Chris Cebollero is an internationally recognized leadership expert, bestselling author, Emergency Medical Services leader, and advocate who’s passionate about helping people chart a new direction, even in the midst of the most challenging of situations.
His professional history is showered with process improvement know-how. This knowledge provides executive-level support to achieve aggressive business and personal goals. He brings thought-leadership and over 25 years of organizational design success and his career has been defined by slashing costs and exploding growth in the healthcare arena. In fact, he constructed his healthcare management and small business consulting firm on that foundation.
Some of his key areas of expertise include executive coaching, leadership development, emotional intelligence, change management, Kaizen, Agile & Lean methodology practice, relationship building, business plan creation, organizational process improvement, motivational and keynote speaking, and healthcare/EMS transformation. He has been recognized for his strategic leadership as the Chief of EMS for Christian Hospital, he has been delivering inspiration to international audiences for over a decade as a highly sought-out speaker and he has also been writing bestselling books on leadership.
The Global Millionaire magazine recently caught up with Chris to discuss his journey to entrepreneurship and here’ what went down:
Could you please tell our readers a brief background about yourself and how you started your business?
The foundation of my career was spent as a paramedic in leading EMS agencies. Being able to manage multimillion-dollar organizations with hundreds of FTE’s gave me the ability to learn the finer points of leading successful and award-winning organizations. As my leadership experience grew, people were now reaching out to me to assist them in developing their leaders and teaching them the finer points of organizational process improvement. In 2014, Cebollero & Associates Consulting Group was started, focusing on Leadership Development, Organizational Process Improvement, and Individual, Group, and Executive Coaching. I am recognized as an International Leadership Specialists, Multi-Number 1 Bestselling Author, and a dynamic and engaging Motivational Teacher.
What are you currently doing to maintain/grow your business?
John Maxwell calls it the Law of Process “Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day.” One of the biggest mistakes is that we do not invest in our own business and professional development. I am always on the lookout to engage with my mentors, and industry leaders to hear their philosophy, understand their conceptualizations, and analyse the next sets of strategies and directions. In the current pandemic environment, it is paramount to be as fluid and dynamic as possible. We have to polish our processes, become risk-averse, and change with the times.
What social media platforms do you usually use to increase your brand’s awareness?
It really depends on the leadership product or service that is being offered. If I am targeting the Executive, LinkedIn is my platform of choice, for the newer leader, Instagram, and the middle manager, Facebook. It is truly paramount for businesses to have a strong social media footprint for new business, bit more importantly brand awareness.
What is your experience with paid advertising, like PPC or sponsored content campaigns? Does it work?
I like the PPC model of advertising. Remember, people do no buy products or services. What they buy are solutions to their problems, and it is your products and services that are the solutions to their problem or needs. A big error is that we think the way we market is the way our clients or customers want to be marketed too. But the opposite is true, we have to find the marketing ad that resonates with their needs. If we put an ad online and it gets 5 clicks, we are not reaching our target market. This will cause us to go back to the drawing board and reinvent the wheel. PPC is a great tool for spot-on targeting to the ideal client avatar.
What is your main tactic when it comes to making more people aware of your brand and engaging your customers? How did your business stand out?
I love offering free content to my present and future clients. I host the Ultimate Leadership Podcast. We have just over 100k subscribers and see 10’s of thousands of downloads. This is a great way to stay relevant and bring brand awareness. If you’re not a fan of the show come on in and join the discussion.
What form of marketing has worked well for your business throughout the years?
I love that we get a majority of our customers and clients through word of mouth. We are a company that develops custom solutions for our clients. It is this service that is appreciated by organizations. Of course, social media platforms are great to share free and paid content.
What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last few months?
2020 has been an interesting year on many fronts. With the pandemic running rampant around the world, I lost over 50% of clients. When 2020 started, I developed a series of goals for myself and business. It was important to continue along these lines of completing the established goals. Many people are throwing 2020 away as a lost year. This is a big mistake, the businesses that will come out on top are the ones that have used this as a rebuilding, polishing, and setting a new course for future operations.
What money mistakes have you made along the way that others can learn from (or something you’d do differently)?
Everyone has a product and service to sell you. In my business and personal life is either investing in these resources that did not meet the caliber of quality they mentioned they would. I wasted lots of money trying to catch the net big wave. Pay more attention to where your investments and funds go.
What new business would you love to start?
I would love to develop a next-generation online leadership academy. In the current times we are in, we are leaning to a more online and virtual business. With that said, if we are to bring more live and virtual training to those who will need it will be a great future business.
If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently?
This is a great question and one that I have tried to remember to share with clients just starting out. My advice is to gain as much knowledge and education you can along the way. This is not just about your job or career, but really becoming a student of business and leadership. One of the most common mistakes by business owners is they do not invest in their own professional development to ensure they are going the best upper hand possible.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
I have to be honest, when I was first starting, I was a wee bit egotistical. The belief of who I was and what I was capable of was blinding. A mentor took me aside and told me this one sentence that totally refocused my direction. Those magic words were, “you are not as important as you think you are. Shut up and listen more.” It was a rude awakening that I was replaceable and needed to earn my value to the team every day.
What advice would you give to a newbie Entrepreneur?
Become a student of your craft, your business model, and the art and science of leadership. Opportunity does not happen by chance, and it is vital for your success that when the opportunity is presented, you are able to first recognize it, second, you are able to analyze it, third, you are in a position to take advantage of what this opportunity means to your business and future success.
if you want to find out more information or contact Chris you can go to his website via this link or email him directly at chris@chriscebollero.com.