From the desk of Mike Allison
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Thank you for being a subscriber.
I appreciate you very much.
And sometimes I get asked, “Mike, what makes you an expert on sales, LinkedIn, and using social media to attract clients, grow a business, and make more money?”
Consequently, the title of today’s post is “Why Listen To Me?”
But, before I share my credentials with you, let me make clear that I don’t know everything, obviously, because no one does.
However, I am a continuous learner, always have been and always will be, because I know that the key to success in any endeavor is to keep learning.
Additionally, if you ever have a question for me that I can’t answer, I promise you that I’ll find the answer for you if you can’t find it yourself.
Fair?
My business credentials
I’ve built and owned 4 businesses, Content Igniters is #4.
Mike Allison Coaching is #3, and I still have this business.
In fact, if you’d like, check out my YouTube channel »»» Mike Allison Coaching ««« and feel free to subscribe to it.
I have 1855 subscribers on that channel and I haven’t posted any videos there for months.
But, that’s going to change in 2022, because I’m going to start doing videos again on the following subjects:
• client attraction
• business growth
• positioning
• marketing
• messaging
• pricing
• sales
• freelancing
If there are any other topics related to small business, coaching, freelancing, sales that you’d like me to cover, just let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige.
TW Allison Corporate Consulting is business #2.
My wife and I, along with 2 Chinese partners, established this company in Guangzhou, China back in February 2009.
And that was a ton of fun because we were working with some of the world’s largest and most iconic brands, in their respective industries.
Brands like Timberland, Avon, Hush Puppies, Mattel, Hasbro, PwC, Deutsche Bank, National Australia Bank, HSBC, Maersk, Capgemini, Under Armour, and I could go on and on, but I won’t because I think you get the picture.
In November 2014, we sold that company, moved to Frankfurt, Germany, and that’s when I formed Mike Allison Coaching and started freelancing as a sales coach and trainer.
And that took me all over Europe and Asia, working in places like Russia, Czechia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Germany, the U.K., Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam.
During that time I was working with a few key clients, including Bayer, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Merck, and Essilor.
And the focus was training sales executives in the 8-Step Coaching Model so they could coach their sales teams more effectively, while at the same time I was conducting sales training for the teams those executives were leading.
And that led up to March 2017, when my wife and I returned to Canada because my parents were getting older and we needed to be closer to them.
From that time, I continued freelancing and traveling, conducting training for Essilor, Under Armour, Allergan, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Mölnlycke, and Lely.
Consequently, that brings us to the here and now.
I’m retired from all of the travel, thankfully.
And now I focus my time on working from the comfort of home.
I still work with salespeople, coaches, and freelancers, but I don’t have to get on airplanes anymore and travel halfway across the world.
I get to do the work I love, which is helping people with their mindset, sales, and marketing so they can attract their ideal clients, grow their businesses, make more money, and have a lot more fun.
The bottom line to all of this is that I know what it takes to start, market, sell, and grow businesses because I’ve done it multiple times.
And the first business I built was way back in 1994 - Pinnacle Maintenace.
That was a residential home maintenance company I ran right here in my hometown of Winnipeg. I had that company until I sold it in 2001 when my wife and moved to Taiwan.
On a side note, we were in Taiwan and Mainland China for a total of 13 years, and Germany for 2 1/2 years, before we returned to Canada.
My certifications
I’m a professionally certified coach by the Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness (CMOE).
I’m a Licensed Business Practitioner of NLP by Richard Bandler’s The Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
And although those certifications are nice to have, I can say, without any hesitation, that the most important keys to my success have been what I’ve learned by starting, marketing, selling, and growing my own businesses, as well as everything I’ve learned training executives and their teams.
There’s nothing to substitute for real-life, in the trenches, business experience.
My mission
Is to help coaches, freelancers, and salespeople to learn how to manage their mindset, how to control the conversations they have with prospects and customers, how to market their businesses, and to learn to sell like the highest performing salespeople - the top 5-10 percent, sell.
That way they can grow their businesses, make more money, and have a lot more freedom and fun in life.
And that’s why you might want to listen to me.
On the other hand, you might not want to listen to me, and that’s okay, too.
Just to remind you once more.
I appreciate you as a subscriber.
Let me know what you’d like me to address in future posts to help you in your sales career or in running and growing your business.
Peace and Love
Mike