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Carol Porter
• January 28, 2011
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Motivational speaker and radio personality Dean Piper was the featured speaker at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday at the White Horse Tavern.
Piper is the owner of 4C Marketing Group, a full-service marketing and training firm that offers services such as advertising, web development, e-marketing, sales and management training, motivation and personal development seminars/workshops, and business and life coaching.
Piper also owns the Intertainment Network, parent of W4CY Radio, Intertainment TV, Intertainment IMag and UEC Military Freedom Network at www.w4cy. com where he hosts his radio shows, “The Power of You” and “The Power of We.”
Piper said the key to success in business is one’s own mindset and belief systems.
“You need to stop believing the economy is down and to stop believing that people aren’t buying stuff and stop believing that people aren’t spending money,” Piper said. “There are plenty of people out there who are spending money and are advertising and promoting businesses that are requiring your services no matter what you do.”
Piper said his philosophy was that there really was not a downturn, but that things went back to normal. To get new business, Piper said people must go out and get the business, and not wait for the business to come to them. “We just have to go out there and do what got us successful to begin with,” he said. “We got used to being fat where we didn’t have to work for it. People were knocking down our doors.”
Piper shared how he is coaching a real estate agent who was selling houses easily a few years ago and now he can’t sell one. “I asked him if he was prospecting for new clients,” he said. “The answer was, ‘No, I never had to.’ That tells the story right there. We have to actually go back to the basics.”
A sales person in a slump should go back to what they were doing when they were a rookie.
“Anybody who has been in sales for a long time will tell you that rookies are the superstars of the organization,” Piper said. “They don’t know any better but to just sell people. It’s not about the product or the economy. It’s about the relationships you have with the prospects and the clients.”
Piper said that a bad economy can be the best time to be in business.
“You have to go out and get the business,” he said. “Instead of having 100 people call, only 20 people call. The smart businesses realize that this is when you should be networking the most.”
Piper pointed out that IBM and FedEx both came out of the Great Depression. “That’s where opportunity lies,” he said. “Down economies are when opportunities rise. That’s why you should be surging forward with your business right now.”
To contact Piper, call (561) 506-4031, visit www.w4cy.com or e-mail dean@w4cy.com.
Also speaking at Wednesday’s luncheon was Dr. David Samore, principal at Okeeheelee Middle School.
Samore offered a presentation on an unusual partnership he wanted to see take place between Wellington and Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, Spain, which was the site of the World Equestrian Games a few years ago.
“This is an exciting opportunity that is at the doorstep of the Village of Wellington,” Samore said. “This city is one that’s important to me both personally and professionally. That’s because Spain is a country that I go to as often as possible and know well, and also because of the school I represent.”
Okeeheelee Middle School is the only school in the state that has a formal relationship with a foreign country, Spain. “The Consulate of Spain in Miami comes to visit my school about three times a year,” Samore explained.
In late November, they were having lunch and the conversation turned to Jerez de la Frontera desiring to become sister cities with an American town, and Samore suggested Wellington. “I have been in conversations with county commissioners, village officials and school district personnel,” he said. “This is continuing to gather some steam. It’s a natural. It could open doors for both communities, as well as open opportunities for growth.”
In other business, Tim Shields, chairman of the chamber’s new technology committee, made a presentation on this new initiative.
“We were part of the Business and Economic Development Committee,” Shields said. “We have split out to focus on any of the chamber’s activities related to technology.”
Shields said he is looking to work with residents to raise their technology levels.
For more information about the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, call (561) 792-6525 or visit www.wellingtonchamber.com.