This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Aspen Institute’s forum entitled: “The Future of College Sports: The Government’s Role in Athlete’s Pay.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert and a wide variety of stakeholders were present. The challenge for Emmert is the rapidly decreasing strength of the NCAA and the speed at which the NCAA’s credibility is evaporating.

You can read the full coverage that I wrote for the Sports Philanthropy Network here:

NCAA Under Full Attack at Aspen Institute Forum

JT Foxx held his MegaSpeaker series in Chicago this week. 

JT Foxx bills himself as the World’s #1 Wealth Coach. 

I first went to one of his events about 15 months ago.  At the outset he can come across as arrogant and condescending.  After you have a chance to listen to him for several hours and hear the way he engages with participants and hear from those that have attended multiple events, you realize how much depth there is to his systems. 

He has built a terrific team led by Francie Baldwin and by Brent Turley.  Brent always opens for him, much in the way that Joseph McClendon frequently opens for Tony Robbins.  He bills his presentations as a way to help people get speaking opportunities, but the reality is that the events are so much more.  He helps them focus on getting a mentor, branding and being decisive in their decision making as a way to get better results in their business. 

If you have a chance to attend one of his events, you can feel the energy and passion he has.  Despite his critics, he is an extremely hard worker and travels around the world speaking and putting on events.  Typically over 320 days per year!! His upcoming MegaSpeaker event has 2000-3000 people in Anaheim and attracts high level entrepreneurs from across the globe.  If you can handle a bit of the schtick, you might get a lot of benefit out of it.

Here are just a few of the highlights. If you want more details, please let me know and I am happy to share more information with you.

• Make Quick Decisions. One of JT’s ongoing themes, is the importance of making quick decisions.  Brent Turley focused on the speed of the decision and making sure you satisfy one the 3 reasons people buy: 1) to make their life easier; 2) make life more convenient; or 3) a need.  When you are trying to make a decision, you should write down:
  • Best case scenario
  • Worst case scenario
  • Most realistic scenario (usually somewhere in between)
  • Then most importantly, make a decision within 5 seconds, otherwise you over-rationalize the decision.
• Keep your word. To me, one of the most interest facts in the entire presentation, was the fact that 1531 people signed up for the free one day event.  Of those, only 112 people showed up.  This speaks to a few facts: 1) not charging makes it very difficult to determine how any people will come;  2) people really do not live up to their commitments.
• 5 Steps to Success
  • Step 1—Maximize Your Strengths
  • Step 2—Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths
  • Step 3—Mental Toughness which is the ability to tune out liefes bs and go out there and do your thing
  • Step 4—Learn from your failures, be bothered by them and most important never repeat them
  • Step 5—Replace Yourself and Stop Working in Your Business but Work On. Build an organization
    • Recognize if it is just you, you can never effectively increase your prices.
• The importance of note-taking.  He has never seen a successful person that does not take notes. Very few people can remember everything. He also finds it disrespectful if you are not listening to what is going on.  The other occurrence  is that people who don’t take notes often say they didn’t learn anything
• Big 5 traits.
  • Persistance
  • Work Ethic
  • Commitment
  • Loyalty
  • Attitude
• Making Everybody Happy.
  • 25% of the people like you
  • 25% are looking for a way not to like you
  • 25% don’t like you but are looking for a way to like you
  • 25% will never like you no matter what
• Objections
  • Bring them up early. If you know people will find some objection to you or your service, bring it up early and overcome it.  This takes the air out of the objection and allows you to position yourself as having been up front.
• SELLING THE VISION
  • Pitch the WHY
  • Sell the WHAT
  • Close the HOW
  • Use the “imagine” close