Herb Mesa is a real life success story and an inspiration to anyone who struggles with achieving a healthy lifestyle. He is a restaurant-trained chef, and a self-taught healthy cuisine chef, as well as a certified personal trainer and fitness guru. Herb teaches that taking the time to learn his language of ‘balance through food and fitness’, anyone can become their personal best.

As a first generation American of Cuban and Puerto Rican parents living in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Herb Mesa grew up on the flavors of the Caribbean. But with these richly intense flavors also came saturated fat, calorie-rich food in large portions. This, combined with a less than ideal focus on physical activity, caused Herb to struggle with his weight for many years.

Starting his career in the restaurant industry as a dishwasher, Herb worked his way up to Chef and, later, executive positions such as Director of Catering and Assistant General Manager at luxury hotels. As his professional success flourished, his weight rose and his energy level suffered. He decided for his own health, and for the health of his family, he had to make a change

With help from his wife, Linda, and their two young daughters, Herb said ‘good bye’ to the hotel business, but not ‘good bye’ to food. He became a certified personal trainer and nutrition & wellness consultant and worked at a local family gym. He conquered food without sacrificing the flavors he loved by beginning a business for himself in 2003 called The Energy Chef, with which he taught individual clients, corporate groups and gym members how to make satisfying, nutritious dishes and incorporate exercise into their lives.

Herb has worked with former Governor of Virginia (and current Senator) Mark Warner on his “Healthy Initiatives” campaign — appearing with Warner at Virginia elementary schools and spreading the word of nutrition and fitness. He has devoted countless hours to his daughter’s schools, getting children inspired and involved in food and cooking while making better choices. He has taught classes in professional kitchens on making healthy dishes; and he has inspired clients to live healthier lives and several to become personal trainers, themselves.

He now works as a personal chef and personal trainer in Atlanta, and most recently, Herb is a finalist on the Food Network’s premier reality cooking competition, The Next Food Network Star, where his excitement, enthusiasm and motivation for a healthy lifestyle exudes more than ever. Beating the odds and changing people’s lives proves that Herb truly is a star.

WARNING: This Can Happen- You have booked the perfect venue, have all the right people in the audience and up walks your keynote speaker. Five minutes into his speech the attendees’ eyes grow heavy, they begin to doze off, and your message and money is now down the drain.

THE SOLUTION: When planning your next event, consider the following: Countless studies have shown that when it comes to message retention and engaging an audience, laughter leads to learning. Flake Productions creates and hosts high energy, interactive game shows to promote your topics and ideas.

We will create a show specifically designed for your event and we will emphasize the messages and information that you need the audience to retain.  The entire show is a multi-media experience. We personally consult with all our clients and learn exactly what they want to accomplish in their event. If you give us a book of information and a stack of note cards, Flake Productions will transform it into a full on multi-media game show experience.

Our game show systems and software allow us to project giant game boards onto multi-media screens where the entire audience can get involved. Our corporate and team building game shows can include eye catching videos, full color photographs and any audio and music you can think of.

Humor is an integral component of learning. Humor enhances communication, increases energy and can offer fun, compelling incentives. Our Interactive Game Shows are able to grab the audience’s attention and increase the likelihood of long term memory retrieval. Studies have defined the concept as “humergy”. We strive to incorporate this into all our shows, excitement, humor and energy all coming together at once.

You will have your employees, divisions and all the attendees talking about what a unique approach you took in promoting your message. Loosen up your collar and let the audience see that you truly want to connect with them and appreciate all the hard work that goes on. In today’s market, people want a stress reliever so don’t subject them to “just another speaker” that will be as forgettable as the message you paid to promote. Flake Productions offers our game shows at affordable and highly competitive rates.

Division vs. Division, Managers against Managers, Bosses vs. Employees . We can create any combination of fun, competitive team building you can think of.

Promoting Your Message: You want your company’s goals promoted, current economic trends analyzed, or new concepts in the marketplace illustrated??  The list goes on and on- we create, host and produce the entire show.

High energy, audience connection and a new standard for company events. These are just a few of the things we provide along with a whole new dynamic to corporate functions. We showcase to all size audiences, events and topics. We’ll put on a truly unforgettable and totally unique show so let Flake Productions handle your next event and we guarantee an experience that‘s customized and energized to meet your needs .

Debora Lyra has already taken control of her career. Like most women in the pageant world, they use this platform for visibility and connections to move to the next level.

For Debora, her exposure to the brand concept was new. Once gaining an understanding she was able to compartmentalize those elements that help create her brand.

Branding is about learning to communicate who you are and what you know to others. It’s about awareness and knowing that you have equipped yourself with tools that help give you confidence. And, it is confidence that translates into success…this is what branding is really all about!

We started Debora’s training with her gaining a great understanding of how her behaviors and values impacts her communication with others. She then learned about how her coloring and clothing style helped position her for press, meetings and day-to-day activities.

Debora was an excellent student when working on her platform skills. She learned how to utilize her body language more effectively while learning how to answer questions while on stage and to audiences. Each day Deborah excelled at her new found knowledge.

Debora is now able to compete in the Miss Universe 2010 pageant. After working with Debora, I know she is a VERY strong candidate, with the title of Top Model Of The World and now Miss Brazil, her work and abilities speak for themselves.

Congratulations Debora Lyra!!!!

At meetings, are you treated with the same regard as your colleagues? Or are you treated like the stepchild of the organization. If so, it may not be entirely the fault of others or the reputation of the HR industry. It could, in fact, be your own actions that are keeping you out-of-the-loop.

The HR community has gone to great lengths building a reputation and changing perceptions. It has been a long and comprehensive process, yet an extremely effective one. However, HR professionals still strive to raise-the-bar on how their HR department is looked upon, or even closer to home, how they as an HR professional are perceived.

To help HR professionals accomplish this, HR professionals need to ensure their Professional Presence matches their title and profession. You have the knowledge and expertise of being an HR professional, but do you know how to communicate who you are and what you know to others?

Throughout my 22 years of working in the arena of professional development I have seen people not promoted simply because they did not dress, act or communicate appropriately. An organization is not going to take the risk.

I am not suggesting that your appearance and personality need to be a certain way to be successful. I am saying that if you follow a few professional guidelines, it can help close the gap between where you are and where you want to be in your career in a more timely fashion.

A great starting point in developing a Professional Presence is understanding first how others perceive you at first impact so that you know how to position yourself in any business situation. It’s called Perception IDentity™.

This program identifies how others see you at first sight; either authoritative or approachable. This perception is formed without knowledge or experience and is based soley on your physical characteristics and the overall tone of your body language. We call this identity your Perception ID™.

Once you identify your Perception ID™ the key is to learn how to strategically position that perception in important business situations. To help you position your Perception ID™ you need to incorporate the 4 Principles from “The Parker Factor”.

THE PARKER FACTOR

Principle 1:  Desired Perception
To determine a “desired perception”, consider the following elements from Image Positioning™ to create a scenario that will help in your particular situation.

Consider the dynamics of the situation. What do you want the outcome to be?  What is the relationship between you and the other participants? A situation may require an initial impact of an authoritative presence. We call this your “desired perception”. The next step of “The Parker Factor” is to determine how much of an authoritative presence you need to project in order to obtain your outcome.

Principle 2:  Percentage Impact
How much of an impact of your “desired perception” do you need to project? This is called “percentage impact”.

To position yourself as more authoritative, the question is, how authoritative do you need to be? This is based on a percentage scale.

The CPR of Image Positioning™ should always be considered when determining “percentage impact”. This percentage should range between 50-100%.

Principle 3:  Modification Quota
The next step is to determine how much to modify your Perception ID™ in order to reach the “desired perception” of an authoritative presence at 90%.

Assume that your Perception ID™ is 30% authoritative. To determine your “modification quota,” subtract your authoritative traits (30%) from your “percentage impact” (90%), giving you a “modification quota” of 60%. (90-30=60).

The key is to determine which impression-management-tactics™ to draw from in order to project an initial impact of authority.

Principle 4:  Impression-Management-Tactics™
To reach your “modification quota” of 60%, you must know which Channels of Communication are available to make your initial impact more authoritative. Options include Appearance and Body Language.

These Communication Channels are made up of many elements. When incorporating one of these elements to communicate a “desired perception” we refer to it as an im-tactic™.

It is not what you say, but how you say it that matters. Use a positive tone. You can “say” that you really like the idea of a new initiative, but using a sarcastic tone tells others how you “really” feel. People do not like being around “negative” people. You can disagree without being condescending. Instead, mention that while you are not sure if the initiative is effective for your group, you feel that other items might need to be resolved first, such as XYZ. Do this with a positive tone, reducing the risk of offending others.