David Avrin, CSP has become one of the most popular speakers on customer experience in the world today. In recent years, David has presented for enthusiastic organizations and audiences in 22 countries on 6 continents. A former CEO group leader and an in-demand speaker for Vistage International, the world’s leading CEO member organization, David has had over 4,000 one-on-one conversations with company leaders regarding their value proposition and competitive advantages. David is the author of the newly released book, Why Customers Leave (And How to Win Them Back).
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- David’s Father
- Mark Scharenbroich
- Joe Calloway – Click this link to listen to the Joe Calloway podcast on The Entrepreneur Way
- Larry Winget – Click this link to listen to the Larry Winget podcast on The Entrepreneur Way
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the difficulties were both personal and business. On the personal side I think many of us look back to the 20 year old version of ourselves and we cringe little bit. I was just all bluster and all potential and confidence and maybe a little bit of arrogance and it is stunning to look back at how little I knew. But I was always the person that are great promise and great potential. I love that line discretion is the better part of valour. I didn’t have a lot of discretion, I think I was so confident in my opinions and I was a little too loud and I think I turn some people off. And as much as we’d love to go back and redo it I think we all know that we probably wouldn’t be we are today if we hadn’t gone through and learned what we learned ”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing Book by Harry Beckwith
- Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparisony Book by Joe Callowa
- Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable Book by Seth Godin
Favourite Quote:
“consensus kills creativity in that if you try to be acceptable to everyone you are not likely to be exceptional to anyone” David Avrin
Recommended Online Resources:
TripIt – An easier trip, every time starts with one place for all your plans Add helpful reminders and alerts throughout your trip, so you don’t miss a beat
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“be careful who you listen to. People are very free with advice. But it is easy to give advice if you don’t have a stake in the outcome. It’s astonishing to me how many people tell somebody who has a story where they have overcome something, ‘oh my god you should be a motivational speaker’and of course this is coming from somebody who isn’t a motivational speaker, has no idea what it takes, all the people who say ‘follow your passion and you will never work a day in your life’ that is such complete crap. I think passion is probably one of the leading sources of business failure because people think if you really are passionate, if you really love what you do the rest will fall into place, it is so not true, and passion is fine but nobody cares if you have passion that may be what drives you. I think the best advice recognise that the business is a business, if you like what you are doing all the better. We heard advice for years there was this old adage that said ‘if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door’ and it’s ridiculous, just by being good that’s enough, right at the end of the day it’s about quality, no at the end of the dates about hard work, at the beginning of the dates about quality, it better be good. The best advice is you will never work harder in your life and ‘there is no elevator to success you have got to take the stairs’and success is reserved for those… My colleague Rory Vedan talks about this that, you want to show up after success be willing to do the things that other people aren’t”…[Listen for More]
More About David Avrin:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” Eames, Inception
Other Quotes From the Chat with David Avrin:
- “discretion is the better part of valour”
- “experience comes from bad decisions and good decisions come from experience”
- “you are not the first, even if you think you have created that cure for cancer that tastes like chocolate, maybe there is some great new technology, maybe there is something that didn’t exist 20 years ago. The business itself did, the business structure did and there are so many who have walked your path. There is no need to recreate the wheel, there is no need to figure this out on your own. Whether it’s building structure within your business, whether it’s been smart in terms of allocation of resources, finding synergistic partners, others who are serving the same market, others who can help you, just early money in terms of been smart with how much of it you give to early investors and others, everyone of those aspects there is universal truth and it has been true for decades. So my biggest advices do not figure it out on your own. It does not mean every bit of advice you get is great, it’s like being a brand-new parent, not everybody’s advice on what you need to do with your baby is right but you can have people who will shorten your learning curve by years if not decades by learning from others whether it’s reading biographies of others in business… Online forums, small business networks, entrepreneurial networks”
- “for most of us we are selling the promise of what we can deliver. If you are in professional services, you can be a consultant, you can be an attorney, somebody in advertising, even somebody who is cutting hair you are selling the promise of what you can deliver so persuasion is such an important part of the conversation. It’s not saying here is the part here is what it costs it’s saying I can deliver this for you and I can do it better than others who also deliver this here is my unique value proposition, here is my area of expertise, here is my experience of doing what I’ve done”
- “if you want people to be interested you have to be interesting”
- “I am really fortunate that I’m doing what I should be doing”
Leave a Reply