The Daily RICHual

It's finally time to discuss a travesty that has been going on for a few years, and by that I mean, the disappearance of the letter T....

So, right up front I’d like to disclose that the world is changing. I’d also like to disclose that while a few of these changes meet with my approval (as I AM the all being master of time, space, and dimension), most do not.

One particularly annoying change in the world is the disappearance of the letter T from the alphabet. Where did it go? What caused this? So, what am I talking about here?

The new speech allows the T to be present at the beginning of a word and many times at the end. It’s in the middle it’s been banished

The DailyRICHual focuses on Success and how we get to that place. The last episode was about discipline, this one is about having the right attitude. Henry Ford said that, "whether you think you can or that you can't, you're probably right. SO, here are 7 tips to havingthe right attitude.

Long, long ago…. Like 1980 ish, I attended a track and field clinic and one of the speakers was the great Joe Newton, perhaps one of the greatest high school running coaches of all time.

I have notes I took somewhere, probably in a box in the basement, and I’m sure I gleaned a multitude of gems from coach Newton. What I don’t need notes to recall and what I’ve carried in the 40+ years since is Coach Newton’s definition of Discipline.

As we say good-bye to 2022 and look to the coming year with hope and anticipation, I can’t help but to think it’s going to be a much better year. It HAS to be, right? The question, then, becomes: How do I (that’s you, me, anybody) make it a better year? For me, the answer has always been clear: Gratitude and Optimism. We will deal with gratitude in a future writing. For now, let us focus on Optimism.

It has been said that “what you think upon, expands,” so I guess I have to believe that if I (and others, you too) can think optimistically, we have a chance at turning this big clumsy pessimistic ship around.

We’re born optimistic, we don’t know any better. Babies don’t read the paper or watch the news or listen to water cooler “woe are we all” oratories.

How do you start your day? What is your Ritual?

Actually, I guess what I really mean is, how do you begin each day in order to maximize the day and yourself?

SO, I did some research and discovered that there are a bazillion resources with two bazillion things you must do to greet the awesome day.

So much for that approach.

After ten days of watching the world track and field championships, I noticed a disturbing trend. Athletes would finish their race, and most, not all mind you, would lie down almost collapsing, on the track.

What? In the old days lying down after you finished was reserved for one of two situations, 1) you were awaiting the arrival of an ambulance or 2) it was hours later and you had earned a nap.

Now I’m not sure why athletes would choose this.

I have a confession to share: I have procrastinated.

A week and a half ago, I had decided to begin a program I appropriately named The 120 Day Something Else Too Challenge. It never got off the ground.  The idea was to continue my daily run ritual each day and add to it….. Each and everyday…Something else too.

Cycling, lifting, our shiny new rowing maching (which my wife loves), the elliptical (which I DO NOT love),

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it in this podcast, but I have a puppy. He is an almost 10 month oldEnglish Cream Retriever named Winston and he already weighs 65 pounds.

I haven’t had a dog around in decades. My ex and I used to raise Newfoundlands, but they were outside dogs, used mostly for breeding and showing.

Winston, as an Inside, dog is more of a family member than anything else and is the object of my observing most all the time

My wife is a news watcher. I, for many reasons, am not. I am also a former teacher of American Government to 9thgraders. Here’s what I notice in passing, however, that is disturbing.

There is no longer a tangible anchor in this country. We’ve lost the core values that bind us together as a nation.

And I am open to being wrong here, but there is so much LEFT/RIGHT that it’s difficult to find the middle, while in fact, MOST of us are in the middle.

Yesterday we looked at word of mouth marketing. Let’s dig a hair deeper.

In the days of yore, two old guys hung over the fence and discussed that new fillin' station that opened on the edge of town, the substitute preacher who rocked the sermon, and that new first grade teacher.

These codgers, and everyone else, are still talking. They’re just doing it in different places, like Facebook, like Instagram, like TikTok.

If you’re trying to take your business to the next level, let’s talk marketing. In fact, let’s chat about the greatest marketing of all time, word of mouth marketing.

Common sense says I market, I get customers, I give them great service. And that’s certainly one way to do it. That’s the path that gave us advertising, postcards, slogans and logos.

Unfortunately, many of us are stuck in that protocol.

A lot of people use social media….. A LOT! Most are just playing and having fun. Others are trying to leverage Social Media to increase engagement. For those folks, here are five simple tips:

1.Start with a plan. Three things, what’s your message, who is your audience and which platforms are they using.

I’m teaching a class Thursday called Setting the course for 2022. It’s primarily, I guess, a business planning class. I think it’s more than that. I think it’s a life class. I think it’s a class about intention. I think it’s a class about being on the path to having a great life.

Is that a little heavy? A little overdone? Maybe, but I don’t think so. The choices we make in our business, our family, our friends, what we choose to believe, and the path we choose to follow are all the manifestations of the course we set in our lives.

Let’s talk about learning. There are tens of millions salespeople in this country and most of them are just marking time, just getting by. A few, maybe less than 10%, maybe less, want to be the best they can be every single day. They believe in growth, they believe in excellence, they believe in learning.

Yesterday we focused on identifying your strengths as one of the three ways we can utilize them to catapult our business. Here are #2 and 3

2. Once you have identified your strengths, closely look at how those strengths might help someone who works with you. If you're a fabulous listener, how could that help the people you work with. Maybe you're the product/market expert. Surely you can identify ways that would help someone who worked with you

There are basically three steps in utilizing your strengths to catapult your business: identification, examination, outreach. Let’s handle one today and the others tomorrow.

1. Identification. This is touchy. To identify our strengths, we must first be self aware enough to know what they are. That may or may not come easy for everyone, so here are five tips to uncovering your strengths.

Last week, I participated in the Coldwell Banker Sales Rally and Marketing Roadshow, something I haven't done in, maybe 13 years. While it was a nice opportunity to take a trip down memory lane with some old friends and also meet new ones, it was mostly a chance to talk about one of my favorite topics: your strengths, and why they are so important in your business, your ability to do your job effectively, AND maybe the rest of your life.

When I am designing a Keynote slide and wish to use a picture to anchor a few words of text as well as my verbal message, it’s important to know how to use the Arrange feature. The arrange feature let’s the user decide which should be in the foreground and which should be sent to the back. Without this feature your message would get stacked onto itself and could be lost.

One of The keys to success is a person’s ability to know what’s important, to know the things they should be spending time on as opposed to the things that simply suck away time. It takes several steps to do this well: 1) having a plan to guide you, 2) being able to prioritize within that plan, and 3) actually DOing the more important thing.

Yesterday’s driver rant has given me an idea. Fully enforce, with officers, cameras, whatever it takes, two things: speeding (let the demarcation line be 7 miles over), andrunning red lights (one of the most dangerous habits that just seems SOOOO common). Mail the tickets, charge the fines, take away the licenses. MOSTLY charge the fines.

We could balance the budget in a year.

I live in the Denver metro area. Our population, at least according to the statistics has grown about 6% in the last four years. I’m not buying it.

EVERYTHING AND EVERYPLACE is way more crowded than ever before and the location of the largest overcrowding is one place: the roads.

Now maybe it’s not true, maybe it’s just that it just seems more crowded…. And more crazy. But more crowded and more crazy is more dangerous. Yesterday when one of my fellow drivers performed an act that was probably illegal in about six ways, my wife lamented, “didn’t you ever learn to drive?”

In the last episode, I shared sleep benefits from Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep.

Today, let’s focus on three tips to a better sleep, subjectively chosen by me.

1.Regularity. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every night. For me, that has been an easy pattern, I’m an 8 hour guy, usually 9:30- 5:30. The regularity is what our systems need to insure all those benefits previously discussed. The awesome idea here is that while many people use a wake upalarm, few use the to-bed alarm. Hmmmmm

2.If you wake up in the middle of the night, which we all do, and you can’t get back to sleep,

After hearing him on several podcasts, I decided to read Matthew Walker’s book, “Why We Sleep.”

Now while I have listened to all of the podcasts, I have yet to finish the book, so while I haver the overall JIST of what he wants me to know, I am lacking some of the deepest details….. Maybe.

Nonetheless, having been exposed to Walker’s research as well as that of Dr Andrew Huberman at the Huberman lab, I am suitably petrified to not get proper sleep.

I have an iPad2. Perfectly happy with it.

My Macbook is a 2018. It’s awesome.

My watch is half of an apple watch 6.

Clearly, I don’t need updates. In fact, is it just me or do our gadgets seem to have to updated CONSTANTLY?

Hey tech makers, let’s update LESS and get it right MORE!

The last time an update really got me excited was when Keynote added the Anvil animation effect (and that was a while ago).

Sometimes we over build up the greats of our professions. We put them on a pedestal, and maybe they deserve it. I don’t know.

What I do know is that once you place someone up there, you’re actually tellingyourself they are better than you and maybe even limiting yourself in your own quest to be great.

In 1972, Frank Shorter won the Olympic Marathon. His training had been consistent. One of his training partners, Kenny Moore placed 4th.

They were on an easy run the day following his win and Shorter said this to his partner:

Experience is a great thing. Those with experience generally have a tremendous advantage over their peers in any endeavor.

There’s another side of experience that doesn’t get so much press and that is having so much experience that you take what you do for granted, sometimes even go through the motions.

Mike Smith, the cross country coach at Northern Arizona, who’s teams have won 4 of the last 5 NCAA cross country championships works hard to avoid this take it for granted thing.

“If you have that belief - pure belief in your heart - that you want to be successful then you can talk to your mind and your mind will control you to be successful.”
Mind over matter, right?

Mind over fear, right?

It is amazing how much of running, business and life are mental

"Somewhere in the world, someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win." - Tom Fleming -

I revisited a great quote today from Des Linden, 2018 Boston Marathon champion and the new world record holder for the 50K distance and I like it so much that I thought it would make a good RICHual

And while Des is certainly a great runner, this quote works for business and life in general.

“Some days it just flows and I feel like I'm born to do this, other days it feels like I'm trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I've got, and to try and be better."

Earlier in the week, we talked about customer service NOT being a passive thing. It's active. Customer service is active, even PROactive, not passive. It’s an action, not a reaction. It has life and a purpose. “Well done is better than well said,” were the words of Benjamin Franklin. Yoda proclaimed, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Customer service is about DOING.

With that in mind, here are the Eight Irrefutable Laws of Customer Service.

The actual quote goes like this: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one,” and it comes from Robert Greene in his 1592 booklet 'Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit’ At the time this was written it was semi thought to be a compliment. Since the 16th century, it has become sort of an insult. Today, I totally mean it as an insult.

In the very late 60’s, I discovered the Distance Running News, a magazine that shared, surprise…. Distance running news.

Sometimes a great customer service story is focused on a grand gesture, an act that amazes the customer. A Nordstrom accepting the return of four tires from a dissatisfied man even though they don’t sell tires. A maid at the Ritz Carlton guaranteeing that the hotel would replace a guest’s missing laptop computer if it wasn’t found by days end. Most of the time, however, customer service can be found in the little things: a smile, a giving attitude, or a kind word.

In poker, they seem to go “all in” often

"ALL IN" for the business professional revolves around several areas: business, yes, but also the rest of our lives. To be truly "ALL IN" in life means more than just work. It means with the family, your body, your mind, your soul. It's about balance, yet a sort of imbalance. What I mean is keeping your life in balance by having more than just work, but creating an imbalance to the same old, usual stuff by pushing everything to the limit. When was the last time you just totally "got after it,"?

I recall hearing an interview with James Taylor and he was asked what song he believed he had sung in public the most. He said Fire and Rain. When asked how many times he’d sung it in public, he said, maybe 10,000

So how do you make it fresh? How do you keep from being totally bored with it?

His answer: it might be the first time you’veheard me sing it.

Over the weekend I experience most people's total unawareness of anything around them. How do we fix that?

I was chatting with a friend not too long ago about a class I teach called "Visual Chi: Creating and Delivering Outstanding Electronic Presentations." He seemed to go somewhere else for a few seconds (maybe a bad memory popped up) and then said, "Oh, another PowerPoint class, huh?"

"Geez, I hope not,"  I replied.

It's not that I have anything against PowerPoint, or Keynote for that matter, it's just that anything can be abused or used for evil instead of good. Even the best laid plans of presentation software creators can go south and that's what's happened to most PPT and K presentations.

Someone once said, "people don't like to be sold, but they love to buy.”

There's a tremendous wisdom to that short sentence as well as numerous far reachingaspects that cover many facets of many businesses. More on those, another time.

Left to their own resources, people will buy. They will buy technology gear, life insurance, lawn mowers, Chevys, Toyotas and Fords. They will buy houses.

The problem is, I’m not obsessed with it, Obsessed with what, you ask?  Well technology and the rush to the latest coolest thing.

I saw today that the Apple Watch 6 has hit its lowest price ever. I didn’t even know there was an Apple Watch 6, I’m still pretty dazzled by my Apple Watch 3.

I’ve done some reading lately and since, for many people, reading is a RICHual of sorts, I thought I’d share the latest tom come across my easy chair.

1. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

2. The Practice - Seth Godin

3. Think Again - Adam Grant

4. Become What You Are - Alan Watts

I still get to the door of the store and end up saying, dang it, I forgot my mask.

Then, as I walk back to the car to retrieve said mask, I mutter things like, “that’s really bright, it’s not like we haven’t been doing this for like, over a year.” And some other self degrading comments that shall remain unpublished.

So what is the problem?

Am I just forgetful? Well, actually, toquote my Mother, if my head wasn’t screwed on I would probably forget it somewhere.

After a short hiatus, one week for just taking the week off, the last week being buried under a home flooring and painting project, the Daily RICHual is back

I was listening to a podcast last week and I heard I guy mention the three L’s to growing as a person. I thought it would make a nice, brief, stand alone RICHual:

Listen, Learn, Leverage.

As I was watching The Maltese Falcon for the umpteenth time Sunday, I anxiously awaited the "showdown" scene between Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor). After a rough and rocky relationship (both business AND personal), Spade let's her know that he's turning her in for murder, even though he loves her. Spade's wonderful dialogue, both mildly loving and extremely sarcastic goes like this:  "I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you."

If you are like me, even a little bit, you are inundated with the latest technological advancements to the point of being a) confused, b) overwhelmed, c) tired of the speed of the merry go round, or d) all of the above.

As we await the coming of the iPhone 27, OS 24, Microsoft 52 and the third version of everything in the last twelve months, how do you (I) keep up? The answer, I believe, is simple: make smart, relevant choices.

Anyone (well, most anyone who tries) can give reactive customer service. While reactive service is okay and proactive service is better, I think most of us prefer someone who isn't making us ask for help, or beg for service. I'm more satisfied when my service provider actually looks at my needs - my best interest and anticipates how they can help.

The greatest service providers, places like Nordstroms and the Ritz Carlton, understand that this phenomenon does not just happen without effort. That's why they work at it daily. We could do the same.

True pre-activeness, however. has some foundation beneath it. In order to be preactive you must do four things:

"Don't think, React!" That was the daily advice of my Junior High School basketball coach, Mr. Korwin. He believed that if we spent too long pondering the next move on the court, we would be prone to mistakes, indecisiveness, and poor judgment. For us, gangly eighth graders, it may well have been excellent advice.

Better advice might have been to learn to be proactive rather than reactive. Being proactive meanswe're taking charge of our situation, trying to be a bit in front of the wave, so to speak. Proactive people are taking control of today.

What are you doing to keep your business simple? How are you able to balance life and work without the work part getting out of hand? Are your systems aimed at running a smart, practical business? Do you have systems in place?

Technology is moving at a break neck speed. New gadgets, designed to save mankind from the discomforts of life, are developed daily (maybe hourly). Some things, however, remain as they have for years, decades, even centuries. 

One such example of an old idea that technology has yet to improve is the common pallet. Pallets have been around and been pretty much unchanged since the peak of the second industrial revolution, leading into World War II. Large scale production was creating a need for better handling of goods. The pallet solved some of that problem. While the actual inventor of the pallet is a bit of a mystery, we do know this: it was patented by George Raymond and Bill House. Interestingly, George and Bill had patents accepted on the forklift the same day theirs was accepted on the pallet. Those two things sure went together, but I digress. By the way, my first summer job, in fact, was moving pallets at Argon Industries in downriver Detroit.

"My son, Isaac, called me on that danged telephone contraption today," my great Grandfather said. "Why can't he just come over here if he wants to talk with me? It's only three towns away. Instead he expects me to hold that thing up to my ear like it's natural or something."

Thus was the lament of my Great Grandpa Blackmer as he struggled with the changing times. I too struggle with every text message and/or tweet from my younger generation hip, jiving sons. "Why can't you just call me?" I ask. It's a lot easier than this sucky texting thing.

Milton Berle once said, "You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think." Thirty years ago, I used to teach American Government to 9th graders. I can't imagine having to do it in the last two decade given the complete disregard politicians from BOTH sides of the aisle have for us, the people, and for the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Centuries ago the phrase "public servant" was coined to describe those who hold office in order to SERVE their people. Frankly, I can think of 535 people who badly need to attend a customer service class! I digress.

In a salesperson's finest hour, we are self-aware enough to understand that if I don't take care of my people first, nothing else falls into place. So, how do you do it? How do you put them first and exercise patience, empathy? How do you keep from going crazy?

Love the process. Work on controlling the process. Be a leader. That's how. And then be positive enough, patient enough, loving enough, to let them make the decision.

I'm on a trip not too long ago and if I had a dollar for every time I've been asked "How can I help you?" I could have paid much less for the trip. From the airline check-in desk to the taxi driver to the hotel and on down the line, it seems fashionable to ask me, the consumer, how I can be helped (note to politicians: you might ask me every once in a while too). And while the asking of the question is extremely important, the next step is pivotal: listen to the answer (politicians: you too!).

Maybe my senses cry out for solitude more after a trip to Las Vegas. Maybe I notice it when I'm in the silence of my home office. Maybe it's following me around and your experience is different. To what am I referring? Music.

Is it just me, or has the world been set to music? It's in every store everywhere. It's in the airport, the elevator, the restaurant, and yes, there is music in the restroom. Most television shows, especially the dramas, have a musical background/white noise thing going on.

The Campaign for Learning in the U.K. recently compiled research on an age-old topic: learning. Basically, the article was focused on sharing some statistics in order to get people to see the UP-side of learning. Some of the information they shared was:

In his customer service book, Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith offers a three stepapproach to marketing your product or service. Step One is where you are trying to get what Beckwith calls, "a basic, acceptably reliable product" Early there may be no competition, so how you do what you do may not be that important. Take the Department of Motor Vehicle in almost any state.

No competition = lousy service.

While technology and especially smartphones have changed some of the ways we do business and the equipment we utilize for doing business, it has not really changed the people with whom we do business.

Is it easier for me to connect with the multitudes of people I've never really met? Yes. Is it easier for me to connect with the universe via Al Gore's wonderful invention? Yes. And here's the biggie .... can I reach out to people with lightening fast speed and efficiency? YES, Yes, and hell yes!!!!

Monday we talked about hacks, shortcuts. SO, here you go: two Hacks to the secret of life.

As I ponder my existence and periodically search for meaning in this wild and crazy world, I seek guidance from the philosophical Masters of the universe. Two such Masters are Curly, the hardened cowboy in the movie City Slickers and James Taylor.

When faced with a difficult task, rely on what you know. Draw strength from your basics.

It's the ninth inning in the movie For Love of the Game, when Billy Chapel (aka, Kevin Costner) discovers that he has nothing left and his quest for the perfect game may be over. He lets out a deep breath, closes his eyes and says, "Okay, three more. Like I've done a million times."

Billy pitched the perfect game.

Today I saw the 100 ways to hack your life for the better. Hack my life?

Okay so definition of hack: cut with rough or heavy blows. Nah, what I think they meant was shortcut.

Oh yeah, we have to have the shortcut. How do I get from here to there without the time, work, or effort.

Can’t I binge all 100 episodes on Netflix instead of actually watching it?

When it’s all about the outcome, it becomes all about the hack.

Sorry, some hacks, maybe, but I’m kind of a process guy.

My Grandfather, Ernest Sands, was a railroad guy. After World War I he began working for the railroad and pretty much never stopped until they kicked him out at retirement. I vaguely remember his retirement party. Mostly though, I remember him working. And the best memory was him working with me. Every Saturday morning, before normal people were awake, we would walk for four hours or more delivering handbills. Handbills, at least that's what we called them, were a one piece door hanging advertisement for a local cleaners (where my Mom worked). I received $10 for my efforts, which seemed like a king's ransom to an eleven year old.

When you and I shop, I think it's easy for us to see who is handling customer service well and who is struggling. We know where we are having a good, even pleasant experience and conversely we know where our treatment sucks. We also know why one place is a better experience than another - it's the people.

Some companies profess a good philosophy or a customer driven mission statement and that is a beautiful thing.

I hear Gary Vaynerchuk talk about it all the time. But long before that I was at the National Association of Realtors Convention and Daniel Pink had the members of his audience do an experiment. We placed our index finger on our foreheads and drew a capital letter E. Whether we drew it to read ourselves or to be read by others said something about our ability to empathize with others. Two-thirds of the audience showed the E to someone else. Pink explained that while we seemed an empathetic crew, interestingly, the higher people go on the corporate ladder, the more we see them draw the E to themselves.

In the line at the grocery store and a little (like 4 foot 7 little) lady was checking out. Her last item scanned was a rotisserie chicken. She handed the cashier her money, it was counted and the cashier said, "I'm sorry, this isn't quite enough." Before even the words, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to get it," came out of her mouth, the man next to her in line (a very big guy who looked like a mature Sinbad) said, "Let me get that, ma'am."

"No, no, that's okay," she said.

Ever go All In?

"ALL IN" for the business professional revolves around several areas: business, yes, but also the rest of our lives. To be truly "ALL IN" in life means more than just work. It means with the family, your body, your mind, your soul. It's about balance, yet a sort of imbalance.

One of the things about doing a podcast, a blog, or a youtubechannel, is that in order for it to work, it takes time and patience.

The other thing it takes, is consistency.

Consistency is looked upon by some to be the pillar, or at least one of them, of success.

On the other hand, Oscar Wilde said that “consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative

Sometimes in life we have to do things that we really don’t want to do. We can moan, wail, complain, but the thing still has tohappen.

So, how do you get yourself to execute that difficult thing, when you just don’t want to do it?

I like two things: Planning and making the dynamics of the thing easier.

A customer service group noticed two candy stores in the same neighborhood that offered, pretty much, the same candy. Kids, however, preferred one over the other by leaps and bounds. When asked "WHY?" children responded that the one store always gave them more candy while the other store took it away. Was this true or simply a perception?

Blood Test…. Ever had one? Silly question, huh?

I heard an interesting analogy the other day where someone equated performance feedback with a blood test.

You might have low iron, a thyroid issue…. If you never had a blood test, you might never know. Now that doesn’t mean you DON’T have low iron or a thyroid problem, you just don’t KNOW you have the problem because you didn’t have the blood test.

Has the day ever gotten away from you?

You thought you had this to do list or whatever it was and you just seemed to not have enough time.

Some of that might be the myth of time management, but some of it might have to do with our expectations of what we can or cannot do within a given timeframe.

I heard something really interesting the other day and it goes like this: Most people grossly over-estimate what they can get done in a day and under-estimate what they can get done in five years.

Have you ever lost your dog?

It’s terrible. My son and his finance were gone on a four day trip, had someone taking care of their dog, Abby, and she got out of the yard and is missing.

Long story short, they have called shelters, the police the sheriff, animal control, vets, everyone. They have hundreds of lost dog signs up all over her last known whereabouts. They’ve posted on Craigslist, Facebook, neighborhood.com, and some other networking, doggy-type websites.

Abby is still missing.

There is a myth out there in the world and it’s called BALANCE.

We seek it, we’d love it, but it’s WAY too illusive. Why?

Well, mostly it’s because we’ve mislabeled it. We think that balance actually meansbalance. I have tooffset 8 hours of work with 8 hours of something else and we wonder why we’re frustrated.

The answer is seeking COUNTER balance

I used to watch the food network. I used to watch hgtv. Then, it all changed.

Every program became just like every other.

Conflict. Disagreement. Un cooperation.

Contestant vs contestant.

Host vs everyone.

I just got sick of it. What’s the deal with these North American shows that think that the only way to entertain is to have people NOT get along?

So, today is February 9th.

Your business plan should be in full flight and you should be zooming towards a great 2021.

Oh, you didn’t exactly do a business plan.

Well, lucky for you, it’s not too late.

In fact, it never is.

Over the weekend, the mail arrived with 3 fantastic offers included: 2 were from mobile phoneproviders, the other for internet service. Each one offered fabulous deals for new customers.

Don’t get me wrong, I love new customers and I think that getting them is a great thing for ANY company.

But what about old customers?

What about established customers?

What about loyal customers?

Welcome to the Daily RICHual, episode 105

I was listening to a podcast this morning where Nathan Martin, who by the way recently became the fastest American born black man to run a marathon and he was talking about giving back during the time after his parents died and mentioned the acronym his group used: B.A.B.E. Be a Blessing Everywhere. Upon my first exposure to this, I had two reactions:

1.How cool, and 2. I’m not much of a BABE kind of guy.

So for my listeners who don’t see themselves as babes, I have an alternative.... D.U.D.E.

Matching luggage was, or maybe is a thing.

You know matching luggage, where it all looks the same. Well, while that might work in the travel circles, marketing is not a place where you maximize by having it all look the same.

Does marketing on social media work?

The answer: It does and it doesn’t.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: if you don’t think it’ll work, it will not. If you don’t do it, it will not.

I had a real estate agent in class a week or so ago who in a private conversation suggested that social media didn’t work and he could not imagine how it could.

Imagine that you’re hosting a cocktail party and have 50 of your closest most loved friends in attendance. About an hour in, I show up at the door: unknown and definitely uninvited. AND THEN….. I start selling my widgets to your guests. What would you do?

Chances are I am about to be booted. But maybe there is a one in 25 chance that I could do something to be allowed to stay, what would it take?

Welcome to the return of the Daily RICHual, episode 101

So many sales-people find their business to be a roller coaster. A roller coaster of deals, money, and energy.

I heard a podcast the gentleman being interviewed talked about grinding in the moment. I thought, what an interesting way to express a belief I have.

Well, here we are, Daily RICHual#100. This thing began on Martin Luther King day. Jan 20.

It was designed to be “Something to get you going, thinking, wondering, or doing each day.”

A Daily RICHual.

Amazingly, I haven’t missed a weekday the whole time. Sometimes it was easy, other times not so much. Every time, though, it was from the heart.

As was mentioned way back, I never really cared about VIEWS or LIKES of any of that.

When there was just too much violence, politics, negativity, and too much of what some weird producer thought was reality, I stopped watching television…. And that was decades ago.

This week, to broaden my horizons a little I took in three things on Netflix that I highly recommend.

The first was The Quartet, a story about a retirement home for opera singers and musicians.

The second was The Healer about a guy who discovered he had the gift to heal people and wasn’t sure he wanted it.

I was listening to the Morning Shakeout Podcast with Mario Fraioli and he used a phrase that I really liked: He used the words, “pandemic of possibility.”

It’s given that while this thing we’ve been going through has been horrific in so many ways, it has also been a tremendous opportunity for reflection; of self and how we navigate our relationships with others, as well as an opportunity for growth

There has been an unfortunate phenomenon that has returned since our Stay at Home orders have been loosened, that is people acting like jerks on the road and ESPECIALLY in stores.

I guess when you’ve been confined to your home for a while and have had limited opportunities for social interaction, jerks have fewer chances for jerkiness.

Well, all that has changed.

Having a tough time in Corona world?

Someone once said, when the goin’ gets tough the tough get goin’. A fabulous sentiment, by the way, but how does that actually work in the world of sales? Well, it works best when you and your business are grounded in the basics.

We all have it in us to reach back and rely on our basics to achieve when troubles arrive. Maybe it's customer service or product knowledge. Maybe it's simply relying on knowing that we can finish what we started because we have so many times before.

One of the things I’ve had to do in the last 10 weeks is embrace the online course.

Whether it’s been Facebook LIVE, Adobe Connect, or ZOOM, it has been a change to have to deliver content in this different fashion.

It has been, using a nice buzzword, quite a PIVOT in my business. So as I am pivoting during this time, it causes me to wonder how that pivot will hold up once things are back to whatever the new “normal” will be ORRR, will some of this stick in my new pivoted model.

I just heard an amazing analogy on a Gary Vaynerchuk podcast.

Alex Rodriguez was discussing how his businesses were dealing with the Corona Virus situation and he likened it to a rain delay in a baseball game.

He said his manager, Joe Torre, used to say that some guys went back into the clubhouse, had a burger or two, took a nap.

Others hit the batting cage, got on the cycle trainer, engaged in visualizations.

Two quotes collided in my brain this morning.

First Gary Vaynerchuk said “Laziness comes when you’re chasing money instead of a game where you love the process.”

Simon Sinek said, “When we work hard for something we don’t believe in, it’s called stress. When we work hard for something we do believe in it’s called passion."

I was reading an article yesterday and it mentioned neuroplasticity. It was one of those words I hadn’t heard in a while, not surprisingly as there are few instances in casual conversation where someone might say, “So how’s your neuroplasticity?”

The idea, in the simplest of terms is that our brains grow. It can occur with the altering of neural synapses and pathways as well as other changes at the cellular level.

So this is a good thing for the most part because it reflects our brains’ ability to avoid stagnation.

Memorial Day began in 1868 as a way to remember and honor those who died while serving in the military.   

Memorial Day is also looked upon as the unofficial beginning of summer and here in the Denver Metro area as being the day 50,000 + runners and walkers gather for the Bolder Boulder.  

I’m not sure but it just seems to me that too often we forget this country’s blessing of freedom,

Sometimes the Daily RICHual is silence.

Sometimes when there is little or nothing on your mind, it is best to leave it that way.

Is nothing something? Today it is and THAT is your Daily RICHual.

There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother called the Bracket and in itMarshall has to pretend like he’s minding his own business. His problem is he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had the same problem meditating. Nice seque, huh?

My initial guided sessions didn’t really give any advice, so I did what any inquiring, self-motivated person would do, I googled it.

Here’s what I learned…

There have been quite a few things about this Corona Virus crap that has made our last couple of months challenging.

First, don’t get me wrong, the sickness, death and devastation to many families has been terrible and I struggle to find the words to fully express that.

I am just grateful for my health and the health of those close to me.

Having said that, I got something today I have needed for two months….

While adding some updated information to a Zoom class I’m doing tomorrow on video marketing, I found 7 interesting statistics:

•In 2019 85% of all internet users watched video

•They spend 88% more time on a website with video

•Internet users spent 6:48 hours watching videos per week

•Mobile video consumption is still rising over 100% per year

•1 billion hours of video is consumed each day on YouTube

•Video adds 300% more traffic to websites

•It is predicted that by 2022 82% of internet traffic will be people watching video

So I’ve been doing quite a bit of meditation the last four weeks. A key concept that comes up over and over is mindfulness. Being mindful allows people to train their mind to observe their own thoughts, feelings, and sensations with an objective view.

Almost like an outsider looking in who doesn’t care.

Some of the benefits of this have been found to be Higher brain functioning; Increased immune function; Lowered blood pressure; Lowered heart rate; Increased awareness; Increased attention and focus; Increased clarity in thinking and perception.

If you asked my sons what they learned from me growing up they would tell you TWO things:

The 1st was to Be aware. If one of the boys was reaching across the table and knocked over their milk, no one was angry about the milk. The lesson was that next time, you should be aware of your surroundings.

Headspace fonder, and former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe had a teacher who said, "There is no such thing as Good or Bad meditation, there is only awareness or non-awareness."

So our brains produce substances that can improve your health, stuff like endorphins, gamma globulins. These chemicals strengthen your immune system

Recent research has shown that what your brain produces depends, at least in part, on your thoughts, feelings and expectations

And in their study, Drs Heather Rasmussen, Michael Scheier, and Joel Greenhouse, showed that when you’re sick and you have hope, a positive attitude, AND believe that you’ll get better, your brain produces the appropriate chemical response.

Your strengths aren’t just for you and they’re not just for marketing. Your strengths, if you think outside of the box a bit, could be used to help others.

•Are you Well connected? The right introduction could lead to a job prospect getting a job, or maybe just a new friendship.

•Love fitness? Sign up for a charitable walk or run and give to a cause you care about.

•Expert swimmer? Volunteer to teach children how to swim at your local gym or YMCA.

I saw an article in Psychology Today that listed 10 benefits of focusing on your strengths. I’d like to share them

We talked some last week about strengths and self-awareness and such.

To me, understanding your strengths, expertise, great talents, skills, and characteristics is the entire key to successful marketing.

You know your strengths, you know your audience and what they want, and you use your strengths to attract people to your business.

It seems like I have been operating under some kind of misconception. I joined Twitter in December of 2008. When you wanted to post or, excuse me, Tweet, the question you theoretically answered was “What are you doing?”

Sometime between then and now they changed the question. Now the question is What’s Happening and it just doesn’t do it for me. I’m a child of the 60’s and What’s Happening is only really asked with a slightly stoned tone like: What’sssssHappening…..

OR I hear it and think of RAJ, Duane, and ReRun.

What’s interesting about our strengths is the SUBjectivity that swirls around them.

First, without significant self-awareness you might not know them and with significant lack of self esteem, you might not think you have any or many.

Then, there’s those pesky other people on the planet, they may see you differently than you see you.

So how do you figure it all out and come to some sort of accurate awareness of your strengths.

So, you’re on the Dating Game. Host Jim Lange has you primed and ready to go to compete for the date of your life on national television.

The date selector on the other side of the screen who must be cuter than all get out, begins to ask you and your two competitors questions. They begin rather easy: what foods did you hate as a child, what color eyes are your favorite.

Then, the biggie hits: why should I pick YOU?

Peter Drucker said, "Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer."

Understanding what you're good at, where your expertise lies can go a long way to having a more successful business, and maybe a more successful life.

Gary Vaynerchuk said, “A key to success is being able to deploy hard work against your strengths.”

As the Star Wars folks would say today:  May the 4th be with you

It’s a beautiful day in the pandemic world and to celebrate May the 4th be with you day, I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite quotes about the Force.

My first is from Obi Wan Kenobi who said, “the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”

Luckily, we don’t have to be Jedi to feel it.

In 1992, training methodologist Tudor Bompa and his colleague Fred Koch wrote on the theory of Overcompensation.

As Jim Loehr would discuss the value of disengagement, Bompa and Koch would show you the value of recovery in your physical performance.

The idea is that after the body receives a major stressor, a hard workout for example, and is allowed to recover the correct amount of time, it will bounce back to a fitter level, it will overcompensate, so to speak.

Yesterday I mentioned Jim Loehr’s idea that in order to be fully engaged, we must periodically practice full engagement.

While I’ve been doing a good number of things to disengage, I want to mention three as they are the most significant AND the ones I would like to take with me into post pandemic life.

1) meditation. I’ve had the Headspace app for a year and a half and will say I am not the most dedicated. I’m finding, however, that it’s really helping me chill and making the work easier to do.

I’ve been working a lot during the pandemic.

Not my usual work, which has me traveling from place to place delivering courses and classes.

Mostly I have been tweaking old content, placing it into today’s context, creating some new stuff, reading about the things that interest me, and facilitating ZOOM classes.

So, I’ve been busy trying to be fully engaged during this so called “down time.”

I’ve also been actively re-charging my energy levels.

Saturday I was heading to the grocery store to grab a few essential items and I noticed that the streets and roads were packed. And I mean packed like a fairly normal Saturday.

And we’re on Stay at Home, right?

Buzz Aldrin said, “People were excited when we landed on the moon. You go to the moon a couple more times and they’re not so excited.”

No judgment here, but I think the biggest Corona virus issue at this time is that people have moved on.

Muhammad Ali once said, “My definition of evil is unfriendliness.”

I’d like to say right up front that this quote might be a little harsh for the circumstance I am about to describe. Butt covered? Yes.

A thing that I’ve noticed out on the trail since the “Stay at Home” order is that there are two kinds of people out for a walk, run, or ride:

The ones that are very friendly and just SO happy about being out doing something that makes them feel good.

I’d like to recommend a book that more than likely you have not read (that’s the best kind of recommendation, right?). It’s called The Power of Full Engagement and it is written by Jim Loehr in 2003. Available on Amazon.

If you’re like me, you strive to be the best you can be. You understand that the quantity of time you spend in this life is secondary to the quality of the time.

At the same time, we obsess over TIME management.

Loehr delivers the case that time is not the driving the be the best you can be bus, energy is.

Often times humans compare their energy levels to fuel in a car’s gas tank. People say, “I’m running on empty today,” and things like that.

So let’s stick with that analogy for a bit and turn you into two of the cars that I have owned in my lifetime: a Porsche Boxter and a 1979 Volkswagon Bug.

Let’s agree on two things: These cars are designed for different performance levels, and because of that they require different fuel grades. So, When I go to the gas station I have choices: anywhere from 85 to 94

So while we are going through this extremely unique time in our history I’ve been keeping track of what I let myself think.

Sure, I get to do some work, I’m spending wonderful quality time with my wife, but it’s the time not spent being busy that I’m really giving a focus.

It’s easy to get a little down, especially if you are someone whose job/livelihood has been affected. It’s easy to get a little down when you think about all of the people whose health and LIVES have been affected.

Kirk Douglas once said: “Maybe when you die, you come before a big bearded man on a big throne, and you say, ‘is this heaven?’ And he says, “Heaven? You just came from there.”

When I began running almost 54 years ago, I did it to make the team. Then I wanted to make varsity, the to be the number one man, then to win races, then to run faster. College was very much the same. The last few decades, however, things have changed.

I really don’t have anything to say today, so how about this:

Silence

Silence to relax

Silence to reflect

Silence to ponder

Silence to be thankful

Silence to hope and dream

Silence.....

I quote the Ritz Carlton credo: “The Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.

We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.

The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.”

So, it’s all an act.

No, not that kind of act, no one is faking it here

I have an idea: Wanna be a great salesperson?

Be nice.

Bruce Nordstrom said: ‘‘We can hire nice people and teach them to sell, but we can’t hire salespeople andteach them to be nice.’’

If you think it’s all about you, if you have a cynical, negative view of others, especially customers; if you think they OWE you something, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell at being REALLY good at sales

When most people think about high levels of customer satisfaction, they often think about two places: Nordstrom’s and the Ritz Carlton.

Without dragging out the inevitable, there are a couple of reasons these are the two top of the mountain examples of great service:

1.They know HOW to treat their customers, because

2.They know how to treat their employees

If you looked at the pyramid/hierarchy thing from Nordstrom’s it would look different..

As it seems that the Daily RICHual is leaning itself towards weekly topics, I figured I would go with that trend and spend this week on the topic of customer service.

It was Harry Beckwith in his book Selling the Invisible who said, “A customer’s satisfaction is the gap between what the customer expects and what the get.”

Some would believe that Beckwith’s quotes tells us to under promise, I think differently.

Easter weekend is here and the way I see it, it could not possibly be more relevant to our world today. You see, Easter weekend is about two things: sacrifice and hope.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Sacrifice and hope.....

And that is your daily RICHual.

So this week I’ve touched on health RICHuals, work RICHuals, and daily RICHuals. I’ve also made ,or am attempting to make some major dietary moves.

Two years ago, my wife, Linda, went Plant Based for her meals as a response to some health issues. For her, it worked. She has significantly changed some bad numbers in her health screenings .I cut back on some of the meat stuff but didn’t REALLY get on board until mid February. My excuse used to be how difficult it was to eat well while traveling, but, UH OH, that excuse has gone by the wayside.

So during this Corona Craziness, what have YOU been doing as your Daily RICHuals?

For me, beyond work and basic health monitoring, I have some other RICHuals to keep me focused on things outside of work

First, I’m trying to keep my sleep schedule tight. I’m usually a 9:30-5:30 kind of guy and that has been a consistent thing for years. Next, I’m making sure I get in my miles each day. A bad, soon to be replaced knee, has kept me slow and well below my usual mileage.

Yesterday's 3 RICHuals were just simple ways to check in on myself from a basic health standpoint. Being under a Stay-at-Home order, however, has fired my creative juices for some other daily RICHuals.

Let’s talk about work:

As a sales trainer who mostly works with real estate agents there have been no in person courses for nearly four weeks. I’ve had a few go Virtual, and most get postponed. The Virtual ones have been fun while being an opportunity to create a little cash flow.

I was last in front of a real live class almost a month ago. Like all of you, my life has had a bit of a Corona focus.

Don’t get me wrong, I am the farthest thing from panic mode. In fact, I read about two or three articles a day to make sure I am up on the latest, but I have no interest in becoming overly obsessed or worried.

My focus is taking care of myself.

Along that lines, I have developed 3 daily RICHuals around the Virus

I think you could begin gradually with some exercise. Exercise will not only help your brain but it should also help you sleep. Pick something that works for you: walking, running, cycling, yoga, whatever. Just pick something that works your heart and pumps your blood. Your sleep will also be helped by lowering stress. Worry is a big stressor.

I remember learning in a Franklin Covey time management course that there are two walls in our lives. There is the wall of control and the wall of no control. We get into trouble when we try to control the things on the wall of no control. I guess I'm saying, "let go, Luke."

Stress. Rule 8. They call stress a killer, and they are right. We're not talking about short term stress here like that person who cuts you off without a turn signal while they're chatting on their phone and you get really pissed. In fact, that kind of stress is natural (and some maintain it is actually healthy). It's chronic stress that is the problem. "Under chronic stress, adrenaline creates scars in your blood vessels that can cause a heart attack or stroke,” says Medina.

Sleep. Medina's rule #7 is, Sleep well, think well. First, it's probably a good idea to know what kind of person you are. There are morning people, night owl's and some in between. Identifying when you are at your best because of when you sleep is essential in being your best. I do some of my best work in the morning. It’s also wen I exerciseFor some of you, that idea is appalling! It's okay. Just know when you're at your best (most awake, clear, bright, whatever) and revolve your schedule around it. Of course, how much sleep we get is the key here.

Exercise. In the beginning, we were hunters and gatherers. Researchers estimate that the average person from the Homo erectus group, over a million years ago moved 10 to 20 kilometers a day (6-12 miles). Scientists also believe that this was the time of the human brains most impressive development, man (the species, not the gender) was on the move.

After a fresh reading of John Medina's book, "Brain Rules," I have pledged to treat my brain better. In my list of favorite books, I mentioned that Medina’s book could be the owner’s manual for the brain.

Medina has 12 rules for your brain, and here’s what they are:

1.Exercise boosts brain power

2.The human brain evolves

3.Every brain is wired differently

4.We don’t pay attention to boring things

5.Repeat to remember

6. Remember to repeat

7. Sleep well, think well

8. Stressed brains don’t learn the same way

9. Stimulate more of the senses

10. Vision trumps all other senses

11. Male and female brains are different

12. We are powerful and natural explorers.

In this time of social distancing, some of us have taken to reading. SO, just in case you might need a recommendation or two (or more) here are my twenty favorite books of all time. This was tough because I like A LOT of books. Now, understand that I do not read mysteries, romance, sci-fi or most any fiction. I mostly read non-fiction/get better at what you do books.

In this time of social distancing, some of us have taken to reading. SO, just in case you might need a recommendation or two (or more) here are my twenty favorite books of all time. This was tough because I like A LOT of books. Now, understand that I do not read mysteries, romance, sci-fi or most any fiction. I mostly read non-fiction/get better at what you do books.

In this time of social distancing, some of us have taken to reading. SO, just in case you might need a recommendation or two (or more) here are my twenty favorite books of all time. This was tough because I like A LOT of books. Now, understand that I do not read mysteries, romance, sci-fi or most any fiction. I mostly read non-fiction/get better at what you do books.

In this time of social distancing, some of us have taken to reading. SO, just in case you might need a recommendation or two (or more) here are my twenty favorite books of all time. This was tough because I like A LOT of books. Now, understand that I do not read mysteries, romance, sci-fi or most any fiction. I mostly read non-fiction/get better at what you do books.

In this time of social distancing, some of us have taken to reading. SO, just in case you might need a recommendation or two (or more) here are my twenty favorite books of all time. This was tough because I like A LOT of books. Now, understand that I do not read mysteries, romance, sci-fi or most any fiction. I mostly read non-fiction/get better at what you do books.

It was Meister Eckhart who said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has – as opposed to a consumer-oriented emphasis on what one wants or needs.

And, best of all Gratitude works four ways:

Someone once said, “what you focus on expands, so focus on what you want not what you don’t want.” In work and in Corona land, if you focus on panic, panic will be the result.

Einstein said “The most important decision you’ll ever make is whether you decide to live in a Universe that is supportive and friendly or one that is hostile and unkind”.

If you see it as friendly, you will see people as friends. If you see it as hostile, you’ll see others as enemies.

Mr Miyagi said, “Focus Daniel-son.” Now, this was great advice if indeed Daniel-son knew how to focus. 

Want great results? Focus. Want to be your best? Focus. So , what is focus?

Dr Jim Loehr in a fantastic book written ages ago called Athletic Excellence said, “We have the right focus when what we are doing is the same as what we are thinking.” Simple, right?

Actually NO. Not so simple. Given the incredible speed at which the brain operates in comparison to our physical reaction speed, it’s amazing we ever focus.

Empathy, according to experts like Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuk and Oprah is what is called a soft skill.

Soft skills—like awareness, empathy, and the ability to connect — refer to personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.

Empathy is ones ability to understand how another person feels, to be able to walk a mile in their shoes.

Do you know how your client/customer feels, are you aware of why your spouse is so upset (not the reason, by the way, the feeling)?

With the widespread concern for the coronavirus, the DailyRICHual has decided to celebrate individual characteristics and traits that will not only get you through this crisis, but also help you be better at any endeavor you may choose.

We begin today with patience.

Gary Vaynerchuksaid, “The single biggest trait you can develop as an operator, entrepreneur, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, daughter, husband, co-worker, or employee is patience.”

If you are like me, even a little bit, you are inundated with the latest technological advancements to the point of being a) confused, b) overwhelmed, c) tired of the speed of the merry go round, or d) all of the above.

As we await the coming of the iPhone 27, OS 24, Microsoft 52 and the third version of everything in the last twelve months, how do you (I) keep up? The answer, I believe, is simple: make smart, relevant choices.

I was standing in line at the grocery store today and I was able to witness one of those great nice person stories first hand.

A little (like 4 foot 8) lady was checking out. Her last item scanned was a rotisserie chicken. She handed the cashier her money, it was counted and the cashier said, "I'm sorry, this isn't quite enough." Before the words, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to get it," came out of her mouth, the man next to her in line, said, "Let me get that, ma'am."

"No, no, that's okay," she said.

"I insist," he replied.

You see it on the Sunday night poker challenge, you see it in Casino Royale. At the peak moment of the game, someone risks everything and goes "ALL IN!" They're putting all the chips they have out in the pot and just, simply, going for it. This concept, thought by some to be admirable, is thought by as many or more, to be absolutely crazy. Then there is the small, few who believe that "all in" is not a poker choice, it is a way of living.

To give it all you have, doing whatever you can to be your best is a choice. Each day, upon arising, we have the choice to play this life thing anyway we want. We can play it close to the vest, we can play it straight, we can cheat or we can play "ALL IN.”

As I was watching The Maltese Falcon for the umpteenth time Sunday, I anxiously awaited the "showdown" scene between Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor). After a rough and rocky relationship (both business AND personal), Spade let's her know that he's turning her in for murder, even though he loves her.  "I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you."

Like Actors and politicians, salespeople are great at the one liner, the soundbite, the quip.

Maybe for the non customeroriented or ego driven salesperson, this "works." For someone bent on building relationships, the cornerstone of effective sales, it comes off mean spirited, defensive, or just plain nasty. How about, instead, think about 3 things:

Boarding my flight yesterday, I was reminded of a time long ago when Frontier Airlines served freshly baked (well, re-baked) chocolate cookies on their flights. I don’t like living in the past BUT, It was a sad day, on April 25, 2012, when my boarding inquiry about cookies, was met with this response, "We are, but I hear from catering that this is the last time." What? I looked it up.

“When we looked at the cookie, we were the only domestic low-cost carrier serving a free, perishable snack on board,” said Frontier spokesperson Lindsey Carpenter. “That doesn’t align with the perception or financial reality of a low-cost carrier.”

OhhhhhhLindsey, that's the whole idea, EXACTLY. It didn't align. That's what made it so great.

This is episode 35 of the Daily RICHual and yet no one is watching, no one is listening. You’d think I would be sad, depressed, running on an empty gas tank of self-esteem.

Good news. I am not. Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Bottom line: I don’t care how many people see something, Quality over quantity. Depth over width. Reach does not equal value and follower count doesn’t mean people are listening. We need to stop focusing on optimizing the number of views.”

In his landmark customer service book, Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith offers a three stepm approach to marketing your product or service(s).

Step One is where you are trying to get what Beckwith calls, "a basic, acceptably reliable product" (or service).

Step Two is where competition has entered the scene. Competition creates a need to listen to the customer, listening creates refinements and improvements. Beckwith says answering customers needs is the driving force in this second step. Unfortunately, this step represents the top rung on most companies service ladder. Most will tread water here forever.

Disney, Lexus, the Ritz Carlton and Nordstroms are some of the few that have ventured into Step Three. Here is where the company has created products and services that have gone beyond meeting customers expressed needs.

It is estimated that 290 billion emails are sent every day. To break that down for you, that's 2.8 million per second and 90 trillion a year.

Along with that, several sources assert that over 8 billion cell phone calls are made every day.

AND… according to Tech Jury, 8 trillion, 395 billion, text messages are sent yearly….. Yikes.

I'm not sure about you, but I have noticed people seem to have a text answering urgency, more and more but most people do not answer emails and they don't return calls.

Hockey great, Wayne Gretzky, once explained that the greatest players didn't go to the puck, they went to where the puck will be. Anticipation. Proactive playing? No, he showed us something new. He gave us PREactive.

Customer Service is like hockey. While it is better to react than to do nothing, it is much better to be proactive than to simply react. Being proactive was a great idea when it rose to prominence in the 90's. In today's fast paced world, however, being proactive isn't enough.

As an educator, I often ponder the question, Why Learn?

So, using resources ranging from INC magazine, to Natalie Sisson, to the Campaign for Learning: here’s 8 reasons why you should learn.

1.   95% of people think that learning about new things boosts your confidence.

2.  92% of people think that learning about new things is enjoyable

3.  A sense of accomplishment and pride.

4.  learning can lead to a better quality of life.

Talkers block has crept into this blog today. Or maybe it's nothing block. I feel like talking about something but nothing is popping into my head. So, being a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, I guess I'll write about nothing. The question is: is nothing something?

In every corner of the world, at some moment today, a person will ask another person, "What are you doing?" The answer, probably given more often than any other answer, will be, "nothing.”

SO, here goes “nothing”

After attending the R4 RE/MAX convention, I am reminded of the number of real estate agents that are not aware of the tools at their disposal. Most of the major real estate brands have spent millions of dollars attempting to give their agents an edge in the marketplace through a plethora of tools, systems and resources. At the same time, agents everywhere complain that their companies take their money and do nothing for them

My Grandfather, Ernest Sands, was a railroad guy. After World War I he began working for the railroad and pretty much never stopped until they kicked him out at retirement. What I remember about him was working. And the best memory was him working with me. 

Every Saturday morning, before normal people were awake, we would walk for four hours or more delivering handbills. Handbills, at least that's what we called them, were a one piece door hanging advertisement for a local cleaners (where my Mom worked). I received $10 for my efforts, which seemed like a king's ransom to an eleven year old.

When it comes to customer service, do your people perceive you as giving more or taking away? As we know, a huge part of customer service is perception. What does the customer think they see or think they experience?

A group noticed two candy stores in the same neighborhood that offered, pretty much, the same candy. Kids, however, preferred one over the other by leaps and bounds. When asked "WHY?" children responded that the one store always gave them more candy while the other store took it away. Was this true or simply a perception?

Without naming names, there are quite a few entities in the real estate business focused on delivering products, services, and methodology to obtain more sales. Some sell programs and apps, some sell their services, and some “employ” agents.

As a trainer of real estate agents, I have seen it all and see more every single day. And while some of it is great, some of it sucks and some of it sits squarely in the middle, my question is this….Who’s teaching the greatest sales tool of all time? Who is teaching the thing that can transform any agent in any city at any company into a top producer? Who’s teaching people?

This past Friday, as I listened to keynote speaker Scott Stratten, author of most famously, Unmarketing, discuss with 700 agents the “secret,” he focused on just that: people. Reaching them, building with them, enhancing relationships.

So how about teaching listening, attentiveness, empathy?

With texting sweeping the nation, a natural bi-product of this movement is the reaction of older people who believe that texting is sending us down the path to absolute non-communication or worse, the devil. The same reaction, by the way, that my Great GrandpaBlackmer had to the telephone.

So is it? Of course not, BUUUT is it?

Famous UCLA psychologist Albert Mehrabian who taught us about effective communication, said this: 

7% of effective communication is the words we use.

38% is tone or how we say what we say.

That leaves 55% to body language.

If you’re in sales or LIFE, you have heard the following word before…… NO.

According to Theo Williams, the word no originated around 900AD. It combined “ne” (not) with “o” (ever) to give us NO meaning not ever. The word has evolved through the ages to include new phrases like no can do (I guess denoting non action) no problem (which actually means yes), and NOOOO WAAAAY.

Because the average person wants to say no, before yes, here are six things no can mean according to Chris Voss

Who invented the perfect sales presentation? Tommy Hopkins? Zig Ziglar? Benjamin Franklin? Benjamin Franklin? Maybe, he pretty much founded the oldest insurance agency in America and insurance companies led the way in early sales techniques.

Nope. Not them, and not Thomas Watson of IBM, and not Dale Carnegie.

Fats Waller. Who? Fats Waller.

Thomas Wright Waller, born 1904, died 1943 in his landmark musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” from 1929, wrote the following: Find out what they like, and how they like it, and let them have it just that way.

Today is President’s Day. Presidents day happened when whoever the holiday makers are decided that it was impractical to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th and Washington’s on the 22nd. Now we celebrate ALL of them.

They got their job as a result of Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution. It says, “The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

There have been some good ones, some bad ones and many, many in between.

SO, in the interest of celebrating al President’s while singling out a few: here are my ten favorite Presidents of all time with the caveat that I was a history teacher who studied what the did while in office, not who liked them or to which party they belonged:

Okay young man or lady. I want to talk about your attitude… HA! Nothing good ever started with THAT one at the beginning of a sentence.

Your attitude is the expression of what you believe about yourself and the world around you, and…how you feed those beliefs every single day of your life.

There is no manual on having a better attitude, BUT here are 3 things you can do

Long, long ago, someone in a meeting in Beaverton, OR raised his or her hand and said, “I've got it, Just think about it.” Immediately the group idea expander said, “NO, Just DO it.” And so they did.

That slogan has been used billions of times by billions of people who either want to take action or want to get someone else to do the same. We, as a society, seem to look at the operative phrase in that slogan to be DO. Just DO it.

I think not, to me, JUST is the key word, as in

I came across a book yesterday. It was written by Benjamin Zander, who if you don’t know was the world famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and called “The Art of Possibility.” It concerned (partially) leadership and our role as beings on the planet. Zander said, “Every single interaction between two human beings is always a matter of leadership.”

At the age of 45, after 20 years of leading orchestras, Zander had a revelation. It was, “The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound, he depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.” 

Interestingly it has forced me contemplate the role of the Realtor in and out of the transaction.

Al Gore’s invention of the internet has changed a lot of things in this world and nowhere, maybe, more than marketing. Technology has given us a plethora of ways to get consumer’s attention.

In the old days, two fellas, leaned over the fence and utilized the greatest marketing ever: WOMM. They talked about the new preacher, the guy who opened the new fillin’ station, and that lady who took over Harvey’s insurance business.

Sales people need to know today that those guys are still talking, they’re just leaning over a virtually different kind of fence.

Buying a house is the American Dream. And while it has always been a complicated process, with the growth of technology and the addition of third partyplayers vying for the FTHB’s money, it is even more wild today.

One of the biggest obstacles in the FTHB process is the fact that the internet and ”Real Estate” shows have created a “fantasy” environment for newbie buyers

Often in class or in a consultation or coaching, I’ll get asked about Blogging. Blogging, I say, is a great way to inform, promote, and answer, especially if you like to write. 

 People want to know stuff AND they look for credible sources to obtain the most relevant info. Most sales people answer questions all day. The problem is they answer them one on one.  Let me explain:there was a time long, long ago when Saturday Night Live was actually funny. One of the reasons it was funny was Gilda Radner. Gilda did a bit during the Weekend Update where she played a character named Roseann Roseannadana.

The Bible says, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”  

When most people contemplate that Biblical quote, they think of judging others and while that may have been Jesus’ intent, I think there is someone else we ought to be careful about judging: ourselves.  

Don’t get me wrong, judging others is a relationship and attitude killer. Judgment is the brother or sister of comparison, envy, bitterness. And I have no room for those.  There are a lot of things I would like to have and do in this life. Most of them have nothing to do with what you have or want to do. And if you’ve had tremendous success, I think that’s great. I just don’t have room for jealousy or the other judgmental things that come with it.  

Worse than this “other” judgment, is self judgment.

Yesterday we covered deadlock in a negotiation

So how do we end deadlock without having to walk away from the deal? Every situation is unique, but here are 5 methods to help help construct the way out of deadlock.

There comes a time in many negotiations when progress halts and deadlock ensues.  Several things happen when deadlock occurs and if you know what they are, and what to do about them, success can be the result.

One problem, of course, is when people involved in a negotiation become unmotivated. In a world where buyers want to buy and sellers want to sell, if one doesn’t.

THAT can be a big issue.

Technology is moving at a break neck speed. New gadgets, designed to save mankind from the discomforts of life, are developed daily (maybe hourly). Some things, however, remain as they have for years.   One such example of an old idea that technology has yet to improve, is the common pallet.

I run. I’ve run for 53 ½ years, almost 115,000 miles and often I get asked, what are you running from? Are you seeking escape or balance. My answer? both.

I love the fact that I have found this activity that not only allows me the opportunity and the challenge of being in touch with myself and my world physically, mentally and spiritually, but also seems to encourage it.  I’ve stated many times that I do my best thinking; my best work, on the run. And If that is the case, most days on the ten scale, are an eleven.

Holy crap, I make it sound like I’m working on the run, but that is not the case. Clarity is not work.

Yeah, I suppose I’m getting physical benefit from the run as well. Bopping along for an hour or more at an elevated heart rate is good cardiovascular work. And I know that my running has been one of the primary reasons I have avoided much of the sickness and disease many of my chronological mates deal with as we age. But as good as that may be, the physical is not the lure of the run. It’s the rest of it.

We spend a ton of our lives in conversations. We talk, we listen. Or do we? How good of a listener are you? AND would it be valuable to get better at it?

According to those in the know, the best listening is called active listening and it is defined as listening with the intent to understand. It, like empathy, is OTHER oriented.

So in the interest of everyone who speaks to you, here are 4 tips to being a better listener.

Yesterday we listed four traits/skills/tips for being a better negotiator. Here’s another – and it’s a BIGGIE: Empathy.

Empathy is our ability to understand how someone else feels, to be able to “walk a mile in their shoes.”

While empathy is all encompassing as a life skill, it’s essential for negotiators.

We negotiate all the time. It’s not just a work thing, it’s a life thing. There are some great resources for being a better negotiator and I’ve listed a few of my favorites in the notes. But for the sake of the moment, here are four of my favorites: 1. Separate the people from the problem 2. Pre-Position everything 3. Understand motivation 4. Be a better listener

Books:   Getting Past No - William Ury

Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss

Every time I say the words, “happiness is not having what you want, it’s wanting what you have,” most people chuckle and say, “Yeah, sure, right!” Then almost without exception they will say something skeptical or negative. The problem is that most people think that saying that implies that it’s okay to settle for the way things are, to not have goals, to be stuck.

To me, it simply taking a position of gratitude, being THANKFUL for what you have.

So, here are five things gratitude does for you….

Two days ago while teaching a technology class to a room full of Realtors, one rolled up when we were finished and said, I really liked your slides. The visuals were great and REALLY anchored the points you were making. BOOM. Mission accomplished.

Anyone doing any kind of a presentation for whomever, MUST understand the power of the visual. The experts tell us that 83% of effective learning is visual. At 3M they found that a picture is processed 60,000 times faster than a word. And, One picture is worth a thousand words said…. Somebody.

What’s the point? Understand that a sales presentation is also a learning experience for the potential customer. Really? Yep, and the lesson to be learned is to hire me.

Bullets don’t kill people, presenters with bullets kill people.

Yesterday we kicked around the difference between sales and branding. Well, one of the great misconceptions about social media is that it’s a sales venue. In the words of Lee Corso, Not so fast my friend.

While many people sell many things on many social media sites, the core of the phrase social media is this idea of SOCIAL. Social implies getting to know people, creating a relationship. I don’t know about you, but I don’t click on every ad and just buy my way into purchaser’s bliss. I do, however, spend time getting to know people, try to understand who they are, and maybe, just maybe, how I might be able to help them.

Most of us would prefer to buy from someone we know, like, and trust. All things that take time. Branding.

We hear a lot about Branding and sales in today entrepreneurial world. What’s the difference? Simple.

Sales is short term, it’s focused on the sale, and it’s me chasing you.

Branding is long term, focused on the relationship, and it’s trying to get you to come to me.

Too often, we think that the key to getting the sale is to sell people. And while there’s a smidgeon of truth to that,in today’s world where a sale can be made in the click of a mouse, I choose to reserve my most important purchases with the people I trust.

Trust takes relationship. Relationship takes time and patience.

I remember my early days of being a real estate agent and balking at the concept that I was in sales. I was a real estate counselor, advisor, consultant. Not a sales person. Everyone hates salespeople. I don’t want to be hated. My broker reminded me that I had spent the last 15 years of my life in sales. No, I didn’t I taught 9th graders. HA! He replied. You don’t think you had to sell civics to them everyday of the week?

Today is Martin Luther King day in America. When most people alive in the 60s think of MLK, they think of Civil Rights, peace, protests, progress, and tolerance, among others.  While all of those things are still important 52 years later, I’d like to make a push for tolerance.  Every 4 years two things happen in this country: the Olympics and elections. One I look forward to, the other…. Eh…  Don't get me wrong, I love voting. I was a civics teacher for crying out loud. What drives me nuts is the complete lack of tolerance most people have towards anyone who has an opinion that differs from theirs. And most of the people in charge have built this system of US vs. THEM to somehow perpetuate intolerance. Doesn’t mean WE have to play, right?  One of the things at the core of Intolerance is judgment. Now I can’t control anyone other than me. SO, my goal then is to increase my tolerance by getting OUT of judgment and into curiosity. How about you?

Want to do better presentations? Knowing that it is not enough to simply deliver information, Primo Presentations incorporates methods designed to not only give agents knowledge, but competency and confidence as well. It is only through those qualities that mastery is achieved and only through deliberate hands-on education that the results are embedded into a business.

They already know you and love you. How do you get them to not only do business with you but also become your biggest fans?  The answer is simple: send a relevant message, show value and send it the right way. There are seven irrefutable marketing rules for real estate professionals. This class will explore ways to get people to see your message in the middle of our option-overloaded abundant world.

A great number of salespeople believe that the presentation is where you dump your stuff, dazzle the consumer, grab the sale.

That kind of self-focused delivery, more than likely, MIGHT get you the gig. Most often, however, you’ll either come up short or create issues further down the line with your self-focused lecture.

What can you do instead?

For starters you could look at the presentation as an opportunity to discover whether what you have actually met the needs of the person on the other end. The solution is knowing What's Up, or as we like to say, "SUPP?"

Everyone of us has strengths, those things/traits/characteristics that we possess that separate us from others in our business. If properly deployed against hard work and smart branding, our strengths might be the thing that attracts business our way. 

Can you write? Maybe you should be sharing content via a blog. Got personality? Maybe video is your path. Know a lot of stuff? How about podcasting? In this episode, we will look at each option, see if you "qualify," or better yet, make the case for you doing them all. Enjoy....

 They (whoever they are) say that some people are idea people, and some are action people. I like to think I’m a little of both, or maybe a lot of both. The challenge is the Do/Do gap. My mind, as it races to solve problems, create opportunities, clarify issues, can generate a plethora of ideas. I can think of a great many things that I could/should/would want to DO. I just have to actually DO them. And therein lies the dilemma: Can I actually DO, the things I conjure up to DO? 

The answer of course is yes! If you can think it, or dream it, or whatever that guy said in that inspiring quote, you can achieve it. The tricky part is how. How do I not forget that great idea? How do I squeeze my fabulous new idea into my already busy life? How do I actually DO it? The answer, my friends, is to filter your Do/Do. Run it through the Do/Do filter and see what comes out the other side.

The people who told you the only thing that mattered was location, location, location were lying, lying, lying. If you want to survive in the real estate business you must know the secrets of proper pricing. There is a simple solution to listings that don’t sell – price.

Agents will learn to obtain and communicate statistics, do absorption rates, and explain the Market Analysis so that any Seller can make the best decision in this important facet of their sale. Agents will learn to separate the marketing presentation from the pricing presentation for optimal effect.

As the new year commences, I have a couple of things on my mind to keep me focused, to motivate me, to broaden me, to balance me in what is going to be the greatest year up till now.

In this episode we'll look at some of the predicted and not so predicted trends for real estate in the coming year. 2019, according to many experts, will be fast and furious, and only the fit will survive. Take a listen. See what you think.

With a little down time during the holidays, I decided to do some due diligence and research what the experts believe to be the Trends for 2019. In this episode, we look at four areas that may have an impact on consumers and business people everywhere: 1) Business in general; 2) Social Media; 3) Technology in general; 4) Customer Service. Next time we'll look specifically at the real estate industry. Enjoy!