The proof of any motivational speaker’s value is in their clients’ testimonials and audience comments. We invite you to read these genuine responses below from Barbara’s clients and also click on the video to listen to what audience members had to say about their experience of Barbara’s presentations.
Testimonials from Audience Members
Testimonial from a Repeat
Satisfied Client
Note – Barbara’s testimonials are segmented by the following six areas:
- Barbara provides powerful tools to change lives and inspires people to take action
- Barbara’s motivational presentations generate tangible ROI
- Barbara is often one of the highest rated speakers at conferences and audience members frequently ask to have her back
- Barbara increases buy-in and personal responsibility in her audiences
- Barbara prepares extensively to understand her clients’ meeting objectives, values and vision well beyond what most speakers do
- Barbara creates a differentiated experience that becomes fixed in the mind of audiences for years to come
-
Barbara provides powerful tools to change lives and inspires people to take action
“Trust me when I tell you, you have inspired me to implement a number of things within my department, organization and my personal life. You mentioned positioning and adding value in your keynote so I wrote an article and am building deeper relationships with my internal customers. To engage my staff and improve their service performance I created a simple motto to reinforce our service standards. You recommended staying current and connected so I am pursuing a board position with my professional association. Best of all, you motivated me to create my very own Dream Board! Even my boss commented on my increased focus and motivation. Now I’m excited about inviting you to work with our company. Thanks Barbara for all you do…the little words and thoughts you share with people have a large impact on our personal and business lives. I love what I do because you reminded me it’s fun!”
“Barbara, congratulations—you were the most highly-rated speaker at our 21st IEAHU Sales Symposium! In fact, you were even better than when I heard you at the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) Annual Convention. You not only motivated and inspired our membership; you also gave our members great new ideas to grow their business and the steps to do it. In fact one of our brokers jumped on your idea immediately after the conference to position herself as an expert. She just published an article in Advantage Magazine, a key publication read by her ideal prospects. She and her team mates at Stracota Insurance were thrilled to see Pat as a published Medicare Expert. You can take pride in the fact that you are making an impact. Thank you again for doing such a wonderful job!”
Your presentation at our PIHRA meeting, High Definition People®—Motivate, Engage and Inspire Your B Players was outstanding! You are an amazing speaker and one of our highest-rated. Our members left the meeting excited and armed with great ideas to engage and lead their staff. Some comments we received were, “Fantastic presentation and speaker!”, “Outstanding presentation with valuable information,” “Excellent presentation! Loved Barb’s upbeat energy and motivational teachings!” The information you shared can definitely be applied personally, professionally and in any business sector. You are an engaging speaker and we highly recommend you to anyone looking to inspire their audience to take action.
Your presentations Contributing to the Bottom Line, Be Savvy, Be Strategic, Be Smart and High Definition Selling—Winning Sales and Services Strategies to Top Performers were exceptional! You started SHRM Jacksonville’s Program lineup with a BANG! Your zest for life and positive outlook are infectious. I will forever be grateful to you for encouraging me to “act as if.” It has totally changed the way I look at life’s challenges. Also our past president said, “Barbara was truly astonishing! I think she is “sizzling” hot! Loved it!”
Super job Barb—you met the challenge! You not only delivered a highly-rated opening and closing keynote; you also facilitated our first ever idea sharing and action planning session for our advisors at our WAFA conference. By connecting the dots between all our sessions, you were able to inspire our advisors to take action and challenge them to grow their business in these uncertain times. Your energizing program, Your Best Year Ever—Believe It, See it, Do It! provided our folks with excellent content, an uplifting message and a plan to get started. The rave reviews you received indicate how powerful your approach was, the enthusiasm continuing after their return to their offices. Thanks for your support in making our conference a big success.
I continued to receive many positive comments from our associates regarding your insights. They have told me that they have incorporated your ideas into their daily activities. Your understanding of Bank of America’s Small Business Banking Group made a difference with the audience as evidenced by the following comments:
“It was obvious Barbara understood our business and what challenges we face. She did her homework.”
“Excellent speaker! The best I’ve had the opportunity to hear, ever.”Your keynote presentation at our National Sales Conference was more than enlightening—it was incredibly motivating. Our account executives commented you not only gave us practical tools and specific ideas to connect with our Realtors, but you inspired us to be confident and know we have it within us to succeed. We all agreed your motivating Dream Big! message and book was the best part and a great way to end the program. Thanks for teaching, educating, encouraging, entertaining and inspiring us. Your participation was invaluable in making this meeting a success!
Thank you so much for your wonderful and inspiring keynote, Grow Your Business, Experience Life’s Best–How to Thrive in any Environment!, at our National Sales Meeting. As the leader of the sales effort my hope with a speaker is: that their message support what I’m trying to reinforce with my sales team, that it speak to our business and industry significantly enough so our people can truly apply the principles to their strategy and most of all, that they are engaging and we leave motivated with significant take-aways. Barbara, you delivered and then some! Your material was timely, your understanding of our business was outstanding and very skillfully applied, you had wonderful energy and I filled a notepad with ideas. As a matter of fact, I remember wishing I could leave the meeting to apply the ideas while they were fresh in my mind! Thank you Barbara for a memorable key note–I hope the standing ovation you received showed you how much we loved it!
Barb, I attended your seminar luncheon at the PPAI show six years ago. I had just started my career as an ASI distributor and I was overwhelmed and insecure about selling and really making money. I listened to you talk about making a dream board of where I wanted to go in my life so I made one. Seven years later I am the top sales person here at Custom Images this year and hit the million dollar club–and made over $100,000.00! I am writing to you after all this time because you inspired me to dream and take action. As a single parent, my son has gotten to watch me grow and see how believing can make all the difference in the world. I love my life and above all I believe in myself and the power of pursing my dreams. So thank you and Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Thank you so much for presenting at the IBA HR conference. The attendees loved the session and said it was the best part of our conference. You provided great information with amazing enthusiasm! Our attendees felt like they got a CEO level session that spoke to their specific needs. In fact, one person was so inspired with the ideas and renewed sense of purpose, she decided to delay her early retirement and try some new approaches.
-
Barbara’s motivational presentations generate tangible return on your investment
Barb, I attended your seminar luncheon at the PPAI show six years ago. I had just started my career as an ASI distributor and I was overwhelmed and insecure about selling and really making money. I listened to you talk about making a dream board of where I wanted to go in my life so I made one. Seven years later I am the top sales person here at Custom Images this year and hit the million dollar club—and made over $100,000.00! I am writing to you after all this time because you inspired me to dream and take action. As a single parent, my son has gotten to watch me grow and see how believing can make all the difference in the world. I love my life and above all I believe in myself and the power of pursing my dreams. So thank you and Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Trust me when I tell you, you have inspired me to implement a number of things within my department, organization and my personal life. You mentioned positioning and adding value in your keynote so I wrote an article and am building deeper relationships with my internal customers.To engage my staff and improve their service performance I created a simple motto to reinforce our service standards. You recommended staying current and connected so I am pursuing a board position with my professional association. Best of all, you motivated me to create my very own Dream Board! Even my boss commented on my increased focus and motivation. Now I’m excited about inviting you to work with our company. Thanks Barbara for all you do…the little words and thoughts you share with people have a large impact on our personal and business lives. I love what I do because you reminded me its fun!
Barbara, on behalf of the Fairmont Southampton Leadership Team, I would like to thank you for delivering on your promise – an engaging presentation that left lasting results. You tailored your presentation to use the language embedded in our service culture so well, it was like watching a Fairmont Leader present. You moved from visitor to family very quickly. I know many of our Leaders made a connection with the specific tools and strategies you offered and even one team who are making Service Dream Boards. Thank you Barb. We consider you a service industry partner and look forward to when our paths may cross again.
When I first heard your excellent presentation at our Raymond James bank conference, I knew I had to get you to partner with our bank. As a result of your outstanding workshops, structured process, follow up and telecoaching, I am receiving three times the number of referrals before we began our Managing Customer Relationships program with you. In addition, of our 38% asset growth in 2010, at least one quarter to half of that growth was due to the additional referrals. Specifically, we have $2.5M in new assets now under management in our Wealth Management area directly resulting from the new consultative sales approach that you introduced. Plus, our Retail area has seen significant increases in all products and services with our existing customers. Best of all, we appreciate your amazing energy and enthusiasm for keeping us all on track. Thanks Barb!
Barb, we are extremely pleased with the progress we’ve made and results achieved to date! Your excellent relationship and sales leadership training, coaching and reinforcement over the last 18 months have contributed greatly to our high performance sales and relationship culture. The results speak for themselves, we’ve used a variety of consultants and your firm is the first one that correlated with a direct increase in sales. When we began we had one person in our $1 Million Dollar Loan Club. Now we have 15 people in the club and some are on their way to hitting $2 million. Only one-third was making their goals and now three quarter are making their goals and are members in our 100% Club. In addition, the facilitated telecoaching calls and executive debriefs were invaluable in keeping our managers and FA’s motivated, accountable and focused on building member relationships. In fact, we’ve seen a significant change in how our managers spend their time. They are actively managing the sales process, observing and coaching. You are highly engaging, make selling and relationship building easy and fun for our people and best of all– empower them to believe they can do it. We look forward to having you back for additional training and telecoaching.
Thanks for your awesome program at our Employee Appreciation Day, Barb. You not only gave us great ideas to improve service and customer relationships, you inspired us to take action professionally and personally. Those employees who ‘groaned’ about attending, were raving when it was over! That motivation has had a lasting impact on us. We have several supervisors who are really stepping up to the plate and implementing some of your ideas. We also have a couple of employees who were marginal and have started to excel. Our management team had a brainstorming session after you left and we are holding each other and our supervisors accountable. Thanks again for first learning about us and then delivering an engaging, impactful and memorable message.
I’ve been involved with a number of sales performance improvement companies in my career that were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the results they promise. However, I would hire High Definition Banking® over any of them. I can honestly say you have surpassed my expectations. Your definable and measurable process gets our people to carry out the specific activities that lead to results. Nobody else in my experience had such a workable and effective process. It forces me to bring my “A game” all the time. The same can be said for my staff and people I collaborate with in other departments to obtain additional business from our bank customers. It has been a highlight of my career to have had the opportunity to work with you.
Barb on behalf of BRAMCO we want to thank you for your excellent Sales Coaching Program for our agency principals, specialists and internal wholesalers. You helped our staff to be better consultants and to understand their customers and producers more deeply. As a result our specialists are more confident, consistent, consultative and closing more cases. Our sales results prove it!
-
Barbara is often one of the highest rated speakers at conferences and audience members frequently ask to have her back
Our members gave you very high marks for your energizing and idea-packed leadership program, High Definition People – The Key to Ignite Passion, Performance and Personal Responsibility at our annual conference. As senior health care executives they appreciated both the inspiration and information they can use to engage their staff, lead like an Olympic Coach and dream big! In fact, they “demanded” we have you back. So by popular demand we are pleased to invite you as our closing keynote speaker next year. Some member comments:
“Barbara was electrifying! She kept our attention through participation and truth-based facts that spoke through leadership.”
“One of the best speakers of the conference. Please bring her back!”
“Absolutely top notch! Definitely gave me something to add to my tool box.”
“Outstanding presentation; she was enthusiastic, concise and provided tools we can use as soon as we get home.”
“Amazing. WOW, LOVED IT!!! I needed this!”Attendees rated your keynote, “The HR Director’s Role – Be Savvy, Be Strategic, Be Smart!” as one of the most highly rated presentations in the conference, as well as your breakout session, “Break the 80/20 Rule – How to Identify, Reward and Reenergize Your “B” Players!” In fact, some comments included:
“Ms. Sanfilippo was great! I love her enthusiasm!”
“Sanfilippo – More! More! More!”
This being the fifth time you have provided programs for the Tennessee Bankers Association is certainly a testimonial that you continue to deliver exceptional information.We have rarely had a session that received as many positive comments as yours. Comments like, “best ever,” and “bring more people like Barbara!” helped make this session the highest rated program at this meeting. The amount of time you spent prior to the meeting getting to know our members – their needs, their challenges – and making sure that your message provided information they could actually use was tremendous! We here at NAILBA are looking forward to your return keynote at our June Focus meeting!
I want to thank you for the superb keynote presentation, “Sales Magic! Secrets to Develop a High Performing Team” you delivered at our Semi-Annual Wholesalers Meeting. Being in the insurance and investment business, we have seen excellent speakers. So I agree with our president when he thanked you on stage and said to the audience, “In all my years of listening to speakers, Barbara is by far the best! Her material was excellent, filled with useful ideas and delivered in an engaging style.” We look forward to inviting you back for our Top Producer meeting this May in Colorado Springs and partnering on other projects.
Many of our financial advisors made wonderful comments and received great ideas from your presentation, “Manage Your Book of Business – The Key to Expanding Relationships.” It’s rare for a speaker to score all 5’s on the evaluations and you did just that! Our advisors appreciated your high energy, interactive style and solid content. Plus your Dream Big! closing message was a fun impactful ending to our conference.
Outstanding job Barbara! You were by far the highest rated speaker in our staff development and leadership series. Your energizing and idea-packed session, Engage Staff, Deliver Service, Dream Big! was the perfect message to get everyone to take ownership and accept responsibility for patient satisfaction and their own work and life satisfaction. The comments on our staff evaluations were full of praise and superlatives!
You’ll be pleased to know that on a 1-10 rating scale, your evaluations averaged 9.6 — one of the highest-rated programs for our chapter.
Your presentation was voted one of the best our distributors have experienced.
On a 5-point scale, you received a 4.65. Our general managers appreciated your solid ideas to develop a strong guest mentality at their properties.
The evaluations are in and you are a HIT!!! In my nine years of coordinating Annual Managers Meetings, I have never seen such an abundance of 100% positive remarks about our guest speaker.You ranked as one of our top presenters with 4.4 for content and 4.7 for delivery. You are a meeting planner’s dream speaker! You do your homework, respond in a timely manner and then deliver a powerful, tailored presentation!
-
Barbara increases buy-in and personal responsibility in her audiences
Barb thanks for your awesome program at our Employee Appreciation Day. You not only gave us great ideas to improve service and customer relationships, you inspired us to take action professionally and personally. Those employees who ‘groaned’ about attending, were raving when it was over! That motivation has had a lasting impact on us. We have several supervisors who are really stepping up to the plate and implementing some of your ideas. We also have a couple of employees who were marginal and have started to excel. Our management team had a brainstorming session after you left and we are holding each other and our supervisors accountable. Thanks again for first learning about us and then delivering an engaging, impactful and memorable message.
Outstanding job Barbara! You were by far the highest rated speaker in our staff development and leadership series. Your energizing and idea-packed session, Engage Staff, Deliver Service, Dream Big! was the perfect message to get everyone to take ownership and accept responsibility for patient satisfaction and their own work and life satisfaction. The comments on our staff evaluations were full of praise and superlatives!
Wow, we’ve had speakers before at our Annual Employee Training Day, but Barb’s Dream Big! program was amazing! She got us energized about serving and delighting our customers and building deeper relationships with them. Even better, she showed us how we can take personal responsibility for our own life and job satisfaction and act on our future dreams. Barb is highly engaging, provides take home value and best of all–inspired us to Dream Big!
On behalf of the Westin Maui team, I want to personally thank you for the dynamic presentations you delivered to our teams here at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa. Your insights into sales with passion, service excellence through engagement, and your personal observations through the eyes of a guest, all provided unique value. One of my managers wrote, “I now have great ideas to engage and reenergize my staff and feel valued as a member of the management team.”
I would like to personally thank you for putting on a fantastic presentation. Your presentation style left a remarkable impact on our group. If I may, let me share some of the responses turned in by our attendees.
“This was another one of my favorites! Not only did Barbara get us enthused about work but she got us enthused about life!”
“Great energy for an opening speaker! I liked the way she blended personal well-being and happiness along with business tactics.”
I used to make up excuses for why I couldn’t do something. I was fearful, accepted the status quo, played it safe, not taking risks because I didn’t want to fail. After reading Barb’s book, Dream Big – What’s The Best That Can Happen?, I find reasons why I can do something. I look for my divine inspiration and act. My biggest win is I’m now am doing my lifelong dream, playing the piano.
-
Barbara prepares extensively to understand her clients’ meeting objectives, values and vision well beyond what most speakers do
Outstanding Barb! Your motivational keynote, Lead in High Definition – Build a High Performance Team at our Annual Franchisee conference was fantastic. You did the most homework of any speaker I’ve ever met in the 20 years I’ve planned events, including reviewing our key processes, speaking with our franchisees and our CEO and customizing the program to our objectives. It was wonderful to see our group highly engaged, interacting, excited, laughing, writing and having fun! Plus the information you shared was completely relevant to them and will help them build their team, increase sales and grow their business. You delivered a unique, experiential keynote with a roadmap to follow, a call to action and the inspiration to succeed–a great return on our investment. We look forward to having you back to speak at our Branch Leadership Conference and regional events.
Super job! I’ve never seen anyone prepare and present sales and client relationship concepts in such a powerful, creative and engaging way. You clearly practice what you preach. We have a very specialized product yet you knew about us, our business and delivered exactly what our sales reps needed. For such a short session we got valuable tools to make more effective calls and position our reps as consultants. Even our more experienced reps were impressed and very favorable in their comments. You exceeded our expectations and delivered value, practical ideas and tons of motivation!
As professional destination management consultants, we have seen hundreds of speakers including many celebrities and well-known authors. I can personally say in my 20 years of incentive and corporate meeting planning it is rare to find a keynote speaker who will invest the preparation time you did to tailor a program to our needs.
Your presentation was excellent, and the response from the sales representatives has been extremely positive. When looking for a speaker for our meeting, I felt it important to not have someone who “entertained” only. You certainly did your “homework” well. I was initially nervous how a female speaker would be received by my sales organization, which is highly technical, highly educated, and predominantly male. Your engaging style and content had their rapt attention.
Barbara, on behalf of the Fairmont Southampton Leadership Team, I would like to thank you for delivering on your promise – an engaging presentation that left lasting results. You tailored your presentation to use the language embedded in our service culture so well, it was like watching a Fairmont Leader present. You moved from visitor to family very quickly. I know many of our Leaders made a connection with the specific tools and strategies you offered and even one team who are making Service Dream Boards. We appreciated your passion for motivating people and inspiring us to seek Cappuccino Moments™. Thank you Barb. We consider you a service industry partner and look forward to when our paths may cross again.
Your presentation was outstanding. You gave us the meat and the gravy! I want to tell you personally how impressed I was with your groundwork and your efforts to make the presentation about our industry and for our industry. You set the tone for a fabulous IRIS conference, one our members will remember as a mandate to go forward and redesign one room, one home, one suburb at a time. Barb–you shine!
It was very apparent from the onset of your presentation that you spoke with several attendees in advance of the meeting. I watched as our management’s eyes opened with amazement at the knowledge and preparation you made in understanding our products and challenges.
I continued to receive many positive comments from our associates regarding your insights. They have told me that they have incorporated your ideas into their daily activities. Your understanding of Bank of America’s Small Business Banking Group made a difference with the audience as evidenced by the following comments:
“It was obvious Barbara understood our business and what challenges we face. She did her homework.”
“Excellent speaker! The best I’ve had the opportunity to hear, ever.”We were looking for a tailored program with take-home value and motivation and you delivered. Our Management Development Manager exclaimed you hit the bull’s eye in what we were looking for.
Given the wide range of experience in our group, you successfully engaged ALL of our sales staff. Even our veterans benefited from your focused presentation and coaching session. The positive feedback we received from our people was practically unanimous and all felt that the concepts, focused on relationship building with clients to grow sales, were practical and worthwhile. There is no doubt that your ability to connect with our folks was a direct result of the great amount of time you spent in preparation and the diligence with which you tailored many portions of the day. Going forward, we will surely continue to incorporate many of the techniques and tips and use it to grow our company’s revenues and the incomes of our staff.
Thank you so much for your wonderful and inspiring keynote, Grow Your Business, Experience Life’s Best – How to Thrive in any Environment, at our National Sales Meeting. As the leader of the sales effort my hope with a speaker is: that their message support what I’m trying to reinforce with my sales team, that it speak to our business and industry significantly enough so our people can truly apply the principles to their strategy and most of all, that they are engaging and we leave motivated with significant take-aways. Barbara, you delivered and then some! Your material was timely, your understanding of our business was outstanding and very skillfully applied, you had wonderful energy and I filled a notepad with ideas. As a matter of fact, I remember wishing I could leave the meeting to apply the ideas while they were fresh in my mind! Thank you Barbara for a memorable key note – I hope the standing ovation you received showed you how much we loved it! -
Barbara creates a differentiated experience that becomes fixed in the mind of audiences for years to come
Barb thanks for your awesome program at our Employee Appreciation Day. You not only gave us great ideas to improve service and customer relationships, you inspired us to take action professionally and personally. Those employees who ‘groaned’ about attending, were raving when it was over! That motivation has had a lasting impact on us. We have several supervisors who are really stepping up to the plate and implementing some of your ideas. We also have a couple of employees who were marginal and have started to excel. Our management team had a brainstorming session after you left and we are holding each other and our supervisors accountable. Thanks again for first learning about us and then delivering an engaging, impactful and memorable message.
Outstanding Barb! Your motivational keynote, Lead in High Definition – Build a High Performance Team at our Annual Franchisee conference was fantastic. It was wonderful to see our group highly engaged, interacting, excited, laughing, writing and having fun! Plus the information you shared was completely relevant to them and will help them build their team, increase sales and grow their business. You delivered a unique, experiential keynote with a roadmap to follow, a call to action and the inspiration to succeed–a great return on our investment. We look forward to having you back to speak at our Branch Leadership Conference and regional events.
Your opening keynote, Dream Big! – Be Bold, Focus on the Future was highly-rated and a great way to kick off our Leadership Conference. Your upbeat style had our members up, moving and engaged which is always a great way to get the adrenalin going! Plus your ideas on how to turn members into advocates, engage staff, differentiate with financial education and enjoy life in the process were practical and inspiring. Your presentation will long be remembered.
Your Dream Big! keynote was the most talked about portion of our event. For a group of seasoned – “been there, done that” – meeting professionals, who research, book and witness speakers on a frequent basis, this is quite a feat!
Your powerful message for our audience was more than just a presentation. You bonded with our bankers, made them want to be better managers and glad they were part of this interactive session. Your discussion made our event and was the highest rated program!
Your engaging and inspirational keynote and physician development workshop, “Rediscover the Joy of Practice,”’ was one of our highest-rated events ever! A remarkable achievement for a physician audience that’s usually tough to please. Your knowledge of professional relationships and physician-staff interactions led us to a new level of understanding of how we can best work with one another. Thanks for making this a spirited, valuable and memorable event.
Wow! Did Press Ganey hit the mark when we selected you as a presenter at our Press Ganey National Client Conference! Your high energy and dynamic presentation style made it easy and interesting for our attendees to learn. Here are just a few of the many comments we received:
“Awesome! Excellent speaker! Very motivational! I cannot wait to present these items to my management team! Great ideas!”
“Barbara was exciting, motivating and fun. I respect her ideas and plan to implement many. Thanks!”Your opening keynote, Dream Big! – Be Bold, Focus on the Future at our CUNA Marketing & Business Development Conference got great reviews! Your challenge to combat complacency and be bold in the credit union movement and in life made an impact. I thought you’d enjoy these attendee kudos from the evaluations.
“Wow! What an incredible experience! I wish I could bring her back to my CU!”
“Wow! What an inspiration. She, by herself, made the entire conference worthwhile.”I would like to personally thank you for putting on a fantastic presentation. Your presentation style left a remarkable impact on our group. If I may, let me share some of the responses turned in by our attendees.
“This was another one of my favorites! Not only did Barbara get us enthused about work but she got us enthused about life!”
“Great energy for an opening speaker! I liked the way she blended personal well-being and happiness along with business tactics.”Your presentations, Contributing to the Bottom Line, Be Savvy, Be Strategic, Be Smart and High Definition Selling – Winning Sales and Services Strategies to Top Performers, were exceptional! You started SHRM Jacksonville’s 2011 Programs with a BANG! Your zest for life and positive outlook are infectious. I will forever be grateful to you for encouraging me to “act as if.” It has totally changed the way I look at life’s challenges. Also our past president said, “Barbara was truly astonishing! I think she is “sizzling” hot! Loved it!”
In the last 10 years I’ve heard numerous speakers share how HR can be a business partner and a key player. I must say your program, The HR Professional’s Role, Be Savvy, Be Strategic, Be Smart! at our SHRM Strategy conference was by far the best and filled with fresh, practical and powerful ideas. Plus your engaging, interactive and entertaining style held my attention and made the session very meaningful. Super job!
Hardly a day goes by when one or more of your ideas is not brought up. Your scores were outstanding from presentation style through usefulness.