About

Goal of this blog

My goal in writing this blog is to provide practical advice for business leaders and owners that is applicable and works. How do I know it works? I will write about what I have learned and applied throughout my career. I will also share what I thought was great advice that did not add value and may have been a disruption in the firms I have served. I will also write about new thought leadership I encounter and my success or not so much success in its application.

A little about me
For 25 years I have helped companies experience what I refer to as “explosive growth” in sales revenues, profits, market share, and market leadership. Early in my career I was blessed to have a mentor at Frito-lay named Harry Jones. He took an interest in me, and pushed and stretched me to be more than what I thought I was capable of. He taught me that “leaders are readers, and it is your responsibility to continuously improve you, not mine, not our companies’, and not any future organization you may be a member of.” He pushed me (often kicking and screaming) into various training classes like Dale Carnegie, public speaking training programs, sales training, and leadership development and so on. He sent me books each month to read and he would call and test me to insure I was connecting to the wisdom behind the content and how to apply what I just learned.

Since that time I have continued reading at least a book a month, and often a book a week. I wrote my first book in 2007 titled Branding Backwards and over 4,500 people have downloaded it from my website. I have been given many titles over the years; salesman, college instructor, manager, consultant, coach, COO, SVP, Worldwide manager, Vice President of Marketing, President, and CEO to name a few. I have served a variety of markets from consumer products to B2B services. The product lines I supported served grocery stores, bars, medical supply, plastic packaging, training, integrated marketing , automotive, plastic packaging,  snack food and chocolates, loss prevention, financial products like 401K’s and Defined Benefit plans, software, and the building industry to name a few. I have served companies that range in size from start up to fortune 500 organizations throughout North America and for three years I opened international distribution and established joint ventures throughout the world. If you want more details you can visit my website at www.outbsolutions.com or my linked in profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/markaroberts or follow me on twitter at @markaroberts. (Not bragging, just sharing that I have been blessed to have a great deal of experience in a variety of situations.)

Throughout the past 25 years I have continued to study thought leaders; Drucker, Einstein,Trout, Jung, Lincoln, Canfield, Porter, Collins, Maslow, Warren,Blanchard, Maxwell, Kaku , Gladwell, Ziglar, Covey, Dyer, Jesus, Sun Tsu, and many, many more. I digested their content with a ravenous appetite and applied what I learned from their wisdom.

This blog is about sharing what I have learned through experience and the application of thought leading content in a practical way that adds value to you. My personal goal is as leaders and future leaders read my blog it also becomes a two way conversation with leaders and those wanting to be leaders sharing their new challenges as they emerge. My dream is working together we solve new roadblocks as they emerge.

As I reflect on my past and present experiences, I see a common thread interwoven in all the roles I have played; Identify and break through roadblocks that are preventing teams from becoming market leading organizations. I call this process“The Art of Thoughts” and you can learn more at http://www.outbsolutions.com/art_of_thoughts.php

Thank you in advance for reading and commenting on the content in this blog. You will quickly learn I am not a professional writer and I ask your forgiveness for grammatical errors and perhaps other errors. What I am is someone who is passionate about helping teams and individuals be the leaders they were destined to be. You are destined for greatness!

Mark Allen Roberts