significant experience in the trenches
can be a big and costly mistake.”
One of Mackay’s key business lessons
came early on. As a spontaneous speaker,
he didn’t have anything in hard copy to
share with audiences after a presenta-
tion. “I’d hear, ‘Well, don’t you have any
tapes?” he says. “’How about a book?’
After the fifth or sixth time, I thought to
myself, “A book! What a great idea!” The
result was Swim With the Sharks Without
Being Eaten Alive—not to mention subse-
quent books, his syndicated column and
endless speaking opportunities.
For all his success, Mackay isn’t
one to keep secrets to himself. Indeed,
the “Mackay 66 Competitive Profile”
shared in Swim With the Sharks was
an intelligence-gathering tool that had
helped his sales force to go ballistic—
and having it go public wasn’t terribly
popular within the company. “But time
has shown this hasn’t been to our detriment,” he says. “I suspected—and now
I know—it isn’t devices and forms that
give you the advantage. It’s the execution and methodical updating that
deliver the advantage. I find 99 percent
of people simply don’t follow through
Mackay learns everything he can about an
audience before he mounts the podium.
with rigor and discipline.”
Mackay runs a lean organization in
the speaking side of his business, and
prides himself on a rigorous selection
process. “It’s just me and a few extremely
able administrators,” he says. “But being
a compact operation doesn’t make the
people on your team less important. In
fact, it makes them even more signifi-
cant.” He supplements his regular staff
with an array of consultants and coaches
for every critical area, from speech and
humor to creativity and finances.
Motivated in part by 50,000 phone
calls and 50,000 emails annually from
readers and audiences, Mackay continues to seek new ways to deliver his
message. To that end, he launched The
Mackay Roundtable earlier this year.
“I took off three months to scour
the country and assembled a group
of 25 very successful entrepreneurial
businesspeople whom I am professionally mentoring,” he says. “They receive
monthly teleseminars, as well as face-to-face time with me and about seven
meetings in different cities where I
bring in world-renowned resources to
help take their businesses to the next
HARVE Y ’S
35
TO STAY ALIVE
In the course of speaking to audiences all over the world, Mackay has
gleaned invaluable tips and tricks for
giving speeches in any setting—and
he provides his 35 top suggestions
here: http://www.harveymackay.com/
harvey-mackays-35-to-stay-alive/
level. The key to the concept is that
they get each other. I believe this is a
defining achievement in my life. And I
hope that when I’m gone, people will
put on my tombstone ‘He couldn’t
sleep fast enough.’”
Contributing writer Jake
Poinier swam with sharks this
summer while researching a
story about sailing in the
Florida Keys. He can be
reached at Jake@BoomvangCreative.com.
