I love being a part of the A Sales Guy team! When it comes to workplace motivation, it comes from the leadership within. And the heartbeat of A Sales Guy sounds like passion and progressive leadership. Jim Keenan, founder and C.E.O. of A Sales Guy, Inc. challenges me on a daily basis. This is what every workplace needs. An environment full of leaders that motivate by way of simply being passionate about what you are doing AND enabling others to be creative, innovate, and really push the envelope to do something different. You either have this gift or ya don’t! And Keenan’s got it and then some. I remember when I was out of college a few years out, got laid off during the housing-bust / recession…thinking, wow it sure was nice being in that college bubble. You get to learn and explore and challenge yourself as well as be challenged by others- professors create an environment of learning, critical thinking, and personal growth. When we join the work-force, the average person would be hard-pressed to find and work for a company that really does foster all these things. The world is full of mediocre. I have to say, working with Keenan is beyond rewarding. It’s not everyone that gets to go to work and see this on the company Yammer feed, from the C.E.O.: “Mistakes Are Proof That You Are Trying”. 
I mean, hello?? That’s some true wisdom right there-without the cheese. ‘Cause cheese stinks. You see it all the time. In fact, I saw it at the gym just the other day, and realized it wasn’t just me that thought it was actually pretty funny: That one manager that everyone knows or has encountered many times in our lives; always trying to reinforce her management position by arbitrarily asserting herself, for the sake of the power trip. It’s aggravating and nobody respects that. It’s a vicious cycle. Nothing gets accomplished and lends itself to a very unproductive workplace. My point is this: A Sales Guy oozes real, relevant progressive thinking. From Keenan’s no bullshit sales consulting technique down to the “hey we’re all going to make mistakes, learn from them and make it better”. This is the mind of a true progressive- it fosters growth and innovation on all levels and it’s contagious. Why? Because it’s inspiring. Another way Keenan is setting the pace for others, is via social media selling. Recently, Kite Desk in conjunction with Evolve!, inc. released the Top 30 Social Sales Influencers: A compilation of the most successful social sellers online, backed up by some compelling research. Read the Forbes article here: “Meet the Top 30 Social Sales People In The World”. Here’s the KiteDesk post which also covers the top 100 social sales leaders to follow on twitter. By the way, it’s totally cool if you ride this wave with us. According to the research by KiteDesk, we are still in the “Early Adopters” stage of social media sales. You’re not quite hopping on the bandwagon yet. We’ll ride this wave ’til we find a whole new frontier. Maybe we’ll finally have our flying cars by the time this one rides out. 
So here’s some props to Keenan for cultivating creativity and innovation in a world of boring and complacent. Change on the regular is a way of thinking; it’s progressive. It challenges and inspires growth. Everyday. And that, my friends, is exciting! Wondering why you’re having a hard time motivating your employees to excel? Perhaps you should re-think the way you think. Think on that. Then do something. Start your own workplace revolution!
Not Just Change. Progressive to the core!
