Transcript of the conversation with Business Coach Michael Viane
Sammy Basu
Welcome, everyone to our expert webinar. Today we have Mike Viane, Mike and I share a common background both having worked in the entertainment industry, Mike worked for the same company in the entertainment industry. Our paths did not cross them. But it’s crossing today. Mike, tell us about your experience, and what you’re up to these days.
Michael Viane
So after 30 years in corporate America, some sometimes at the same company as you Sammy. I recently started my own company called Focal Point Business Coaching of Oak Park. I’m based out here in Oak Park, California, which for those who don’t know where Oak Park is, it’s right next to Westlake Village in Agora, California. And I work with business owners and I can work with them, for example, to increase sales for them, maybe help them with some strategic planning. In other instances, I’ve worked with a business owner just to create a better work-life balance for them. Currently, I’m also doing some one-on-one coaching with some executives, both of whom are focused on goal setting and leadership skills, just to be able to advance their careers. So I’m working with them on one. And then there’s one entrepreneur I just started working with, who I’m helping buy his first company, so I can work with business owners and executives in a variety of ways. Great.
Sammy Basu
Mike, would you like to summarize your 30 years of experience in 30 seconds or more?
Michael Viane
Well, I’ll tell you in, in my 30 years of experience, I always led sales teams, whether it was at Warner Brothers STX entertainment, where I was, for a very long time, comScore, where I led a global team of sales executives. It was leading sales teams, hitting revenue objectives, and selling different kinds of movies, and different kinds of products across the globe. But I’ll sum it up by saying this, it was never the movie that made me proud it was never working on a particular project. I looked back and said, it’s about the teams I lead. And the individuals that I coached and mentored. And when I looked back and said, Wow, that’s really where I find all my success. That’s when I realized I wanted to move into coaching, because that’s essentially what I’ve been doing my entire career, even though it’s been leading sales teams. All
Sammy Basu
right, Mike, I’m your student. Now, what advice do you have for me to improve my sales process? Or what’s the one thing that you see that every sales team needs to improve upon? Well,
Michael Viane a
you know what? I think it starts with mindset, you have to have a mindset, and you have to have a positive attitude. Everybody has to be rowing in the same direction. It takes a positive attitude from everybody on that team. But to have very specific goals that you put in place, let’s just call it on a 90-day basis. To make sure you’re hitting long-term goals, you have to hit short-term goals. So you kind of like take it 90-day sprints. But you have to have very, very specific goals. And you have to look for what are high-impact activities that allow you to achieve those goals. And if you’re putting all of those together, and you have open communication within your sales team and amongst your leadership group, you are going to hit those targets. And that’s really where I come in and help people achieve those objectives. Awesome.
Sammy Basu
Thank you, Mike. I’ll transfer it to the most positive person in the group early for now.
Alyssa Butler
That’s me. That’s me. Mike. So great to talk with you. This is fascinating. I but I am curious. What was your first job?
Michael Viane
So is this one that will probably surprise you a bit? My very first job out of college. I taught English in Taiwan. It was way back in 1991. And I decided I didn’t want to jump right into any kind of full-time corporate job. There was an opportunity to go to Taipei and teach English to K through six students. I had a passion for teaching back then it sort of spilled over a bit and I met a lot of their parents who were of course executives. Working in Taipei, who said, You know what, for business purposes, I need to improve my conversational English. Can you come over and teach me I would just go over and they pay me just to sit here and talk like we are so that they could practice that conversational English. So that was my first job. I did that for about a year and a half before I came back to the US. Now,
Alyssa Butler
isn’t it so interesting how one little job can lay out the path for your life and help you discover that spark? Of your salute? Yeah, that’s awesome. So what is one nugget of wisdom, one phrase, one saying one mantra that you live by that you’ve picked up over your experience? So
Michael Viane
when I think about all the things I’ve picked up at all the various stops that I’ve made, it aligns with something that I just recently rewatched and it was Denzel Washington. So staying in the entertainment industry, giving a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania back in 2011, I believe. And he was talking about how there’s no passion to be found in playing small and living a life that is less than the life you’re capable of living. And that’s, you know, he talks about taking a risk and that and not being able, not being afraid to take that risk. He went on to talk about how he never understood the concept of having something to fall back on. So rather, he will always want to fall forward. This kind of came full circle for me because a friend of mine right now that I’m working with started his own company called Falling Forward Films. It’s in the entertainment industry. He released his films theatrically and downstream. And he had that same thought. So every time I work with him, or every time I send him an email to his Falling Forward Films email address, I think about what Denso was trying to say, and what I’ve always learned, and it’s, first and foremost, do not be afraid of failure, like worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try. But even more to the point, we are all going to fall and live, throughout our careers throughout our personal lives. We’re all going to fall, but fall forward. And it’s just about preparing ourselves to be able to do that. So that’s really what I’ve picked up from all these years.
Alyssa Butler
Yeah, at least if you’re falling, you’re you’re going towards something as opposed to taking backward.
Michael Viane
Yeah, you don’t want to have something to fall back upon, like let’s move forward in a positive direction. Unless
Sammy Basu
you’re working in cybersecurity. Okay, where our job is to identify and mitigate risks and have backup plans. But for every fall forward,
Michael Viane
yeah. But you can still be falling forward in the way that you approach business. Even though you’re having backup plans. You’re still moving forward and progressing with the time. So yeah, I think that’s well said. And I did have a question for you a little bit of concern. So my daughter, who graduated USC in May. So I’m very proud of her for that. She started a job over the summer. And I think it’s what is properly called a fishing expedition. She received a text from what was seemingly her boss. And it even said I’m in a meeting right now. And as she’s sitting there reading the text, he is in the conference room in a meeting. It asked her to purchase something and asked her for credit information. And to her not only what she knew, and she wanted to be responsive to the boss, but it seemed so credible, that she just went ahead and provided this information, and was and was out some money. By the time she sort of brought her new boss up to speed and other people in the organization. They said, Oh my gosh, there was something somebody that started like, a couple, two, three months ago that had the same thing happened. So it just reminded me and concerns me that at every company, there has to be we have to make people knowledgeable about cyber attacks and phishing emails and text messages. But even particularly, as people are onboarding to new jobs, to make sure that that’s part of the training. So I kind of like throw that out to you guys to answer. How best can people make sure that as people are joining new companies, they’re brought up to speed on those types of concerns?
Sammy Basu
Right I mean, this thing that A suspicious to me is that the hacker knew that your daughter joined the company, and who her boss was. They were in the same meeting. It seems they were keeping a watch on the company’s movements. And it could have been an insider, for all, you know, right? So it’s important, based on this classic story that you’ve shared, like, how companies also look at internal threats and how they’re saving that information. Now, was that phone number publicly available to the rest of the organization? Or was it securely protected? So it’s everyone’s responsibility, and your daughter cannot be faulted for that.
Michael Viane
I just with one of the companies I’m working with now I had to go through a video training on cybersecurity. I felt like I had to watch it more for them to be able to say, hey, we put Mike through that training, and he understands. But I wish it was more personal and on one because I could ask questions like I’m asking you, rather than just watching a video.
Alyssa Butler
Yeah, that’s great. That on one personal experience is important. Yeah, for sure. Even in a tech world, and it’s also something that talking about the onboarding, it’s like, we didn’t use to pay for Wi-Fi as part of our monthly utility bills. And now, that’s just a basic level. So why shouldn’t this type of training, as you said, be part of the onboarding be part of if you’re training on one with someone who’s your trainer, wherever, whatever company or organization that might be inserting this sort of employee training on phishing and other cybersecurity hacks out there? So?
Sammy Basu
Yeah, I think it also goes to your coaching model, Mike, I don’t think you just throw them a video and say here learn about sales, but you understand what are the questions on their mind. Training should be customized as well so that we can understand the real struggles that employees are going through and what questions are on their minds. All right. Well,
Michael Viane
if I can get the two of you over to my daughter’s company to train them, I’m going to try to do that. Thank you for that.
Alyssa Butler
Thank you, Mike, for being here and sharing your knowledge and we will all remember to fall forward this week.
Sammy Basu
A little bump on the forehead.
Michael Viane
Thanks for having me.
Alyssa Butler
Thank you so much.