Know the rules of engagement if you are going to approach a CEO

Don't ASS-U-ME that the founder or CEO is a man.  More women are starting home-based startups and leading corporations because awareness is better that this an under-recognized issue.

Major accounts sales tip for selling to executives, particularly CEO

Sales to executives is a whole different kettle of fish:  THINK numbers if you're meeting/have audience with a CEO=Chief Executive Officer | Chairman of the Board + keep your meeting request including any PowerPoint presentations to 20 minutes with Q&A at the end = Practice practice practice doing your presentation in front of audience of colleagues who can constructively give feedback.  Even if you don't make it to Q&A you HAVE to ask PERMISSION to extend time allotment or reschedule to continue the conversation - that allows them the chance to absorb your initial presentation and come up with questions as it would apply to their company 

Always send a thank you note:  or two

1) Email recapping what you told them, any comments or feedback -- take a colleague or manager on the call (no more than one other for total of 2) to write notes and itemize NEXT ACTIONS by BOTH parties in the meeting (who agreed to do what) - reiterate what your next appointment will cover - ask for their input and edits or additions; 2) anyone else that may be needed to attend the meeting (i.e. Marketing Executive/Ops) to allow the CEO to get their input and evaluation extra set of eyes and ears and opportunity identifier.

2) send a handwritten card thank you note - it can be generic but better if you have cards printed with logo and your contact details - like a postcard or put in an envelope with a stamp and your own handwriting with Personal&Confidential on seal side.  Here, you make a social comment like - have a great vacation, day on the golf course, board meeting, union sit in - you get my point?

Before each meeting, you send an agenda beforehand, with time length beside it - to show that you are only going to take the 20 minutes allotted.  Ask for confirmation of agenda and whether they have anything to add, or people to add.  If they say they want to invite one of their executives, offer to send an email, coordinating event with the CEO copied in.  That is called leveraged selling in my book (don't know if there is such a term in sales?)

When you end the 2nd meeting with a more gelled action plan from both sides, again you follow up the meeting with notes, next steps, action owner, timeframe and again confirm the follow up timeline - 90 days on the third Friday in January, for example -- giving both parties plenty of time to gather needs or cultivate services or proposal with estimate, costs and timelines. Or topics that were tabled for the sake of time.

www.optioneerjm.com

Posted on Wordpress

(Backup) Strike when the iron’s hot! OR, be a freak of nature: unique and powerful

It is amazing how clarity 

bounces atcha when ur chilling and mind your own business.  Nestled warmly with my love and my sidekick, Buddy.

My own trials and tribulations more personalized I grapple with constantly.

What if my dad really was Elvis?

How differently life may have turned out, you’d think, eh?

Yet, that would mean no longer Canadian... not something I’d give up.

My mother could have been Grace Kelly

Dusting my shelves in my new studio (transferred basement space) I came across some great photos of my parents I have.  Whatever happened to the tradition of family portraits.  In a place of honour is one of myself and my three siblings.  Some things never change.  The only way we were able to have a family photos at weddings diminished, we had to think how we could solve the challenge to get all four of us together for a photo for my parents to commemorate their 25th Wedding Anniversary.

If Grace Kelly had instead married my father, my mother was who she was.

Being married to Elvis may have taken her away in a Catellac 

The meaning of life: now, that IS a beautiful thing

READ THIS FIRST

I even amazed myself ... reading this almost a year later.  Really crowning the website I did launch over a year ago [ www.graFX.online ] and left stagnant less the original gusto that comes when an idea bursts forward and fights to find solid ground.  A central repository of all my blogs, depending open my knowledge (typically business, sales or social media as @optioneerJM and its affiliate blogspot blog of the same name all under the social media persona I created in and around 2008 when a champion friend, mentor and cheerleader, Donna deMan pushed me off the cliff into the stratosphere online, starting on Linked In, then branching out to TWITTER where I was so thankfully introduced to a group of early adopters of social media with a lot of class, talent, skill and some sort of charm or charisma that people became drawn to:  those are still the forefathers.  Maybe I'll do a blog and ask people who I think impacted and guided me about remembering me (if) or what they remember most about me .... that would be fun {INSERT} imaginary virtual assistant who hussles off an email to me to serve as a reminder and then adds it to her notes to cover during our weekly phone call [not to mention quarterly luncheon to touch base personally and address anything more sensitive, needing more personal attention than day to day "STUFF".  

Well, I dreamed of writing and wishing about eventually being able to be paid for what I do, and I'm happy to say I like the direction this is going.  An assembly of blogs from an average, yet bright, confident yet sensitive business lady with a twist of this whirlpool of stuff may have some value.  Putting it under one umbrella:  www.graFX.online allows me to give it all under one setting.  

It is a hobby though.  Not an occupation, more like a preoccupation or passion that would be more inline with who I am, not who others want me to be or think they know me to be.  An honest reflection under one transparent crystal chandelier of my life.  

I think I really like the sweet spot that I may have found in THE PUBLISHER:  creative writings that would otherwise a) be lost after it was a fleeting idea or b) be stifled because they wouldn't land softly in the more tumultuous life I lead only a year later from when this blog was written.

I like to think I sounded optimistic and embracing the age on the farther side of 50 and coasting towards 60, amid big waves and whitecaps hitting us at this moment when everything is suppose to be rosy. 

 
After witnessing my own parents marriage of more than 50 years of togetherness [and other times of hellishness] and ending up with a partner in life, legally professed as husband, a father to one and a stepfather to a few, ending up after one failed marriage attempt renewed with optimism when we vowed to create a family among all four, equally treated with fairness.  Fast forward 11 years later:  it lived more like a mythical horror epic in the last 9 weeks.  We all discovered that Rob was a big piece of the glue that made us all stick.  And that is a beautiful thing. 

Millennial Mom Mutterings ....

Isn't life suppose to teach the parent a lesson so that they are able to head off their offspring to the same crumbling fait?

I say potatoe, you sound like potata.

I roll my eyes and you purse your lips, when you want to emphasize your point.

A very wise man (my father) often asked: "What's the payoff?"

With my dad, that was the clue  we were to shut up and really reflect on the question and be very sure from the curl in our toes before we would dare speak up!  Never mind answer the question.

Well, dad.  Rob was the pay off!

I never quite knew the answer when it came to Rob and you'd ask me those 12 or 13 years ago.  His daughter would be double the age now from when we first met.  Definitely, because of my dad, I had to have really opened my eyes into what I was getting myself into.

Fear:  that's natural,
so many would say ... even today
as a daughter embarks on a marriage
I hope her father will be asking her
from the beginning, these wise WISE
words:  

WHAT'S THE PAYOFF?

While I become weary of family dynamics that are far worse than I could imagine for myself now, nor anyone I know.

Try being the legally married spouse to a man whom I adore, and my one great love [that's the easy part].

Try that man's life probably saved because she was there, acted quickly upon by his spouse, in every form imaginable.  When speaking to the Chief Resident on the neurological team, who asked me to call him by his first name [ undisclosed to secure privacy ].  I was asking him a few questions, or many as I am oft to do, whether genetics, health of the patient or whatever is the main reason for Rob's remarkable recover?

Kind Chief Doctor Resident said that the quickness to reaction and the outstanding diagnosis of The South Campus, was likely a highly contributing factor to his amazing recovery.

What's the PAYOFF       in keeping me around?

For someone who is often considered arrogant or cocky, as you can imagine, the list may be very sparse.

To that I say:

I am not perfect
... it is not something i could promise now or even from our beginning

Sometimes I talk too much
... with only the kindest and heartfelt intensions

I don't like what you say
.... not because it is true is it?

If you like what I say
.... or do or buy or compliment anything and everything to do with you.

REMEMBER:  I like to keep my promises
...  which was a shortcoming of your father who just wanted to make you happy

If you asked your dad to take you to the moon, he would have
...  and that was one of his most redeeming qualities:  how he treated you!

Your dad wanted to give you a family
...  I was part of the package.  A mother figure is important to every girl's lives.

Perhaps by now you are stunned to discover there is no ranting or raving
.... why so?  Unless I feel beaten or put in my place?

The one important quality I share with you
... because I was once someone's "Daddy's Girl" who passed on 10 years ago

I lost my father, there is never an opportune time
... so maybe, just maybe, I can actually understand what you are going though.

EXCEPT, my father is gone ..... AND your father is healing.
... you know how he thinks you treat me, just be who that means.

words i try to live by

COMMENTS on the story: Virtue & Moir 2 play tribute 2 Gord Downey as a statement to Canada

The source of the HUFFPOST story: https://www.spot.im/s/00RMETHD2yGO

Oh heavenly devine angels to share an ode to Canadians so proud!

Thank you for this wonderful tribute

that shows our character as a nation

we stand together

one and all.

We unite together

across many divisive factors other geographies cannot comprehend

Being at peace with our neighbor,

reach out a hand if you feel it is needed.

The reaching hand of humanity, no divisive color or race or defining character

is allowed to belong

It is the faith of this one nation that seems to send a ray of hope

shining brightly from the inside

with pride [ not ego ] humanitarian peace and a kinder world

void of catastrophe or calamity or violence

With the unified strength and ability to reach out a hand to the world

as naturally as we've learned to live together.

In a peaceful, proud nation, of diverse peoples and bruised history

we will always stand together

when it is time to step up and say:

(NOT this country or that culture or some race)

ONE COUNTRY

Creating a future for our children and their children

to build upon the foundation of the strength

we've relied upon.

Not infallible, without human shame, and all other unimaginables

Yet that sense of optimism that joins us all

For all of US command!

xo Jeannette

2017 HEADLINE of my year: mental health MATTERS

My family would say that it usually comes from people behind me.

I posted the following on Facebook as is my latest habit.  If you want a peak glimpse of my journey when I log online:

1. Check email
2. Click on a link from SUBSCRIPTIONS 
3. Share that article on FACEBOOK
4. Make a comment, or more these days blog about the article on my social media channels, mostly Twitter and Facebook because all the other sites make it annoying and a hassle to do much.  Other than Google in a major way:  the best stuff I curate on G+
5. Copy and paste that post, especially if I've yawned on and on to any one of my blogs, where I think it fits the theme [ from ATTITUDE to GRATITUDE to PLATITUDES ] is the common thread.

My headline of the year was Mental Health and my purpose for 2018 will be to supply Mental Health education and awareness as best as I know possible: by leveraging my social media handle OptioneerJM​ to bring understanding to those that need enlightenment mostly, with help resources shares for those who think they may need help.

Call it a New Year's Resolution if you must.  For me it is a direction on a path I began about a year ago.  Some of the big disappointments from 2017 will be exorcised on my blogs (on meanderingsABOUT.blogspot.com or YUPPYdom.wordpress and POSTINGSfromtheEDGE.blogspot ) with the intention of bringing greater awareness to Mental Health and, in particular, the work place.

The story will be told in the not too distant future.  What lead me to this place.  What lead me to this start on this cause? To be shared, honestly and personally, my own rude awakening this past year, 2017, by golly:  at 56 years of young, I am just coming to terms with being bullied.

Bullying is a horrendous affliction.  I wrote about it and did a presentation/speech in Toastmasters International in Calgary at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce [ where our Pioneer Nooners tribe gathered, formed deep-rooted friendships in a distinguished circle of high achievers, dreamers, innovators and quality crew of misfits (nod to Steve Jobs) who wanted only to be better.  Not to settle for the status quo but to leap into the abyss of the black hole of fear.  We were all horrified at the thought of speaking in front of a group.  Many of us knew that in our careers (one architect of the firm that designed the now-beleaguered Calgary Saddledome went on to be our The Calgary Chamber of Commerce​ president the year after he joined.

An interesting behavior I was able to observe fairly closely, provide constructive criticism on his speeches within the same luncheon boardroom.  How lucky was I to be able to be surrounding by sucy magnificent people!!  All I had to do was join Toastmasters.  

Soooooooo, this list of the words of the year would be an awesome Table Topic at your next Toastmasters Meeting in Calgary, or anywhere else in the world for that matter!  

Here is the Table Topic:  for 2 minutes, tell us your WORD of the YEAR + why you chose it.  Avoid any ums, ahs, sooooooo's, you know.  Don't go over 2 minutes OR ELSE you will have a penalty (eliminated from winning by vote-using the various numbers and tools available on the web).  If you want to do a video ~ just reply and attach it; share it if you participate, or like, or on your first 2018 to do.  

Regardless of who you are, how you know me, what you do, your age, occupation or education:  say or video what your word of the day and why!

LINK to optioneerJM on Facebook (feel free to share with me on Twitter, InstaGram, Pinterest, G+ etc.)



There my journey comes to a halt or a pause.  I'll ask hubby if he's done gaming with the kids and can we please watch a movie ...... if he ignores me per usual, it is a complete halt, as I go on the offensive of getting my way.

Hubby and I with our latest toy: 1964 Ford Falcon Ranchero (nostalgia or what?)

Happy New Year's Eve 2017

Thank you for reading my blog.

Let's make 2018 an even better year!

xo Jeannette