That was the day Gitomer’s life
changed forever, because that was
the day his first newspaper column—
the first of more than a thousand that
would follow—would appear in the
Charlotte Business Journal, a flagship
business weekly in the hugely influential
American City Business Journals chain.
It may have been just one column.
One can only wonder how many people
read it—or even saw it.
But Gitomer insists that single
column is in many ways responsible
for all of his success since then. It did
nothing less than put him on the map
as somebody that businesses needed to
talk to.
“I was already a successful business
person,” he recalls. “I did some con-
sulting and some minor speaking at
trade shows for the
industries I
was involved
in. But [that
column]
changed
every-
thing.
Writing,
and being
published,
changed my persona because I went
from being an ‘expert’ to being an
‘authority.’”
The column provided precisely the
vehicle he needed to get his ideas—his
ideas about sales, his ideas about service,
his ideas about winning in business—out
into the world. And to his mild surprise,
the world was more than a little eager
to hear those ideas. Though he never
planned on a career in speaking, the
offers started to roll in—and Gitomer, a
workaholic to the core, was more than
happy to accept them.
The immediate and lucrative response to that
first column is something that Gitomer
has never forgotten.
That’s why he still takes
his weekly column so
seriously today—
nearly 20 years
The first thing I have
to do [at each event] is
challenge myself to be
better than the last guy
that spoke there.
a
after that first piece appeared, and even
though some claim the influence of
print has waned.
“I’ll write between 750 and 1,000
words a week even if my [backside] falls
off,” he jokes.
Of course, writing that column isn’t
all that he does. Indeed, the multi-
talented Gitomer stays busy with
numerous other projects. He pours his
heart and soul into each and every one
of his speaking appearances—appear-
ances that are 100 percent customized
to the client. He is constantly working
on a another book or planning the next
book. And though he was absolutely
uninterested in social media when it
first hit his radar, he has since recog-
nized the great value of the Web and
its numerous communications tech-
nologies. As a result, he’s now about
as social-media savvy as one can get—
Being Jeffrey Gitomer, in other
words, is pretty much a 24/7 kind of
job. It’s a challenge Gitomer embraces,
though. He loves what he does. He
loves the challenge of the speaking
world, he loves what he does for his
clients, and he loves his family.
He loves being Gitomer.
“The first thing I have to do [at
each event] is challenge myself to be
better than the last guy that spoke
there,” he says. “My first goal is to be
the best presenter they ever had. The
second goal is to make sure that I’m
speaking their language in front of
them and bringing ideas to them that
are new to them, even if they’ve been
in business for 100 years. The third
thing I do is entertain them. I want to
make sure they’re laughing, learning,
and feeling valued. In that process, I’m
allowed to pretty much go anywhere.
Fourth, I’m edgy. I’m not PC [politi-
cally correct]. I’m real world.”
16 | SPEAKER | September 2011
