Doug Wagner, Author at Sunwapta Solutions

28 May 2012

Master Minds, Southwest & Receptivity – More from The Go-Giver Retreat

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:38:21-06:00May 28th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Master Minds – The Panel

MentoringPanel-sm

(L-R) Dondi Scumaci, Sally Hogshead, Mark Sanborn and Bob Burg with Dixie Gillaspie (not pictured) as moderator.

"Two factors for success:

Focus
Reciprocity

Tension between who can help you and who you can help." ~ Mark

"Ask really hard questions" ~ Sally

"Solving a business problem" ~ Dondi

"Aligned with organizational priorities" ~ Dondi

"Info is easy, insight is powerful" ~ Unknown

Overall: Don't go it alone. Use master minds, coaches and mentors for personal and business success.

Colleen Barrett – All 5 Laws at […]

24 May 2012

Influence and the Truth – Lessons from The Go-Giver Retreat

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:38:25-06:00May 24th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Like most people that go to a business conference, seminar or retreat… I tend to get very pumped up and enthusiastic. Then I get back to the office and get busy. Then after some time passes, most of the lessons are forgotten and put aside.

One way around this is to revisit your notes a while after the conference and reflect on the points that resonated the most with you. After you've done that, pick a few and figure out how to integrate them into your business and personal life by implementing and making them habits.

All of the speakers were truly […]

10 May 2012

Things Change – Do You Really Notice?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:38:36-06:00May 10th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Change is often like the fable of the frog in boiling water.

The frog starts out in cool water and the temperature slowly rises. As the temperature rises the frog should realize the trend and hop out. But because the change is gradual the frog doesn't notice until it is too late; poached frog.

The point is not whether this fable is true (or not or to go try it out).

My Observations

I went to West Palm Beach Florida to attend the Bob Burg Go Giver Retreat in April.

I first met Bob on Twitter. At the time I had around 50 […]

3 May 2012

Essential Business Processes and Training for Excellence

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:38:43-06:00May 3rd, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

At a certain point of growth, every business needs to start formalizing "how things are done here". These are your processes and systems.

In "Predictable Success" by Les McKeown, he pretty much says outright that you can't get to predicable success unless you put enough (but not too much) systems and processes in place (plus some other things).

Too many people think formalizing processes and systems means taking all initiative and creativeness out of business and replacing it with lowest common denominator bureaucracy. Or they think it means everything is handled exactly the same. Or they just don't want to […]

17 Apr 2012

Mission, Purpose and a Video Challenge

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:38:57-06:00April 17th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing|

I've been taking the words of wisdom from Carrie Wilkerson, author of "The Barefoot Executive" to heart lately. After all, she is a force of nature when it comes to getting things done.

The challenge was simple on the surface. Video blog. One take only. Talk about something you know (extemporaneously) for 3-5 minutes. Minimal editing.

Armed with an HD camcorder, a tripod, and some basic editing software this video is the result. There is something a little nerve wracking about actually recording yourself especially when you have no redo. It is much easier talking to real people, even a […]

9 Apr 2012

The 7 Unspoken Truths About Pay for Performance

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:39:10-06:00April 9th, 2012|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership|

Pay for performance normally works something like this. You figure out goals for each employee that ties back to the overall corporate objective and then set the employees variable pay (bonus or incentive) based on the degree to which the employee meets those objectives.

Carrots
There are 7 unspoken truths about why most organizations fail to make pay for performance work very well.

1. The Planning Horizon is Too Long

Most pay for performance planning cycles are based on a yearly cycle. Business is fast paced and things are constantly changing. If […]

27 Mar 2012

Our Secret Marketing Plan Revealed (Next Steps)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T15:34:48-06:00March 27th, 2012|Categories: Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing, Sales|

Last week I wrote a post called “Marketing Yourself Is Your Real World“. In it I included a diagram of our “Simplified Marketing Plan For Manifast” which was actually pretty complex even after being simplified.

Well we obviously can’t implement everything at once. So I put together the next few things that need to get done in card format in our actual Manifast tool (partial screen shot below) as a project (blue) and outcomes (light yellow). Still pretty aggressive but achievable.

Now it is action time.

Marketing Manifast - <a href= […]

26 Mar 2012

Know Who You Are (It Simplifies Decisions)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:39:31-06:00March 26th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

Are you one of those people who chases every business opportunity you see hoping to cash in on the next great thing? Are you not finishing what you start because you are juggling too many things?

Stop it.

The people who make the most money over the long-term focus on one thing at a time and get it finished. They have a vision of where they want to be and single-mindedly pursue it through to success.

Real Life Example

Our business was recently approached with an offer to front another business in the consulting body shopping business and make some easy money on the […]

22 Mar 2012

Marketing Your Product is Your Real World

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:39:42-06:00March 22nd, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

12 years ago when we started our company, I thought that branding, marketing and selling were something that someone else would handle. Sure as the president of the company I needed to set direction, but the icky parts were going to be done by someone else and I could focus on the project work for clients; you know, "delegate".

Today I know deep down in my heart that branding, marketing and selling are your business. Building a business means dealing with those subjects head-on. You can delegate the work, but you should not ever delegate the strategy (or the […]

16 Mar 2012

An Entrepreneurs Fable

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:39:50-06:00March 16th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.

This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. Companies were spending money like there was no end of it… other people’s money (OPM (rhymes […]

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About Doug Wagner

Master Minds – The Panel

Colleen Barrett – All 5 Laws at […]

My Observations

1. The Planning Horizon is Too Long

Real Life Example