Lee Salz blends family, business and fitness to compete in a funky first-ever community involvement competition. He and 19 other contestants took part in One Man Minneapolis this past July, where he had to both walk the walk (literally) and talk the talk. And no, despite what you might be thinking, this ain’t no beauty contest.Upon hearing about One Man Minneapolis, I was torn between the emotions of fascinated and confused. The first in what hopes to be an annual competition was searching for the one man who best represented the Twin Cities based on community involvement, personality, intelligence and fitness. Of 20 finalists, five would be chosen by popular vote to participate in a live competition July 18 at the Pantages Theatre, where seven judges and the crowd picked One Man Minneapolis.

The cynical questions swirled through my head: Was this a local males-only knock-off of ABC’s abysmal winter-break series, True Beauty? Was this an excuse to get guys with no necks in Speedos? Was this actually … a man pageant? My questions would soon be answered. I learned that one of the 20 finalists, Lee Salz, was a Maple Grove man.

Lee at a Glance
I met Salz for the first time at his favorite local restaurant, Biaggi’s, five days prior to the One Man Minneapolis Event. A 40-year-old, 5-foot-10, 185-pound man walked through the door, shook my hand and handed me a book with his card in it that read: Award-winning Author, Keynote Speaker, Business Consultant, Book Publisher and e-Learning Thought Leader.

Salz, who has spent more than 20 years building sales organizations in various industries, moved from the Washington D.C. metro area to Maple Grove five years ago, intending to work short-term for a local company. The plan became long-term when Salz, a columnist for Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and SalesforceXP Magazine, found an avenue into his passion for writing and got his first book, Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager, published in June 2007. He used the book as a launching pad for keynote speaking and sales management consulting, and launched Business Expert Webinars, which Salz says is now the “largest live business eLearning” website in the world. For a membership fee, Business Expert offers speakers the online platform to sell their webinars—online seminars that connect a presenter and audience through an online PowerPoint presentation while they talk over the phone—to businesses that pay a fee per connection. As president of his company, Sales Architects, Salz is currently focusing on building the webinars company while awaiting the release of his next two books. (To say he’s busy is an understatement.)