company with her secret weapon — LEVERAGE. That’s the simple way to double and triple your revenue, eliminate unnecessary costs, and stay sane as you grow your business.

And get this: Melanie’s clients average a 172% revenue increase while creating more time for living their dream lifestyle.

Action Seminar Business Panel

Once you get your business in motion, it may be hard to keep it moving…to keep from getting bogged down. It is important to keep isolating and concentrating on your next step and don’t be afraid to fail.

John runs the audience through a quick exercise to get them to expand their awareness.

Brian Johnson, Mary Ellen, and Lisa Wagner lead the Business Panel.  Topics of discussion include:

• Things to keep in mind if you want to publish your own book
• How to create goals and what to do to achieve them.
• when and how to outsource

Entrepreneurship Questions and Answers

There were several Question and Answer sessions during the Action Seminars. These are the ones that related to Entrepreneurship.

A few of the questions are:

• How do you determine if your passion is worth pursuing as a business?
• When you are ready to add people, how do you decide whether to outsource or hire in-house?
• What questions should you ask when you want to hire someone?
• What are the steps to get employees trained?