ZingTrain

I cannot speak good enough about the seminar I was just at! They know how to help you learn and keep you comfortable while doing it! I left so excited to bring all the information back to my company! Not only that but I really felt like part of the Zingerman’s team the 2 days I was there. Thank you Katie, Jenni, and all of Zingerman’s for a unforgettable experience. :)

Zingtrain has been an incredible partner on projects and meaningful professional development resource. I recommend them to clients regularly. The excellence of their programs and the community you’ll find there are highly valuable to building your team and or business.

Best experience I've had with corporate training - the Zingerman's crew has truly brought their expertise in customer service to delivering great training. Inspirational, practical, affordable, substantial handouts to take home, and they attract wonderful people to their seminars so you'll meet fun people, too. Oh yeah - and amazing Zingerman's food to boot! Enthusiastically recommend.

Phenomenal! Very informative. They make it easy to incorporate these standards and actions into our current business. I highly recommend this seminar.

ZingTrain is absolutely incredible! I highly recommend any of their training seminars. There's a reason they're so well-respected!

Attended an event last Thursday Learned so much about current status of chocolate market and the impact women are having in its change.

excellent instructors sharing the secrets that make Zingerman's great

Amazing baked goods, sweet treats, and fresh coffee, all next to each other!

This has become a boiler plate training that middle management and bosses feel good about assigning. Zingerman's is a fine business but I've had better costumer service at gas stations and food trucks at county fairs. This is just a cash-grab business model marketed to people who don't know how to be friendly, human, or self-reflective. I took the two-day seminar in Traverse City and then participated in a smaller unrelated workshop facilitated by ZingTrain. The former was disappointing, and latter was worse. During the latter the facilitators were basically running on a chart-paper-and-post-it-note-fueled script. They weren't responsive to the audience - I wouldn't call us participants. They weren't really listening. It was fine, in the way that those things always are, but not worth the time or the money.

Full disclosure: I work for Zingerman's. Not ZingTrain, but the same organization. That said, I've attended way more than my fair share of professional development and seminars over the past two decades, traveling all around the country to do so. No place treats attendees like ZingTrain! I don't want to spoil the surprises, but know that your experience will be customized for you, based on what you like. Left handed? Don't worry, you'll be taken care of. Food allergies or restrictions? No need to feel embarrassed or unsure here. Tip: ladies, be sure to check out the drawers in the ladies room. You'll find just about anything you might need in there Trust me.

I second all that Cleetus has said -- the two-day seminar entitled "The Zingerman's Experience" is not only great for small business owners, but non-profit leaders, and really, anybody in a leadership position in any kind of organization. I finished the seminar feeling inspired, re-energized, and full of new ideas and ways to make my own work better and implement positive change at my non-profit organization. Zingerman's approach to business is mission driven, focused, with a clear vision, guiding principles, structures, and a passionate culture of people who are crazy about what they do. It's about believing in your work, doing all you can do for your clients (or customers), and making your people successful. No matter what kind of work you are in, everyone can learn an incredible amount from these seemingly-obvious-yet-hard-to-implement ideas. What am I taking away from the program? A LOT. The concept of shared success and shared responsibility, open book financing, a brilliant new way to build a vision and road map for our organization, and much much more (including a new addiction to Zzang bars!). I cannot recommend this program enough. If you have an opportunity to take any of their ZingTrain classes, DO IT!

Great place to learn about open book management and servant leadership. This place is a must if you want to step outside the box