Starting a new business venture is always a lot of work. People who have never launched a business underestimate the amount of time, money and stress that is involved (not to mention the lost sleep). So then you would ask yourself why I would go down this direction again. Well, the reality is that the challenge is energizing. There is an enormous feeling of accomplishment when you are able to get something off of the ground and make it successful.

So when I was presented with the opportunity to get involved with John Kennedy who has been teaching neuroplasticity for the last 10 years and developed a system called “Combat Brain Training” I was intrigued. I looked into the system, went thru a few demonstrations of the system, and did the research to see whether I felt it was a viable business model. Having been involved in the brain and concussion space since I founded Sports Brain in 2011, I have been looking for a way to continue that involvement within an environment that focuses of training and elevating the performance for so many distinct types of people and organizations.

We are preparing to run our first certification sessions in June and that will allow us to have people out in the community training a whole array of individuals who could benefit from improved neuroplasticity training.

While our Power Brain system can work for anyone, we intend to focus our efforts on five primary markets:

• Sports
• Education
• Business
• Military
• Medical

I will definitely keep you updated as we fine tune the concept and role out the services in different markets. I hope that you will contact us if you have interest in learning more about our certification process or if you have a desire to receive Power Brain Training for yourself, your children, business partners, clients or organization’s board.

Though the game itself was not starting until after 7 p.m., Wrigley Field was still hopping at 7:30 a.m. when the Crain’s breakfast crowd poured into the venue to listen to the insight from Ryne Sandburg and Cubs executive Crane Kenney.

It was great to see Crane again as we used to play golf together during our law school days. I was very interested to hear his insight into the renovation process and his remarks did not disappoint.

While most in the audience were interested to hear Ryne’s words, I always like hearing the business perspectives behind the sports success. Ryne spoke about how much more space and how many more staff people the Cubs have now since the Ricketts family took over the operations. The numbers are staggering.

Crane talked about how he evaluated other iconic sports and entertainment venues around the country and even overseas as he started the process of determining how to best make the renovations for Wrigley. Of particular interest was how the focus groups responded to alterations to various design elements. There was never any question that the marquee would not go away, the bleachers would remain and the scoreboard would stay in place. But Crane did not expect the big uproar over the the bathroom renovations, especially when there was a discussion about possibly removing the troughs from the men’s room.

The Ricketts family has taken over a lot of real estate in the area and has transformed the neighborhood into an entertainment complex that provides many opportunities for the fans. One of the biggest changes was the array of private clubs housed within Wrigley that can provide a variety of upscale options for those entertaining at the game.

Some beautiful, if pricy, options, give terrific sight lines into Wrigley while still allowing a lot of comfort, food and drink.

As I say every time I leave a sports venue, I am amazed at the enormous operational infrastructure that it takes to pull off a sporting event. Fans take so much for granted and gripe up a storm if something does not go smoothly, but there are SO MANY moving parts and the coordination that it takes to create the comfortable environment is impressive.

JT Foxx held his MegaBranding event in Chicago on April 3, 2019.  Until about a year ago, I had never heard of JT Foxx.  I attended one of his free events in Chicago last summer and got thrown into a whole new world. JT bills himself as The World’s #1 Wealth Coach.”  Though he comes across as cocky and harsh, he has proven very successful and continues to create new businesses with his tireless energy. 

I attended a 2^nd event in Chicago last fall and then attended the week long MegaSuccess program in Anaheim in November 2018.  That event really opened my eyes as to JT’s power.  Some of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, but he sets his vision and does everything that is needed to make that a reality.

Though he can be harsh on some of the attendees that he coaches in front of the group, there can be no doubt about his desire to help people improve.   His work schedule is daunting, and you only have to look at his travel schedule to be impressed by how he is able to maintain that energy throughout.  

JT presents all around the world and hosts many of his events and training without charge.  Obviously, he sells some of his coaching services and online programs, but the value that he delivers is significant. 

Today’s session focused on branding.  JT is a huge proponent of celebrity branding and the power that you get by having photographs taken with celebrities.  This type of branding by association is something that many large corporations use to help brand their own products.

Another of JT’s ongoing mantras is the importance of coaching.  JT personally has 8 coaches and draws different value from each of them.  He talks about the importance of overcoming fear and that it typically takes each person five times of doing one task before they overcome that fear.

JT walked us through many of the elements which are important in the branding process.  Some of these learning nuggets included the types of branding

• Personal Branding
• Company Branding
• Results Branding
• Mission Branding
• Legacy Branding
• Exclusivity Branding
• Bonus based Branding

The other set of items that was particularly interesting was the way that JT spoke about the steps that are needed to establish stronger credibility:

• Speaking
• Media
• Testimonials
• Branding by Association

JT typically has Brent Turley open up his presentations and Brent does a terrific job setting the tone and telling the stories of his tennis playing children and their athletic scholarships.  Brent tells the stories of capitalizing on chances for his kids to hit with Jose Higeras, Roger Federer’s coach, and with Chris Evert.  But embedded in these tales are the concepts of perseverance, taking risks, moving quickly and taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

JT put together a 30-day program to help people accelerate their branding strategies.  The point of the program is to go through one element each day, for 30 days. And then repeat it two more times for a total of 90 days.  Reinforcing the strategies in this way will allow you to truly embed the strategies in your daily consciousness.

At the end of the day, JT gave some very helpful insight about how you can gain additional credibility by writing a book.   JT’s process guides you through the steps in creating an E-book that can reach high levels on Amazon.  Certainly, having a bestseller” would add to your credibility and enhance your personal branding.

Having now attended my 4^th event of JT Foxx, there can also be no doubt that he has some tremendous ideas and helps many people improve their lives.  He does it in a very different way to Tony Robbins, but the impact is very real. 

As a business professional who has worked in the areas of law, sports, real estate, finance and entrepreneurship, communication is the lifeblood of everything that I do.  Keeping clients up to date, keeping business associates and partners connected to the deal and making sure that vendors perform their services on time all require extensive communication.  Networking to find more business and reaching out to prospects require coordinated communication.

People spend much of their day on email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media.  When they are not on social media, they are busy talking on their phone or sending text messages.

So you would think with all of this experience and all of this practice that we would be good communicators.  Unfortunately, especially for those of us that like to communicate, this is not true.  Most people are very poor communicators, or at minimum, they are reluctant communicators.

When I leave someone a voicemail, send an email or send a text message, I do expect a response.  I am not talking about cold calls or sales calls.  I am talking about calls and messages to friends, business colleagues, vendors and even to businesses from whom I am trying to purchase products/services.

It continually shocks me that I can send an email inquiry to a business about a product or service that I need and not receive a response.  I am not talking about an autoresponder.  I am talking about a legitimate response.  Some companies have enough systems in place that their autoresponders can basically deal with the inquiry, but in the last several months I have seen small businesses not even bother to answer an email inquiry for two weeks.  REALLY?  Fourteen days?  I don’t think that these businesses are so flooded with inquiries or work that they don’t need to bother.

Yet the business side probably bothers me less than the personal side.  If you don’t respond to clients, customers and employees, sooner or later (and probably sooner), your business is going to struggle.

But when a friend contacts me, I may not always respond immediately, but I always respond.  I cannot imagine not responding.  I do my very best to respond to all of it within 24 hours.  I don’t always live up to that ideal, but it is extremely rare for an email or text to go unanswered beyond that time. Phone calls sometimes can take longer to coordinate or schedule or fit in between other things.  But I know that if I am not going to be able to phone, that I should at minimum, get a text message or email to let the person know that they haven’t been forgotten. 

So what is the solution? I honestly don’t know.  I am not looking to cut off all relationships from the communication slackers.  But it does give me a pause for concern about engaging in any business with these people and on the personal side it definitely impacts how close I feel to someone.  If you can’t even be bother to return a call, email or text, then how badly do you really want me in your life?  The answer? Not much at all.

So I have made a decision to focus more of my time and effort on those who respond.  I am tired of chasing people (work and personal).

Just remember, I am here for you and I will still be your friend.  But I am done chasing.

Fantastic event tonight at the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Chicago Chapter “Welcome to the City” event at Compass Bar.

The turnout involved over 100 young Badgers congregating for the chance to networking and meet new people in the city and be prepared to kickoff the Badgers’ football season Friday night against Western Kentucky at Camp Randall Stadium.

I always love seeing the energy of a new group of graduates as they flood the city and head into an exciting time in their life. Sure, we all know that the reality of work life will hit them soon, but that passion and energy are enough to keep them on target and focused on their future. And groups like the WAA give them a terrific base of support for people that they can reach out to for mentorship, networking and business relationships, comfortable in the knowledge that as fellow Badgers, we always have your back.

#OnWisconsin #Badgers #FootballSeasonIsHere