Welcome to Ted Stevenot.com!
I am a 30+ year business owner, investor, author, podcaster, and public speaker. This is my personal website, where I write and share articles about marketing, civics, retirement, better living, and more.
In the 1980s, I graduated cum laude with a degree in history from St. Louis University and originally planned to attend law school. Around that time, a family friend suggested I try working a year or two before pursuing my graduate degree. I decided to follow this advice, leading me to a year-long stint as an agent with Northwestern Mutual in St. Louis, MO.
At Northwestern, I learned the importance of lead generation or “prospecting”.
The ability to prospect or consistently generate qualified sales leads is one of the most important—if not the most important—challenges that must be overcome for the creation of long-term business success.
I feel safe in saying—there is no such thing as a successful salesperson, business, non-profit organization, or other customer-facing enterprise that has not somehow solved the problem of prospecting.
Many economists and business analysts say most businesses fail due to “undercapitalization” or running out of money. In my experience, such characterizations miss the mark. What really happens is that businesses FIRST fail to generate enough new qualified prospects for the products they sell, then they run out of sales, and then they run out of money.
Seeing this issue as mission-critical, I leaned into it with all my might. After much struggle, effort, and discipline, I developed a prospecting system that enabled me to survive as a young salesperson and, beginning at age 24, to thrive as a business owner.
Life since has been an adventure of learning, sharing, and abundance. I am grateful for the opportunity to have participated fully in the American dream—and my sincere hope is to help as many others as possible do the same.
In the mid-1990s, I got the idea to write a book about the B2B prospecting system I created to achieve my business goals. As a history major and graduate of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, I had always been a writer of sorts, but now writing has become an even more prominent part of my life. My first book, Prospect Factory, was published in 2004. Since then, I have gone on to write more books and countless articles about civics, retirement, and grassroots politics.