GROW YOUR BUSINESS OR

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

N O W !

[And… keep your money, name, age, 

interests, address, email, SS, phone 

number, and dog’s name to yourself!]

Here’s a FREE no-strings weekly dose of success. Hear host Hal Alpiar’s proven business and practice development input based on 49+ years (and still ongoing) hands-on experience as a founder/partner/owner/manager/coach/ consultant, national book award author and management trainer of more than 50,000.

Hal’s FREE 23-minute podcasts are available 24/7 (via mobile phone). You can “listen in” on any 23-minute show (night-or-day) you choose (before, during, or after work… even while driving), and repeat portions (or entire broadcasts) at your leisure.

These podcasts are 100% about sharing problem/ success experience to help small businesses and professional practices grow NOW! No time limits. No need to identify yourself. Hal doesn’t chase you down.

You simply listen to any broadcast anytime that’s convenient. If you seek follow-up input to match your specific needs, simply email Hal@Businessworks.US (put “941” in subject line) or call 1.931.854.0474 (NO sales calls accepted) and set up a personal no-charge talk time.

YOU GET:

• Examples of what others have learned the hard way so you can avoid wasting time, money and effort.

• Stimulating, practical “how-to” ideas, input, advice, cautions, and encouragement, with a special emphasis on Partnerships and Family Business Development and ways to raise and nurture Family Support.

• The latest and best approaches to Branding, Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, Sales, Hiring, Firing, Risk-Taking, Management Methods and Employee Training.

• New perspectives on small business Time and Money investments, Building New Revenue Streams, Startups, Revitalizations, Goal-Setting, your Mission and Vision.

• Ways to improve Staff and Customer Relations, Communications Skills, Stress and Time Management, Leadership/Teamwork Development Skills, and More.

• Diverse approaches to success from Hal Alpiar and his guests, who share their firsthand failure and success experiences with practically every type of business and professional practice imaginable.

The Guests are people who have single-handedly or teamed up to grow Family Businesses, Medical Practices, Retail, Service and manufacturing  entities, Nonprofit and Creative Projects.

Learn why on-the-job training often beats classroom theories (and this coming from your host who was twice honored as “Professor-of-the-Year” once at a major university and once at a small community college!)

GO NOW TO

 www.NewsTalk941.com/Podcasts 

(Scroll down 14 topic boxes to “BUSINESSWORKS”

Click on any Subject! (Many more behind the most

recent; scroll down thin gray righthand border)

HOW you say what you say

is at least as important

as WHAT you say!

What? Read that again! But before you click off, do your  SELF a favor:  Record your voice and listen hard to your  volume, tone of voice, inflections, and emphasis . . . or find someone to listen and repeat what you just meant!

It’s not just WHAT you say, it’s HOW you say it . . . HOW you come across? Odds are someone else’s take (or even your own in listening to a recording) will be different than  what you thought you were communicating.

Actors know this; it’s why they re-read scripts aloud many  times–until it FEELS right and until others GET what they  are trying to communicate.

WHY?

Because HOW something is said is what gets processed and communicated far beyond the meaning of the actual words.  Not sure? Try yelling “I love you!” in an angry tone of voice,  or whispering “HELP! I’m drowning” as you fall off a cruise ship. Okay, a bit extreme perhaps, but you get the idea.

The conteXt (or HOW you present the conteNt) of your idea or message is what matters most. Is a “mixed message” any different from wearing a suit and tie to a kid’s backyard birthday party or a greasy hoodie and overalls to a formal wedding?

Are you representing your business interests, products and services in proper conteXt with your:

• customer base and target market?

• branding line and platform?

• vision and mission statements?

• marketing and PR and promotion goals and budgets?

• employees and suppliers?

• business community and community-at-large?

• website and social media platform?

  

If you can answer “YES!” to all the above, congratulations! If  you have doubts, you may need a quick-fix or some ongoing experienced input from a team of conteXt experts who can help ensure that all your messages are in the most productive light  to produce the most sales and grow your customer base quicker.

From running focus groups to training your staff . . . to creating branding and marketing programs that work . . . to implementing your website and social media development . . . to creating customized training and promotional videos (even customized music!) . . . all with many hundreds of miles of success experience: visit

www.FasTrakBusinessWorks.com

(with no “cookies” or tracking of your site visit, and no annoying followup calls or emails!)

Then call Hal @ 1.931.854.0474    

for a no-fee, get-acquainted consult.

NOW YOU CAN

Save Time AND Money

While Achieving Your Goals!!

It’s 2020! Are you at your “wit’s end” trying to figure out how you’ll ever increase business sales or healthcare patient volume?

Do you wish what you already have in place would enhance your community stature or afford you more time off or build a stronger support team or have a website and social media plan that really works?

Are you exhausted trying to develop a top-notch, cutting-edge branding program that boosts your interests over competitors . . . without having to spend enormous amounts of time and money in the effort?

If any of these questions provoke a “YES!” answer from you, visit our new expanded “sister” site right this minute by clicking HERE

With All Best Wishes for a Very Merry Christmas

and a Happy Healthy New Year! – Hal

#1 BUSINESS AND LIFE 

   LESSON FROM SPORTS…

“Keep Your Head

  In The Game!”

How often have managers, coaches, trainers, captains, team physicians and frustrated fans yelled this to players on/in fields, tracks, trails, rinks, arenas, courts, courses, rings, pools, gyms,    diving boards, ranges, lakes. oceans, mountains, lanes…?

What’s the hidden message? Pay as much attention as you can, every split second, to where you are and what you’re doing! In a word: FOCUS!

Easy to say? Sure. But here’s how to do it!

So if you’re on the receiving end of this 6-word “Keep Your Head In The Game!” shout, you take deep breaths to help yourself stay alert and tuned in to what’s going on around you—every blink of the eye. Why? Because the minute you let your mind drift (Yes, it’s a choice!), you lose… the circumstances or a competitor will gobble you up and spit you out!

Well then, how do you keep your business growing and going forward? How do you keep those who work with and for you tuned in? (financial rewards only work up to a point then take a back seat to challenge and inspiration!) So how do you keep those who work with you tuned in and feeling valued?

LEARN as much as you possibly can about your SELF (and what makes you tick!)

START by taking 3-4 deep breaths (to help you keep your mind and ears open and your mouth closed. [See the proven 4-Step Approach by clicking the “Stress Management” tab at www.WhiteBearMedAssociates.com] Then ask friends and family what they observe as your greatest strengths and weaknesses. Don’t debate responses; instead, just smile and say “Thank You!”

WRITE it down (Yes, on paper and yes, with a pen: that brings a much bigger personal and physiological commitment than a keyboard!)

Don’t even think about what’s said until later when you can be alone and give your notes your undivided attention. Your awareness alone of what others think can help you over the tough spots, and serve to challenge your forward motion.

It’s a whole lot easier to keep your head in the game every day when you pay closer and more frequent attention to your breathing, to your (perceived-by-those-around-you) strengths and weaknesses, and to a constantly-changing index card with key notes (the basis for your everchanging business and life goals) that you keep in your pocket, purse, or wallet for reference as you wash your hands or park your car… or take a lunch or watercooler break.

Sports Lesson #2: “Go For It!”

 —–INC’s ©®™ LLC’s ©®™ Startups —–

This post and others on this site by Hal Alpiar are representative of his 40+ years of business development coaching services and approach to working with entrepreneurial-minded business and healthcare practice owners and managers.

In addition to record client sales and Hal’s national awards in writing, branding and marketing, his firm, TheWriterWorks.com, LLC. has also recently joined with www.FastrakSolutions.com  to provide full-service computer/SEO and Reputation Management. 

For a free (no follow-up unless requested) assess-ment of how this team can help boost your sales/ branding/marketing/ social media, podcast, drip marketing and uniform messaging platform services . . . 

CALL HAL TODAY:  1.931.854.0474 (CST)

REAL entrepreneurs

 are born, not made!

Almost like a 6th sense, true entrepreneurs are blessed with an intuitive instinct that sets them apart from other businesspeople. They possess an inner quest for making their ideas work even after suffering what sometimes seems to others to be endless defeats.

True entrepreneurs rise from the “smoke and ashes” with smiles and renewed energy. They don’t whimper, cry, curse, or pound on tabletops. How is this possible? Because they instinctively view every setback as a new learning experience, as an opportunity, not as failure.

They do this by launching yet another try to achieve their goals. Remember Thomas Edison made 10,000 (TEN THOUSAND!!) attempts before inventing the lightbulb!

Over the past few weeks, I had the good fortune to separately interview two purebred entrepreneurs: Valerie Connelly (3-part interview) and Alex Maddux (former “Mr. Tennessee”) on my weekly radio show and podcast.

[NOTE: Podcasts are 22-23 minutes and accessible 24/7, worldwide, for free at www.NewsTalk941.com/podcasts  Then scroll down 13 program titles to “BUSINESSWORKS” then through 9-10 recent topics to “Cannes Film Festival”/”Valerie Connelly & Entrepreneurship Pt1” and then to “Pt 2.” The show with Alex Maddux will be available on Monday 9/9/19]   

Both of these entrepreneurs rose from what some might call “the depths of failure” but neither Valerie nor Alex ever considered such experiences as depressing or oppressive. Even though neither was “rollin’ in dough” at the time, each chose to see what others might call “errors” as nothing more than learning experiences.

Each took overwhelmingly crippling results from having their ideas knocked over, knocked out, and trampled on by others as “positive learning steps” that led each to the door of imminent success:

• 

• Valerie, is reaching her door (a 35-year pursuit!)  to create an enormously entertaining and inspiring women’s (and men’s) empowerment, totally-original, musical film [See the 2  1/2 minute “sizzle reel, “a pre-production imagined version of the post-production “trailer” at vimeo.com/340320166 ; this “teaser” was developed prior to the 8/22/19 live Nashville  theater script reading by professional actors and is presently being updated to be featured on upcoming Indiegogo film-credit funding opportunities].

Alex (shown with son Avyn), has reached his door with varied career pursuits, each of which contributed to

his current “athletes and outdoor work and play experience” market for UBEECOOL towels and other distinctive UBEECOOL logo-imprinted merchandise. 

See www.UBEECOOL.com 

The take-away from both of these innovators is –whether you are an entrepreneur-by-instinct or have lived and applied entrepreneurial actions and ways of thinking to your own pursuits– take heed (and comfort) in the shared guidelines and key ingredients that both Valerie and Alex attribute to entrepreneurial success:

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

BE (and stay) DETERMINED.

BE PASSIONATE in your pursuits.

HAVE A STRONG SUPPORT SYSTEM (family/friends/employees/community/church).

BE FLEXIBLE (product and service planning and adaptability).

Having worked closely as a creative business development coach and guide to thousands of successful entrepreneurs, I can authoritatively say:  The bottom line is to learn from those you believe have entrepreneurial instinct how she/he/they think and  act, and how you can vastly improve your odds for success by applying what you absorb and practice… Hal Alpiar

DOES YOUR BUSINESS

  GO BEYOND “BUSINESS”?

Is it time to take a breather in your creative business quest? “NEVER!” is what most entrepreneurs would respond. 

In fact, I would go so far as to say that

“MANY TIMES NEVER” is what those who are truly creative entrepreneurs would actually think!

This week brings one of those rare-breed individuals I’m describing: Valerie Connelly. She has come to the point of taking a breather long enough to present 35 years worth of dedicated creative focus on refining and building one single product to the point of readiness — delivering genuine women’s empowerment!

This experience includes: writing/producing/acting in three original stage musicals, creating CD albums and hundreds of original songs, backed by 16 years of publishing/editing/ designing 225 books of every genre for both US and foreign authors (plus six of her own!). . . add 17 years of classical piano training, 2 years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, 25 years of teaching high school French and (often on the same days) entertaining in Chicago nightclubs, being an award-winning painter, acclaimed block-art artist, patented inventor, and a “dog whisperer” . . . all while raising two life-success daughters and inspiring her two grandchildren.

Thursday night, the Watkins Theater at the Watkins College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee, is hosting Valerie and many of her supporters to a long-awaited professional actors’ “Live Readers Theater Performance” of her totally-original, full-length, pre-production musical film: “LOVE IS…” 

Click HERE to see the sizzle reel!

The live narrated script-reading presentation includes big-screen video representations that accompany each of the film’s 16 original songs

The planned movie, with a view toward 2020 production, has been endorsed by world-famous-and-respected  performer, Kelsey Grammer through his production company (Grammnet Productions) crediting LOVE IS… script, music, story, and plans as follows:

“A truly inspirational

 

and touching journey

of life, love and laughter,

with a timeless message.

Delightful!”

NEWLY “ATTACHED” TO LOVE IS…

— As Film Music Composer and Selective Music Arranger, GEOFF KOCH brings 22 years of high profile music composing expertise to LOVE IS… He is President, Nashville Composers Association, and President of SCORE-COM, working in tandem with FILM-COM. Geoff is at the forefront of composing for productions in all genres that take place in planetarium domes worldwide . . .

— As Music Supervisor, ANDY HILL is a 9-time Academy Award-winner in film music. He led the “Disney Renaissance Decade” as VP of Music Production for Walt Disney Studios, including direct music supervision of The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast, and Sister Act, and subsequently for his own firm: Message In A Bottle, Ed Wood, James and the Giant Peach, and Happy Feet… before winning a Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children for Elmo in Grouchland.

We wish Valerie and her team

great success in their pursuit

to “go beyond” and “rise above”

in their quest to prove that

BUSINESS WORKS.

Big Business. Small Business. Your Own Business.

WHAT’S  YOUR  FOCUS?

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR

A BIG ORGANIZATION . . .

. . . and flirting with someone down the hall or in another department (married or not), “Don’t fish off company docks!” is the best advice I can offer because edgy socializing undermines your business focus, and your stature in the organization. Others do not want to understand. Odds are you and your job will dissolve away before you know it… or collapse overnight!

Unfortunately, the only ones who don’t believe this are blindsided by their own pursuits. They simply don’t believe that a “stolen” kiss, or pat on the butt, or slightly too-long handshake could possibly interfere with a bonus or promotion. But “Aha!” They do. Work flirtations are never hidden. They dislodge your focus on getting your job done and exceeding management expectations.

Think for just a minute about being the boss and having expectations of those you’ve hired to “give their all” and be 100% focused on doing their jobs. What’s YOUR focus?

The secret? It’s all about balance.

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR A SMALL BUSINESS OR A PROFESSIONAL GROUP PRACTICE . . .

. . . it’s your job and it should be your focus to do whatever you can to help grow the small business that has shown good faith in you. Your focus needs to be to do whatever it takes to make things work better, and to do whatever it takes to make customers/clients/patients as happy as possible every day!

None of that happens if you’re constantly preoccupied counting the minutes  left in the workday, the workweek, until a holiday or the weekend or a vacation. None of it happens either if you show up for work with your backpack or briefcase or pockets filled with upsets you’ve left at home, or with a relationship, or social commitment. A distorted focus can quickly and quietly distort your ability to think clearly, and focus.

Teamwork

The secret? It’s all about balance.

IF YOU’RE WORKING FOR YOUR OWN BUSINESS OR YOUR OWN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE . . .

. . . Bless you! But the trade-off here is even more pronounced. You are the business and the business is you. Not everyone can succeed as an entrepreneur, but keeping your energy and attention focused as much of the time as possible on how to launch and feed and grow your own business or professional practice will take you a long way.

The bottom line, though is that you simply cannot be 100% focused on where you want to be headed all the time. You got where you are because you wanted more freedom, so take more freedom. Working your brains out doesn’t grow your business. Making the most of your “freedom” by channeling it in directions that are as productive for you, and your self, as they are for the business creates a focus that’s balanced.

Balance is the secret.

And ONLY YOU know

how to balance your SELF!

YOUR BUSINESS STAR…

FILM INDUSTRY LESSONS

Just brought my “think out of the box” business life and teachings back from the Cannes Film Festival.

The experience opened doors. New insights planted themselves in the middle of my pursuit path. The surroundings of this venture, highlighted by a breath-taking daylong drive from Geneva through the Alps to the French Riviera, were amplified by the seemingly endless clamber of the 12,000+ Festival participants who each in their own way sought the spotlights and camera lenses… often, while pretending not to.

The experience literally seemed to stun-gun my mind. What did I learn that might be good food for thought for every business and professional practice owner and manager?

Working smarter, not harder is no better than working harder not smarter.

Business success come only through a strong sense of balance.

A good place to start improving your business balance is to take inventory of your commitment to never cease searching for ways to improve your product, your service, your attitude, your story, your people, and the lives of your customers, clients and patients.

Serving as a makeshift Executive Producer for an emerging  (pre-production) original feature musical film (LOVE IS… Click on logo above for the less-than-2-minute “Sizzle Reel”) has been a major chunk of my life since helping to launch the forerunner stage version three years ago.

I’ve learned –sometimes the hard way–  that with every tiny aspect of a film –from words, music, and sound effects, to direction, production, gestures, budgets, lighting, cameras, film-editing, marketing, branding, promotion, legalities, you name it:

Everything changes every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year.

It is changing me as I write this and will no doubt continue to as long as I keep open-minded enough to accept that. It will change even as the movie is being filmed and recorded and edited and even after it’s done in the ways that it is branded and promoted.

WOW!, you might say, that sounds nerve-wracking!

Well guess what else I learned? Every business has the same dynamics. We have simply come to accept that many of the businesses and practices we own and manage never change. We often just accept that our businesses follow specific rules and that those rules limit change.

BALONEY!

Each of us changes every minute of every day in some way. We simply turn ourselves off to being receptive to that thought because it somehow threatens our existences.

Rising above that “being stuck in the mud” mindset is key to achieving record growth with our business pursuits and ourselves.

Think about all that next time you watch a movie… maybe even before that? It’s called renewing your own sense of self-awareness. What have you got to lose besides a false sense of self-security?

Want more?

Text 1.302.752.8505 or phone 1.931.854.0474 or write: 370 S. Lowe Ave. A-148, Cookeville, TN 38501 or free weekly podcast: www.newstalk941.com/podcasts (scroll down program sections to BUSINESSWORKS and click on any of 60 business topics. Feedback always welcome!

ENTREPRENEUR?

STOP KIDDING YOURSELF.

STOP CONNING OTHERS.

Every minute of every day, someone

thinks s/he is an entrepreneur, or can

become one, or that s/he can magically

turn someone into an “entrepreneur”

Do you have an Entrepreneur Training Center or some such entity in your town or on your campus? Does their spiel sound enticing? After all, who wouldn’t give a few months or weeks (or years) and a few hundred or few thousand dollars to fulfill the dream of becoming an “entrepreneur”… reporting to no one and making lots of money for entrepreneuring your ideas?

You’ve always liked the dream of winning a lottery or triumphing over some casino offering and you are known among friends for being lucky and/or having good judgment. You’re inquisitive and action-oriented. And you have exceptional creative skills. So go for it!

But be aware that the odds are overwhelmingly against becoming or making yourself into an entrepreneur. Why? Because Entrepreneurs are born not made.

Entrepreneurship is an instinct, not a learned skill. You either have it or you don’t. And if you don’t, no amount of effort on your part or on the part of any pretending instructor will make any difference.

Your bubble has burst? Sorry, but the truth is IF you can look at the issues involved honestly, there is MUCH that can be learned about entrepreneurial behaviors and ways of thinking that can work to your benefit. So maybe it’s not in your blood, but entrepreneurial THINKING is what makes this planet exist. It is what generates lifetimes of success. Yes, it includes some risk-taking, but what in life does not?

The point here is to stop dreaming and be realistic. Successful entrepreneurs are doers not dreamers. They act on limited knowledge (who doesn’t?). When something doesn’t work the way they want or imagine, they try something different and keep moving forward. They do NOT hang out at bars or pot-shops.

They do not throw money around to impress others, or to experience exorbitant weekends or vacations. Contrary to popular opinion, successful entrepreneurs make the time to be analytical but not to the point of dwelling on what surfaces. They pay careful attention to money management at every level, from bill-paying, credit ratings, taxes, investments, weekly expenses.

Successful entrepreneurs often have grand-scale ideas but will typically only realize those ideas by taking one step at a time. Skipping over essential ingredients or directions or parts or opportunities leads to bungled products and misrepresented services. Being open-minded enough to listen to voices of experience and to process conclusions serves to develop a sense of life/work balance.

Of course there’s more. But how you use what you know and what you learn is completely your call, and pretending that you can achieve or acquire entrepreneurship or provide entrepreneurship to others is fantasy. That you can learn and apply the traits and practices of entrepreneurial thinking to your life pursuits is reality, but it will not necessarily come easy, anymore that being born with entrepreneurial instincts is a choice . . . even though everything else IS.

ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING

SMALL BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES

CORPORATE, NONPROFITS… 1.931.854.0474

 Hal@Businessworks.US

YOU AIN’T SOLD NOTHIN’ YET!

Entrepreneur & Sales Career

Food for Thought:

If you’ve never “pitched” a plan for a movie to movie investors, agents, directors, producers and big-name talent, you haven’t a clue about a sale being “hard.”

Think about it. Everything you sell is a defined product or service loaded with bells and whistles (or sometimes, empathy, sometimes good cheer, sometimes fear or apprehension), but always it is defined by size, shape, contents, features, performance, longevity, even expectation.

But until a movie is made, completely finished and ready for release, it is in constant flux… changing itself–it’s characteristics–right up until the very split second it has been filmed and is finally edited.

An actor’s unique facial expression or voice inflection has sometimes changed an entire scene on the spot. Sometimes 100’s of little changes are made during production of the end product even after being long-ago-sold-to-investors!

Try to imagine integrating this flexibility dynamic into a any object or service you represent.

The only exceptions that come to mind are those rare occasions when, for example, a surgeon being part way into an operation discovers some previously undetected issue that needs to be addressed along the way to completing the planned surgery…. or perhaps a builder following an architectural blueprint discovers the makings of a troublesome sinkhole where all or part of the structure is planned.

Consider for just a minute how many times a situation like those noted actually cross your path as a business owner or sales rep. Probably few if any, and hopefully never.

But a movie? A movie must first be sold to prospective participants and prospective investors… sometimes in that order, sometimes in reverse order, and sometimes even at the same time!

So every time you’re tempted to think you’re the original whizkid of the sales world (or, conversely, the all-time sales disaster), take a second look in the mirror!

Consider what it would be like if your product or service was changing literally every minute of every day in an effort to be constantly improved, energized, provocative, enticing… right up until the last second of purchase… and even then, often beyond purchase to the moment of consumption.

Thought about all that?

Okay, so now return to what you’re selling with newfound appreciation that the only sales problem you may truly have is learning how to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. . . 

Customers–after all is said and done– are truly only looking for someone they feel they can trust and someone who exhibits the capabilities that warrant that trust. The more specialized and complex a product or service, the more important are these criteria.

Sales Workshops That Sell

Call Hal:     1.931.854.0474