A British Entrepreneur in America

Have been traveling again, so the blog suffers - still finishing the new site and hope to get this up very soon!

~Neil 

The success bug continues….I must welcome Brad Hermetet to the Franklin-Spirko sales team.  Brad started one week ago and after his first week of training from Crazy, he secured three appointments and closed his first deal today!  Amazing!

Now we should not really be surprised as Brad turned up to the interview with a presentation and a quota!  Put that together with Crazy's unique style of interviewing finishing with the words:

"It's real simple, you can either sell and hit your quota here, or not sell somewhere else"

…and you have a formula for success…or… 

Vintage words from a hugely successful sales guy turned even more successful Internet Marketing specialist!

I have today had what you could call a truly international lunch - yours truly from London England, with a Vietnamese lunch guest, in a Afghanistan restaurant, being served by a Turkish waitress and in Frisco, Texas!

~Neil 

Its been a record breaking week for staffing companies C-People, Dataworkforce and for Franklin-Spirko  I also want to acknowledge the successes of the people who make it happen! 

I partnered with Cary Tobolka to form C-People here in Dallas and Cary quickly added Scott Higby to the leadership team and this team has led to an almost vertical growth line.  James Clarence Grimes aka the 'Alabama assassin', has produced another record month and he is certain to smash his target this year, that is if Cary and he can stop talking long enough to make it happen!  Cary is famous for his stories, which he could turn into an award winning book or six and a movie - the famous 'Tales of Tobolka' cover every subject known to mankind and a few that are not!

The Dataworkforce team have produced exceptional results this week and I must firstly credit long serving (or suffering as she would say) VP and GM, Nadene Chaplin, who almost single handedly implemented a new CRM platform.  Van Phan aka 'The Black Widow', along with Ale Sanchez have completed what must be the fastest placement I have ever witnessed - taking a fresh requirement and moving through pre-screening, phone and face-to-face interviews and a start in record time - all done while traveling and solid support coming from David Solkhon and his team.

At Franklin-Spirko, we have sold a record number of DVDs featuring Val Riazanov, this time selling the first in the Russian health and fitness series, full credit to the marketing expertise of the team!

As an entrepreneur, you are always involved with everything in your business, but you must learn to hire the best people you can afford and energize them and I must say that the energy has been huge this week and now we have raised the standards even higher!

 ~Neil 

All is looking good for the book I co-wrote with Crazy Jack, The Inner Salesman .  This is the book that explains that each of us is already born with the natural ability to sell and that the art of selling can't and does not need to be taught, rather 'coaxed' out of the individual by showing the individual how to 'unlearn'!  We are busy working on the next book, on a similar line titled "The Inner Millionaire".  In this book we are talking along the same lines as the Inner Salesman, but expanding the theme to illustrate how what you already know, combines with the laws of the Universe!

One of our newer co-entrepreneurs (we don't have employees at Franklin-Spirko), the Viking, has a book in progress and this is around the theme of how there is an exact science to getting rich.  Now the Viking is a very wise old soul and has researched this concept thoroughly and is about to reveal to us how quantum physics and the laws of the Universe again, combine to show us exactly how we can all get rich!  Very interesting from the Viking, who has a series of other interesting ideas, one of which includes the use of 'harassing helicopters'.  I think the Viking has been spending too much time with Jack!

~Neil 

The new site will feature all of the websites I am associated with as well of course, as the businesses.  We have a lot going on at Franklin-Spirko and have just expanded the team with developers and sales staff, targeting local and national business as well as our own ideas and initiatives.  Our Martial Arts DVD, featuring Val Riazanov and yours truly as the victim, is still selling well and we are about to release two more, this time covering Russian health and fitness.  

I got in trouble from my Mother yesterday, for not commenting on the Calzaghe-Hopkins fight, which of course Joe won on a split decision - a great year for Wales with this and the Rugby Grand Slam.  I would rather face Joe Calzaghe and Hopkins in the same ring, than the wrath of my Mother any day!

On a more serious note, we are about to face very tough economic times around the globe, as the credit contraction finally takes it's toll.  We've been living on borrowed time as far as this is concerned, for a long time now and the real story is about to unfold.  For business people out there, this is where your real skills are created and tested, as surviving in a rough sea is one of the hallmarks of any successful entrepreneur.  For me, it will be the third recession I have experienced, so it is not uncharted territory, but without doubt, it is going to claim many business casualties.  Remember though, you learn very little when times are good!

~Neil 

Haven't posted for a while as I have been mega crazy busy ( the usual entrepreneur excuse)! 

I am in the process of completely revamping the website, so stay tuned - there are a lot of exciting developments in the Franklin world.

~Neil 

I had a long lay off from blogging and i have to tell you that it is because of my superstitious Mother!  Being Welsh and seeing my post about the rugby, she immediately told me not to write any more until the competition was concluded!  I should not be surprised because this is the same Mother who, on New Years Day, opens every door and window in my house to 'let the good luck in'!  But…maybe she was right because on Saturday, the Welsh team won the Six Nations Grand Slam for the second time in three years and before that, thirty years ago.  Living in the US, it is difficult to get live coverage so I settled for Yahoo and watched the game later that night.  Well done to the team, they certainly deserved it and it is a total reflection on the new coaching team, headed by  Kiwi, Warren Gattland and Englishman Sean Edwards!  Amazing.

I was contacted by another old work colleague, Rob Flammiger, AKA Captain Chaos as we called him - nice to see my blog getting around and thanks for the contact Rob and good luck! 

Now I can get back to business!

~Neil 

The Cerion research team have one vision and one goal - that every wireless network will be powered by Cerion patented methodologies and all networks will be 'self engineering'!  As mobile networks get more and more complex, it will be impossible to engineer them on a 'real time' basis and the goal at Cerion, is to use and develop learning algorithms literally enabling networks to think and engineer themselves.

This is a huge breakthrough for Cerion as it has already pioneered the development of specialized core network analysis methodologies, as the Cerion experts predicted the core, being the most problematic area of the network, over twenty years ago - today, with the launch of converged technologies - UMTS/WCDMA, WiMax etc, the problems are going to get worse.  Cerion engineered networks, using cutting edge Artificial Intelligence (AI), give operators a huge and immediate competative advantage - they will run better, faster, smarter and most importantly, more profitable.

I have recently met up with an old friend and contracting  RF engineer, Neil Hall.  Neil now runs a company called Ambiss and it specializes (in my definition) in delivering base station intelligence - anything that you want to know about an RNC/BTS, will be delivered by the tool that Neil has developed and this is on the back of his already huge global RF experience.  Cerion and Ambiss have formed a joint venture and with our even newer technology, looking at the transport sector, we are complete! 

Now with AI looking to hugely impact the people industry, you might wonder what will happen to all of the people opportunities in the technology industry - are they under threat? Definitely, but that is only if you look at the traditional model - what are the future opportunities that work with AI, rather than against it?  that would be telling, as it is the job of technology staffing  company, Dataworkforce and the research is complete, but on this one, I cant divulge and bring the competition up to a level playing field.  But Cerion trained and certified ?????, is along the right lines!

~Neil 

For those not in the know, the headline means 'Wales Forever'!  Saturday was a special day for Wales and Welsh rugby as they defeated England at their home ground in Twickenham, for the first time in twenty years!  I watched the replay over here with my Mother, who is from Swansea and you could almost hear the singing from the Welsh supporters.  Let's hope they can go all the way and win the Grand Slam like they did in 2005.

Sunday was of course Super Bowl day, with the New York Giants playing the New England Patriots and the Giants winning.  I was sitting at home talking, with my Mother about how fortunate my son, who is only six months old is - he can play Rugby for Wales, Soccer for England and American Football!  I will of course be his agent!

I could not resist phoning a few of my English Rugby supporting friends this morning to gloat about the victory - and of course, I annoyed the hell out of them, but they did respond with the fact that they probably won't worry too much - it will be a very long time before it happens again!

~Neil

Nobody likes going to the dentist, least of all me - it is serious entrepreneur down time and for me, leaves me unable to talk for far too long.  Like everyone, I put off these visits, but I should have smelled a rat when I walked into my new dentist over here in Plano.  The treatment was taking far too long and she talked about how helpful and friendly my staff at the office were - I asked her what she meant and she said they asked her to numb my mouth for as long as possible and to give me treatment every day!

Opportunity does strike at the dentist however!  When I first visited the place I couldn't believe (compared to the UK), how big the place was and the fact that they had refreshments ready to drink and how friendly everyone was.  After meeting the lady who is about to perform miracles on my molars, I went through the usual medical and dental history questions, finishing with the "do you smoke"? "No, I replied". "Drink"? "Thats very kind of you, I'll have a vodka martini, came my swift response", which I must admit did raise a smile! She then proceeded to sit me down in this amazing chair, which I offered to buy from her for my house and then asked what movie I would like to watch.  I nearly fell out of the chair, as the most you would get in the UK is a vile pink drink to rinse your mouth and Mozart to take your mind off the drilling!  After viewing the selection, I settled for a Will Smith one and sat back and enjoyed the whole process!

Now, I told her that she needed to do a joint venture with Sony Pictures - think about it - two root canals and the latest blockbuster!  Add a couple of post molar martinis and you're seriously in business!   I think she is considering it!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: dentist, pictures, entrepreneur, vodka, martinis

I've got to share two business tips with you - this time coming from a restaurant owner friend of mine, Melvin Sidki.  Now Melvin is originally from Cyprus and opened an American sports bar in Bromley, London many years ago, which became a French restaurant for a week, then a Mexican Cantina and then another Mexican Cantina!  True entrepreneurship!. Now Melvin is a very funny guy and never ceases to make me laugh, but I nicknamed him 'Mournful' a few years ago, because when he gets depressed, his face takes on this deep mournful look - in fact, if I talk to him in one of his mournful states, I feel like going to the nearest bar and ordering a large cyanide and a rope!  I asked him why he has this mournful look and he said "Neil, If I walk around looking happy, the staff may ask me for a pay rise"!  Classic.  

Anyway, us entrepreneurs  cant always be happy and during my early days, I had no one to bounce ideas off and I was so frustrated on one day that I took myself off to see Mournful at his restaurant - now you know the saying, 'a problem shared is a problem halved', or as another would say 'doubled' and in the case of Mournful, trebled is the minimum!  During lunch I was discussing my problems at the time and he looked at me straight in the eyes and said "Neil, my Father gave me two pieces of advice when I went into business all these years ago and they echo in my mind every day". Eager to listen and capture some new found words of wisdom I ask him to tell me - after what seems to be an hour of silence - he goes on…"First, if you spend every waking hour on your own business and I mean literally every waking hour and you put your business before anything else and I mean anything else, you'll end up with 50%! Second, don't even trust your own shadow"!  "Thanks Mournful", I replied and headed off to the nearest bar!

I was talking to Dataworkforce VP and General Manager, Nadene Chaplin yesterday.  Nadene has been with me for many years and I was sharing some old memories with her about how I got started in Dataworkforce.  In the early days, I needed legal advice, but could not afford the fees of the partners of the law firms, so I hatched an entrepreneurial plan!  Instead of paying the 300 pounds per hour the partners would charge, I would take them out to lunch, spend 250 pounds, get them drunk, or 'Franklined" as was known, have all afternoon with them and get all the advice I could.  Brilliant, I convinced myself - only the lunches were great, but I was too drunk to remember the advice I was given! In fact, Dataworkforce is often abbreviated to DWF and one definition is 'Drinking With Franklin' and as some people will testify to, an event worth avoiding at all costs!

I remembered the above having had a couple of recent conversations with Mournful and Lawyers Edward Judge and Steve Taylor.  Both excellent guys and lawyers, who were partners together at the time at Judge and Priestley, a law firm in Bromley, Kent, Steve is now managing partner and Edward has since moved on and is the Insolvency partner at a London firm called Sprecher Grier Halberstam.

Great Memories!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: Restaurants, Business Advice, Lawyers, Lunches, Staffing, Technology

I was talking with Cerion CEO Nancy White, about goal setting for 2008 and to quote her, "a goal without a plan is just a dream"!  How true this is - it is the time of year when everyone sets goals, from losing those extra Christmas pounds, to the most aggressive sales targets.

Goal setting is easy, planning is another skill however - it is vital to break your goals down into small, achievable steps and construct a plan to ensure that you achieve them and this will involve accounting for every aspect of your working day and remember, daily monitoring and measuring of your performance will yield daily results!

It has been an excellent start to the year for all of our businesses, Cerion, signed a three year multi-million dollar deal with one of North Americas largest Carriers and on the back of that, has one another one in Europe!  C-People and Dataworkforce have had record weeks with deals flying in most notably, from Carla Petrasek, James Grimes, Cynthia 'CJ' Summers, Van Phan and David Solkhon. Well done to all.  Last but not least, Crazy and the team have won more business and hired another member of staff - Eric 'The Viking' Lignell.

On a final note, I have to hand it to my partner and Cerion co-founder Peter Griffith, after trying to call him, leaving him voice mails, PIN and SMS messages all weekend, he finally calls me and straightaway says "I didn't  get any of your messages, voice mails, texts and my phone never rang"!  "Why then, have you called me at 6:30 on Monday morning", I replied!  Absolute classic!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: goals, telecom, performance, metrics, deals, selling

Our servers crashed recently and some of the posts have been deleted and of course, I cant remember the content!  Have also been on a series of 'belief transfer' missions - explaining the value of our various businesses.  Talking about belief transfer, the book that Crazy and I wrote is actually nearing print!

On the video front, we are just about to release another from Val Riazanov and this is the first in a series of three about Russian Health, fitness and conditioning and how to exercise without damaging the body.  As a former competitive Martial Artis and Olympic Weightlifter, I wish I had met Val a long time ago, I would definitely have saved my joints.

Anyway, got to get back to business!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: Russia, Health, Video, Selling, Martial Arts

I have just watched Welsh fighter Joe Calzaghe in probably the best fight of his career. Joe was unbeaten coming into this fight, as was his opponent from Denmark, Mikkel Kessler.  Kessler was going to be a real test for Joe - he is younger, a big puncher and has not been beaten also! Joe set a furious pace and kept it up to the end, completely dominating the fight and took a unanimous points decision.  I watched the fight on HBO and it was interesting to hear Emanuel (Manny) Steward, former trainer to boxing legend Tommy Hearns, talk about Joe and how impressed he was and that is a great sign as Joe has his sights on light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins!

Still with boxing, there is another great fight to look forward to on December 8, here in the US - Britain's Ricky Hatton takes on the great Floyd Mayweather Jr!  I can't wait for this one as Hatton is a savage body puncher and also set's a furious pace and everone knows about Mayweather!

Boxing is a very much like business - you work very hard and smart, learn to move and keep out of trouble, learn not to get trapped in the corner and are always aware that you can change your destiny with just one punch!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: boxing, Calzaghe, Kessler, Hatton, Steward, HBO, USA, business, destiny

Have to pay my betting debts to my American friends - Floyd Mayweather Jr is still unbeaten in last night's clash against Briton Ricky Hatton.  Both fighters came in unbeaten and are exceptional, but Mayweather ruled the day with a knockout!  Ricky gave his all and you could see the passion in him, but it wasn't to be his night!

I would usually say that the mark of a true champion is how he handles defeat, because at some time in life, it comes to us all in one way or another unless you are extremely lucky, but in Ricky's case, he is already a proven champion and last nights performance was no different to any of his other fights - he is relentless and fights with pure heart as well as skill.  In his position, I would hang up the gloves and look back at a brilliant career and for me, he has nothing more to prove!

~Neil 

Technorati Tags: Boxing, Hatton, Mayweather, champion, winning

I have just seen a blog from our client Josef Katz at Trump University http://www.trumpuniversity.com/blogs/marketingmaestro/index.cfm

This is excellent news at it clearly proves the Franklin-Spirko difference!  It is always a pleasure working with the people at Trump as they really know how to work with and get the best out of their partners, simply by letting them get on with what they are supposed to do!  Congratulations to Mark and Deb at Franklin-Spirko!

I am also about to launch a golf learning system with my friend and former Long drive champion, tour player and trick-shot artist Larry Wedgy Winchester!  Wedgy normally shoots just ove his age which is a youthful 64 and over the fifty or so years, having tried every system under the sun, has finally devised one of his own!  I have been secretly learning from the master and went out yesterday and got a hole in one on a 174 yard par 3,with a five iron! I phoned Wedgy in amazement, who said "great, there's our first testimonial"!

There is a huge problem with the marketing however - in describing how the hands move and stay in front of the body in the golf swing, Wedgy says that you are literally writing the letter 'V' and you do this with your hands and arms in front of the body at all times - it is the body turn, that gets you back and through the ball.  Also, when it comes to hitting the ball, Wedgy says that you 'flip' the hands down and out to the ball in what you could describe as a 'J' motion!   "Great", I said "Ive just had a hole in one with the VJ method! I think we may have some legal issues!

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: trump University, Josef Katz, golf, hole in one, Wedgy

I was talking to someone the other day about Franklin-Spirko and the person in question had looked at our site and the site of some competitors.  "how do you compete against xxx marketing whose principal has an excellent marketing education and who has previously worked for many fortune 500 companies"?  Easy I replied, as I explained that it was actually easy to handle marketing for well known, recognized companies, with recognized brands and more importantly, with a budget!  I went on to explain that it is easy to become sheltered when working in the corporate world and I would rather work with people who have created success form nothing, with unknown companies, with very little or no marketing budget - also, people who have built their own successful multi million dollar companies, in diverse industries, all over the globe and most importantly, people who really understand business!  That company is of course, Franklin-Spirko!

It's nearly boxing time again - the big fight this time is Ricky Hatton from the UK, against Floyd Mayweather Jr, can't wait and of course, my money is on Hatton!

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: marketing, fortune 500, business, branding, creation

We have just completed the re-design of the franklin-spirko website and if I might say so myself, it looks fantastic!  We really have something special with this business - how many marketing companies have marketing experts who have also built their own successful companies across diverse fields and really practice what they preach?  Crazy and I were talking about our value proposition and he defined it beautifully - "you would not want us working for your competition", he said!  People still ask me why I call him 'crazy' and I will probably have to devote an entire post to the subject, but I will start the process by saying that anyone who has a collection of over 40 pet snakes is certainly heading toward the 'change' section of the normality barometer!

I have just played in two charity golf tournaments raising monies for local charities here in Dallas.  I was the guest of Bob Lilly Jr, son of the Cowboys legend, Bob Lilly and our team placed third!  This was largely due to us having scratch golfer John Albrecht on the team.  John is the VP of marketing for Magic Video our franklin-spirko video partner and played some fantastic golf!  John is also the agent of tour player, Marco Dawson. Thanks John! 

The second tournament was hosted by insurance brokers MHBT and I was the guest of Vice President Marcus Humphrey.  Now we did not have the benefit of John on our team and I had brought along a guest - Chris Vogeli, Executive Chef and proprietor of the finest steak house in Dallas, Three Forks.  Now our placing was not as spectacular as the other tournament, that is if we even placed at all.  I had to drag Chris away from the rib eye sandwiches on the eighth hole - I think he was trying to hire the lady who was cooking them as they tasted so good and Marcus and his guest, Gene, were doing their best to save the team - "excellent - now we're golfing", said Marcus as he drove his approach shot positively into the lake!  David, our caddy said that he had never experienced such a positive attitude! I did ask David if he would like to caddy for the team in future events - he's coming back to me!

~ Neil

Technorati Tags: marketing, media, competition, cowboys, golf, tour, insurance, football

Had to put this up and I received this from a friend of mine back in the UK - sadly, I am beginning to think it's true!

~Neil 

I have to congratulate the teams of our staffing businesses C-People and Dataworkforce - October was a record month for both companies and in particular, engineering recruiter James Grimes, who posted a $50k fee! 

Recruiters need to be proud of their fees and the commission they earn - we are launching an elite 'Presidents Club' for elite recruiters and they will be the first group put forward to our clients.  If you think about it, the more money a recruiter earns, the more value their clients get and of course, it's all about value. 

On the Franklin-Spirko front, we are about to launch our new website and we are all very excited about the amount of activity we have after only four months and particularly with the Trump University account.  Our new site will be up very soon!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: motivation, success, recruiting, staffing, business, fees, president