The power of being upbeat, the coolness of cyber, and lessons in networking from Steven Tyler.

My newsletter is named Direct because it goes directly to you, and it discusses things that I have been directly involved in. Most importantly these are topics that I hope will be directly beneficial to you. (Direct is also a much-loved term among pilots).

A masterclass in sales: always be upbeat

I had the honor of producing another of Roz Usheroff's podcast episodes last week. This one was with Chris McClain who has made a name for himself as being an expert in selling to senior decision makers. These are people who are well protected, really busy, and not too interested in listening to people in sales. But as Chris says, they're still "just people" and when it's done right, they even welcome it. The difference can be as subtle as your choice of subject line in an email. You can find it at usheroff.com/podcast as the most recent episode, "Executive Edge: A Masterclass in Selling to the C-Suite."

Represent! CISO Series Week in Review explodes when Simply Cyber drops in

Every episode of the weekly Cyber Security Headlines Week In Review show is a blast in one way or another. David Spark and his team have a knack of inviting fascinating guest experts who pair up with the lightning wit of host Richard Stroffolino to analyze and summarize the past week's top cybersecurity news stories. I have the pleasure of producing the show from managing the guests and coordinating the stories all the way through to live production and post-production. Things always go up a notch when ???? Gerald Auger, Ph.D. joins the show because frankly, he's a social media phenomenon. His site, simplycyber.io contains resources for people looking to advance their careers in cybersecurity and he has an amazing show, "Daily Cyber Threat Briefing presented by Simply Cyber" available on YouTube. When he joins our show, many of his followers show up as well, meaning we get a lively stream of comments from people who just love Gerald. And it's easy to see why. Gerald himself is a powerful and charismatic speaker - his delivery is a lesson in how to be a compelling influencer on streaming media. You can check out last Friday's Week in Review show with guest Gerald Auger - and his crew - right here: https://cisoseries.com/cyber-security-headlines-week-in-review-mcdonalds-outage-explained-sim-swap-fraud-spyware-agreement-support/

Time Management for Financial Professionals

Time Management strategies for accounting professionals - with tax season upon us, workloads and deadlines loom. This is a time of great stress for accountants and other financial professionals as they struggle to file returns on time for clients who are not always available and who tend to leave everything until the last minute. I am honoured to be able to deliver another of my Time Management workshops - entitled Surviving Your Schedule, as two morning sessions, Monday March 6 and 7, presented by CPA Ontario, online. If you're interested in winning back at least four hours of productivity per day, and sleeping better at night, check out the course at CPA Ontario here.

Generative AI and AI in general - it's changing everything, and leaders need to keep up. I am proud to say I have been working alongside two of my esteemed Ontario Tech University colleagues, Asifa Aamir and Kathleen Pierce developing an in-depth course on everything leaders need to know about AI and Generative AI in the workplace. It goes beyond the top-level discussions around ChatGPT and gets into important areas of ethics, assessment of needs and benefits, preparing a workplace community for the changes AI brings, and how to be a leader of AI change as well as becoming an AI-augmented leader. Tons of fascinating, useful and strategic material, and always on top of current developments. The next session runs online, one morning per week between April 23 and May 30. Visit the course page here for more details.

Steven Tyler and the power of?networking

Yesterday, March 26, was Steven Tyler’s birthday. As the flamboyant front man of Aerosmith, he has made a great living playing in and leading one of the world’s most famous rock bands, while not taking himself too seriously. The staccato vocal rhythm prevalent in a lot of his tunes comes from the fact he was a drummer first, playing drums in his upstate New York hometown.

He also learned a great deal about composition by sitting under the piano in his home while his father, a classical musician, played. He would write tunes with “two hands” in mind and would go back to the studio and say “bass, you play what my left hand is doing on the piano – yes, he can play piano too — and guitar, you play what my right hand is doing. So as weird and strung-out as he may still appear, he is a wise man of rock – very smart in both the orchestration of tunes and of course the choreography of a great live show.

But as with many immortal partnerships (Lennon & McCartney, Jagger & Richards, Elton & Bernie) the soul-mate connection between Tyler and his amazing guitar player Joe Perry leaves us with the intriguing thought of what might have happened if they never hooked up. According to Tyler’s autobiography, Do The Noises In My Head Bother You (which is even better as an audiobook, read by Tyler sound-alike Jeremy Davidson), Perry was playing around in other bands, and it was only the connection they had to a summer camp that got them together. Perry, as a teenager, was the fry-cook there.

Now this may not be networking in the truest sense of the word, but it goes to show just how much fate plays a major part in our lives. If Tyler had not gone back to that summer camp, would we have Aerosmith? If Jagger and Richards had not bumped into each other on a train and started talking about blues records, would the Stones ever have existed? If Reg Dwight and Bernie Taupin had not seen and answered the same newspaper ad, well, who knows?

One of the greatest stepping-stones to personal success and satisfaction comes from the people you know. They provide opportunities for business, for gigs, for advancement in all areas of life. When we reflect on all of the great "might-have-beens" and all of the great victories that happen in life, they are usually due to being in the right place at the right time – with someone else.

Your personal network is your best tool for getting ahead and should really be nurtured every day - just five minutes a day is all you need to reach out and connect with someone and say hi once in a while.

I hope this newsletter provides something of value to you. If you have a comment, just let me know. You can follow me on Twitter/X, Blue Sky, and Spoutible or visit me at steveprentice.com and bristall.com.