Not long after starting her 'new career' she realised that not only was the business struggling, there were no systems in place to capture leads, nurture clients or manage day-to-day-workflow. So, she set about creating her 7 Step Power Principal S-Y-S-T-E-M (save yourself time, energy and money), and she turned the cleaning business into a multi-million dollar national cleaning company in the space of a few short years.
Lisa is also the winner of the Infusionsoft Small Business ICON Award for 2014 (formerly known as the Ultimate Marketer Award), entrepreneur, speaker, author, marketer, business owner, wife and mother to her 3 daughters. You can connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.
I'm now speaking on stages in Australia and the US to small business owners, as well as in smaller rooms and networking groups - I talk about how to turn their business J-O-B into their J-O-Y.
I had just been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Infusionsoft Small Business ICON Awards for 2014, and with that selection, I needed to go to Phoenix, Arizona where I would compete against the other 2 finalists for the title at the ICON Conference. Each finalist was given just 20 minutes to present their story to the audience of 5000 people... I knew the competition would be stiff as the competitors were both US Companies, and the Americans are great public speakers - so I needed to bring my 'A' game to the stage. Which is why I started to look for someone here in Australia who could teach me presentation skills that would be good enough to win the award... lucky for me, I found Michelle!
I'd always thought that good presenters were just naturally talented people. What I learnt from the program was that it takes skill to be an effective presenter, and a lot of practice! Knowing how to construct a talk is all about following the steps Michelle teaches in the program, and always remembering that it's not about you, it's about the audience; I hate to think what my presentation might have sounded like if she didn't know the steps she taught me. Honestly, just doing that saves so much time, and plus when you know her steps, you know who your audience are and then make sure you are addressing all their WIIFMS and never forgetting how important it is to POD!
I'm happy to report that my presentation helped me win the competition, so I am now officially the Infusionsoft Small Business ICON for 2014 - AND, the first woman and first international company to win the award. And since winning, it's been full on - I've been booked to speak at a number of events in Australia, and I'm giving a keynote to 16,000 small business owners in Orlando, Florida this November which is HUGE... on top of that, I've been asked to co-author a book with Brian Tracy - "Power Principles for Success", and later this year I'll be appearing on his TV show "America's Premier Experts" which is on CBS and Fox Affiliates around the US.
I feel much more comfortable on a stage now and I'm able to use the skills I learnt in the course to control my nerves and deliver my message in a much more natural way. Plus, I'm super aware of the language I'm using when I'm on stage - before it was all 'ums' and 'ya knows'!!
