Here is an interesting time line of key accomplishments that show how a 24 year old man who arrived in New York with a wife and 18 month old child, in the fall of 1978 with $1,000 to his name, made the American dream another reality.

For an interactive time line Click Here.

1985 – January. Officially opened doors for business in Fort Lee New Jersey – in Toni Louws dinning room, with his wife Gini helping on weekends. (Toni had previously, 1979 – 1984, been the only partner of, at the time, the premier training and consulting company to the advertising and marketing services business in America)

1985 – February. His first client, McCann Erickson Australia send check for $10,000 which provides a basis for Louws first MAC computer purchase and rent check.

1986 – Summer. Gini Louw gets hired away from Nordeman Grimm, a leading search consultancy in New York and becomes Louws first Director of Administration.

1986 – Fall. Following the death of Mr. Louws father, his mother Krystyna Louw, a former Editor for the largest trade Journal in South Africa, New Equipment News, joined Louws as an Executive Trainer – specializing in Presentation Skills, Writing Skills and Meeting the Press.

1987 – Spring. Presentation Skills and Writing skills workshops come out of beta testing and become formal workshops.

1987 – Fall. Produces the industries only video lesson of a “Typical Agency Pitch” versus “How the clients would like to see it” and previews it for the first time at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) annual convention in Washington DC. And firmly establishes Louws as one of the pre-eminent experts in how to win new business.

1988 – Louws designs its headquarter office in Palisades Park New Jersey and shares premises with International Travel Associates (ITA), a long time client.

1988 – Louws is invited to redesign American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) credentials and trains its key presenters to present new credentials.

1989 – New York Times hires Louws to conduct Consultative Selling Skills training of all its space sales reps (formerly Mr. Louw worked as a space sales representative for Thompson Publications in South Africa) challenging him to help them cross the 1 million circulation mark. Done!

1990 – Louws triples its staff size and doubles its revenue.

1991 – Shandwick hires Louws to train its global network from London to New York City.

1992 – Louws develops its exclusive “International Negotiating and Cross Cultural Business Etiquette” workshop and delivers to all of Exxon/Esso’s international Aviation fuel sales division.

1993 – May. Louws moves its headquarters to Scottsdale, Arizona.

1994 – Young & Rubicam and Burson Marstella hires Louws to train all its offices globally, from Melbourne Australia to Hong Kong in organizational restructure and new business development.

1994 – Fall. Louws is retained to train key personnel at McDonalds in their public speaking skills.

1995 – Dr Pepper asks Louws to help increase its national revenues from 8% to 10% - achieved 12% 6 months later.

1996 – Louws hired by Nike and Gortex and Coors.

1997 – Ciba Specialty Chemicals hires Louws to conduct Media Training for its international Board of Directors in Basel Switzerland. Training extends over 2 years.

1998 – Louws moves its head offices to Clearwater Florida – soon after Louws founder enrolls daughter in a private school.

1999 – Pizza Hut and United Airlines retain Louws.

1999 – Mr. Louw, at the age of 45, officially retires. This lasts 3 months. His wife kicks him out of the house and Mr. Louw returns part time conducting the exclusive one of a kind “Selling Creative Ideas” seminar at the behest of the AAAA for its members nationally.

2000 – Lou DiGiusto hired as an Executive Trainer. Previously a marketing consultant to Scotts and Wal-Mart, former advertising agency executive and public speaking coach to notable dignitaries such as Senator Bob Dole, Senator John McCain, Governor Lawton Chiles, Coach Bobby Bowden, Coach Don Shula and former NFL players such as Jim Kelly and Larry Czonka.

2000 – Sprint PCS hires Louws.

2001 – Genentech, Sprint and The Houston Chronicle hires Louws for presentations skills training and marketing and brand consultancy.

2002 – Hill Holiday and McKinney Silver hire Louws for New Business Development training.

2003 – February. Media Edge:cia (MEC:cia) hires Louws for new business counsel – by ’04 over $800M in billings won.

2003 – Summer. Louws opens branch office in Stratford, Connecticut.

2004 – Norvatis, Quiznos, Hallmark and Wunderman hire Louws.

2004 – July. Louws moves into its newly build corporate offices in Vail Arizona.

2004 – Over 22 new accounts acquired, with a 95% increase in revenue since 2001.

2005. Celebrates 20 year anniversary. Now with 18 training and consulting products available from 6 cities nationally and a 9 member team.

In the agency arena, Louws has trained, coached and counseled on presentation skills, new business development, selling creative and strategic planning over 300 advertising, promotions, direct and public relations agencies, large, medium and small such as Y&R, Wunderman, Mediaedge:cia, Burson Marsteller, The Integer Group, McKinney+Silver, TracyLocke, and Cline Davis & Mann, and is considered by many as “the standard” of training excellence to the marketing community.

In the corporate arena, Louws has trained in public speaking, media interviews, consultative selling, negotiating and brand and marketing consulting well over 200 companies, including many in the Fortune 100. These include companies such as Pizza Hut, The New York Times, General Motors, Novartis, Exxon International, Quiznos, Bayer, Kinko’s/Fed Ex and Coors.

Toni Louw, Founder and CEO of Louws, says: “This time line represents only one thing to me. An unparallel record of serving the business community with distinction. In our business, unlike classic teaching where tenure maintains revenue, Louws is only as good as its last training. If our students don’t produce back on the job, we don’t have another job. For the past 2 decades, our clients have honored us by trusting us with their people’s careers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them for doing so – I just hope that we can continue to earn their patronage for the next 20 years.”

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