"Sell with Passion and Integrity ""
From "Making It TV"
John Livesay
Author, "The 7 Most Powerful Selling Secrets"

John Livesay in YOUR L.A. MINUTE
"Looking For Your Dream Home"
(click controller below to play)

John Livesay in YOUR L.A. MINUTE
"Getting Your Dream Job"
(click controller below to play)

John Livesay in YOUR L.A. MINUTE
"Stuck in L.A. Traffic"
(click controller below to play)

Rolonda Watts radio show interview

Dartnell's SELL!NG
Closing Sales a splash, by Jenny McCune, 9/2004

Click the image above to read the full article.

Selling Your Ideas to Top Brass
Multichannel News, 6/14/2004
By Dale Hopkins

Lean and mean; do more with less; squeezing profit margins. Until recently, you would have never heard such phrases uttered in a creative department. But today, this is the language of doing business regardless of the department. It might be culture shock for those in promotion, but one thing is for sure — cost-effectiveness has become a way of life. It’s no longer enough for creatives to create. They have to learn to navigate through the economic minefields that support the creative. And an important factor in navigating the challenges of the “fiscal accountability” terrain is the ability to sell yourself and your ideas to top management. Learning to sell, especially when you’re not in sales, is a critical skill that everyone should have in their personal toolbox. Managers at all levels need to know how to get what they want from their organization. Whether you want to launch a show, create a great stunt or re-engineer your department, the first step is always selling in the idea. Knowing how to sell — your idea, your creative, or anything else you deem important — to top management makes you more effective and thereby, more valuable to your company. Discipline, focus and a targeted game plan are how it’s done. While creative work must be able to inspire thought while reaching the appropriate target, management wants to know just how much profit can be returned on the investment in your idea. Here are a few tips to help you become a better sales person:

Be clear and be prepared. As any Boy Scout will attest, these are words to live by. Have your materials ready; make your points clear, concise and well thought out. These days, everyone is moving at the speed of light (or so it seems) with competing priorities. Upper management will appreciate the time you save them by sticking to the facts and delivering them as key bullet points. Build your case, cut to the chase and get to the point with clear logic. Practice what you want to say in advance and be aware of any negatives going in so you are ready to reposition them as positives.
Make sure your agenda is good for the company. Put yourself in management’s shoes: Would you OK this idea? If management feels you understand their needs and goals, you’ll get a better response. Learn and understand the needs of the business; get a broader perspective on how your own area of business impacts the big picture.
If your goals also solve the needs of management, it makes getting what both of you want that much easier.
Let cooperation replace competition. President Harry S. Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” Put your focus on how the project advances the goals of the company, rather than focusing on who did what.
Your pitch should be tied to the business — don’t personalize it. It’s not about your idea; it’s about what the company needs. Taking this tact is always better when it comes to getting someone to say “yes.”
Trust yourself and trust the process. You’ve thought this out. You know your concept is smart and attention-grabbing; you’ve come prepared and said what’s important. Now let them relax into a “yes.”

If your ideas reflected the best interests of all concerned, you’re in good shape. If not, be willing to listen, don’t take criticism personally and above all, be flexible. Developing your ability to sell your ideas comes easy to some and is harder for others. But rest assured, if you believe in your idea, so will they. Just ask best-selling author John Livesay, author of The 7 Most Powerful Selling Secrets: Soar Your Way to Success with Integrity, Passion and Joy. At next week’s PROMAX & BDA conference, I’ll be asking John for more of these sales secrets we all need to succeed in today’s changing and challenging workplace environment.

Secrets to Selling Success
3rd Street Villager Issue 10, 2004
By Di Kellert

Is selling part of your career? We have a book that will help make you more successful than ever: The 7 Most Powerful Selling Secrets: Soar Your Way to Success with Integrity, Passion and Joy by W Magazine’s ad director, John Livesay. Livesay, who lives in L.A., is a celebrity confidence coach.

The new way of thinking about selling is “Always be connected.” This means being connected to your buyer’s needs as well as to your own sense of self and being willing to take the relationship to a new level, that of being marketing partners.

Livesay believes every second is important and that we have the opportunity to spend each of them doing our best and making a difference. He says the 7 powerful secrets, such as “Focus on your own progress and you will win,” will increase your happiness and success. Makes sense to us!

We’re not the only ones who are convinced about Livesay’s ideas. At the recent launch party (hosted by W publisher Alyce Alston at her fabulous New York City loft), All My Children’s Emmy-nominated Aiden Turner praised the book. “Confidence is the key” is one of the traits stressed in Secrets that Turner says has shaped his career over the years. “I kept believing in myself. I go the All My Children audition and landed it.”

90210 Beverly Hills
By Anita Talbert
"It was a decidedly glamorous at the fabulous Bel-Air hilltop mansion party hosted by Donna Estes-Antebi and her businessman husband, Steven Antebi, and W magazine's vice president, publisher Alyce Alston to celebrate sales guru/author John Livesay's ground breaking new book, The 7 Most Powerful Selling Secrets: Soar Your Way to Success with Integrity, Passion and Joy." On the red carpet in the courtyard were a cadre of celebrities including model/actress Cheryl Tiegs, Joely Fisher, Marla Maples, Irena Medavoy and Keira Chaplin (granddaughter of silent screen star Charles Chaplin) shivering beneath their furs while smiling at flashing cameras and television crews."