About a year ago I had the pleasure of seeing a true professional in action. The event was a surprise for my wife Bonnie. I arranged for our two sons (Paul & Chris) and their wives (Laila & Leili) to come for a visit with us in our home in Dorchester, Canada. To record the event I hired a close family friend, Tobin Smith, who happens to be a successful photographer. I observed Tobin’s attention to detail, the passion he brought to the job and the joy he shared with us to get all of us to bring out our true selves. He was amazing to watch. I learned a lot from him over a two day period. He resides on the west coast of Canada with his wife Sarah and their new son Oliver. If you want someone to capture the essence of who you are, Tobin can be contacted at www.photobinphotography.com, and share his joy, then I encourage you to visit his website.

Map of Cyprus

For the past three years I have been working with Interlife Insurance Company of Cyprus. The company has 10 agencies around Cyprus. I have spent the majority of my time with the field and corporate management teams. We just completed a special week-long seminar for advisors - the APDS - Agents Professional Development in a 4-day rather than 5-day seminar format. Then we delivered a half-day seminar with the Managers on how to manage the advisors over the next 6 months. What made this event special was that we did not charge the company anything except expenses. We structured the billing to prove to the company that our systems, processes and tools when correctly applied, develop high performance agents. Now we will track the advisors over the coming weeks and months, offer guidance when appropriate, and when the 6 months are complete he will be paid. When we are successful we will receive a percentage of the increase in premium generated by the 23 participants. We are excited by this project for it will once again (as it did with ING Romania) prove the value we offer to our clients. (Note - this is a special project and is not something Jim or Professional Sales Plus plans do in the future with other clients)

For the past 10 years I have been building my company (Professional Sales Plus, Inc.).  I don’t think I will slow down any time soon for I love what I do.  The challenge is to find alternate sources of revenue and to keep adding value to my existing and future clients.

The alternate sources of revenue have been my 4 books.   I have sold a good number of them and I am continuing to write more. These books are now in 8 languages.  I have two more coming into print this year - The Passionate Trainer and Another Flippin Change Book.   I am also going to launch a Manager’s Assistant which is a ongoing source of guidance for managers to help them run their business and their teams.

The value I am adding is in the form of copy written seminars that comprehensively train salespersons, first line managers and agency/branch managers.   These are five-day seminars that build skills very quickly. I have sold two of these programs a few times and look forward to selling them in the future. The customer can have me train their trainers to deliver these programs, or I can deliver them to the participants.

I have also launched 3 of 4 websites; this one, About my Professional and Personal Life, and One About my Company.   I am looking for ways to help existing and potential customers to find me on the internet.

Another business project is to enlarge the Professional Sales Plus Team. I now have 9 associates in various countries promoting or delivering the Professional Sales Plus message and seminars.  I have partners in Romania, Turkey, Slovakia, three in Jamaica, China and four in Canada

I will continue to build this enterprise for it is my legacy.