2024 Midwest Staffing Conference - Speakers and Sessions

Andre Young is a Professional Speaker, Author, Leadership Trainer, and Founder of You Evolving Now, LLC. He worked as a Mental Health Therapist for 19 years, played sports at every level from high school to professional, has been an employee, a business owner, and self-employed, and has written 5 books focused on enhancing Leadership & Work/Life Harmony. As Founder of You Evolving Now it's his mission to enhance Leadership and Work/Life Harmony for organizations, leaders, employees, and teams with his high-energy, interactive, culture-impacting leadership training programs and speaking engagements; allowing a professional and personal evolution!

Opening Keynote - April 24, 2024  - Evolve Your Leadership in 3

This high-energy, interactive, culture-changing training is focused on Management and Employees enhancing Leadership Skills, Personal Leadership, Work Culture, and Work/Life Harmony for themselves, their team, and the organization. 

• The 5 Points of Your Day – Everyone has 24 hours in a day… Leaders use their differently. Learn the 5 Points to live the life of your dreams, personally, academically, and       relationally
• A Leader's Burnout – Learn how to prevent or lead through Burn out as a Leader; or no matter where you are on the Org Chart
• A Leader’s Accountability – Enhance Leadership and Work/Life Harmony as we learn to lead with accountability, avoid distractions, and rate ourselves in the various                   professional roles we play

Breakout - April 24, 2024 - The Leader's Toolbox

This high-energy, interactive, culture-changing training is focused on Management and Employees enhancing Leadership Skills, Personal Leadership, Work Culture, and Work/Life Harmony for themselves, their team, and the organization.

• A Leader’s Priority Quadrant – Companies and EVERYONE struggle when EVERYTHING is in Quadrant #1: High Priority/Handle Now! Learn the other quadrants, how to  delegate, and how to prioritize
• A Leader’s 1-on-1 Meetings – Learn how to have and request the most impactful…yet most cancelled and rescheduled meeting across all organizations
• Bonus: A Leader ’ s Vision & Vision Factors – Enhance Your Leadership and Impact as you learn your Professional Vision and what to do about it

Click images to order Andre Young's books: The Leader's Toolbox  and 7 Ways to Lead

         

Andre's Website: youevolvingnow.com

Andre appreciates your support of his charity:  theandreyoungfoundation.com

Lara Jones is one of the most requested speakers on grit and is an award-winning Leadership Performance Expert, Keynote Speaker,

Creator of the Global G.R.I.T. System™, Founder and CEO of two global businesses Be A Legend and G.R.I.T. Global™, accomplished author, athlete and executive coach.

Originally from the UK and now residing in Arizona, US, Lara has a track record of skyrocketing companies into multimillion-dollar empires. She has been crowned the WORLDWIDE STEVIE® Award Winner for “Woman of the Year,” “Female Entrepreneur of the Year,” “Female Executive of the Year,” and “Best Female Thought Leader of the Year” for her creation of the Global G.R.I.T. System™. Lara works with Fortune 100 companies, the US military, celebrities, and executives to develop and enhance performance on multiple levels for leaders, teams, and entire organizations. She has been featured on numerous podcasts, worked with and spoken in front of many household names including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, KPMG, Northwestern Mutual, Schlumberger and more.

Lara has been featured by PBS Brainline for her grit and resilience facing the loss of her youngest son and nearly her own life. As the renowned Global Grit Girl™, Lara has channeled her deep expertise and research into creating the Global G.R.I.T. System™ that is unveiled in her book “Hunt or Be Hunted”. This innovative and tailored framework identifies the four pillars and “types” of grit, accompanied by a bespoke adoption process that transforms theory into action, creating a bespoke quadrant for grit. Lara guides you in both identifying your grit strengths through the Grit Type Indicator™ and honing your abilities across all dimensions of grit to achieve peak performance and unparalleled excellence through her proprietary Global G.R.I.T. System™.

Lara is a wife to a US Marine and mother to young children, while also serving on the advisory board for Warrior Rising, a national non-profit organization helping veterans transition from military to entrepreneurship. She also sits on the committee for Dignity Health’s Foundation “Heaven Hummingbirds,” providing program development and emotional and psychological support for parents who have lost children.

Opening Keynote - April 25, 2024  - G.R.I.T. Through It™: The Science Behind Success

Join Lara, a celebrated leadership performance expert, renowned Grit expert, inspirational keynote speaker, author, athlete and creator of the Global G.R.I.T. System™ as she unveils the transformative power of Grit in her talk “G.R.I.T. Through It: The Science behind Success.” Lara, drawing from her pioneering Global G.R.I.T. System™ (featured in her book “Hunt or Be Hunted”) and personal journey of extreme resilience, explores the intersection of grit, science, and success. This talk will delve into the essential components of grit that make up the Global G.R.I.T. System™ – and how they forge unparalleled leaders and achievers. Lara’s insights are shaped by her diverse experiences, from being a 9-Time STEVIE® award-winner, winning “Woman of the Year”, “Thought Leader of the Year”, “Female Executive Of the Year”, and “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” to name a few, to overcoming profound personal challenges, including the loss of her youngest son, and nearly her life. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for developing grit in leadership, inspired by real-world examples and grounded in scientific principles, ready to embark on their path to extraordinary success and leadership.

Click image to order Lara Jones' book: Hunt or Be Hunted: How Anyone can Develop Grit and Lead Like a Legend

Lara's Website: larajones.com

Lara appreciates your support of Heaven's Hummingbirds, a place for healing after the loss of a child.

David Atkins is a retired New York State Police Captain afer 22 years of service. He ran all State Police operations for the County of Westchester NY, averaging approximately 400-500,000 911 calls a year. David was the New York State Trooper of the Year in 2003 followed by New York State Police Inves-gator of the Year in 2007. He moved up through the ranks during his 22-year career with the New York State Police. He went from patrol to Investigations to leading undercover units involved in Organized Crime, Auto Theft, Money Laundering, and large-scale drug organizations. David was also a first responder at Ground Zero on 09/11 where he spent weeks working in New York City. At the end of his career, he was the Incident Commander for the USGA 2020 US Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY.

While working full-time with the NY State Police, David also built a million-dollar international direct sales business with Beachbody, leading a team of 1,400 people today. Through his success both in law enforcement and business, David became a Keynote Motivational Speaker presenting to groups of a few hundred people to over 20,000 people in the NFL Super Dome in New Orleans. David recently published his first book The Leveled Up Life and exclusively works with clients 1:1 as an Executive Coach and in groups in his Consulting business. Most importantly David is a husband, and a father to his three daughters.

www.DavidAtkinsSpeaks.com

Closing Keynote - April 24, 2024  - No Excuses - Break Through Fear and Adversity to Play a Bigger Game in Business and Life

Have you noticed Fear, Adversity, Mindset and Excuses -- to name a few--are often the difference makers for those that are truly successful and those that aren’t?

We all face them each and every day, but a select few know how to overcome them.

So how do you overcome these obstacles that we all face every single day both personally and professionally?

You teach your organization a model that speaks to their inner core,

mindset and thought process to breakthrough these barriers.

That’s where David comes in.    The P3 Framework - Your Personal Perseverance Project.

Click image to order David Atkins' book: The Leveled Up Life: The No Excuse Blueprint to Live Up to Your Fullest Potential

David's Website: davidatkinsspeaks.com

Kristin Gutierrez is a highly sought-after expert in Sales, Growth and Leadership Development, a bestselling author: Be A Better Sales Leader, and an international keynote speaker.

She is an expert in revenue growth and strategy helping elite sales teams - not just with theory but with actionable takeaways to implement right away around mindset, systems, and scaling. Kristin provides valuable insights and actionable takeaways that can be immediately implemented to drive transformation within organizations. Her passion for helping companies create a positive and productive work environment is evident in her engaging and informative presentations. 

Breakout April 24, 2024 - Mastering AI for Staffing Professionals: The Secret to Leveraging AI to Drive Growth and Differentiate from Other Agencies Without Losing the Human Touch

Dive into this interactive session to unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence in your staffing agency. This hands-on experience is designed for staffing professionals who aim to differentiate their services and carve out a leading edge in the industry. This session is not just about understanding AI—it's about leveraging it to transform and lead in the staffing industry while preserving the personal touch that defines exceptional service.

Learning Objectives:

1.  Competitive Advantage: Gain insights on leveraging AI to create unique value propositions, setting your agency apart in the staffing industry by offering innovative, efficient, and highly responsive service delivery.

2.  Maintain Authenticity: Understand the importance of human oversight in AI-driven processes and discover strategies to ensure that technology enhances rather than replaces the irreplaceable human touch in recruitment and client relations.

3.  Strategic Integration: Implement actionable how-to strategies that not only streamline and enhance processes but also solidify your firm's position as a forward-thinking leader in the competitive staffing arena.

Click image to order Kristin Gutierrez' book: Be a Better Sales Leader - The Proven Systems to Unlock Greatness Within Your Team

Kristin's Website: kristingutierrez.co

Emotional Intelligence has been defined as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions, and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”

This program is designed to equip you with tools and trust-based behaviors to drive a greater awareness of yourself and of others on your team. Why is this program so essential? 92% of all business failures are EQ based. Everyone has their own unique leadership and management style, but there will be times when we need to adjust that style to suit the team and individual team members. This is not an easy task.

Emotional Intelligence takes you on a journey to a clearer understanding of how you and your team become more unified by being more emotionally aware. The results are increased buy-in from team members, greater accountability, and a deeper understanding of not just important work – but important people doing important work.

Moreover, these attributes of Emotional Intelligence will enable you to better influence others who do not directly report to you including clients and candidates. We will help you answer these critical questions:

•  How Do I Develop Self Awareness and Challenge My Paradigms?
•  What Are Blind Spots in Judgement and How Do We Recognize Them?
•  How Do We Begin to Build Trust Based Behaviors?
•  Are My Over Extended Behaviors Limiting Me?
•  How Can I Contribute to Team Commitment and Accountability?
•  How Do I Set the Tone for Respectful Conversations?

Your candidates and clients are very busy people. Their jobs require them to make many decisions daily, and frequently with a sense of urgency. From the moment you connect by email, voice mail, or in a live conversation, the clock is running and your prospect is judging….judging whether you act in a professional and competent manner; judging whether or not you open the conversation with confidence and knowledge of this person’s role and of the work being done; and judging as to whether they want to invest time with you in a conversation or move on the tasks and people they deem as more worthy of their time. These Four Great Truths are where what is smart in our industry meets what is right in our industry:

Awareness: If you don’t know where your client/candidate is in their decision process, you cannot know where you are in your search/sales process.

Behavior: Today’s short-term behavior has long-term consequences.

Diagnosis: Proposing services and solutions before understanding goals, problems, and needs is prescribing without first diagnosing.

Value Proposition: If you fail to differentiate with your approach, you will always be forced to differentiate with your price.

This session is about your ability to better anticipate and understand how your candidates and clients think when they are making important decision around your candidates and the value you bring to them. It is the accumulation of the very best practices of top billers and niche specialists in the search and staffing industry.

This dynamic and interactive client/candidate consulting program includes the following:

• Explore the 4 Great Truths of Our Industry that Drive Client/Candidate Decisions
• Understand How Prospects Think During 8 Stages of The Decision Process
• Be More Aware that Your Behavior Drives Their Behavior Toward You!
• Develop the Power of Insight through Better Diagnostic Questions
• Make Better Guiding Suggestions

Historically, salespeople have referred to client and candidate resistance as ‘overcoming objections.’ This language sets the stage for the wrong type of relationship. No one wants to be ‘overcome.’ People do, however, want to be listened to and responded to in a real and authentic fashion. Resistance is a normal part of making business decisions and the approach you take in responding will differentiate you from other recruiters in the marketplace.

Every time a candidate or client has resistance of any form, it is your moment to build a bridge of trust and value in the relationship. This is exactly why resistance is a necessary and even essential part of the sales process and should not necessarily be viewed as an obstacle; it should, however, be viewed as an opportunity to influence, inform, and guide our candidates and clients when they have an incomplete or inaccurate perception about us or our services.

This dynamic and interactive sales consulting program includes the following:

• Explore the most common types of resistance early in both client and candidate relationships.
• Challenge your Paradigm about Resistance: It is always an Opportunity to build a Bridge of Trust
• Guide the Dialogue and Respond More Effectively to Initial Candidate / Client Resistance
• Engage The Three Types of Listening to Resistance: Active, Empathic And Strategic
• Probe Beyond the Obvious to better understand what is behind the Resistance.
• Recommend The Most Effective next steps from your complete understanding of their Resistance.

Next Level Exchange Website: nlexchange.com

Matt Jones is known as the “Eight Continent Marathon Man.” He went from being a three-time cancer conqueror to relearning how to walk, to going through a bone marrow transplant, to completing eight marathons on eight continents. This includes Antarctica and the newly discovered continent of Zealandia. Matt was diagnosed with cancer on September 11, 2002. After spreading to the fluid in his brain doctors did not think he would live. After victoriously conquering cancer, he was told by his doctor, no one has gone through what he did and be alive one year later. Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett said, “Matt is a true champion and his story inspires others to be a true champion.” Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton said, “Matt Jones has done what anyone would consider impossible. Conqueror. Overcomer. Champion. Superhuman. None of those words do him justice." Matt is the author of numerous books and his latest one is, “Happiness is a Marathon: 26.2 Ways to be Happier at Work and in Life.  

For more information about Matt please visit his website at www.MatthewDJones.com

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Sales is a Marathon

Brace yourselves for a transformative experience as we delve into the riveting story of Matt Jones, who conquered cancer three times and completed a marathon on every continent after relearning how to walk. Matt draws parallels between his personal challenges and triumphs to share the keys to unlocking success in the competitive world of staffing.

In the fast-paced arena of search and staffing, professionals encounter a myriad of challenges that demand not just industry expertise but unwavering resilience. Matt, having faced life's toughest hurdles, shares an enlightening perspective on how personal resilience can be a game-changer in navigating the dynamic landscape of the staffing industry when it comes to sales.

This talk addresses the common point of pain experienced by staffing professionals, offering practical insights into transforming setbacks into opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Learning Objectives:

1) Walk away from this talk equipped with actionable insights.

2) Learn the art of embracing challenges as opportunities for growth, cultivating resilience in the face of adversity, and adopting a strategic mindset to stay ahead in the ever-evolving staffing industry.

3) Discover how to transform setbacks into stepping stones and ensure lasting success in the marathon of sales.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Leadership is a Marathon

Imagine leadership not as a sprint but as a marathon – a journey filled with twists, turns, and triumphant finishes. Get ready to lace up your leadership shoes and join us for a talk that will redefine your approach. In “Leadership is a Marathon,” Matt will break the mold, turning challenges into opportunities and showing you how resilience isn't just a trait; it's the secret sauce to enduring success in the world of leadership. Fasten your seatbelts; this is not your typical leadership talk – it's a marathon of inspiration and transformation.

In the ever-evolving landscape of leadership, you face multifaceted challenges that demand more than just management skills. Matt draws insights from conquering personal and professional marathons and shares a unique perspective on how resilience plays a pivotal role in shaping effective and enduring leadership in the staffing industry.

As leaders, you are under constant pressure, the need for strategic decision-making, and the challenge of fostering a resilient team. This talk addresses the shared point of pain among leaders, offering practical insights into leveraging personal resilience for navigating challenges and fostering a culture of enduring success.

From this talk, you will:

1) Walk away from this talk armed with tangible leadership strategies.

2) Learn how to embrace challenges as opportunities for personal and professional growth, cultivate resilience in the face of leadership adversities

3) Adopt a strategic mindset to steer your team through the ever-changing landscape of the staffing industry

4) Be empowered to turn challenges into lasting successes and emerge as a resilient leader in the marathon of leadership.

Reach out to Matt at mattspeaks78@gmail.com to purchase his paperback book: Life's a Marathon - 26.2 Ways to Fire Up, Pump Up, and Inspire Yourself

E-books also available: Sales is a Marathon, Leadership is a Marathon, Happiness is a Marathon

Matt's Website: matthewdjones.com

Matt appreciates your support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Kendra Mack is a highly sought-after leadership engagement expert and recognized DEIB specialist. From a job-hopping millennial to an industry leader, Kendra leverages her wealth of knowledge and experiences to guide organizations to create cultures where everyone belongs.

Honored as one of COLOR Magazine's top Chief Diversity Officers of 2023, Kendra has a track record of facilitating impactful change in Fortune 500 companies that lead to increased productivity, retention, and engagement. Kendra has shared insights and been featured in publications like PR Newsweek, HR.com, Diversity Woman Magazine, and more.

Kendra’s mission is to equip leaders with the tools they need to empower their teams and create truly inclusive cultures that foster success and innovation. Through her signature G.P.S. to Success™ program, Kendra guides company leaders in identifying their team’s core vision and aligning that with the company’s mission. In this new workforce landscape, Kendra brings a fresh perspective and new ways for leaders to engage their teams.

Breakout - April 24, 2024 - Beyond Skills & Resumes: Unlocking Candidate Motivation Through Vision-Driven Hiring

In a world where talent is scarce and competition is fierce, traditional recruiting tactics simply aren't enough. It's time to unleash the power of vision to attract and connect with diverse talent. This interactive session will push beyond the resume and delve into the hearts and minds of your candidates, equipping you with powerful strategies to:

• Understand the nuanced experiences of diverse candidates: Step into their shoes through a dynamic empathy exercise that reveals the unseen challenges and triumphs of navigating a potentially homogeneous environment.

• Uncover hidden talent pools: Explore innovative partnerships with local and national organizations that cater to diverse communities, tapping into a wealth of untapped potential.

• Become a vision matchmaker: Learn to ask the right questions to both hiring companies and candidates, revealing their individual visions for the role and for their future.

This session is not just about finding the right candidate, it's about building meaningful connections that foster your long-term success as a recruiter in this changing landscape.

TAKEAWAYS

• A fresh perspective on recruiting in today's diverse landscape.

• Practical tools and strategies to attract and engage top talent.

• A deeper understanding of the candidate experience and how to create a welcoming environment.

• The confidence to break free from traditional methods and embrace a visionary approach to recruiting.

Kendra's website: www.kendramack.com

Kendra appreciates your support of the St. Louis Crisis Nursery

Lia Elliott is an attorney and C-Suite advisor with 20+ years of boots-on-the-ground executive and legal experience in the workforce solutions and staffing industry. Lia is solutions-focused and works with clients to achieve business objectives while aligning legal compliance within risk tolerance and budget. A constant critical thinker and firm believer that “no” is seldom the answer, Lia simplifies legal complexities enabling growth in a mine-filled environment.

Areas of Specialization: Fractional GC/Executive Services • Labor, Employment & HR Support • Compliance Programs / Training • Litigation Management • In-House Legal Function Build

Breakout - April 24, 2024 - Jeoparty! The Best/Worst Party Ever!

No boring legal presentation for us! Join our host, Lia Elliott, Co-Managing Partner with Staffing GC and ISSA advisory counsel, for this interactive and fun session designed to cover hot legal topics in a quick hit, digestible, and gameshow style fashion. 

Zenja “Z.” Glass is the owner of Unlocking Greatness Staffing, Inc. She has been in the staffing industry for nearly 32 years. She is also a board member of the ISSA.

Z. strongly believes in the power of boosting your personal brand as leverage to also boost your business. She has over 800,000 social media and podcast followers all around the world. As an author, podcaster, and business owner, she certainly understands the value in establishing yourself as a thought leader and expert to help others achieve their goals in life.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - What Are You Going To Do With Your Precious Time?

Let’s discuss the importance of walking in purpose, and let’s redefine what it means to be SUCCESSFUL. We will conduct some powerful mindset exercises and go on a transformational journey to discover how you are going to move forward in life… and why it matters.

Click image to order Zenja's book: necessary.  Also available as an audiobook

Z's website: zenjaglass.com

Victoria Hill has 15+ years of experience in the human resources marketplace. She is skilled in all aspects of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I), Leadership Development and Human Resources Management. Her focus is the human experience and building inclusive relationships. Victoria is currently working as the Director of Diversity and Social Impact for Advanced Group. Advanced Group offers contingent and permanent staffing solutions, talent acquisition and management, consulting, outsourcing, clinical research and professional services. In 2018 Victoria started and now leads the company’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee which focuses on awareness, training, recruitment process, and public relations. The DE& I Committee won its first award in 2019 from the American Staffing Association - ASA Care Honorable Mention and its second award in 2022 from the Staffing Industry Analyst – 2022 DEI Influencer. Victoria also facilitates Neurodiversity, Conscious Inclusion, Interview Bias, Bystander Intervention, Building Inclusive Relationships, and many other DE& I trainings for her organization as well as external partners. Victoria and her team develop diversity programs to promote unbiased decision-making while creating a safe space for employees to thrive. Victoria and her husband live in Chicagoland and enjoy hosting karaoke parties for fun and relaxation.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Personality Diversity--Thriving as an Introvert in the Staffing Industry

Think about DE&I as Diversity, Extroverts, & Introverts. We often forget about the personalities of our employees being the driving force of performance.

Everyone in the staffing industry falls into an extrovert or introvert personality type, which shows up in the workplace in how we interact with our talent and clients. The first step

is understanding extraversion and introversion and how they exist at opposite ends of the same continuum. In this presentation, we will explore personality diversity and emphasize

the advantages of introverts in the staffing industry, and how to recognize and appreciate their contributions so they can thrive.

Kleopatra Papazahariou is a staffing sales and operations executive as well as a career mentor and sponsor who specializes in growing markets by architecting revenue in innovative ways. With two decades of staffing industry experience, she has a successful history of turning underperformers into super-performers, creating sales training programs from the ground up and leading sales and operations teams across the Midwest United States. Her experience spans all verticals including administration, clerical, human resources, accounting & finance, Information Technologies, commercial real estate as well as light industrial. Her background in the contingent and retained search space for both boutique and enterprise firms, and everything in between rounds out her understanding of not only the staffing industry, but the inner workings of the employment market as a whole.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Recruiting 101 - Hiring Back to Our Staffing Roots

With all the commotion around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it will impact the staffing and recruiting industry, Kleopatra “Kleo” Papazahariou will bring us back to our roots and talk about how to close our orders faster using staffing 101 skills. AI can make our lives a bit easier, and perhaps we can run a bit faster, but what AI does not have (and never will), is gut, intuition, and the ability to recognize the “it factor”. This workshop will serve to understand candidate’s backgrounds, discuss how to write a compelling summary, review how to effectively present them to clients in a way that cements recruiters as subject matter experts. In short, this session will provide actionable tips that can be implemented resulting in faster placements.

David Searns is Co-CEO of Haley Marketing, a web design and recruitment marketing firm that focuses exclusively on the staffing and recruiting industries.

For the past 26 years, David and his team have helped staffing companies to stand out from the competition, improve recruiting response, increase sales productivity, and stay top-of-mind with employers and talent. Haley Marketing and their sister company Recruiters Websites offer website design, blogging and social media, job advertising management, email & direct mail marketing, SEO and PPC, reputation management, strategy development and creative services.

Prior to forming Haley Marketing, David was Director of Marketing for a Western New York temporary staffing and direct placement service. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's in Management Information Systems from Clarkson University.

Breakout - April 24, 2024 - 10x Sales Acceleration - Using Marketing to Reimagine Your Staffing Sales Process 

Buckle up, folks! Most conventional sales methods in the staffing industry aren't just taking the backseat - they're in the trunk. It's time to take the driver's seat in redefining the sales process. And smart marketing is your gas pedal. This session will equip you with strategies to create a powerful, multifaceted approach that marries traditional sales with digital marketing to engage and convert clients like never before.

Takeaways:

• Implement Influence: Learn how to use other people’s stages (OPS), event marketing, strategic partnerships and influencer marketing tactics and turn your sales executives into industry thought leaders.
• Harness the power of tools like integrated direct marketing (IDM) as a force multiplier to improve sales consistency, effectiveness and results.
• Marketing Analytics: Grab the wheel and drive your sales using insights from marketing tools and analytics. Numbers don't lie, but they can definitely sell.

Learn how to attract and retain clients through value-driven content and irresistible sales propositions. Be the staffing firm that clients can't resist!

Mark Winter is an expert at driving sales performance, keeping focus on customers, and keeping things simple. For 20+ years, Mark has held every sales role out there- from Branch Manager to Vice President of Sales and Enablement for a $2.5B publicly traded staffing company. During that time he has spent countless hours figuring out what works and of course, what doesn't. This enables Mark to sniff out things that are blocking performance, remove the barrier, and get people to act. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds master certifications from some of the top sales training organizations in the world. Whether its strategic planning, sales process development, sales training, customer acquisition & engagement, sales team performance, or system and tool adoption, Mark can help get your team on track.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Adapting to the Shifting Staffing Landscape: A Model for Effective Sales Strategies in Changing Markets

The field of play is rapidly changing for staffing. Buying behavior has changed, and we must adapt our sales process to suit. The problem is that our actions reflect what feels right based on past experience, not a product of aligning behavior to current market conditions. We’ll introduce you to a model that shows four market phases, the strategies that work best in each, and how to assess your company’s position and strategy to get the best results.

The session will be broken out into two segments the first being a keynote style session that will cover the four-block concept in detail and the second will be a panel discussion with four staffing partners where they will share real-world experiences being in one of the four market phases.

You will come away with practical things you can to do make an impact immediately and determine if you have the right sales team in place and how to get them ready to tackle what’s next.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Cornerstones of Great Recruiting

In this session we’ll discuss all the things that separate world class recruiters from the everyday. Attendees will walk away with easy to apply best practices, a great structure for creating a competitive advantage, and the know how to build long lasting relationships.

Bob Pettke is the Chief Sales Officer at Automated Business Designs, developers of Ultra-Staff EDGE Staffing Software. After working for 16-plus years as a dynamic leader in the staffing industry. Bob wore many hats in the staffing industry, including Director of Franchise Sales, President of Mergers and acquisitions, and Chief Sales Officer for staffing companies that ranged in size from $35 million to $3.5 billion dollars in sales.

Bob also hosts The Staffing Buzz Network, an original Ultra-Staff EDGE podcast. The Staffing Buzz Network helps staffing and recruiting companies learn about the latest industry trends, staffing legislation, and gain valuable insights they can apply to their staffing business. The Staffing Buzz Network can be found on all major podcast platforms.

Breakout - April 25, 2024 - Selling: Act I, Act II & Act III, Don’t Forget Act III!

Like good theater, there are 3 Acts to the selling process in staffing. In the presentation, we will discuss each of the 3 Acts of the selling process, identify which act salespeople struggle with the most, and more importantly, how to avoid those struggles and close more business.

Prelude

• Driving The Sales Process

- What are you going to do next, when will you do it?

- Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Act 1

• Qualifying Prospects
• Prospecting Prospects
• Targeting The Right Audience (Are you talking to the decision maker?)

Act 2

• Discovery Process

• Next Steps

Act 3

• Proposing

• Securing The Business

No matter what type of staffing you provide, you will be better equipped to go to market after this session with a new outlook and approach on how to secure more business.

Mike Maxwell is a Chicago area comedian, writer, and actor. Mike has been a regular guest on WLS-890 and WGN-720 AM and was a featured writer for the Tribune’s RedEye newspaper. Although he performs nationally, Mike is a regular at the Zanies and the Chicago Improv while performing at all the major clubs in Chicago. His comedy style is an upbeat level of sarcasm and emotion covering many personal moments the audience may have experienced as well.

Mike recorded his debut comedy album ‘Wait it out!’ at Zanies Rosemont in October of 2023. It is in post production with a 2024 release date to be scheduled. In 2021, Mike Maxwell performed in the World Series of Comedy advancing to the semi-finals of the House of Comedy satellite. Mike was one of three comedians selected to the Chicago Nerd Comedy Festival. Third Coast Review caught his performance and noted ‘Maxwell is a guy you can’t help but like, and his relatability and charm are immediately obvious in his set.” 

Aside from touring to clubs across the midwest, Mike has headlined dozens of corporate shows and events for such notable companies as the NFL/Ford, Twitter, Allstate, Salesforce, Snapchat, and the Boy Scouts of America, among many more.

Outside of stand up comedy, Mike is a writer, producer and performer of several projects. He was a featured columnist for the site Football Absurdity. The debut of his mock new hire orientation ‘The Anti-Boss’ was at the Chicago Sketchfest, Laughfest, and Fringe Festival. The Chicago Reader called it ‘a nimble, delightfully dispiriting hour.’ Mike’s acting credits include regional commercials for Ford and J.U.L.I.E. as well as a non-speaking role with ESPN’s Eli’s Places. 

Visit www.mikemaxwell.org for an updated calendar and link to more video performances.

Mike will entertain at the Midwest Staffing Conference cocktail reception on April 24th: Comic Nightcap at the Lounge