Jennifer Garrett is a dynamic internationally recognized speaker, author of the book Move the Ball and high-performance expert who is widely known for pushing boundaries, inspiring others, and driving individuals, businesses, and organizations out of their comfort zones to play at higher levels. Today, Jennifer, together with her organization, Feel the Push provides lessons on how to play for success and how to step up the game in order to drive results and cross the goal line. Her organization also works with collegiate and professional athletes as they transition off the field to be all-star players in life beyond the game. Jennifer draws upon her experience from her 20-year career in fortune 50 companies where she had a proven track record of delivering results, boosting organizational efficiency, driving cultural transformation, closing large-scale negotiations and exceeding targets.
Her seven college degrees coupled with her extensive corporate executive leadership and military experience as an Army judge advocate officer gives Jennifer a diverse skill set that is well suited to connect with audiences around the world and help individuals and organizations to move the ball and achieve long term excellence.
“There's a lot that sports can teach us, such as the teamwork, the resiliency, but I found that there was a lot more that football had taught as well as those other concepts that I really just resonated with.”
“How it's helped me is I really think it's important to find out what unique differentiated value you can bring to any conversation or…”
“One of the things that I've been working on is I'm launching a program in September called inside the huddle. And what it is designed to be is a community where people will support you, champion you, hold you accountable…”
“I have been able to connect through these social channels with a number of professional athletes for example. And one of them, who I've become really great friends with, he played on the 1985 Chicago bears Superbowl championship team.”
“First and foremost, I think it's important to A. remain your authentic self and so own who you are and be true to that.”
“You have to be the quarterback. As I mentioned in my book, you are the quarterback and it's really up to you to take action to move that ball forward.”
“What I will say, it's being strategic with both of them. So there is something to be said about having in-person connections and oftentimes I will connect with people digitally and if there's an opportunity to follow up in person, either because we're in the same geographical area or because we are traveling to a geography that we're going to be.”
“What I would say to my 20-year-old self is don't ever think that you can't do something.”
“I would really like to connect with Elon Musk because…I'm a Tesla owner, so I love the product…I just like his way of thinking, his visionary mentality…”
“The book is called extreme teams…and basically it looks at why these seven companies, Pixar, Netflix, Airbnb, and some other cutting-edge companies tend to succeed where other companies fail.”
“I think you should view every day as an opportunity to interact and meet new people and take advantage of those, but also a bigger reason why you network aside from the looking at how you can mutually support one another and building the relationships like we talked about, there's just the growing and the learning that you get from interacting with different people.”
You can get in contact with Jen at:
LinkedIn: Click Here
Website: Click Here
Haris is a 2-time national award-winning entrepreneur, 2-time national best-selling author, keynote speaker, and a digital marketer. He previously co-founded a media company that helped authors, speakers, and coaches build their brands online. He took the company to a 6-figure business in 10 months. Haris was also previously a growth hacker at Vaynermedia, building Gary Vaynerchuk’s personal brand. He’s built SYNCSUMO, a SAAS Solution with customers in 30+ countries and now runs a consultancy that has generated millions of dollars for clients.
“You think clear, you have more energy. The people with the most energy throughout the day win.”
“Everybody's different, but you just have to test different things.”
“Travel is huge because it lets you unplug because if you're always working, working, working and you're always doing the same thing…”
“A lot of business owners, including myself, before I used to think, let's say you make 10 bucks…and then most business owners want to keep 10 bucks in their own pockets, want to use it for their own experiences or whatever, because they're scared because they don't know where the next $10 is going to come from…”
“To your point of networking in today's world, a lot and networking parties or after parties or whatever you want to call them, come with an open bar, which a little bit of liquid courage helps…”
“Typically, I just give a lot. Gary’s (Vaynerchuk) book, Jab, Jab, Right Hook should be retitled to Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Because typically, I just give as much as I can and then when I give something to someone, they typically stay in front of me asking, how can I help you?”
“You’ve got to get out there. There's no easy way about it. You’ve got to go to networking events. You’ve got to go to speaking seminars. You’ve got to get out there somehow, someway.”
“You're complete stranger online. In-person, people feel you. I don't know how to describe it. They feel your vibrations and they feel how good of a person you are and your energy levels. I mean, there's definitely a different sting to that because you can't get that online.”
“Definitely be more patient. Before I had always used to, you know, if something didn’t go my way, I would get sad or depressed or ‘oh my goodness, the world is against me.’ Uh, now I just rely on myself. Whatever happens, it's my fault.”
“I mean, I'm connected to everyone I really want to be. There's no one I really can't get to or haven't gotten to that I want to talk to.”
“The Fourth Agreement is one of my favorite books ever. It's changed the way I think, the way I approach life.”
“Never settle. And especially, momentum is huge in business. That's probably the biggest thing. Once you have momentum, you don't want to stop.”
You can get in contact with Haris at:
Instagram: Click Here
LinkedIn: Click Here
Adam Connors is a sought-after speaker, social architect, podcast host and super-connector who has transformed lives and accelerated careers. He’s the Founder & CEO of NetWorkWise, a business platform that expedites outcomes for people through training in the art and science of personal and professional networking. An entrepreneur at heart, Adam has spent over 20 years starting & building companies across a variety of industries. His sole focus these days is teaching people how to NetWorkWise.
“the majority of people just don't understand what networking is and that's where they go wrong because a lot of people feel that it's dirty or they don't feel comfortable with it…”
“So, my podcast, it's called Conversations with Connors and there's three criteria to being on my show. Number one, it's kind of like the foundation of networking, that I know, like, and trust you with a little caveat and/or admire you, you know, maybe something that you've done or accomplished.”
“it turned out that this thing is really a really trendy thing to be doing and, you get enough listeners, it really benefits your business.”
“A significant amount of reading…I didn't realize what I was getting into.”
“I'm going to take this back over 20 years with my friend Ernie, who I met over 20 years ago…”
“I think it really all starts with active listening. When I get to know people, I try to skip over the superficial stuff, the conversation and kind of dig in to, you know, kind of who they are and what fires them up…”
“Know their why. You know, why are they doing this? You know, their intent needs to be genuine, otherwise, it'll look dirty and it won't generate the kind of results that they might desire.”
“Oh, it's a no brainer. I mean, traditional in-person relationship building is just standard. You know, they say gold standard, I say platinum.”
“I'd probably cut toxic people out of my life quicker. There was some kind of statistic, it's like 5% of the negative people in your life are responsible for 95% of the bad things that happened to you.”
“Start. They say the old Buddhist term is, you know, best time to have started something was 20 years ago. And the second-best time to start is today.”
You can get in contact with Adam at:
Website: www.networkwise.com
Tim Manion - Director of Business Development
With a team of Account Executives, Tim curates, develops and manages relationships with potential clients, influencers and stakeholders. In his tenure he has had the opportunity to strategize across a diverse scope of industry and business models, ranging from fortune 50 companies to crowdsourced startups. Prior to joining the Catalyst team, Tim worked in medical sales and operations management.
Kyle Baldwin - Director of Design
As the Director of Design at Catalyst, Kyle is responsible for creating meaningful engagements between people, brands, and places. He employs multi-disciplinary design methods to focus on the intersection of communication design and the built environment. Since joining in 2012, he has led some of the agency’s most unique, engaging, and interactive experiences for national brands such as RSA, FN America, GungHo Entertainment, Intel, CDW, and the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Tim: “We work with various clients in every industry too, um, in its simplest form, bring them to a trade show.”
Kyle: “So, it's obviously becoming a much younger generation. The millennials are kind of driving a lot of different, uh, ways of selling and engaging with brands. And they're much better, much more educated about their products they're interested in because of the Internet.”
Tim: “It's interesting to watch how people use LinkedIn in my day today. Um, I use it as an opportunity to figure out who I'm talking to. A lot of people use it for networking to get in touch with people, but when I step into a room to pitch any sort of deal, I'm looking at who's in the room…”
Kyle:” It’s an opportunity to have a more natural conversation with a company, with a person, with a brand…”
Tim: “We get the opportunity to work with a lot of cool clients and they pulled back the curtain. Um, so half of it is just enjoying what you do and the natural curiosity to just figure out…”
Tim: “I mean, the benefit of a trade show is the entire room is networking. Um, and I think the best experiences I've had is when a plan goes right, um, we put together pre-post-show marketing for any given client, um, and a client that's willing to listen…”
Tim: “It's one thing at its very core on our end, you have to get, uh, a lot of trust from people. We're selling a picture really. Um, so it's being honest, upfront and sincere. Um, and then the follow-through, I'm on the show floor, sleeves rolled up, making sure everything happens…”
Kyle: “I'd say we, we kind of keep up with just what's happening in the organization through obviously the, you know, Internet and social media and things like that. So, we're always…”
Tim: “You should value the people you bring into your fold. It shouldn't just be this person linked with me. You don't know what they do. You don't know who they like. If you're going to if I'm going to reach out to someone…”
Kyle: “I would say really like define what you want and what you would like to do. Right. And like find people doing that and kind of echo that career path in some way.”
Tim: “I'll say that the folks I hire right out of college are the best-suited people in the world at getting a hold of people. Everything is done digitally. Every platform they know, LinkedIn, Instagram, I mean these things are taught in college now. And when I was there…”
Tim: “Don't get bogged down in the details. Just possible. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun to watch. When you do hire people who do it, it's like managers notice that and they'll help you and they'll give you every nugget along the way. But if you're in there asking for handouts…”
Kyle: “I'd say there's probably a few more up there like Polish share and you know, Stefan Sagmeister and things like that I would love the chance to meet...”
Tim: “Just be honest.”
Kyle: “I'd say be fearless then in it as well because you have nothing to lose and it's your career and your path and just own it and you know, don't tread lightly on it. Go and attack every opportunity…”
You can get in contact with Tim at:
LinkedIn: Click Here
Email: tmannion@catalystexhibit.com(link sends e-mail)(link sends e-mail)
You can get in contact with Kyle at:
LinkedIn: Click Here
Lisa Attonito was named the Executive Director of the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee in November of 2016. Committed to activating philanthropy to advance equity for women in our community, the focus is on economic empowerment, leadership skills, and education. The Women’s Fund is working to change attitudes, behaviors, and culture so Greater Milwaukee is an inclusive world-class community where women and girls realize their full potential, and everyone thrives.
Attonito has extensive experience in organizational management, board governance, staff development, budget creation and oversight, along with brand development and engagement. Her career includes senior positions with several well-known, best in class nonprofit organizations. She has always had a growth mindset and believes strongly in building brand experiences that reflect the culture and mission of the entity while supporting the strategic goals. Her track record of sales includes consistent success and a dynamic network that is fueled by sound project management and good communication.
“I am hoping to, um, establish or re-introduce the women's fund as a thought leader and community creator. As executives, we're terming off the board. We were able to add new directors to the group that are enthusiastic, that are excited, that have new networks and new ideas.”
“We are in the midst of planning our annual educational event. We use a title of women's Fund presents and then each year there's a different theme. And so, this year the theme is the future and we're focusing on the year 2030.”
“I met a friend, Lela Owner, Carrie Airway for an annual sort of social gathering in December for years in a row and taking advantage of social media Carrie posted among her friends…”
“One of the things I'm really committed to is keeping my LinkedIn profile current and not only current about my work experiences, but even my contact information.”
“Be curious. Cause if you are curious, you don't have to work at being social. It just comes so naturally. And I think the more curious people are, the easier it is for them to talk to people that they don't know.”
“I really think the best answer is a blend…whether you meet someone in person or online, eventually you have to do the other, right?
“I think being vulnerable throughout life is really important, not only in interpersonal relationships and family relationships, but then I just think in general in building business relationships…”
“I really love to meet everybody. I can be walking down the street and someone's walking towards me and there's something about them. Either I like the shoes they're wearing…”
“Terry Gross does a fantastic job interviewing so many people that I often am listening to her interviews. Sometimes they're historic, you know, and archived and some are in the moment.”
“Be sure to keep relationships that are strong, that are dependable, that you feel comfortable with…”
You can get in contact with Lisa at:
Email: lisa.attonito@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Click Here
Details on “The Future, 2030” can be found here.
“Vistage is 23,000 CEOs in 20 countries worldwide and key business leaders taking a step back from their businesses one day a month to reflect, get other input from other their peers.”
“A good friend who is a Vistage Chair, and it was about a year and a half process where we had a conversation one day, we're sitting out for coffee and he says, Mervin, you really ought to consider this. You know, this is your passion. You love helping people, you love seeing people grow and you will be amazing.”
“The mission was to address what I saw, in my opinion, that was really going wrong out there. When I see people networking some of the a faux paux that they are making and wondering why networking is tough…”
“I was in a job transition now seven, eight years ago after I closed down my commercial loan brokerage and I was out networking and someone who, who I'd met said, Hey, I think you need to talk to John about something…”
“I have a built-in process with the business alliance. We are a membership organization. We host events and programs, right? So, we do 75 plus of these a year. So, I'm constantly in front of my network in that capacity.”
“Be a giver. Don't be in a rush to try to get. Just be a giver.”
“For me, I'm a people person. Nothing beats a face to face conversation, sit down looking into another person's eyes and checking out their body language and all of that.”
“I would just say break out of your shell. People aren't concerned about you, they're concerned about them.”
“I'm kind of a junkie when it comes to reading. Currently, I'm juggling only two…I just finished one, finished a third, Can't Hurt Me recently. And so, I'm reading The Power of Peers…”
“Get out there and get active. We see so many folks who get excited about being part of a new network and then they let their business or life get in the way.”
You can get in contact with Mervyn at:
LinkedIn: Click Here