About Jeff
Business Guru.
Over the last two decades, he has been President and CEO of several international software and professional services companies. An expert at turning good ideas into great enterprises, Jeff has built five companies from nothing and sold four of them (so far) to Fortune 1000 giants. He’s turned three more floundering businesses from a downward spiral to soaring performance and played a part in twenty-three merger and acquisition deals. Now, he is President and CEO of Intelligent Contacts, an international communications and payments company that helps healthcare organizations create great patient experiences on the business side of healthcare (like appointments, claims, and billing).
Fun Fact:
The weirdest things Jeff has witnessed at an event? A fellow speaker fall off the stage. He was crossing the stage and just disappeared! He popped up, pulled himself out of the orchestra pit, and kept right on going. Never even stopped talking!
Keynote Speaker.
Jeff excels at making complex ideas simple and brings them to life through every day experiences people grasp and remember. Over the past twenty years, Jeff has shared his hard-learned lessons with tens of thousands of people at conferences, trade shows, and business meetings around the world. Never a dry, boring business talk, he entertains and educates by engaging both left brain and right brain capturing the hearts and minds of both logical and creative thinkers.
Jeff connects concepts that seem completely disconnected, such as entrepreneurship to the world of fish or turning executive leaders into boat captains. He consistently makes the audience think about team building, marketing, sales, and social enterprise differently than they ever have before. Using memorable stories, contextual models, and concrete examples. Entrepreneurs, business owners,and C-Level executives are able to remember, share the ideas with their teams, and implement to create meaningful change.
Keynote Speaker.
Jeff excels at making complex ideas simple and brings them to life through every day experiences people grasp and remember. Over the past twenty years, he has shared his hard-learned lessons with tens of thousands of people at conferences, trade shows, and business meetings around the world. Never a dry, boring business talk, Jeff entertains and educates by engaging both left brain and right brain capturing the hearts and minds of both logical and creative thinkers.
Connecting concepts that seem completely disconnected Jeff consistently makes the audience think about team building, marketing, sales, and social enterprise differently than they ever have before. Using memorable stories, contextual models, and concrete examples entrepreneurs, business owners,and C-Level executives are able to remember, share the ideas, and implement to create meaningful change.
Fun Fact:
The weirdest things Jeff has witnessed at an event? A fellow speaker fall off the stage. He just disappeared! Then he popped up and kept right on talking!
Business Coach.
Jeff often talks about his mentors and coaches who have contributed to his success. Nothing excites him more than paying it forward by helping other entrepreneurs. Jeff uses his experience as a founder, entrepreneur, executive, and investor to show others better and faster ways to grow their business, avoid mistakes, and create the great company they initially envisioned.
Executive Navigation – Jeff’s specialty is helping companies cross through “death valley” growing their business from $2M to $10M. He also leads a high level mastermind group of leaders scaling their business from $10M – $50M+.
“Revenue is the way we measure company success on the outside. We absolutely want healthy, high performing companies, and for founders to build a business they love, are proud of, and that gives back to the community.” – Jeff Mains
Author.
After being told for 10+ years that he should write something, Jeff finally set to work. His first book, Small Fish, Big Pond: Building A World Class Business That Swims Circles Around Competitors delivers real-life strategies to entrepreneurs to outsmart, outgrow, and outlast the competition.
What do exceptional companies do well that mediocre companies do poorly or not at all?
How do some companies achieve rapid growth while others plateau?
What can business leaders learn from fish?
Find out when the book releases July 2020!
Author.
After being told for 10+ years that he should write something, Jeff finally set to work. His new book, Small Fish, Big Pond: Building A World Class Business That Swims Circles Around Competitors delivers real-life strategies for entrepreneurs to outsmart, outgrow, and outlast the competition.
(And Still A Human.)
Jeff is an active supporter of several charities which provide care and education for children and of organizations that encourage self-sufficiency by presenting grants and no-interest loans to entrepreneurs in underdeveloped countries.
When he’s not busy bringing ideas to life or mentoring innovators, Jeff spends as much time as he can on, in, and especially under the water. He loves kayaking, scuba diving (especially with sharks), and underwater photography. He’s also a licensed pilot and a talented musician. Jeff lives in Plano, Texas with his wife, three children, and two dogs.
Fun Fact:
Jeff’s dog Thor has his very own Facebook page. Some days Thor gets more likes than Jeff!
Companies and Charities
FAQ*
What makes you different from anyone else?
As an entrepreneur—experience with 37 different industries and porting best practices from one industry to another. Other things are my approach. If I’m going to do something more than twice, it is time to create a process. I’ve become very good at creating processes, frameworks, and models which all play a huge role in decision making. The most surprising answer I can give to that question is reading. Reading all sorts of things. Ideas, techniques, inspiration, and best practices come from everywhere.
As a speaker—it’s hard for me to watch dry, text-heavy presentations. They have no life. I want to capture the audience’s mindshare and make them think differently about topics they think they know. If people aren’t sitting up, engaged, hanging on every word, something’s gone wrong.
And as a coach—I’ve been there. There are other good coaches out there. Given the nature of the internet lots of them have read a book or went to a class and decided they would “coach” others, but I’ve actually played the business game. More than once. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve made money. I’ve lost my ass. I’ve made great decisions. I’ve missed massive opportunities.
What's been difficult to overcome?
Being unknown in a market where companies have big name recognition. There are times we’re competing against companies 100 or 1,000 times our size. There is a tremendous amount of noise in the market. That said, we overcame, cut through the noise so our message could be heard, and beat out the big guys time and time again.
Delegating is always a challenge. Fear of letting go. It is one of the hardest things an entrepreneur must do. It must be done in order to grow.
And, as always, it’s hard to manage wearing many hats in the early growth stages.
What is your best advice for new entrepreneurs?
Take time to enjoy the journey rather than being solely focused on the destination. Live in the moment and make the most of every single day. Don’t miss the beauty of the everyday grind.
Also, know your WHY–when times are tough, and there will be days when you want to quit, know WHY you are building your business. Never give up. Building a business will be one of the most challenging and difficult things you will ever do. Always remember your “WHY.” A big enough WHY makes it easier to embrace the “struggle in the cocoon” because what comes out on the other side will be amazing.
What types of events do you speak at? Can you speak at my event?
Just about anywhere. Business and marketing conferences, CEO and executive summits, retreats, trade shows, user group meetings… any place I can help! To hire me for your event, just head on over to my contact page and send me a message.
When does your book come out?
It’s scheduled for release in Spring 2019. It’s not available for pre-order just yet, but when it is, we’ll let you know! To get updates, get access to exclusive sneak-peeks, and more, connect with me here.
If you had unlimited resources (time, money, lifespan, etc), what would you do?
1. Dive every diveable body of water on the planet at least twice. Kind of what I do now. If there is water nearby I’m on it or in it.
2. Travel, meet people, listen to their stories, help them grow their business, and see the world. Kind of what I do now.
3. Hmmm . . . the best answer is keep right on doing what I do now, just a lot more of it.
It’s also not about the money for me, it’s about the adventure, the people, and the impact. Making money is good, but helping people become the stars they aren’t sure they can be is the best.
*Note: No animals were harmed during the answering of these questions. Except for goldfish. Not ACTUAL goldfish, just the crackers. A few of those were devoured.