Have Your Dream Concierge Speak to Your Group

Good afternoon, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this afternoon? I certainly hope so! I know that I am.

Since this blog came out, people have been asking for more information about how to have Your Dream Concierge speak before various groups.

To make it easier for you to recommend Your Dream Concierge to others, I've put together this brief package of my speaker's biography and my two most inspirational speaking topics. I've also listed other topics that audiences love!

If you have any questions, please write to me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com/.

Feel free to forward the rest of this entry to those who hire speakers for your group.

Donald W. Mitchell's Speaking Biography

Mr. Mitchell has been a professional speaker for over 30 years. He has spoken about business strategy, improving performance and accelerating learning before tens of thousands of people. He regularly runs seminars and workshops around the world to help people learn and apply the lessons of his research on increasing personal and organizational effectiveness.

His newest speaking subject is How to Live Better than a Billionaire on Five Dollars Extra a Day (see www.livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com).

Mr. Mitchell was born in San Bernardino, California where he attended the local public schools. He was born legally blind but no one diagnosed that problem until he was ten years old. Overcoming that problem made learning difficult for him as a youngster. Adding first glasses and later contact lenses opened up a whole new world for him.

He graduated as a valedictorian of his high school class and served as director of activities on the student council. He lettered in both track and band. He volunteered more service hours than any other student for charitable activities. While in high school, Mr. Mitchell won a prestigious National Merit Scholarship.

Accepted by all colleges he applied to, Mr. Mitchell elected to attend Harvard University where he majored in history and did original research on the French Revolution of 1848 for his undergraduate thesis. His thesis was placed in the University library for future scholars to use. He worked on the college’s alumni magazine to supplement his two scholarships. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude, Mr. Mitchell was hired to serve as the business manager of the alumni magazine while he attended Harvard Law School.

Mr. Mitchell’s success with Harvard Magazine led the dean of Harvard Law School, Derek Bok, to hire Mr. Mitchell to perform consulting services for the law school while he was a student there. When Dean Bok was named as president of the university, the Time Magazine feature cited many of the projects conducted by Mr. Mitchell as part of the reason for Dean Bok’s selection as president of Harvard.

While a student at Harvard Law School, Mr. Mitchell also took the second year marketing courses at Harvard Business School and completed the required MBA project course in marketing with Distinction grade. His team’s project was on marketing for New York Magazine.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Mitchell passed the bar in Massachusetts where he is still active as an attorney.

Mr. Mitchell became the first lawyer hired by the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, where he specialized in strategy for consumer products companies.

Heublein, Inc., a Fortune 200 firm (provider of Smirnoff Vodka, A.1. Sauce, Grey Poupon Mustard and Kentucky Fried Chicken), hired Mr. Mitchell to become the company’s first director of strategic planning and development when he was 27. He established the company’s first strategic planning process while he was there.

Mr. Mitchell co-founded Mitchell and Company, a strategy consulting firm (see www.mitchellandco.com), in 1977 with Carol Bruckner Coles. He serves as the firm’s chairman and chief executive officer. The firm has worked with most of the nation’s 200 largest firms and many large companies based outside of the United States. Services provided include corporate and business strategy, reducing the cost of capital, leadership learning and corporate development.

In 1981, Mr. Mitchell founded Mitchell Investment Management Company, Inc., a firm specializing in acquisitions. He also serves as its president. Mr. Mitchell’s clients are primarily entrepreneurs and successful executives in major corporations.

In 1989, he founded Leading Executive Organizations 100, Inc., and serves as that firm’s president. The company provides leadership and executive learning services to CEOs, CFOs, division presidents and investor relations executives.

Mr. Mitchell is also a coauthor of The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from “Stalled” Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success (AMACOM Books 1999) which was an Amazon.com best seller and is one of the best selling American management books in China (www.2000percentsolution.com), The Irresistible Growth Enterprise: Breakthrough Gains from Unstoppable Change (Stylus 2000) (www.irresistibleforces.com) and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage: Secrets of Continually Developing a More Profitable Business Model (Berrett-Koehler 2003).

He has also been quoted in dozens of publications and interviewed on many radio and television programs including including Business Week, Financial World, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Money, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, ABC News, CNBC and United Press International regarding business strategy and investments.

Mr. Mitchell has lately written articles for Chief Learning Officer, Executive Excellence, The Handbook of Business Strategy 2006, The Journal of Business Strategy and Leader to Leader.

Mr. Mitchell is a past director of the Harvard Alumni Association, a former treasurer of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association and a past director of Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts.

He is listed in many biographical references including Who’s Who in the World.

As hobbies, Mr. Mitchell reads and writes book reviews (he is the number one non-fiction reviewer on Amazon.com – see http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ/104-5889592-2919129), collects art, plays golf, attends concerts and tutors graduate students of business around the world.

Donald W. Mitchell's Most Inspirational Speaking Subjects

Live Better than a Billionaire on Five Dollars Extra a Day

Every day, billionaires make bad decisions that harm their lives. Their money also gets in the way of their relationships. Money can also make them lazy.

Most people don’t realize that and make all kinds of sacrifices to have more money. When they get the money, they aren’t much happier. Why not skip getting more money, and start living your dreams now?

You can substitute intelligence and energy for money and achieve a life style that any billionaire would envy . . . on a budget of five dollars extra a day. Whether you’re interested in being entertained by celebrities, living in mansions, writing a best seller, uplifting the lives of millions or simply having a great family life, there are no limits to what you can accomplish. These principles are spelled out daily in his blog at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/.

Apply the 2,000 Percent Solutions You Already Know

In The 2,000 Percent Solution (www.2000percentsolution.com), Mr. Mitchell outlined how anyone can create and enjoy 20 times as many benefits with the same time and resources. It’s like cloning yourself 20 times! Applying his process around the world over the last 20 years, millions of people have seen their lives transformed for the better.

What’s the secret? You already know how human beings regularly achieve near perfection. You just need to take that knowledge and apply it in other areas where performance is low.

Do many people fail to cash their paychecks? Do many soldiers fail to relax when ordered to stand “at ease”? Do many people fail to leave a hotel that’s on fire when they see flames, smell smoke and hear a fire alarm going off? Here are but three examples of near perfection. In each case, the required action is unambiguous, the receiver of the communication has an incentive to act on the message and the hearer has had lots of practice leaning what to do. After you look at all the examples you know of near perfection, you’ll be able to derive the universal principles that you can apply to any situation to achieve similarly near-perfect results.

Mr. Mitchell also offers inspirational programs on Model Leadership, Prospering through Adversity and Unveiling the Genius within You.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Outsmart the Billionaires to Beat the Heating Cost Blues in Your Humble Mansion!

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

Oil prices are soaring . . . and they could easily soar some more. Take what you spent for home heating last winter . . . and double that. You'll probably spend even more.

Whether you burn oil or gas . . . simply gulp down electricity . . . to heat your home, you're in for an expensive winter.

Before you start feeling too sorry for yourself, imagine the pickle barrels that the billionaire mansion owners find themselves in. Their average heating bill will probably rise by $50,000 per mansion in the northeastern United States. And it's not tax deductible. The billionaires will be losing ground to you as high oil prices tax the richest home owners the most.

There's good news to offset the bad news: If you start now, you can save yourself a bundle. Let me share the ten top ways:

1. Some clever oil dealers, gas companies and electrical generating firms bought futures contracts for fuel back when prices are lower. This means that their costs haven't gone up nearly as much as the prices have. A few suppliers are willing to share the wealth. If you will give them a contract (and possibly a large deposit) for the winter, they'll share some of the savings with you. This is most likely to be done for new customers. But if someone makes you a great offer, your current vendor may match or beat it. Call today.

2. If you cannot find anyone who can do that for you, you still may be able to cut a deal at a fixed price. While you will lose some money if prices fall in the next six months, you will be assured that you won't pay more than current price levels. Get a fixed-price quote for the winter and consider signing a contract.

3. This is a good time to replace your burner or boiler, put in that extra attic insulation, those double-glazed energy-efficient windows, that solar water heater, and the weather-stripping around the doors. Many contractors and heating suppliers will provide a free or low-cost evaluation of what you can do to make your home more heating efficient. At these price levels, such investments will almost always pay the cost back within three years. Some contractors offer no-interest financing for two-three years.

4. If you have parts of your home that you don't use every day that don't have water pipes running through them, consider shutting the heat off in those sections. Many houses allow you to do this by adjusting the heating outlet vents.

5. Buy some energy efficient room heating units to keep you toasty in the rooms where you spend the most time. In that way, you can keep the thermostat lower in the rest of the house. You will spend more on electricity . . . but your total heating cost will be lower.

6. Buy lots of warm clothes that you can wear comfortably around the house. Wearing a sweater indoors can save you hundreds this year!

7. Skip the fireplaces this year. Most fireplaces suck more heat out of a house than they add. If you're not going to use them, seal them up tight. Most fireplaces leak a lot of heat . . . even when not in use. If you want the creature comfort of having a fire indoors, consider a Franklin stove . . . which will provide more heat than you lose.

8. Buy a thermostat timer. You can use this to time when the heat comes on so that it warms up the house just before you launch out of bed in the morning. You'll sleep better and enjoy waking up more.

9. Plan to be away for as much of the coldest part of the winter as possible in warmer climes. You can keep your home set on a lower temperature while you're away -- just warm enough to keep the plants alive and the pipes from freezing when it turns frigid outside.

10. Consider selling your old barn while real estate prices are high, and buy a more compact, energy-efficient place that's easier to take care of.

I'm sure you have even better ideas. Please share your thoughts in your comments so that we can gain even more ground against the billionaires this winter!

Tomorrow, I'll look more closely at how to prepare to better enjoy the college football season.

Thursday, this blog will explore new ways of promoting your ideas for less than five dollars extra a day.

Friday, I'll tell you about an exciting new and inexpensive way for people with dyslexia to learn to read well.

Saturday, I'll share with you how you can automatically water your indoor plants while you are away . . . so you can give your butler and maid time off while you're away!

Sunday, let's take a minute to think about the best ways to spend a day not working.

Monday, leisure time during a busy day is our subject. So just get ready to chill.

Next Tuesday, let's look at new ways to enjoy visiting mansions!

Next Wednesday, we'll update the blog on what are the least expensive ways to lose weight right now!

Next Thursday, I'll describe how you can learn a foreign language in less than 100 days and have more fun than a billionaire when you travel abroad.

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that was posted on August 24. It will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 17 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I'm delighted that so many thousands of people have made this blog part of their regular reading habit!

If you like this blog, please let others know who might also enjoy it.

Thank you to my many friends, students, clients and blog readers who are spreading the good word about this blog.

If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell