JIM ALVAREZ MOUREY, aka “Data,” is the face of the American Dream. Having gone from ‘poverty to PhD,’ Mourey is proof that the combination of a passionate work ethic with genuine, caring relationships is a guaranteed recipe for success. The son of a Spanish mother and a French father, Mourey’s humble beginnings started in a trailer in a small Illinois town that housed his parents and three siblings. Both parents worked several jobs – from housekeeping to truck driving – to provide for their family, instilling in their children the importance of a strong work ethic and an appreciation of the value you can provide to others.

A first-generation college student, Mourey gained admission into the nation’s top universities through his hard work and co-curricular involvement. Mourey made the most of his undergraduate experience, graduating summa cum laude with high honors, and being crowned ‘big man on campus’ for his involvement and contributions to the campus community. During this time, Mourey also developed full integrated marketing campaigns for Tiffany & Co., the Ritz-Carlton, Yahoo!, the NCAA, and more. His entrepreneurial appetite was satiated through his creation of an on-campus café and entertainment venue, as well as the creation of Volcano Creative, the identity and branding design company he started as a student and operated out of his dorm room.

Completing his Ph.D. at the prestigious Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Mourey is a trained scientist whose research interests span the disciplines of Marketing, Management, and Psychology. Mourey’s passion is understanding how individuals market themselves, professionally and personally, in their interpersonal relationships and helping people improve their positioning to improve their relationships. As a professor of Marketing, Mourey received perfect evaluations from his students, many of whom described his course as ‘life-‘ and ‘career-changing.’ While at the Ross School of Business, Mourey was the recipient of the Leo Burnett Fellowship and the Rackham Merit Fellowship and was the elected President of the Ph.D. Forum.

As Executive Director of the Greenlight Research Group, the leading think tank on professional relationship development and maintenance, Mourey bridges the best scientifically-validated research from academia with the best tried-and-true methods from practice to develop innovative solutions for global companies. Unlike many consultancies that provide solutions that are ‘convenient,’ Mourey provides solutions that ‘work’ as verified by rigorous scientific testing and quantifiable data analysis. In addition to developing training methods aimed at improving professional relationships, Mourey is also the creator of the rDNA relationship diagnostic, an innovative tool that helps individuals identify their relationship building strengths and weaknesses, thereby allowing these individuals to improve their interpersonal relationships and, subsequently, their career performance. To date, rDNA has been implemented in companies around the world including Microsoft, Accenture, Disney, Amazon, and Thomson Reuters. In addition to rDNA, the Greenlight Research Group is launching a follow-up diagnostic that measures specific, dyadic relationships to improve collaboration, teamwork, and efficiency within organizations.

Serving as a thought partner and collaborator for Keith Ferrazzi’s #1 national bestseller WHO’S GOT YOUR BACK: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success – and Won’t Let You Fail, Mourey was responsible for several of the methodological contributions to the book including the discussions regarding goal setting, behavior change, and the psychology of relationships. As the author of the forthcoming NEVER EAT ALONE: COLLEGE EDITION, Mourey has created the single most important book for any college student. Mourey realized that his successful academic and professional experiences stemmed largely from the relationships he developed while in college. NEVER EAT ALONE: COLLEGE EDITION summarizes Jim’s insights and experiences so that young people everywhere can make the most of their college careers.

For more information and downloadable resources, visit FerrazziGreenlight.com and the lively community hub, GreenlightCommunity.com, where Mourey leads two forums: ‘How to be More Social’ and ‘PsychoBabble: Insights from Relationship Research.’

SPEAKING | Three Talks
1) The Secrets of Socialization: The Science Behind Great Relationships
2) Selling You: A Marketing Approach to Being the Best You
3) Making the Most of Your College Career, One Relationship at a Time

The Secrets of Socialization: The Science Behind Great Relationships

Basic education is often summed up in the 3 R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic. The problem, however, is that the most important “R” of all is missing: relationships. Think about it. Do you remember learning how to “relate” with others? Did anyone ever teach you how to build meaningful, mutually-beneficial relationships? Probably not. No wonder the divorce rate is so high and we all hate our colleagues!

Through Jim Mourey’s seminar The Secrets of Socialization: The Science Behind Great Relationships, participants learn to:
-Set the foundation for deep, meaningful relationship potential
-Recognize innate human behaviors that server as barriers to healthy relationship development
-Leverage the changes taking place in the mind and body during the relationship building process
-Attract anyone into a mutually-beneficial partnership via interdependence
-Maintain an increasing number of personal connections without sacrificing genuine quality

This presentation, combined with Ferrazzi Greenlight’s novel Personal Relationship Management (PRM) program, provides an insightful, scientifically-driven solution for professionals seeking to have better relationships with their colleagues, which impacts the bottom line, and even in their personal lives, which impacts personal happiness.

Selling You: A Marketing Approach to Being the Best You

Ever wonder why you were passed up for that big promotion? Unsure about why you didn’t get the new job you were sure you were perfect for? Not sure why that blind date didn’t call back after that first night out? As it turns out, people are phenomenally bad at putting their ‘best foot forward’ and are horribly inaccurate at seeing themselves the way others actually see them. For as good as we are selling products, we are terrible at selling our most important product: ourselves.

Through Jim Mourey’s seminar Selling You: A Marketing Approach to Being the Best You, participants learn to:
-Apply principles of marketing to help them create a personal brand and identity
-Develop positioning and communication strategies to help better convey their personal brand
-Enact segmenting, targeting, and positioning practices in their everyday life
-Understand the needs of their ‘consumers’ to build loyal, meaningful relationships
-Shift their mindset from a self-focus to an other, market-oriented focus
-Make decisions that are ‘brand consistent’ to reduce dissonance and consumer confusion

This presentation is a perspective-shifting seminar that is often life changing for those who have not mastered the ability to present themselves in their best light. Whether an ambitious employee up for promotion, an enthusiastic graduate applying for a job, a lonely single trying to find the perfect romantic match, or a philosophical soul just trying to figure out who they are, this seminar helps participants find the value in themselves and share that value with the world.

Making the Most of Your College Career, One Relationship at a Time

College is often referred to as ‘the best years of your life.’ At no other time in life will you have as much personal freedom, self-discovery, or infinite opportunity as you will during your undergraduate or graduate studies. Still, today’s college students often find themselves surprisingly unprepared for the real world upon graduation having taken for granted the resources available to them during their time in school.

Through Jim Mourey’s seminar Making the Most of Your College Career, One Relationship at a Time, participants learn to:
-Identify and develop key relationships with influential and helpful campus partners
-Develop enduring relationships with the right peers for academic and career success
-Make meaningful and lasting contributions to the campus community to create a legacy
-Jumpstart their involvement in campus organizations that will foster healthy relationships
-Prepare themselves for a smooth transition from college to the ‘real world’

This presentation is a must-attend event for university students looking to set themselves ahead of the rest in a time when ‘college is the new high school’ and differentiating oneself becomes more challenging as more people obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees. In such a world, relationships make all the difference to one’s success, and this seminar helps participants set themselves at the head of the class one relationship at a time.