Business Coaching

When you hear “Disney” what do you think of?

If you’re like most of the people on the face of the earth, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Walt Disney World, Snow White, Cinderella and the rest probably come to mind.

But if you’re one of the people in China who study at Disney English or an executive who has been trained at Disney Institute, you may have a different idea.

Yes, Disney, one of the biggest and most successful companies in the world has a lot more irons in the fire than one might think.

They don’t only sell movies, toys and games. They are now in the business of teaching and training.

Today, there are more than 20 Disney English schools in China. Disney has received a lot of criticism since opening the first school early in 2008 because, to many, these schools are simply an obvious attempt from Disney to market their products to Chinese youth.

Indeed, the names of some of the rooms in the “flagship” school make that pretty obvious.

Students may learn while enjoying the Snow White Room, the Peter Pan Room or even the Toy Story Room, among others.

According to Disney executives, the schools are just an attempt to make it easier for Chinese Children to learn English. But if they also learn a little bit about “The Lion King” along the way, it certainly can’t hurt Disney.

Meanwhile, back on American shores, the Disney Institute is a completely different kind of school.

The Institute is really an executive training school where executives from any type of business can come and learn how to become a better executive and leader.

The Disney Institute has been around since 1986, and uses the company’s theme parks as a “living laboratory” to teach executives the “Disney” ideal of business building.

It’s hard to argue with a company that has been around for so long and remains one of the most powerful entities in the corporate world. Obviously Disney is doing something right and the Institute is a great way to teach other companies that same mindset.

It’s also a great way to develop a corporate symbiosis between the company and the people who attend.

So what are the Disney English Center and the Disney Institute?

If you look closely enough you’ll see they are terrific marketing tools for Disney’s bigger brands.

In many ways they are loss leaders that aren’t necessarily designed to make money for the company, but to generate leads that will pay a massive return on investment in the future.

This couldn’t be clearer, especially in regard to the English Center, as Disney teaches millions of Chinese to speak English by quoting “The Little Mermaid.”

To create a new idea of your life, a life where you can have ALL that you dream of, not just some little bits of happiness or balance, you’ve got to get the right mindset.

I’ve found there are steps that can help you get your mind right in creating the life you’ve always dreamed of.

You’ve got to consider your life in a positive frame of mind so begin by creating a list of affirmations starting with “I AM”. Affirm things like, I am a leader, I am rich, I am talented, etc. State these affirmations in the positive and present tense out loud every single day.

Secondly, create a dream chart. Find about two dozen magazines full of words and pictures for your new reality. Take several hours and cut out everything in those magazines that match what you want out of life, then glue them to a big sheet of cardboard and put it somewhere where you can see it every morning.

Finally, invest 20 minutes by yourself every single morning visualizing your new reality. Simply close your eyes and focus on everything you’ve pictured in your new reality.

Remember, you are creating a new you and if you’re becoming someone different, you will do things differently.

Since you can only be who you are, you have to change who you are to do things differently.

Your subconscious mind cannot determine the difference between dreams and reality, so feed it dreams often and make that your reality.

Follow these steps, create a bigger picture and then use these techniques to impress this picture on your subconscious.

The rest will take care of itself.

As you change who you are, you’ll change what you do and thus you’ll change what you have. Your new reality will unfold right before your eyes.

Did you read a newspaper this morning?

Now quickly, how many ads do you recall right now?

Consider this story.

An advertising agency has scheduled a team meeting. As the team filed into the seminar room they were all given a copy of that morning’s paper.

While they were waiting, most of them read it.

Of 100 ad agency people, only three remembered an advertisement. And that was within half-an-hour of reading the paper!

Of those three, only one was thinking about taking any action. She was studying a furniture sale ad — because she was planning to buy some furniture. The ad had not persuaded her to buy furniture, since she was already in the market, so what good did it really do?

It makes you wonder if any of the agency’s work was in that paper. It is also a clear example of why certain ads don’t work.

Ask yourself, do your ads stand out?

Are they noticed and remembered?

Do they stir people to action?

Do they drive people to buy from you?

Or when potential customers come to your ad do they simply turn the page?

In many respects, advertisers are the world’s greatest contributors to “charity”.

Lord Lever of Lever & Kitchen, which is now Unilever, once said he knew only half of his advertising worked, but he didn’t know which half.

This statement has also been attributed to John Wanamaker and Henry Ford, but whoever said it originally, the point is clear, advertising can be a drain on resources if you don’t have a focus on who you want to reach and how you are going to reach them.

Most advertisers aren’t even doing as well as half, because they are more concerned with winning awards than generating customers.

Nobody can be perfect with their marketing all the time, but by testing and measuring the response to your advertising you’ll soon know which ads are working, and which are merely a donation to the medium which you’re using.

The most common complaint we get today as Business Coaches to small to medium business owners is that our clients can’t compete with the big guys on price.

The perception in the market place is that people are shopping on price alone. The only reason your customer asks the price up front is because that is what we as business owners have trained them to do.

How many times have you gone into a business not really knowing what model, style, color or features you were looking for and purely asked for the price?

When you did, did the sales person come back with “that is $29.95″ or did they ask you some questions about what you were looking to use the product/service for?

What if the sales person simply said to you when you inquired about price, “just so I can help you best is it OK if I ask you a couple of questions about the kettle you are looking for?” Would you have answered yes? My bet is that the answer would have most definitely been yes!

From these questions the customer gets the idea that the sales person is genuinely interested in their needs and the salesperson is able to offer options about what is most suitable for their needs. It’s a win-win and the price is negated.

It is now just a matter of asking the customer to buy.

One of the top motivational speakers in the world will be offering his wisdom as Les Brown will appear Saturday, August 19, 2011 at the Business Excellence Forum at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida.

Brown’s life story is amazing. As a baby, he was abandoned by his mother. He and his twin brother were adopted when they were six weeks old, but the challenges didn’t stop there.

He was labeled a slow learner and developmentally challenged until a former teacher swayed him to expand his mind and talents beyond the expectation of others.

This growth and self-education helped him find the greatness that was inside. He went from a disc jockey to community leader to a political commentator and then a three-term state legislator. His greatest talent and impact has come as a keynote speaker and trainer. He is also the author of the best- selling books It’s Not Over Until You Win and Live Your Dreams.

There aren’t many speakers who can deliver the message Brown does so eloquently, with passion. For anyone who wants to reach their full potential, seeing Les Brown on Saturday August 20 at the Business Excellence Forum is a great way to start.

The work ActionCOACH Business Coaches do is basically helping local communities by making small businesses profitable.

Taking the principles of business coaching a bit further, ActionCOACH’s Coaching for a Cause program is a global initiative that focuses on spreading the principles of gratitude and abundance by applying systems used by “for-profit” companies to the non-profit and charitable world.

Through Coaching for a Cause, ActionCOACH business coaches teach charitable organizations how to operate like businesses.

They do this by building systems and implementing them. In this way, non-profits learn how to make the most of each and every contribution they receive.

Last year the program helped increase donations to non-profits and participating charities by more than $3 million.

This year, we expect to teach even more non-profits how to be successful.

Click on the link to see how Coaching for a Cause works and how it has created success for participating organizations.

The Business Excellence Forum will feature the Business Excellence Awards Ceremony, which will honor some of the finest companies and entrepreneurs in the world of small business. The ceremony will take place Saturday August 20.

Awards will be given in 19 categories ranging from Most Innovative Company to Entrepreneur of the Year.

If you know a business that has done a terrific job in 2010,  nominate them as soon as you can.

Just click here and follow the instructions and nominate your business.

The Business Excellence Forum will take place at the world famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida. The Forum will be held on August 19 and 20 and it promises to be one of the most exciting global initiatives ActionCOACH has taken on.

The Business Excellence Forum will be a great way for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to learn from and network with, successful business people in one of the most beautiful hotels in the world.

On Saturday August 20, the Business Excellence Awards Ceremony will take place. This ceremony will honor some of the best companies and entrepreneurs in the world of small business today.

The Business Excellence Forum promises to be an outstanding event for any small business owner, entrepreneur or Business Coach.

Indeed, anyone who is involved in a small business will get tremendous value from the training, workshops and speakers scheduled for this event.

For more information on the 2011 Business Excellence Forum, just click here.

We believe in a culture of abundance and results at ActionCOACH, which are two reasons we celebrate the hard work all of our business coaches do with regional conferences and awards.

At our latest EMEA Conference, which took place at the Sheraton Skyline in London, England, dozens of coaches were honored with awards signifying their achievements throughout 2010.

The award winners were:

Coach of the Year: Shweta Jhajharia

Rookie Coach of the Year: Kent Rhodes

Most Improved Coach: John Cottrell

Best Client Results: Neale Lewis

Best Awarded Client: Parag Prasad

Best Client Retention: Peter Boolkah

ProfitCLUB Award: Stuart Johnson

ActionCLUB Award: Rene de Murard

GrowthCLUB Award: Pascale Joly

Coaches’ Choice ActionCOACH: Hayley Erner

Coaches’ Choice AbundanceCOACH: Kevin Stansfield

Coaches’ Choice SeminarCOACH: Jas Darar

Coaches’ Choice NetworkCOACH: Stuart Johnson

Coaches’ Choice BrandCOACH: Eric Hilario

Coaches’ Choice MarketingCOACH: Gil Devlin

Coaches’ Choice SalesCOACH: Shweta Jhajharia

Coaches’ Choice TeamCOACH: Tim Rylatt

Coaches’ Choice Forum Poster of the Year: Christina Jackson

ActionMAN Awards:
Andrew Kureishy
Stephen Unwin
Mike McGuire
Tony Hoskins
Richard Cullen
Derek O’Dwyer
Simon Williams
Nigel Jew
Graham Corrigan
Roger Pemberton
Humphrey Sherwood
Andy Sleet
Ryan Veal
Gary Mullins

Congratulations to all the winners and we are looking forward to what each and every one of you accomplish in 2011.

ActionCOACH has made its name in the business coaching industry by teaching businesses to be profitable.

With that in mind we have produced our new “5 Ways” app for the iPhone.

There are “5 Ways” any business can become profitable, and when you understand how each “way” drives profit, you are setting yourself up for incredible success.

With the “5 Ways” app, you can see how to multiply profits in your business by increasing each of the “5 Ways” incrementally.

And since you can use the app whenever you need to, you’ll never have to make a decision without knowing your numbers again.

The “5 Ways” is one of the most important things ActionCOACH teaches its clients, so don’t miss out on this app for your iPhone any longer.