Great book I am now re-reading, Blah Blah Blah What To Say When Words Don't Work, by Dan Roan.

A little praise for Dan Roam's book. Needed now more than ever.

 

I had read this book back a few years ago. I really enjoyed it. I dusted it off and brought it out again when I was working on my elevator speech for my company, Your Office S.O.S. I gave two speeches on this last week one at my Toastmasters Club and another at my Thursday networking group Team Up.

The premise of the book is that there is too much meaningless chatter going on. Too many words being thrown around and we end up with too much information or not enough information. Raom addresses the hummingbird part of your brain and the fox part. Some might say the hunter and the gatherer. He walks you through the land of blah blah blah the world we now live in and helps us escape to the F.O.R.E.S.T. where you learn VIVID thinking, and you can go back to the land of noise with a clear and concise message and communication skills that effectively get the ideas and thoughts communicated.

In the social media day in which we live with all the chatter going on; we need to read this book.

Blogging: Getting your story out.

I am blogging about my company Your Office SOS. We started this effort last year and its now taking fruition. We are gathering steam and have several proposals. We have an original focus, but we are leaving room to pivot.

My expertise comes for nearly 50 years in the business world. I have a broad range of hands-on experience in developing retail, wholesale and service businesses.   Business development can be a vague and far-reaching term, but it takes into account many years experience I bring to the table in selling, branding, marketing and prospecting for business.

I would say I focus on prospecting and hunting for clients. I also have tremendous skills in nurturing and maintaining clients. I have a proven track record in both those areas.
My wife who is also my business partner brings a nearly 50 years works history a very successful executive assistant.  She has worked for C-level executives most of her career.
This is my 30 second,  "Elevator Pitch."

Hi, my name is Dave Rockey. My company is Your Office S.O.S. S.O.S. stands for supported outsourced services. services. We are your virtual

We offer a variety of remote solutions like virtual assistance and business development. If you are drowning in details, call out for help. We bring nearly a century's worth of experience to the rescue.

A good lead for me is someone you know who needs to recover their life and time.

Before you go under in a sea of stress,    “Call Your Office S.O.S.”

Elevator speech

The elevator speech may have originated with Ross Perot. It is said he got on an elevator with an employee. As the doors closed and they were going up 3 floors, he asked the employee what their job was and what the did at the company. It took 30 seconds to go three floors. The employee was still speaking as they got off the elevator after the 3 floors and 30-second ride. Perot turned to the employee and said, "You're fired"! His reasoning was if you are not clear on your what your role and functions are and you can't explain it in 30 seconds you are not clear in your thinking.

Now we can debate the merits of that line of reasoning or not, but the point is you have to give your 30-second speech when that is all the time you have. It must be condensed vivid and to the point.

Here is what I have been working on:

Hi, my name is Dave Rockey. My company is Your Office S.O.S. SOS stands for supported office services. We offer a variety of remote services like virtual admin and business development. If you are drowning in a sea of details call for help! We bring a hundred years of experience to the rescue.
A good lead for me is anyone you know that needs to recover their life and time. Before you drown in a sea of stress: "Call Your Office S.O.S."

The quintessential, "Jack of all trades and Swiss Army Knife" package.

As a detailed in a previous blog, I started my career in retail. I worked for a shoe company and back in those days, the shoe business was leased out in most department stores.  I worked as a manager and supervisor. One had to learn all aspects of business. I did the window and in-store displays, stocking and inventory management, hiring and training, doing payroll and HR functions, writing ad copy and marketing functions as well as first and foremost on the floor selling shoes.

After I left retail I landed a job as the manager of a wholesale book distributor. In this job, I once again was called upon to wear many hats. I did all the functions necessary because  I only had one other employee at the beginning a person to answer the phone, bookkeeping, and taking orders. I did the inventory management orders and stocking, packing shipping and receiving of books. I designed the product catalog and all the marketing materials, I was the sales department going to conventions, prospecting by telephone and school visits.

I also was in charge of the IT functions. In 1986 this entailed everything related to computers. It was a great time to start because it was at the beginning of the computer age.  I had to set everything up. We had a book company on the internet even before Amazon. I designed the website and monitored the back end. I also managed the security and back up of physical computer systems,
I was afforded the luxury of taking computer classes.

The school book business was changing and we weren't able to adapt because of poor ownership.  I decided to buy a leadership and management training franchise. I wanted to improve companies because of my previous experience in retail and the wholesale business with poorly run companies. Well, the timing was very bad because I started in 2006 and the recession was hitting and the first things cut was training.

After a few years of "bridge jobs", I landed at a tent and event rental company as business development manager. I once again started to take on many other roles due to the size of the company and its expanding needs. I once again took on IT duties and ran the social media. I implemented a CRM and email campaign. I was called on to manage projects in the field when we got too busy for the GM to handle. I also took on the tasks of writing bids and proposals. I then was called upon to get permits for our tents, This became a real challenge, I  had to learn CAD and deal with architectural drawings.  I increased my sales and prosecuting duties to help launch our expansion into three other markets.

Now you see why I call myself the Swiss Army Knife of skill sets because Jack of all trades is still not valued in some circles. By the way, the original expression is; Jack of all trades master of but not one.

Toastmasters: the underrated resource.

I had been a member of Toastmasters in the late '80s and early '90s. I recently rejoined and renewed my zeal for the great value it has in all aspects of life. I had initially thought I was doing this renewed effort to benefit my wife who really needing the experience Toastmasters brings. She was terrified to speak in front of people. She was apprehensive at first and soon found the nurturing atmosphere of the group comforting. She came a long way and is growing in her confidence and general demeanor before people.

I found that the new Pathways ( the curriculum)  that Toastmasters began using at the time I returned from my 27-year hiatus was very instructional and tailored to fit ones particular area of interest. I gave you a choice of what social and communication skills you wanted to focus on.

I highly recommend Toastmasters to anyone wanting to improve their interpersonal communication skills.  From the minimal cost of time and money, it is the best-underrated resource out there.

We put virtual to the test.

We have been dealing with moving elderly parents into an independent living center. They live in Kansas City so we had spent a month up there finding a place, preparing the move, cleaning out the house, holding an estate sale and moving them in. We had to arrange all the paperwork and details, make sure the mail was forwarded and arrange to pay all their bills. We came back for Thanksgiving spent a few weeks at home and returned to Kansas City to spend Christmas with them and get the massive amount of paperwork prepared for getting V.A. benefits. We packed our laptop and printer.
Using my cell phone as a hotspot we were able to download and print over 50 pages of paperwork. We also had to compose letters and emails to the doctor, financial planner, lawyer, and the V.A. We had to get many documents notarized and the stress of getting elderly people with disabilities to accomplish this was stressful. Especially the financial decisions and explaining it all to them. This was a baptism of fire for us and helped us learn to be Your Office SOS.