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Innovate Now: Tony Vengrove Shares His Start-up Journey

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[Legacy post: Small Business Talent] My guest on the podcast today is Tony Vengrove. Like many successful entrepreneurs, Tony started his career in the corporate world. In fact, he spent 20+ years working in a variety of advertising, marketing and innovation roles for major ad agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and global corporations including Boehringer Ingelheim and Altria Group.

In early 2012, Tony launched his own firm, Miles Finch Innovation. Today he puts his decades of marketing and innovation experience to work helping clients to create more efficient and productive innovation organizations. Tony collaborates with innovation teams to uncover key consumer insights, generate new product concepts and connect ideas to technologies, manufacturing capabilities and thought leaders. Using a proprietary teaching tool that he developed — called the Idea Climate Equation® — Tony coaches and mentors individuals on the principles of creativity, leadership and innovation.

In the course of this candid interview, Tony shares:

  • What innovation really means in practical, non-esoteric terms
  • Why all entrepreneurs need to embrace creativity and innovation
  • The advantages of seeking out new ideas across diverse industries
  • How self-awareness and quieting mental chatter enhances creativity

So what can small business owners and solo entrepreneurs learn from Tony about tapping the power of creative thinking and innovation? Quite a lot! (Scroll down to the Podcast Player and listen-in now.)


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Duration: 25:40 — 12.6MB


Plan for Success: Tim Berry on Growing Your Small Business

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[Legacy post: Small Business Talent] What would you like to accomplish this year? Just as important, how will you get there? My guest on today’s podcast is Tim Berry — a world-class expert on business planning and he’s here to help.

What do other top experts think about Tim and his work? Well, Guy Kawasaki made Tim his business plan expert in How to Write a Business Plan. Pamela Slim, author of Escape From Cubicle Nation, calls Tim the Obi-wan Kenobe of business planning. As if that weren’t enough, Tim is also the business planning coach at Entrepreneur.com.

Tim is the author of The Plan-as-you-go Business Plan and other books on planning published by Harcourt Brace, McGraw-Hill, and Dow Jones-Irwin. He’s the principal author of Business Plan Pro. He’s also co-author of 3 Weeks to Startup, published in 2008 by Entrepreneur Press; and author of Sales and Market Forecasting for Entrepreneurs, published in 2010 by Business Expert Press, and Hurdle: the Book on Business Planning.

Lastly, Tim is founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software, founder of Bplans.com, and co-founder of Borland International. (By the way, he built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees, multimillion dollar sales, no debt, and 70% market share without any outside investment.)

Bottom-line: Tim is a seasoned entrepreneur and a true expert in the field of business planning. As you look forward to creating a successful 2014, you’ll benefit from the practical wisdom and cutting-edge resources that he shares with you today. (Scroll down to the Podcast Player and listen now!)


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Duration: 17:40 — 9.9MB


Creating Your Social Sales Toolbox with Craig Jamieson

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[Legacy post: Small Business Talent] If you’re a self-employed professional selling business-to-business services, then you’re probably trying to better integrate social sales tools into your sales process.

This can be frustrating if you haven’t found a Social CRM solution that can help you to do it efficiently.

Fortunately, my guest on the podcast today is Craig Jamieson of Adaptive Business Services. Craig is a Nimble Social CRM Solution Partner, and he provides training and consulting to businesses on how to leverage social sales tools, techniques, strategies, and Social CRM to increase their sales.

Craig has been a small business owner since 2005. He also has decades of business-to-business sales experience. Over the years, Craig held a variety of sales leadership positions, including division sales manager, national sales manager, and district manager.  Craig has also taught salesmanship at the university level.

Lastly, Craig writes a column on social sales at MaximizeSocialBusiness.com (you’ll find links to his monthly posts and his social media accounts on his author profile page), and he’s also empowered to blog for IBM on the topic of social business.

In this content-rich interview, Craig and I discuss:

  • The crucial differences between standard CRM and Social CRM solutions
  • Why using social sales tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus without a Social CRM solution is inefficient
  • How combining social tools and Social CRM solutions can help you save time and increase your social selling results
  • Why focused content creation remains important and how to effectively leverage this activity
  • The amazing Social CRM automated features available today for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses

If you want to tap the true power of social selling for your business, then don’t miss this valuable information. (Scroll down to the Podcast Player and listen now!)


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Duration: 28:00 — 15.9MB