Q & A with MDCE closing keynote Rory Vaden

Self-discipline strategist and business motivational speaker Rory Vaden will present the closing keynote at the 2017 Marine Dealers Conference & Expo, which will be held Dec. 10-13 at the Orange County Convention Center.

Vaden’s presentation – “Leaders Take the Stairs: Creating a Culture of Discipline” – will conclude the MDCE event schedule on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m.

During this high-energy closing keynote, attendees will learn practical steps for infusing their organization with a mentality of discipline.

Vaden’s insights will help dealers develop stronger systems of accountability for measuring activity and results, critically evaluate every instance of customer spending, adopt and model an attitude of discipline, and more.

His book “Take the Stairs” is a No. 1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-seller. He is known as the world’s leader on defining the psychology around modern day procrastination. He speaks and consults on how to say “no” to the things that don’t matter, and “yes” to the things that do.

The MDCE Closing Keynote, which is sponsored by Wells Fargo CDF, has been designed to provide motivation and tools to help MDCE’s attendees improve their focus and attention to all activities that drive results in their business.

We spoke with Vaden about his closing keynote topic and why it brings an important message to dealer attendees at MDCE.

Boating Industry: What’s important for dealers at this conference to know about you?

Vaden: I am small business owner who deals with the same challenges on a daily basis that that dealers do.

Boating Industry: What are the three most important hallmarks of great leadership, in your opinion?

Vaden: A great leader is a great recruiter, a great leader creates a compelling vision, and a great leader leads by example.

Boating Industry: Tell us about your “focus funnel” which includes five permissions for “procrastinating on purpose.”

Vaden: The focus funnel is our attempt to codify the mental thought process that multipliers go through to determine which tasks they spend their time on and which ones not to. Procrastinating on purpose is putting off the trivial things as a way of creating a margin of time, then reinvesting that time into significant things.

Boating Industry: Explain how priority dilution is one of the newest forms of procrastination in a technology-driven age.

Vaden: I think that’s it’s more pervasive because of the interconnectedness of the world and the access we have to the number of potential distractions and the access that people have to us. I do think that it’s always been there, but it’s been amplified by technology.

Boating Industry: How is it possible to take back time and convert it into business-growing, results-achieving, bottom-line dollars?

Vaden: By spending time on things today that create more time tomorrow.

Boating Industry: Where do you find inspiration for your Action Catalyst Blog?

Vaden: It’s an example of multiplying time. I put in the same level of input in terms of the work that it takes to create it, but there’s a scaleable result of the impact. I can have a million people read it and it doesn’t add any additional time to my calendar.

Boating Industry: What do you hope dealers take away or learn from your keynote presentation?

Vaden: My goal is to help them understand the psychology of procrastination, so that they can inspire themselves and their teams to take action. They won’t get resistance if they present it right. We are going to invite dealers to lead their teams through a creed conversation and create a vision.