An entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author, Laurie Guest is a “go-to-resource” for customer service excellence. For more than two decades, she has shared her practical point of view on customer service and staff development with audiences and companies across the country, blending real-life examples and proven action steps for improvement. Her latest book is The 10¢ Decision: How Small Change Pays of Big, presenting her most sought-after and impactful strategies to find and retain the best staff and highest-quality customers while delivering exceptional guest experiences.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
None
When business started difficulties overcame:
“even now there is still times when self limiting thinking is my hurdle. So I remember thinking when I first started what would I possibly have to say that somebody wants to pay to hear. And even though I was representing our clinic and I knew that they wanted to hear about the clinic I had a really hard time as I shifted to the entrepreneur role and it’s no longer Laurie representing this clinic it’s Laurie in her own business, with her own thoughts, with her own unique idea. And really it took me a long time… I mean there are still times and I struggle with it and I think somebody that everybody follows, some Guru I wonder if they have self-limiting thoughts as well or is there ego big enough that they believe everybody should come and hear what have to say. So it’s something I really have to think about a lot and scale it appropriately. I don’t need to have a business that is big as the famous names but I do have to believe in my passion and my message that it has value”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- How to Win Friends and Influence People Book by Dale Carnegie
- Take Time For Your Life: A Seven-step Programme for Creating the Life You Want Book by Cheryl Richardson
Favourite Quote:
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things” Robert Brault: American Writer
Recommended Online Resources:
Google LLC – is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“make sure your thinking the long game even if you don’t know you’re going to make it not. So for example knowing how you are going to capture your lead generation. So, if somebody kicks your tyre for whatever it is that you are selling and they show interest in any way… have you captured their name? Have you captured their email? Their phone number? Do you have a mechanism, a system in place to try and stay in touch with them? There is an old wise saying in sales, contact every 90 days until they buy or die. And I don’t know that’s necessarily true I think we can become menaces with that but the mentality behind it is don’t lose track of the people who are interested in you”…[Listen for More]
More About Laurie Guest:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” Lilly Tomlin
Other Quotes From the Chat with Laurie Guest:
- “I think I could have helped myself by understanding my competition better which might mean being more well read or more knowledgeable about my own industry. I think that sloping down”
- “I think that the most important thing that I did was my homework and I knew what I would need to be successful. I didn’t just assume because I passion and I am good at what I do that success would automatically come. I spent a lot of time looking at systems, I talked to a lot of people who were already doing what I wanted to do, I was a sponge of a learner, I joined my national association for my industry and I went to every meeting and was just sponging it all up, I was really, really soaking up the knowledge”
- “you can’t be scared off by past experience but it does have a factor on what our gut says”
- “you had better sell something that somebody else wants to buy”
- “run your numbers. No what you have to earn and know all of your expenses to be able to see if you are going to be viable rather than just going in with a wing and a prayer and a passion”
- “I really listen to what my customers say”
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