Sydney Barrows

Perhaps better known to millions as the "Mayflower Madam," Sydney Biddle Barrows is a unique American success story.  Beginning her business career as a retail executive at Abraham & Straus, at the time the jewel in the crown of Federated Department Stores, she moved on to May Company Corporate and then became the Divisional Merchandise Manager at a nationwide resident buying office.

Six years later she found herself moonlighting as a phone girl at an escort service to supplement her unemployment check after having been fired for refusing to participate in a kickback scheme.  It may have been the World's Oldest Profession but it certainly was not being run very professionally, and less than a year later she decided to open up her own agency.  Relatively small but very upscale, Cachet prospered for five and a half years until New York's Finest closed it down, only to later publicly concede that it was the most honest and professionally run business of its kind ever operated in New York City.

The recipient of intense worldwide media coverage, her first book, Mayflower Madam, went right to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.  Fortune Magazine named it one of the Ten Best Business Books of the Year.  This book was reprinted 28 times and translated into seven languages; business schools all across the country, including Harvard, included it in their curriculum.  Mayflower Madam was also made into a TV movie starring Candice Bergen. 

Sydney has been a guest on every network morning television show multiple times as well as dozens of morning shows in local markets and  just about every talk show on the air in the 1980s and ‘90’s.  Many of then, including Larry King, Phil Donohue and Oprah, had her as their main or only guest more than once. She was featured in her own one-hour A&E Biography, co-hosted Saturday Night Live with Candice Bergen, and has appeared on other shows too numerous to mention.

Her fourth book, co-authored by legendary marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, is titled Uncensored Sales Strategies, and was released in January of 2009.  In addition, they produced an audio product together called XXX-Rated Sales Strategies. 

Sydney has also had a very extensive speaking career, guest lecturing at colleges all over the United States, including some in the Ivy League such as Brown and Columbia.  Speaking engagements have taken her all over the United States and overseas; she was an extremely popular fixture at Young Presidents Organization and CEO Club events, among others, for years. 

Her latest presentation topic is The Secrets to Creating a Unique and Compelling Customer Experience. Other presentation tops include one on marketing called Marketing a High Cost Service and a keynote entitled How Did a Nice Girl Like You…?

In addition, she writes articles on the Customer Experience and has a monthly column on the subject on entrepreneur.com (Entrepreneur magazine’s online site)

Sydney also does business consulting, focusing on Experience Design; conducts on-site  Fresh Eyes Analyses for businesses and professional practices; hosts a popular series of seminars on Sales Design and runs an small, exclusive Implementation coaching program.  She just released an information product called The Experience Design Planner, which guides entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, small businesses and professional practices through the process of creating their own unique and compelling Customer Experience.

Sydney lives on the Upper West Side in New York City and has “no pets, no plants, no children, and no regrets.”

For more information on her products and services, visit www.sydneybarrows.com