Successes

The LC 5-Step Formula is so Powerful, Even a 13-year Old Can Use it!

Challenge Frank*, the 13-year old son had a school project: interview a celebrity for Long Island Newsday's Special Student Insert. After discussing it with his friends, he chose that beautiful young lady from The Apprentice, Ivanka Trump. Now the real challenge: how to connect with her!

Approach First, his father contacted Savio. He knew George Ross (the older gentleman on the show) and made the first connection. George then advised Frank to write a letter directly to Ms. Trump mentioning George's name. Frank was advised on how to write the letter, but wrote it himself. For impact, he sent it FedEx Next Day Air.

Results The next day, he received a call from Ms. Trump and scheduled the interview. Dressed professionally, with a present in hand to show his appreciation he conducted his interview and later thanked her and followed up.
(* Name not real)

Young Man Connects With Lifelong Mentor

Challenge As a young man, Savio decided he wanted to meet Charles Wang, CEO of Computer Associates, in order to learn from him about the industry.

Approach He decided that the Connector would be his secretary, Janet. He decided to meet her directly, so he came to the office, explained his goal, and asked if he could wait and see him, planning on spending the whole day waiting. She then offered an alternative - to call up on Friday, and see if it's a convenient time to schedule a brief meeting. He did as instructed, but that Friday wasn't convenient.

Results He then offered every other Friday at 9:30 AM to find out if that was a good day. Impact is sometimes the result of persistance. The two became good friends. Nine months later, when Savio called, SHE said that day was a terrific day because he had just closed a big deal, and she could squeeze him in at 11 AM. The two met, and began a lifelong mentoring and friendship relationship.

Introducing CEO's to a New Airline

Challenge A major US airline is launching New York to China direct flight service and needs to invite 30 top CEOs and Chairmen to be on their inaugural flight on first class with the airline’s CEO to celebrate that auspicious moment.

Approach Due to the late approval from the Chinese government, the airline only had 45 days to invite all these senior executives on their first flight to China. They were only getting a handful of CEOs and senior executives confirmed and they were very concerned that the low attendance would reflect unfavorably to this very important launch service.

Results Leader Connections was retained to recruit and invite CEOs and Chairmen of Global 1000 companies on this inaugural flight with five stars hotel accommodations. In less than 30 days, Leader Connections was able to recruit over 20 C-level executives on this inaugural flight to China. And, some of those companies actually became frequent flyers with this major airline!

Advancing One's Career

Challenge A junior business executive was looking for a job and was very concerned by the prospects of a weak economy. She has virtually no business contacts in New York as she traveled from another State. However, she did have a good resume and some good experiences from her previous employment.

Approach After some one-on-one coaching, Leader Connections helped rewrite her resume and with her created a list of highly desirable companies for whom she wanted to work. Leader Connections then set up meetings for her to meet with Chief Executives and other top C-level executives.

Results Within one month, she received four job offers directly from the top executives from those companies! She selected her employer and because she was hired by the CEO, she had got two promotions within the last 18 months.

Case Studies

Presenting Your Brand with Impact

Challenge I had recruited a young guy (very early 20s) for a visual basic developer position at one of my clients. he had a two-year computer science degree and had been working for a year and a half to two years as a sort of one-man IT department for a very small, rural manufacturer. He did it all...programming, networking, support, you name it.

Approach The day before the interview, he and I met for lunch. He brought along his laptop and proceeded to show me how he had developed an application for my client, based on information he had gleaned from me, their web site, and other sources. he had been working on it every morning for the past week, and it was most impressive. Good functionality, slick interface, intelligent use of technology...simply awesome.

Results The day of the interview came and went. He did well, just as I had expected, but we were a bit nervous. Another, more experienced programmer had applied on his own and interviewed as well. I spoke with the client just after he had made the deccision to hire my candidate. He stated the deciding factor was (no surprise) the "home brew" application my candiate had developed. It proved, in one fell swoop, that he could, without a doubt, do the job, and perhaps most important that he wanted it more. (Compliments of Jim Moens)

Creating a Position for Yourself

Challenge I worked with one client who specialized in retail merchandising (point of purchase [POP], planagrams, etc.). After developing her resume, we discussed putting together a targeted job search campaign to go after some of the bigger players in retail. While working out her "unique selling proposition," she mde the claim that she could walk into any retail environment and recommend how they could make more money through better merchandising. I asked, "Can you really back that up?" and suddenly her plan was born.

Approach My client targeted five major retail outlets, went to a number of their locations, and made detailed notes on what she saw and how she would improve it. The first company she contacted was a major outlet with offices located in the building over the store. She walked into the offices, asked to speak to the person in charge of marketing and was told he was in a meeting until 11:00 AM. She scribbled a quick nte on a piece of paper that read, "I've just spent 30 minutes in your store. I found three merchandising inconsistencies and identified seven ways that should increase your sales by about 12 to 15 percent. My name is Alice and I will be waiting in the coffee shop downstairs."

She told the receptionist, "Please hand this to him at the end of his meeting. It's very important," and she walked out.

Results Shortly after 11:00, the vice president of Marketing came downstairs, met her inb the coffee shop, and she spent the next hour walking through every corner of the store with him discussing her findings. Although no such position existed, the vice president hire her as their new Director of Merchandising. (Compliments of Ross Macpherson)

Approaching Your Challenge Creatively

Challenge One of our clients worked for a large financial institution and desperately wanted to move up in the company, but kep thitting barriers in HR (not enough experience, not the right education, etc.) when we were working on her resume and job search campaign, she mentioned that the person she really needed to get in front of was a divisional president. Since she couldn't work "within the system" at her firm to show him how great she was, we devised a long-range plan to work around it.

Approach The president in question sat on the board of a local nonprofit, a cause that both he and my client were passionate about. This was her way in. She volunteered her services with the organization and quickly developed a name for herself as a dynamic and innovative thinker who could really make things happen. Within a short time she found an opportunity to meet her president at at fund-raigin gala and introduced herself as the person who worked on the "X" campaign. She also mentioned that she happened to work for the same company (what a coincidence).

Results After making the initial contact, over the next year she did more great things for the nonprofit, had more opportunities to shin, and quickly found herself on his radar. At one of their next meetings, she metnioned where she'd really like to see herself in their company, thre in a few of her ideas, and asked his advice. Knowing now how good she was, he recomnmended a few people and even offered to contact them on her behalf. With a strong testimonial from the company's president, it wasn't long before she landed a high-profile strategic role more suited to her abilities (she also stayed on with the nonprofit where she continued to do great work and has been asked to fill a major leadership position on a full-time basis). It was a unique case where shining outside the company helped her move up inside it. (Compliments of Jim Moens)