You’ve been #1 in your industry for a long time.   How have you sustained your growth?  My formula to success -- You must deliver tremendous value.    The content must be clear and hard hitting.    The application of this new business intelligence must be easy to integrate – so as to – win the customer experience and win gains in market share.

What is the key to Winning in the most difficult economy of all time?    For PLAYMAKER’s,   we know that 95% of people quit when the going gets tough.    So the opportunity right now is extraordinary.   This is a time to really win big.   It’s all about the mindset of a champion.

What do you see as the biggest dangers companies face right now?     Denial.   Head in sand basically.   When you don’t focus,  when you are not clear in your intent,  when you do not measure results and stretch towards meaningful milestones,  you start creating a flurry of ACTIVITY but no PRODUCTIVITY.  

It’s almost 2012.   Where do companies focus to be #1?  The #1 resource is no longer just product, positioning and market demand.    The #1 resource is people – passion, innovation, energy and ideas leveraged across platforms to dominate markets and win the customer experience.  The new word for this is business intelligence.   Everyone must bring their BIG GAME to win.

What is the key to winning market share now?  It starts with an attitude, a bravado, a totally focused intent on winning and owning that number #1 spot.    I call it unleashing the Passion of The Playmaker.    You must live it.  You must be it.  Doing your job well and nothing more is not enough.  It’s the new ideas that will change everything.    The enthusiasm brings this intelligence to the surface.

Our Team is staged for greatness…are you willing to tailor your presentation? Every presentation is tailored that’s why it’s essential that we invest the time to prepare.   This discovery is essential to craft the message that transforms thinking.   This is key to get from the sideline to the playing field.

What about travel arrangements? I have staff that handles that.  We fly Southwest airlines. And I’m not a limo guy.   I a Hertz guy,   plus I don’t fit in a limo.   It’s a NFL lineman thing.  

What about the members of our audience who are not really into sports? Every member of your audience is into outperforming the competition.   That’s what this is about – serious business.  Everyone is looking for new ways to increase their reach, improve their sales and enhance their customer experience. They value the insider trade secrets from a world class competitor and apply this business intelligence.   This will give them the winning edge.   I assure you this is quite valuable to them.

What’s the biggest mistake business is making today? Weak goals.   Success measured as incremental growth over last year’s performance equal economic death over time.   The only true measure of success is winning gains in market share.  It’s a big mistake to play small.   It’s a big mistake to play safe.   I don’t get it.   For me,  it’s all out or nothing.

How does a company gain massive leverage when the customers have so many choices?  Today, it’s no longer about – the sale.  You must win the experience.  You must create the compelling conversation.  You must engage the community and achieve the sacred viral buzz.   The days of the order-taker are over.

Do you do more than just keynotes?   75% of my time is spent in consulting assignments.   Clients are looking for long term sustained results and they want to get there fast.   I’ve been doing this successfully for 25 years and still in growth mode.    We focus on:  team building, communication and leadership on the people side.    On the product side we focus on:  re-imaging brand, new marketing platforms and re-inventing the story.

How can a sales professional get even bigger and move even faster right now in customer acquisition?   The social media play is huge. I’ve never seen anything this big and this easy to deploy.   We’ve helped many clients see their business differently.   We’ve helped many clients tell a bigger story.  This is the key to customer acquisition.

What is the greatest risk for today’s competitors?    Seeking security and hoping for survival mentality.    I will say it again,  this is no time to be conservative. The move to market domination is happening now – right in the middle of the most grueling global economy of all time.

How did you get started in this business?    I doubled majored in economics and communication at Stanford but I was most fascinated by technology.     Silicon Valley was happening all around me.  I left Stanford obsessed with outperforming the competition.  The NFL was a launching point.   Delivering core business intelligence to the Fortune 500 and driving that transformation was next.

What are your thoughts about the tough market conditions? Most people talking about burn out haven’t been lit yet.    Winning is a big commitment.   It’s a courageous journey.   It requires sacrifice, dedication and perseverance.     You also must have a firm resolve, an unwavering belief to get through the tough times.   Tough times…point of view,  basically.

How do you relate to women in the audience? The message and learning is directed towards PLAYMAKERS, individuals that must win at the highest level possible.    Women totally get and engage in this important conversation.     Remember this is not about football – it’s about people, passion and dreams.    The content is rock solid.  The solutions work.   The impact is immediate and women are very serious about getting immediate results.   They want to be the best and are willing to do whatever it takes to win.

Ok,  we’ve got to ask about your 8 children?   Tammy and I get asked that question a lot.     We enjoy the energy, excitement and yes even the drama of 10 dynamic personalities living in the same space.   Harmony, community and understanding is only possible with a shared vision, communication system and structure that pulls everyone together.   Everyone must contribute.  Everyone must give and share.  Everyone must energize and inspire.  If not, it unravels very fast.    That’s the short story.   And you learn fast.  The $80 at McDonalds lesson:   cook good food at home.  The $150 movie lesson:   invest in a home theater.   The 12 cell phones lesson:  purchase the unlimited family plan.   Having 5 teenagers in the house at the same time would have been mind-blowing for some but we grew up in the 70’s;   so no big deal. Chaos… that’s another…point of view.

How to you balance the hectic pace of your life? Once you get that there is a place that exists way past overwhelm and exhaustion, things start to smooth out. The pace is remarkable.    The energy it requires is infinite. Raising 8 children is like sweeping back the ocean with a broom. A good night sleep is a dream come true.

Tell us about your production company?    The new art of war is maximizing your reach using the digital platform (web, social media).  We have a very talented team of creative geniuses that help provide those services to our clients that must win now.   I’m all about leveraging the digital platform.  In 1995 I was the creative developer for digital content for ABC Sports/Espn.   I created the first online conversation,  communicated through their website.    We had 2,000,000 hits the first day.   It was the first blogging ever in the professional sports entertainment space.

Your football career took a very serious $82 Million turn.  Tell us about that?  Helping craft the NFL Collecting Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in 1982 & 1987 was a massive commitment. I had to drop out of my pursuits at Harvard Business School. This round of negotiations was going to shape the next 20 years of football and finally open up free agency and increase medical benefits. What was at stake at the time was the new $82 Million dollar TV contract and a new future that the ball players are enjoying today. 

So you helped build out the long term growth strategy of the league and NFL Players,   what was your next big breakthrough after this?  Well the NFL asked me to look at their business model.     It was broken.     They only sold 17 days a year.    I didn’t get that.    There was so much more to sell at the time they didn’t see beyond corporate signage, TV revenues, luxury boxes and selling out parking, seats and concessions. They are still uncovering the NFL fan experience and learning new ways to sell.   They are stuck seeing a fan vs. a portal.

How did they respond to that? Not well. They couldn’t see it until fantasy football,  a multi-Billion dollar industry slipped right out from underneath them.    They missed an opportunity.  Companies hire me to identify the opportunities and bring them to market.    

How has the game of sales changed? It’s all about competition… as in outperforming the competition.    Now with new marketing and new reach of social media, it’s never been easier to acquire your competitions customer base.    And of course they can raid yours as well.     Margins are shrinking. Costs are increasing.  The new competitive advantages lie with your people.   Its ideas.  It’s creativity.   It’s seeing things differently.

So give us an example of a clear shift in thinking you take your clients through? Ok,  here’s a great example,  take the airlines.     I mean…once you’ve sold a seat how can you make more money?  This was the box they were stuck in.     Now enter new ideas --  they sell preferred seating,  preferred check in,   additional baggage,   change ticket fees,   affinity credit cards,  and some airlines even sell  “the invisible”;   as in you book a flight,  you change it,  you don’t fly,  they keep the money if you don’t use it.    Every company and sales person has the same power and potential to tap into the deep riches harbored as intelligence.

Tell me more about the Sole Source position in the market?    You must be the Sole Source in the market to Win.    That makes you distinct, plus it takes you out of the price competition box.   When you are distinct you can charge whatever the market will allow.  That’s strong.   

Ok,  besides the pump,  the excitement and the commitment.  What else do I need to Win?

You need THE BIG IDEA, which is basically that product, service, experience or conversation that customers are dying for but no one is delivery.   When you solve a tremendous unmet need you create instant wealth.   It’s an IDEA. 

Why are you different from other motivational speakers? Most motivational speakers are success reporters,   they’ve developed a model based on other people’s success.      They have not lived it.  They have not achieved it.   Let’s put it this way,  I would not want to be prepared for the brutal sales war by theory or a book writer.   It’s fierce out there -- the competition does care or not whether your kids eat or have a roof over their heads.

What new information do you bring to the table that makes you the best of the best? Listen we are in serious eat what you kill times,  if you know what I mean. You want to hear from a champion, an expert, someone who has achieved great success and overcome all  adversity.     That’s who you listen to.   That’s who I listen to.   The market is staging for another trillion dollar collapse that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park.  It’s a very very serious time.     And with the new social media,   anyone can walk in and take ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS with them.     Look at all the networks – they’re collapsing.    Blockbuster,  Books stores are gone.   CD’s are dying if not dead.   Desktop computers are almost done.      This devastation creates amazing new opportunities that require new thinking.   It’s almost too big to image.  It’s time to bring it – in a big way.

You seem to be totally focused on impact and results,  tell us more?   I put myself in the sales professional shoes.    They have made an investment to hear me share what are basically insider trade secrets to help them grow business now.     They want big results.  They want big returns on their time spent.      I’m the same way.   I don’t want to hear stories from a presenter.  I want solutions now.   I want hard hitting content that makes money today.  

You seem to focus a lot on winning the customer experience growing market share and increasing revenue.     Why do you spend so much time on these areas and particularly on the area of making money? Ultimately the bottom line results you want to generate is winning the life client relationship to win all their business,   and you also want to win all their social networks business.   The net result is three fold, (1) a growing business,  (2) totally loyal customers and (3) making more money.     And making money is a good thing.    This is a business.  This is not a volunteer club.  This is not a recovery center.   

You’ve seen audiences literally transform right in front of your eyes.   How is this possible?   

Sales professionals and leaders value content and solutions.   When they suddenly see, hear and experience the “new thinking” that instantly changes their outcomes – excitement and energy escalate.      Winners and Champion’s do think differently.  They see opportunity.  They see leverage.  They see new ways to tell the story,  they learn new ways to engage the customer.   These secrets have changed outcomes, altered lifestyles and created great wealth.

Tell us more about how this?   It’s all a mindset.  There are 3 key passages the audience goes through,  (1)  they are inspired because they see a new way to win big  (2)  they have a clear strategy to execute as soon as they walk out the door  (3) they are super charged with a new urgency,  as they step into the reality that the competition is currently planning to take ALL their customers,  clients and guests.     In short it’s a wake-up call.   The good news is – they can acquire all the competitions clients as well.

You mention the BIG OBSTACLE that operates inside companies that undermines the vision, the   passion and the creation.    Please expand on that?    When you place a team of people under stress and the voice of leadership is changing and the vision is blurred – a secret society emerges. The SECRET SOCIETY will sabotage growth, crush new thinking and cause all sorts of breakdowns.

How do you handle that?    I locate it.   I reveal the cancer.  I create an opening for a new more powerful possibility that alters the view of the future forever.   The infection stops spreading and new life begins.  It sound’s easy but it’s not.   You can’t really introduce new information if you cannot crack the code of the SECRET SOCIETY.    I can.   You can’t cure the cancer if it’s spread like spaghetti,  unless you know the secret to radically changing the entire environment.     I’m skilled at doing that.   I can cure organizational cancer.   Actually I create the opening for the cancer to be cured.    The new agreement and new commitment cures the cancer.