• 6 Steps to Building a Better Business – How to follow a simple plan to achieve business success.
• Everyone Communicates Few Connect – Utilizing simple communication skills to connect with any audience.

Michael says: I was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1965, and have been married to my wife Sharon since 2006. Our first child Cameron was born in May of 2011.

Since receiving my Master’s Degree in Aquatic Biology from Central Michigan University I have traveled the U.S. extensively as a corporate and private environmental consultant working on some of the largest natural gas pipelines constructed in the country. This experience allowed me to work closely with corporate executives, federal agencies, project design engineers and field construction staff.

As a corporate consultant for AECOM, The Louis Berger Group and 3D/International, I assisted companies such as Duke Energy, SoCal Edison/Edison Mission Energy, TransCanada Pipeline, Williams Gas Pipeline and Boardwalk Pipeline by ensuring environmental compliance on over 500 miles of Natural Gas Pipeline installation.

As an independent contractor I have worked with the Exxon Mobil, Williams Communications, Enbridge, Spectra Energy and Williams Pipelines. I have also been helped start up two inspection companies; the Wyatt Group and Sage Staffing Services.

Wanting a change, I began a career shift that has included working with Primerica Financial Services since 2003. In 2011, I continued my career shift and began working the #1 Business Coaching firm in the world and in Texas; ActionCOACH and N3Coaching. I also started training with the #1 leadership mentor in the world Dr. John C. Maxwell. I know that joining forces with the #1 Leadership Coaching Company and the #1 Business Coaching Company will help change the lives of so many people here in Houston.

Are you ready to embark upon journey to greatly improve your skills and beliefs, your income and your lifestyle –achieving the ambitions and dreams you went into the business for in the first place? If so, it’s time to get into ACTION. Call me now to arrange a free business diagnostic and together we will explore all the possibilities.

Michael’s Email

Web Site

Call Michael: 713.201.5559

• Houston, We Have a Problem – Reconnecting to YOUR Mission Control
• Your Life IS NOT a Soap Opera – Living in the No Drama Zone
• Earplugs or Hearing Aids? – Tools to Reconnect When The Important Voices Are Being Drowned Out
• Overwhelmed Much? – Paths to Empowerment
• The Millennial Mom – It’s Not Just Our Kids Who Have Changed
• Objects May Be Closer Than They Appear – Tools to Leave Work In The Rearview Mirror\

Sissy Grapes is an internationally recognized inspirational speaker, consultant, educator and Master Coach. 

She has been called a “Renaissance Woman,” because she is gifted with creativity, humor, and a deep insight. 

Sissy has a Master’s Degree from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, in Counseling, as well as certifications as an independent program evaluator and an NLP Trainer of Trainers. 

She is a member of Coachville, the International Coach Federation, and the National Speaker’s Association. 

Sissy’s mission is Helping humanity turn up the L.I.G.H.T.

L.I.G.H.T. stands for Laughter, Inspiration, Gratitude, Happiness and Transformation.

Sissy’s Web Site

Email Sissy

• Life’s a Sales Call! ^® - The only thing worse than training employeesand having them leave, is to not train them and have them stay.
• Mastering Professional Sales – Mastering Professional Sales provides the tools and the training to make the shift from transactional selling to the Relationship-Selling Platform^®.
• Mastering Professional Leadership^® – Leadership Development Training for a target audience comprised of up to twenty participants.
• Mastering Customer Service^® – Mastering Customer Service provides the attitudes, behaviors and communication skills to assist any professional in a service capacity  in the handling of both “internal” and “external” customers.

Jack is the CEO and founder of NextStep Solutions (NSS), sales specialists headquartered in Houston, TX. NextStep Solutions, www.nextstep-solutions.com, is known, worldwide, for increasing client sales, through a customerized approach to strategy, training, coaching, and consulting services.

NextStep Solutions—founded in 1995—inspires sales greatness, focusing on building relationships and enhancing communications skills, delivering quantifiable results. For the past five years, Jack was a radio personality, hosting a daily, live business talk show, “Where Wall Street Meets Main Street,” heard during morning drive-time, across the State of Texas, on the BizRadio Network—and on the internet around the world.

After graduating from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1978, Jack began a decade-long career with IBM. He quickly established a stellar reputation as the best “new account” sales professional in the company, leading the nation in new accounts opened—53 systems in 52 weeks—BEFORE the advent of the PC. The most amazing part: he did it in his SECOND year on quota. Upon being awarded the highest IBM sales award—The Eagle—his professional speaking career was inadvertently launched, when he traveled across the country, sharing his sales techniques with other IBM professionals.

Jack wrote the book on sales. In fact, he’s the author of the best selling book, Life’s A Sales Call: How To Succeed In The World’s Oldest Profession, on sale everywhere and at www.amazon.com. He now travels the world, speaking before thousands of people, delivering presentations with extremely high content in an entertaining and inspirational fashion, in areas of Sales, Marketing, Service and Leadership.

Jack is very involved in the local community. He founded and capitalized The Barnabas Society, www.barnabassociety.org, a 501c 3 corporation, that raises and distributes money and resources to people in their greatest times of need, with all the funds donated anonymously.

Nicknamed “NIKE” (Just Do It!), he will electrify your group with his high-energy approach to sales—and life. If the best teacher is one whose life is the text, Jack has been there, done that, bought, sold AND designed the T-shirt.

Jack’s Website

Email Jack

Call Jack: 832.344.6998

• Leadership principles from Dr. John C. Maxwell – 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, and much more. Master Mind Groups, Seminars, and Lunch & Learn Workshops. (Coaching is available as well.)
• Humorous life experience stories with a point! – Using the masterful gift of story- telling that took me to the World Championship, I will personally craft a message with humor and deep emotional connection that illustrates the point you need to make for your group.
• Live a More Excellent Life – Have you ever tried to paint a picture with a banana? Drive a nail with a champagne glass? Or mow the lawn with a spoon? Then why try to bring about the lasting change that leads to success with the same tools that have failed you in the past? Success should not be a secret.
• The Power of PDA – Learn the powerful impact appreciation could have on your clients, vendors, and employees.
• The 50 Day Excellent Life Challenge – 50 Days, 5 Real Challenges, 1 More Excellent Life – The mental equivalence of the Warrior Dash. You will work hard, get messy and have fun and in the end be very glad that you did it. 
• Finding Your Sweet Spot – Purpose, passion and plan. Life is so much sweeter when you are operating in your strengths, loving what you do and have a plan to make money doing it.

Tell It Like It Is, Inc.                       

J. Loren Norris is author of Live A More Excellent Life (available on amazon.com) and creator of More Excellent Life Challenge and The Power of PDA.

Loren says, “I am passionate about overcoming obstacles in life, both personal and professional and leading others to excellence.”
He is a Founding Team Member of the John Maxwell Team of Independent Certified Coaches, Speakers and Trainers.
He is also a full time Professional Entertainer and active member of Toastmasters International. He was a Semi Finalist in the 2011 World Championship of Public Speaking, a competition of over 30,000 contestants.

In 2010, Loren entertained at more than 175 events as a Speaker, MC, and Karaoke host. Loren sets himself apart by successfully engaging any crowd. Whether entertaining 21 seven-year-old girls for a birthday party, speaking to 500 college graduates, engaging 400 employees at a corporate Karaoke Team Building Event, or 30,000 muddy runners at the Warrior Dash, Loren creates an atmosphere that encourages group participation.

Loren’s Web Site

Email Loren

Call Loren: 214.783.9854

• Balanced Like a RockStar: This speech focuses on living a fuller, richer life and enjoying the success you have created. We focuses on finding balance and fulfillment in your life.
• Headline Your Own Show: Learn to build success that starts where you are now and leads to your RockStar status. No matter where you start, you can always achieve it. This speech is based on the premise that everyone can grow and improve, that you are the star in the show of your life.
• A Beautiful Mind: Your mind is a beautiful and powerful thing. This speech focuses on using this phenomenal beauty and power to retrain yourself to live in faith and say “No!” to fear.
• The Ideal Life: This speech will help you learn to live the life you always wanted by harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit and creating it. You don’t have to start your own business; you just harness the strengths you already have – the strengths so evident in the most successful entrepreneurs – and create that Ideal Life.

Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach, has more than 30 years of experience as a business entrepreneur. After a lifetime of growing businesses from the ground up as well as working through more standard corporate structures, he now works personally with clients to help them find the inner strength and perseverance to reach their own business and life goals. Drawing from life experiences that include everything from growing and selling his businesses to having to start over in a new state, Tim’s approach is one of developing personal strength and inner wisdom through goal-setting and systematic, step-by-step processes to become a RockStar in your world. Tim has written books and self-help courses devoted to the topic of personal growth and development; he speaks to groups across the country on topics as varied as job-finding, business development, and self-fulfillment. Tim’s unique perspective incorporates a motorcyclist’s lifestyle and features road trip seminars that couple exciting rides with full training sessions guaranteed to change your life! Tim offers personal coaching sessions live, via video-conference, telephone, and through email.

Call Tim (214) 616-8912

Email Tim

Tim’s Web Site

• “Oh, By The Way…You’re Welcome!”: HOW TO TALK TO HUMAN BEINGS – Rooted in the art of improvisation and successful team comedy, Steph DeWaegeneer will lead participants through a series of interactive exercises that are designed to promote engaging spoken communication, building trust, uncovering confidence, and helping to stay connected with one another in the face of frustration, mistrust and conflict. 
• Behold the Power of “YES! And…” – How can the number one key to performing successful improvisational comedy on stage improve your professional image and communications? Learn the simple secret that instantly transforms the negative to positive, and the impossible to the extraordinary in this fun and interactive presentation.
• Remember My Name: F.A.M.E. – Fun, actionable tips to create and present a more impactful and memorable 30 or 60 second elevator speech. Get more value out of your networking, and create a vivid image in your referral circle.
• The Power of Improv – Engaging Your Audience – An interactive presentation teaching how to leave a lasting impression with any audience. We’ll show by doing through engaging, audience-participation exercises. This talk is ideal to overcome those after lunch droopers.

Steph DeWaegeneer has spent the majority of her professional life dedicated to enriching lives by embracing a positive attitude, humor, and the creative imagination of the human spirit.  She graduated from Sam Houston State University, with a BFA in Theatre. Since graduation she has performed improv comedy on numerous stages throughout the US & UK including: The Manchester Comedy Festival, and performances in Texas, Washington D.C., Illinois, Indiana, New York, Oregon, and North Carolina.  She was also crowned 2009 MS. Plus America. Presently, she is the record setting National Sales Director for ComedySportz™ and still manages to perform nearly every week with the Houston-based professional improve comedy troupe.

Call Steph 713.256.8722

Email Steph

Steph’s Web Site 

• The Speaker’s Revenue Machine – People can’t “Get” what you do unless they know what you sell. AND you give them opportunities to buy. Your entire Business runs on a Revenue Machine, and you need to manage it. 
• Pricing to Sell: Making it Easy to Buy You – Your Clients Shop With Their Heads, But They Buy With Their Hearts. Successful Businesses have Solid Price Lists. They know what the Right Price is for their Prospects to become Customers.
• The Influencer Intellect: Prosperity is More Than WHO You Know – Be an Influencer and you can Access the Golden Ticket. The R4H Monetize Your Connections System will Identify who you already know that will lead to Prosperous Relationships.

As the CEO of the R4H Group, the Premier Strategy and Outsourcing Partner for Speakers on a Mission, Kathy uses her over 15+ years of harvesting talent for Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft to bring top professionals together for incredible projects.

She has worked with hundreds of successful professionals who are in the public eye. Kathy has shown authors, speakers, educators, executives, and entertainers that the difference between success and failure is how they use their time and resources.

Known as a straight talker, Kathy believes with a great message and mission comes the responsibility of bringing revenue to the table to push that message out to larger audiences. her ability to harvest and manage global talent virtually makes her a must have for Platform Speakers and Professionals who Speak.

Call Kathy – 214.527.7391

Email Kathy 

Kathy’s Web Site

• Recreate the Honeymoon Tomorrow – In this marriage enrichment lecture I help couples to identify how they created those happiest times in their relationships and what steps they could take to recreate that experience immediately.
• The Solution Focused Approach to Increasing Motivation – In this lecture I teach attendees how to apply a solution focused perspective to their lives, making energy go up and accomplishing more goals.
• The Solution Focused Office – In this lecture I help change the perspective so that where once there were once just problems, now there are solutions, allowing for the office to transform from a place of low morale and productivity to a place of excitement and creative ideas.

Elliott Connie is a licensed professional counselor in the State of Texas who has spent his entire counseling career working with individuals, couples, families, and groups. After completing his Masters Degree in Professional Counseling, Elliott immediately began working in private practice as a solution focused practitioner. It was during this time that he noticed the lack of training programs available to people seeking to become more skilled with the solution focused approach so he founded the Solution Focused Training Institute along with a partner. Today, Elliott maintains a full private practice in Keller, TX along with being responsible for the day to day operations of the Solution Focused Training Institute which holds multiple trainings on the approach annually including a Spring Symposium, multiple day workshops and strategic planning with businesses. He is the co-editor of The Art of Solution Focused Therapy and currently tours the world conducting trainings and speaking at conferences about the solution focused approach.

Email Elliott

Call Elliott  (817)602-1714

Elliott’s Web Site 

More Information About Speaker’s Topics:

• Recreate the Honeymoon Tomorrow – Often couples have had a time in their marriage when things were working just as they should be, the honeymoon period. In this marriage enrichment lecture I help couples to identify how they created those happiest times in their relationships and what steps they could take to recreate that experience immediately.
• The Solution Focused Approach to Increasing Motivation – There are times in both our personal and professional lives when we have low energy and simply to get goals accomplished. In this lecture I teach attendees how to apply a solution focused perspective to their lives, making energy go up and accomplishing more goals.
• The Solution Focused Office – Negativity and too much of a problem focus can affect any professional work environment. Making the office a less enjoyable place to be and having a negative impact on the service or product of the company. In this lecture I help change the perspective so that where once there were once just problems, now there are solutions, allowing for the office to transform from a place of low morale and productivity to a place of excitement and creative ideas.

• Startup Ventures – How to fly an unfinished airplane
• Capital Funding – You want how much & you want it when?!
• Exit Strategies – How does your flight end?
• Market Strategy Ecosystems – Forming teams, even when you’re all by yourself
• Business Development Costs – Calculating the time, money, & performance of client acquisition
• Being Dispassionate About Your Passion – How to objectively evaluate your own performance
• Graceful Closings – How not to suffer a catastrophic end
• Risk Management – How to increase your odds against the flip of a coin

Javier Hernandez is a veteran entrepreneur having built 8 ventures of his own with 6 successful liquidity events and 2 that – let’s just say – taught him some extraordinary lessons about life and business.

Next to his family, his deepest passion is guiding other entrepreneurs to build their visions into viable and successful businesses while helping them avoid the myriad pitfalls.

He has worked globally in 72 countries across 4 continents and 50 states, helping more than 250 client companies and not-for-profits. His expertise ranges from product development and management, sales force management and market strategies, operational efficiencies, fundraising, and facilitating investment capital, mergers, acquisitions, and IPO’s.

Most recently, Javier radically transformed his company of more than 10 years, Business Rising, from a fee-for-service management-consulting model into a risk management firm with zero out-of-pocket costs to clients.

Call Javier 469-939-8829

Email Javier

Javier’s Web Site

• Becoming Your Own Change Agent – Changing what you do is transactional – changing how you see yourself and others is transformational.
• Free Range Workers – Unleashing Your Personal Competitive Advantage– With the prospect of fully portable benefits, as well as generational shifts in the workforce, the old career model has changed.
• Increase Your Team’s Horsepower – Certain modifications can boost the performance of a car’s engine. The same is true for teams. Learn how to apply a few simple principles to turn any team into a Formula One racecar!
• Before ABC’s – Teaching Kids the Important Stuff First – When a new program was introduced to the sixth-grade class in one school district, emphasizing every student’s unique talents and potential, the results exceeded all expectations.

Candace Fitzpatrick, thought leader, speaker and President/CEO of CoreClarity, Inc., has created a new model for evaluating and predicting human behavior that flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught to believe about ourselves, other people, business, and relationships. Based on this framework and the universal language of talents, her model opens the door to a new way of thinking that allows groups of people – in any context (teams, departments, companies, families, students) – to define, manage and apply their mix of talents in a deliberate and constructive way.

A former physics instructor turned executive, Candace has a passion for helping people give their best. Her goal is to take individual talents and turn them into a secret weapon for both organizations and the people in them. With her help, thousands of people and hundreds of teams have been unleashed! Her approach has been successfully implemented in corporate and non-profit organizations, as well as leadership development programs. Clients include Texas Instruments, Duke Energy, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, Southern Methodist University, Reliant Healthcare, Jack-In-The-Box, American Leadership Forum-Charlotte, and one of the Big-Four accounting firms.

In addition to her corporate initiatives, Candace realized it’s never too early to understand and apply your talents. Working closely with a group of educators concerned about how at-risk kids could learn, she assisted in developing a revolutionary approach called The Rising Star Program™. This initiative was launched with the 6^th grade class in Colorado’s Del Norte School District and the results have been nothing short of spectacular, with success measured in radically higher state test scores, increased academic growth, 100% promotion to the next grade and reduction of bullying by 75%.

In 1993, Candace co-founded CresaPartners, LLC, and received their “First Citizen” Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2003. In 2003-2004, Candace led the CoreNet Global CoRE 2010 Asset Management and Portfolio Optimization team, one of eight global teams researching leading edge practices shaping the future of corporate real estate. She founded CoreClarity, Inc. in 2004. A lifetime learner, Candace earned an MBA with honors from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and a BA in Physics from Texas A&M University. She has been trained as a mediator and was a licensed real estate broker in Texas for over twenty-five years.

Early in her career, Candace made a conscious decision that work should be fun. When a friend challenged her to distill the essence of her passion into five words or less, she responded (after two weeks of contemplation and soul searching) with: I turn dreams into reality. Today she is having fun helping others turn their dreams into reality – and in turn is realizing her own.

More on Speaker’s Topics:

• Becoming Your Own Change Agent – Changing what you do is transactional – changing how you see yourself and others is transformational. When individuals recognize, value and apply their innate talents to their work and their life, it has a profound impact on how they relate to the world around them. In this session, discover the key to lasting, positive change that will transform your perspective forever.
• Free Range Workers – Unleashing Your Personal Competitive Advantage– With the prospect of fully portable benefits, as well as generational shifts in the workforce, the old career model has changed. In this new, mobile, tech-savvy labor market, it is critical to understand and clearly articulate your unique value proposition so others call on you for your strengths. In this interactive session, begin the process of shaping your message and developing your communication strategy.
• Increase Your Team’s Horsepower – Certain modifications can boost the performance of a car’s engine. The same is true for teams – modifying how they are formed and how projects are assigned can change their performance drastically. What kind of vehicle is your team now: a sputtering jalopy, a sedate sedan or a gas-guzzling monster truck? Learn how to apply a few simple principles to turn any team into a Formula One racecar!
• Before ABC’s – Teaching Kids the Important Stuff First – When a new program was introduced to the sixth-grade class in one school district, emphasizing every student’s unique talents and potential, the results exceeded all expectations. Hear what our children can teach us about what it means to know that everyone is talented and gifted in their own way.

Call Candace 972-612-0413

Email Candace

Web Site