Harderwijk, October 4th, 2017. Yesterday I was in a conference call with Blair Singer and approximately 20 other people. The topic was the Mountain Leadership Experience. This is an annually recurring event, organized by Blair Singer and Kevin Cherilla. They climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with a group of  about 80 people, of which 20 are climbers and 60 are carriers. The carriers take care of all your stuff, so you can concentrate on climbing. Blair said, whether you’ll make it or not, the journey has begun. It is all about awareness, to help you find your bigger self. The event will take place in july 2018. The success ratio of this group compared to others that climb Mount Kili is 95% versus 42% for the other groups. Why is that? It is all about creating context and Blair Singer is a master in creating context.

Here are some leadership principles that he taught us.

1. You have to be the real deal.
   It is about your vision, you purpose and your why.
2. What are your core values?
   For Kevin who has summited Mount Everest several times and climbed all over the world it is safety.
3. You have to be a tiredless and avid student of your own trade.
4. You have to be incredible gracious on the mountain, because the survival of your team is depending on it. You are one big “family”, including the those 60 people that carry your stuff.
5. There are two parts and they are equally important. There is the preparation and the summiting. You should love them both!
6. Narrow time boundaries. Be present and on time.
7. Eliminate all uncentainties. Speak regularly with your team to see to it that we all are on track.

If you want to know more, go to www.mountainleadershipexperience.com and register and have fun!

Harderwijk, 9 juli 2016. Waarom gaat 95% van de bedrijven, die we met elkaar starten uiteindelijk weer teniet? De belangrijkste zaken in een bedrijf zijn marketing en sales. Want van wie krijgen wij ons geld? Ja, inderdaad van onze klanten, dus van anderen.

Een van mijn mentoren op het gebied van marketing, Alex Mandossian spreekt over de drie M’s in de marketing. Market, media en message, of wel markt, het middel, of medium waarmee, of waardoor de boodschap wordt verspreid en de boodschap zelf.

De meeste mensen beginnen met te vertellen waar ze goed in zijn, de boodschap. Ze staan op zenden. Maar hoe kun je nu je klanten bereiken  als je niet naar ze luistert en je niet hebt verdiept in wat zij nodig hebben, of willen?

Het begint dus met de markt. Bepaal wat je markt is en het liefste zo specifiek mogelijk.Hoe doe je dat? Daarover de volgende keer meer.