All About Alain

Our team at TL Direct Acquisitions is as eclectic and unique as they come…and we wouldn’t have it any other way. A melting pot of athletes, academians, musicians, comedians, and entrepreneurs, we are united in our diversity and a stronger organization because of it!

Meet Alain Mignot, Corporate Trainer at TL Direct Acquisitions and this month’s featured team member! Due to Alain’s outstanding performance over the last 14 months in our Management Training Program, we wanted to interview him and learn more about what inspires and pushes him at work!

Alain, tell us about where you were born and your upbringing! 

I was born into a Panamanian/Jamaican/Chinese family and raised in Miami, FL as the youngest of three boys! My upbringing was filled with lots of cultures and great music, and I attribute my passion for audio engineering to growing up with 2 parents whose musical tastes varied from reggae, merengue, jazz, and salsa to opera! At 14, I started pursuing music more seriously, learning the ins and outs of editing and adjusting soundtracks from my bedroom.

Where did life bring you after graduation?

After graduation, I started a Pre-Medical program, with intentions of pursuing a career in pharmacy. A year of that helped me realize that I had to do work I was passionate about, not just “interested” in. I dropped everything and moved to Orlando to attend Full Sail University, a school tailored for the arts & entertainment industries. I participated in an accelerated program and received my Associates in Audio Engineering in a year. With that, I moved back home to Miami hungry and eager to work. I was placed, through the help of my University, at Circle House Studios, and fell in love with the opportunity to make music on a daily basis. I worked there for 2 years before moving into freelance work. I grew my own portfolio independently before my mom and I decided to relocate to Atlanta to be closer to one of my older brothers and his 4 daughters!

How did you hear about TL Direct? 

Being new to the city, I wanted to also try something different that would also support my music career. When I saw a job opening that offered hands-on management training, I knew that would be beneficial to me in more ways than one. I applied online, came in for my interview, and a year later I would say it worked out perfectly! The work challenges me, my coworkers entertain me, and I’m learning tangible business skills that benefit me as a music producer myself.

What has been your best memory with the company?

Any time I get to travel, that is a great memory! I’ve been to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Asheville, Columbus, Dallas, and soon to be Houston for a conference at the beginning of June!

What do you bring to TL Direct Acquisitions?

I truly care about people and believe everyone has an incredible opportunity to better their lives here in our Management Training Program. That sincerity and belief help me do well with any personality that steps foot in our company!

How would you describe the company culture in 3 words?

Professional, positive, and familial.

What advice do you have for someone starting in the company?

Give yourself time to see what you’re fully capable of. Trust the systems that the company has in place and the growth potential that’s available. Rome wasn’t built in a day; your career and development will take time but it will be well worth it!

What are you doing in your free time outside of work? 

I spend my weekends with family and enjoying my 4 nieces! I love sports, so if I’m not playing basketball, football, or bowling myself, I’m watching the Dallas Cowboys or Miami Heat!

Alain, you’re an inspiration to many here at TL Direct Acquisitions and we’re so glad to share your story with even more. Keep up the tremendous work and we can’t wait until we’re blogging about your promotion to Assistant Management this summer!

What is it like to work at TL Direct Acquisitions?

A question we often get from individuals contemplating a career at TL Direct Acquisitions is “what are the benefits of working for your company?” We love when people ask this. In order to boast a healthy career, the relationship has to be mutually beneficial. People naturally want to know that the company they are going to dedicate themselves to for years is going to take care of them in return. With this in mind, we sat down and thought about the many benefits we offer to all TL Direct Acquisitions team members and defined them into the following 5 categories.

Professional Growth

In what we think is the biggest benefit of them all, the opportunity for unlimited growth potential is one of a kind. We often hear that people enjoy their current positions but are dissatisfied with the advancement structure, so we vowed upon starting TL Direct Acquisitions that that would not be the case in our company. Every individual is given equal opportunity to progress into leadership and management roles, barring the work ethic and performance is there. We recognize this growth is unique, therefore, the talent we accept into our company is unique. The ambitious, hungry, entrepreneurial type do best here in our Management Training Program.

Challenging Work

Complimentary to our clear, structured advancement opportunities is the chance to have challenging, thought-provoking work. People often get caught up doing menial, mind-numbing work, rather than holding a role that forces them to become a better version of their professional self. At TL Direct Acquisitions, we recognize the strengths each team member brings to our organization, as well as the areas needing improvement. We encourage the personal/professional development of each individual through situational leadership training, management seminars, and extensive networking opportunities. Anyone who has a dull day at TL Direct Acquisitions was not working hard enough.

Uncapped Earning Potential 

We believe people should be paid what they’re worth, not based on the hours they put in. (We’re sure you’ve all worked with someone who clocked in and out and did little in between but made as much as you.) We found the concept of “performance-based” pay perfect for our business model and made it a staple in our company that you could dictate both your growth and your pay. For this reason, we have individuals in our organization that easily make over $50,000 in an entry level marketing & sales position simply because they’re willing and able to outwork and out-study others.

Camaraderie

The camaraderie aspect of TL Direct Acquisitions is also a MASSIVE benefit of working with our company. We know from personal experience that it is uncommon to work with like-minded, goal-oriented people who have common interests and work ethic. By grouping people of different backgrounds with similar aspirations, we have bred a culture that competitive go-getters thrive in. By hosting a weekly team event both inside and outside of the office, we ensure that our crew gets to know each other outside of the suits and ties.

Travel

If you love to travel and plan to work at TL Direct Acquisitions, be sure to have your passport ready! Offering monthly regional travel opportunities, quarter stateside trips, and annual international rest & relaxation weekends, our company means business when it comes to rewarding our people through travel. We believe traveling promotes networking, as well as an opportunity to stretch and expand comfort zones, so whether our team is packing their bags for Florida or Puerto Vallarta, the memories are there to be made!

A career at TL Direct Acquisitions requires dedication and tenacity but is well worth the effort required. Thanks to the culture built by our CEO, Terry Lynch, we know that people that are valued and appreciated will always go above and beyond. The past 5 years have shown us that and built a foundation of excellence we will continue to compound upon!

Meet Our CEO!

HR MANAGER: TERRY LYNCH

Hometown: Meridian, Mississippi

Education: Sports Medicine / Alabama

Favorite Quote: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

Hobbies: Watching football (ROLL TIDE!)

Best Lesson Learned: Work hard for what you want and you can have it.

Business Trip is a Go!

The TL Direct Acquisitions team is heading to Houston! We are excited to head to down South to help train a client's office on Sales Force - the #1 CRM software in the world! Follow our trip on our social media sites!

TL Direct Acquisitions Receives an "A" Rating on BBB!

Even after being out of school for a while (we don't want to think about how many years it's been, haha!), we're still getting A's! 😉🎓 The Better Business Bureau has awarded TL Direct Acquisitions an A rating based on our business practices and company reputation!

View our rating on the BBB's website:

T🎓

TL Direct Acquisitions Is Hiring

Our firm is growing and due to expand again before the end of 2017! We're now hiring Sales Representatives capable of starting in an entry level position and gradually move them into positions of Team Lead and Sales Management. To learn more, visit here!

BEYONCE = INSPIRATION 😍

28 Powerful Beyoncé Knowles Quotes 
by Joel Brown

Beyoncé Knowles is a well known singer, song-writer, and actress better known from her collaborative group, Destiny’s Child in the late 1990s.

According to Forbes, Beyoncé’s networth is $265 million as of June 2016, although her celebrity networth is considered to be estimated at $450 million.

Here are some Inspirational Beyoncé Knowles Quotes:

1. “Power means happiness; power means hard work and sacrifice.” – Beyoncé Knowles

2. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, I only have to follow my heart and concentrate on what I want to say to the world. I run my world.” – Beyoncé Knowles

3. “Take all the rules away. How can we live if we don’t change?” – Beyoncé Knowles

4. “Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you who you are.” – Beyoncé Knowles

5. “We all have our imperfections. But I’m human and you know, it’s important to concentrate on other qualities besides outer beauty.” – Beyoncé Knowles

6. “The reality is: sometimes you lose. And you’re never too good to lose. You’re never too big to lose. You’re never too smart to lose. It happens.” – Beyoncé Knowles

7. “I’m a workaholic and I don’t believe in ‘No.’ If I’m not sleeping, nobody’s sleeping.” – Beyoncé Knowles

8. “Do what you were born to do. You just have to trust yourself.” – Beyoncé Knowles

9. “When you love and accept yourself, when you know who really cares about you, and when you learn from your mistakes, then you stop caring about what people who don’t know you think.” – Beyoncé Knowles

10. “I don’t feel like I have to please anyone. I feel free. I feel like I’m an adult. I’m grown. I can do what I want. I can say what I want. I can retire if I want. That’s why I’ve worked hard.” – Beyoncé Knowles

11. “Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health — take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish.” – Beyoncé Knowles

12. “When I’m not feeling my best I ask myself, ‘What are you gonna do about it?’ I use the negativity to fuel the transformation into a better me.” – Beyoncé Knowles

13. “I felt like it was time to set up my future, so I set a goal. My goal was independence.” – Beyoncé Knowles

14. “I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.” – Beyoncé Knowles

15. “It is so liberating to really know what I want, what truly makes me happy, what I will not tolerate. I have learned that it is no one else’s job to take care of me but me.” – Beyoncé Knowles

16. “I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.” – Beyoncé Knowles

17. “My biggest thing is to teach not to focus on the aesthetic. It’s really about who you are, and the human being, that makes you beautiful.” – Beyoncé Knowles

18. “We all have our imperfections. But I’m human and you know, it’s important to concentrate on other qualities besides outer beauty.” – Beyoncé Knowles

19. “If you don’t take the time to think about and analyze your life, you’ll never realize all the dots that are all connected.” – Beyoncé Knowles

20. “The most alluring thing a woman can have is confidence.” – Beyoncé Knowles

21. “Power is not given yo you. You have to take it.” – Beyoncé Knowles

22. “My focus is my art, and that’s what I love to do. I have to be really passionate in order to do something. I’ve turned down many things that I just didn’t believe in.” – Beyoncé Knowles

23. “I love my job, but it’s more than that: I need it.” – Beyoncé Knowles

24. “I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.” – Beyoncé Knowles

25. “I always try to be myself. Ever since I was an introverted kid, I’d get on stage and be able to break out of my shell.” – Beyoncé Knowles

26. “I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.” – Beyoncé Knowles

27. “To be able to travel the world, especially to places I never thought I’d be… it’s really, you know, still fascinating for me.” – Beyoncé Knowles

28. “I don’t really like to call myself a brand, and I don’t like to think of myself as a brand. I’m a singer, a songwriter, a musician and a performer. And an actress, and all the other things that I do. When you add it all together, some might call it a brand, but that’s not my focus.” – Beyoncé Knowles

Meet Camille! 👋

Meet Camille: our newest HR Administrator! She's fun, outgoing, and hardworking - all qualities required for a successful Administrator! Welcome to the TL Direct Acquisitions team, Camille; we can't wait to see where you take us next!

TL Direct Acquisitions Is Expanding To Montomgery

TL Direct Acquisitions is expanding to Montgomery and these 5 professionals are leading the way! Stay tuned for more updates as these Fab 5 leave Georgia and take on the great state of Alabama and expand TL Direct Acquisitions east!

#FridayReads

If you're like us, you love some light reading material on leadership, business, and motivation! Where does the team at TL Direct Acquisitions go to find such material? Check out our favorite sites below!

Addicted2Success

Inc.com

Entrepreneur.com

Forbes

ENJOY!

3 Ways to Decentralize Management and Boost Productivity

By DUSTY WUNDERLICH

Founder and CEO, Bristlecone Holdings

Facilitating collaboration between departments such as engineering and marketing helps employees understand how their work assignments fit together in service of their audiences. Startup leaders can use the following strategies to create decentralized businesses:

1. Rethink structure.

Forget about traditional hierarchies, especially in the early days. There may come a time when a more traditional approach works for an organization, but the startup stage is not it. Hierarchy-induced stress has long been linked to heart disease, among other health issues, and it increases voluntary turnover by 50 percent.

So, avoid these stress-related pitfalls; organize employees into autonomous squads that can work across disciplines.

Foster a sense of equality by encouraging conversations among staff members of all experience levels. My company practices department shadowing, in which founders and executives learn what people are doing throughout the organization.

When the concierge receives visits from the COO, and the VP of marketing sits in with accounting, employees understand that we’re all part of the same team, pursuing shared objectives.

2. Create a team of "intrapreneurs."

Startup employees make the best intrapreneurs. Because they’re involved in so many areas of the business, they have unique views on what types of products will resonate with their markets. Google’s intrapreneurship program, for example, empowers team members to pursue their ideas without getting approval from their bosses.

They can partner with colleagues to explore concepts and potentially create new products for the company.

Cultivate a similar mentality by inviting employees to build new solutions and collaborate with their co-workers on ideas. Trust them to take initiative; don’t require them to get a manager’s green light before acting. Not only will this spur innovation even as the company leaves the startup stage, it will also inspire employee loyalty and enthusiasm.

3. Rally around a common goal.

Shared goals are a great way to bring people together and drive results. And while 75 percent of employers in one survey by Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., rated collaboration as “very important,” 39 percent of employees reported that their organizations didn't collaborate enough.

My own company decided to emphasize sales volume one year, and every department worked toward specific origination goals. Not only did each team's members want to perform the best, they didn’t want to let one another down. No one wanted to be the reason we fell short, so everyone worked harder to ensure we hit the target.

We also created opportunities for cross-collaboration, so different departments could gain insights into one another’s processes as we pursued the goal. People work together best when they understand what’s happening within each department and empathize with the unique constraints and pressures their colleagues experience.

A shared goal helped us foster more empathy and camaraderie between and among groups. We enjoyed our best sales year ever and saw an increase in proactive behavior throughout the company.

In sum, the flattened structure approach enables startups to run on all cylinders at all times. Employees can burn out when working in silos because they feel that the success of a particular project falls on them alone. Alternately, flat teams share responsibilities and energize one another through collaboration. The personal, innovative nature of holacratic startups makes them more agile and better equipped to take on their markets.

Philanthropy at TL Direct Acquisitions

At TL Direct Acquisitions we love to support charitable organizations by putting together events, fundraising, and community involvement.  Considering the fact that our day to day business operations include speaking face to face on behalf of our clients, communication and people skills rank high here at TL Direct Acquisitions. We believe with great success comes the great responsibility of giving back to the community and who better to represent those in need than our team of professional communicators.

Operation Smile, our company’s favorite charity, is an organization that provides surgeries to repair cleft lips, palates and other facial deformities for 3rd world children. We recognize that we take for granted all the medical health benefits offered to us here in the United States and have chosen to help those in need in other countries receive the smiles they’ve been missing since birth. Through rallying our community and raising donations as a team, TL Direct Acquisitions hopes to change the lives of dozens of children per year. 

TL Direct Acquisitions is Hiring!

TL Direct Acquisitions is currently hiring for an Entry Level Account Manager position. We’re looking for individuals to start in an entry level role with the opportunity to move up into management . We handle outside marketing and sales for a major client in the Atlanta area.

Minimum qualifications

• Degree or 0-5 years relevant work experience in a leadership role
• Ability to speak English fluently

Preferred qualifications

• Internship experience in sales, marketing and account management.
• Interest in developing customer partnerships.
• Detail oriented with the ability to prioritize, plan, and organize sales activity.
• Customer Service / Retail / Hospitality and/or Restaurant experience is a plus!
• Interest in advancement & the opportunity to make an impact!

*** Please Note: This is not a "work from home" position.

Do What You Love & Love What You Do

As the great philosopher Confucius once said:

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

This quote reflects a philosophy that we hold here at TL Direct Acquisitions. We believe that work shouldn't feel like "work"; you should enjoy the environment and the people you work with!

FAQ: TL Direct Acquisitions

Of course you want to know more about us! Here are our most frequently asked questions:

• Why direct marketing?

• When it comes to marketing, there are two routes a company can follow.  1) They use mass or indirect marketing and try to reach as many potential customers at one time or 2) they use direct marketing in order to reach a smaller, more qualified percentage of customers.  While forms of mass marketing like billboards, radio ads, commercials and newspapers may sell products, they do not build lifelong customers. Through our face-to-face direct sales and marketing approach, we contribute a personal aspect that mass marketing cannot and form relationships that create long-term customers rather than impulse buyers.

• Why would a Fortune 100 or 500 client choose TL Direct Acquisitions

• A Fortune 100 or 500 client would choose TL Direct Acquisitions because we are experts in face to face marketing and sales. We pride ourselves on offering our clients a 100% return on their investment and substantial increases to their bottom line and market share ratios. No longer do our clients have to rely on outdated methods like telemarketing and direct mail when TL Direct Acquisitions will represent them with a smile and a handshake.

• Why should I choose TL Direct Acquisitions for my next career move?

• A candidate should choose TL Direct Acquisitions because we are an internally growth-oriented company. We pride ourselves on the fact that when other companies will overlook a candidate that doesn’t have 3-5 years experience, we provide opportunities to get their feet in the door.  Whether you are looking for your first career outside of college or a career change to sales and marketing field, you will learn invaluable communication, people and team building skills here at TL Direct Acquisitions.

• Do I have to start at an entry level position?

• Ever heard the phrase, the best coaches are former players? We have, and that’s the foundation of our Management Training Program. So the answer is an absolute YES! We believe that strong leaders lead from the front and have been in their team’s shoes before.  There is a certain strength and confidence in a manager that can show their people a willingness to work alongside their team, not just coach from the sidelines.

• How long does it take to get into Management?

• Our company is a performance based environment so the answer to that question is how soon are you ready to be in management? Rather than being based off of seniority or tenure, promotions in our company are based off of ambition, perseverance and work ethic! We have seen people move into management in less than a year and have seen it take up to three but the median timeframe is 12-18 months. This is a small fraction of the time it takes in most seniority-based companies where growth is restricted. This performance based business provides our team with a direct career path without waiting for the guy in front of them to retire!