After graduating from Georgia Tech’s College of Management in Atlanta in 1985 at age 21, Glenn immediately went into the management training program for Cintas, the Cincinnati based uniform supplier. In 1988, he bought his first company, which was a small spin-off of Nashville based Datamarketing Network. He immediately expanded its operations into Memphis, and brought in a venture capitalist six months later to expand operations to Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, and Cincinnati.
While running his business by day, he began doing guest commentaries on the six o’clock news of WSMV, the local NBC affiliate and attending Toastmasters meetings on the weekends. He had no idea at the time why he was doing either, but later described it as “God steering the ship when I thought I was”.
One night at a dinner party, he met a local seminar promoter who had just hired Paul Harvey to speak at a success event at the Grand Ole Opry House. Glenn had always idolized Mr. Harvey, but that one event brought him the clarity he needed. Mr. Harvey was paid $35,000 for speaking, and Glenn was starstruck. Mr. Harvey gave the advice that changed Glenn’s life. He said that in order to become a professional speaker, one should first have something worth speaking about, and the rest would fall in place. Glenn continued running his business and learning the right – and wrong – way to do everything, from collecting money from customers who didn’t pay, to hiring, firing, and motivating employees.
By 1995, he was so in demand on the speaking circuit that it took a staff of five employees just to keep him on the road. He has a burning passion for fighting the declining American work ethic, and has zero tolerance for whining, laziness, and people with an entitlement mentality.
Today, he keeps a grueling schedule of speaking, consulting, writing, and managing his own business. His gives over 150 seminars and keynote speeches each year, which are sponsored by 146 colleges and universities in 25 states.
His monthly teleseminars and webcasts are carried by The Alexander Hamilton Institute in New Jersey, The Institute of Management and Administration in New York City, Thompson Interactive in Washington, D.C.,and Business 21 Publications in Philadelphia.
He is published in paperback by John Wiley & Sons of New York, the world’s largest and oldest business book publisher. His latest book, How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without, became a #1 best seller in March 2006, surpassing 3,000,000 other titles to capture the top position. It went on to hold the #1 position in the career development category for 27 consecutive weeks, and was named one of the top ten career books for the entire year by Joyce Lane Kennedy at Tribune Media Services.
Today, Glenn is one of America’s most outspoken critics on the abuse of unemployment benefits. He hasn’t yet caught up with Mr. Harvey on the speaking fee, but has joined the upper echelon of speaking professionals who earn $10,000 or more for keynote speeches.
Managers in all 50 American states and in 17 foreign countries including Canada, Russia, India, England, South Africa, and Australia subscribe to his weekly management and HR newsletter, “Work Is Not for Sissies”.
He has his sights set on serving as U.S. Secretary of Labor, and vows to use that position to attack the doling out of unemployment benefits to people who refuse to find work when so many jobs go unfilled.
Visit his homepage at www.GlennShepard.com
