The 2009 Greater Lansing Strategic Business Luncheon began with an uplifting video produced by Harvest Music + Sound Design.

The song Speak to Me (My Michigan), sung by Jules Anna Jones, was a perfect partner for the visuals portrayed of our great state. This video depicted the vast opportunities available to us in Michigan, and opened the luncheon with a sense of hope, which reverberated throughout the event.

The sponsors who made this event possible include Auto-Owners Insurance, Converged Network Solutions, Dart Development Group, Dean Trailways, Eagle Eye Golf Club, The Greater Lansing Business Monthly, TechSmith Corporation and WILX-TV Channel 10.

Bestselling author of What it Takes: Speak Up, Step Up, Move Up, and the last woman standing on NBC’s hit show    The Apprentice, Amy Henry took the stage and instantly engaged the audience. Teasing herself about her southern drawl and bleached blond hair, Henry detailed four main lessons she learned from her days on The Apprentice.

Tackling an ever-present question for the speaker, Henry exclaimed “Yes, Donald Trump’s hair really is that bad!” While not one of her main lessons, Henry kidded about Trump’s hair among other reality show insights. Her first lesson came to her prior to The Apprentice interview itself.

Henry’s friend prodded her to interview on the spur of the moment during a trip to her hometown of Dallas, Texas. As she sat awaiting her turn, along with 500 other hopefuls, Henry chatted with a magician and a beautician. During those two conversations, she asked them each why they felt they deserved the two hundred fifty thousand dollar job working under Donald Trump. The beautician, a born and bred southern belle, exclaimed, “Honey, have you see his hair?”

Equally uncompelling to any business owner was the magician’s response. The magician made clear Trump’s casinos were in trouble and he needed a “magician to turn them around.” As impossible as it was that magic tricks could turn a business from red to black, his point, as well as that of the beautician, was well made: He had a pitch—a brand for himself. Henry’s first lesson was, she said, “Create your own personal brand.” Without it, you are forgettable.

The brand that landed Henry a spot on the show was this: The southern MBA-er who rode the boom and bomb of the dot-com era. Her personal brand launched her into the ‘game,’ but it was her savvy business skills which garnered her a still-unbeaten record of 13 consecutive wins and kept her out of the boardroom for weeks on the set of The Apprentice.

Her second lesson seems equally obvious, but walking the talk instead of just talking the talk makes all the difference between the winners and the losers in the game of business–--big or small. Lesson two, Henry said, “Take time to develop, maintain and enhance relationships.” One relationship alone made one of Henry’s team wins a landslide by a mile.

As we navigate through life and business, we hear much about living with passion, loving what you do, and so on. The third lesson that permeated Henry’s psyche during her stay on the show and still remains intact as one of her solid business philosophies, in her own words was, “Believe in what you sell.”

This lesson came to Henry at the commencement of one task. Her team dreamed up the idea to embellish tank tops and sell them for a handsome profit at a local flea market. They were so successful that not only did they sell every tank top, but a nearby competitor bought everything from them, including materials and hangers, to ensure they would never show up at the flea market again!

The lesson that Henry learned on her way out of The Apprentice boardroom still leaves a sting in her memory. Winning every week, she never made the time (or saw the need) to network with the one man who would decide her fate, Donald Trump. Each week, she spent her time out of the boardroom and on the treadmill.

“One of the realities of reality TV shows,” said Henry, “is that Donald Trump had to walk through our apartment to get into the boardroom each week. So for weeks, I was just the gal on the treadmill.”

She never was forced to sit across the table from the key person. The one and only time Henry graced the boardroom, and Trump, with her presence was the one time she lost a task. He only knew her as the loser that week, not as the formidable businesswoman she was (and still is) for each prior week. Trump fired her in an instant, because Henry says, “He had no idea who I was.”

Henry’s lesson became emblazoned in her mind. She said, “Create and understand the value of your network.”

As Henry’s speech came to a close, she solemnly shared stories of her career changes and her father adding, “My greatest regret would be to not take risks.” Adding a quote she lives by, “I would not want to fail to do, rather than fail not doing.”

Her ‘failure’ on The Apprentice has created a host of opportunities for Henry, and in addition to her speaking engagements and best-selling book, Henry says, “I consult with two companies in Austin helping to take their IT programs live,” and nodding proudly says, “plus I’m a mom to three children.”