Don't Leave it 'Til It's Too Late

My brother in law currently health wise is not doing well, and waiting on a transplant. The past 8 + months has been stressful for the Family, but especially for my sister in law, and obviously my brother in law.  The stress levels have recently gone up, as he is has recently been admitted to Hospital.

My sister in law and brother in law have shown strength, bravery, positivity , love and have continuously put on a brave face for their nephew and nieces, who love them ‘around the world’.

They play a big part in our children’s lives, and followed us from Chicago to Arizona to be close to them (and us).

The love shown to him has been unparalleled by his wife, who will not leave his side while he is in Hospital. We have suggested she go home at night to sleep, which is like blasphemy to her that we could even make such a suggestion.  The bond, and love shown between the two of them in unbreakable.

Family is extremely important, and the bond between siblings/family should never be broken by anyone. I can never comprehend when I hear someone say they have not spoken to their sibling, parent etc.  for x amount of years. (We are in 2020 pick up the phone, send a text to that one person you have been too proud of to reach out too –make the first move).

As my father emphasized the importance of Family when I was growing up, I am doing with my kids. I know in my heart, if I ever needed my Family they would be there (and if they were not my father would smack them!).

My sister in laws sisters have shown this kind of love for their sister and brother in law. We are all worried at the moment, but need to stay strong and brave. We are optimistic and I know in my heart that he will receive the transplant he needs.  Family is important during the ups and downs. The love you get from your parents, siblings, husbands and wives cannot be measured.

As my brother reminds me, “Live for the day, as you do not know what tomorrow is going to bring, but make sure to provide for the future as you never know what is going to happen.”

Keep moving forward, and go phone your Family!

2015-2019 Articles: What does Potty Training have to do with Business, Prospecting, Credit, Customer Service, Team Sport to Parenting

Communication Skills:
“It’s our ethos/ culture. This is the way we been doing it for 20+ years. If you do not like it, why did you leave xyz?” When you hear this statement, there has generally been a miscommunication. You may even be labelled a complainer or non-team player which may be difficult to come back from.”
https://bit.ly/33IDGkf
Creating a List for Success:
As a manager you are only as successful as the people you are managing, thus as you will see I had everyone set goals for themselves.
https://bit.ly/2QcnROI
Sales: Generating Leads:
https://bit.ly/2XaSgP6
Never Give Up:
“This lesson is often forgotten, as we all feel the need for instant satisfaction. My daughter of five has learnt early in life that to succeed you need to put in the hard work. This early lesson will only benefit her as she gets older.”
https://bit.ly/32DOSgI
Creating a Winning Team:
As in Sports, it is not always the team with the best players that wins, but the one that is well organized and has strong leadership.
https://bit.ly/33IETYP
Customer Service/ Being a Solution Provider
Many large institutions miss this mark on customer service. As the economy deteriorates, or your company looks to cut costs the first employees to lose their jobs are the non-revenue generators. This generally is your customer service team and marketing team. As these teams get smaller and smaller, more and more emphasis is being placed on the sales generators to provide the additional customer service.              
https://bit.ly/2q8QxgP
Being Customer Centric:
With competition in all Industries being highly competitive what are you, your business and employees doing to differentiate yourself from your competition? Are you speaking with your employees to find out what is working and not working to be able to provide the stellar and WOW Customer Service Experience?
https://bit.ly/2CE0K7H
Credit Score Dictating what job can get.
Approximately after 1 1/2 weeks he was informed that they were rescinding their offer due to his credit score “dings” and “dents”. Unfortunately Brad had been one of the thousands of citizens who had been caught in the Housing Bubble. In 2009 one of his properties he owned had gone into foreclosure. Due to delayed credit reporting it only started showing on his report in 2013.
https://bit.ly/2NZCHoU
Team Sport helps creating winning Business Teams:
If the players do not work together the team will ultimately lose the game. Even with a  ‘Star Player’ if they do not work with the rest of their teammates the team will ultimately lose more than they win.
https://bit.ly/2NI06fZ
Employee Happiness:
As the economy starts to shift into the positive, and the job market opens up companies need to start placing more emphasis on their employees 'happiness'. CEO's need to look at shifting gears before they lose their best employees to companies that realize this before them, and move quicker than them.
https://bit.ly/2QeDWDw
Patience: Everyone Learns at their own pace
“There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it. For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.” – C.J. Walker
https://bit.ly/32MW0Yg
Make sure you Present yourself well.
In life and in work we are continuously on a ‘stage’ giving ‘presentations’. Some people are better in presenting themselves or their message than others.
https://bit.ly/2O7vfYV
Crash course in Business Lessons
Sometimes you have to take a backseat (“siblings may get recognized for their achievements before you”) - In business work with your specialists, and have faith in them to take the lead. Recognize their achievements.
https://bit.ly/33Hzm4H
Business Loan Lessons for when applying for a Loan:
Please note the ‘M’s and the ‘C’s’ do overlap.
https://bit.ly/2Ocv4Mi
Remember to Relax and Take a Step Back and see the full picture
“Do you want to live in a crying house or fine house?” “If you want to live in a fine house then stop yelling.” After being taken back a little by this question, it reminded us that as a human being you control the situation and environment that you would like to live and work in.
https://bit.ly/2NHh1z5
Choosing the right Partner
As Elon Musk stated, he is able to make change within his vehicles quicker idea (get an approval) than his larger competitors as Tesla is more nimble and has less layers of management (less bureaucracy) to answer too.
https://bit.ly/2X5YRu0
Prospecting:
Sorry I am not interested. Sorry, I am not looking to change. Sorry, I am happy where I am. Sorry, it is too much effort.…..anyone in sales has probably heard these phrases
https://bit.ly/373lvIa
I understand that they cannot, and do not want to respond to every call, email and drop-in they receive. However, I do believe if a Salesperson/ Solution Provider shows initiative, does their research, and thinks outside of the box a courtesy call or email would be justified. This courtesy in the long or short term could be rewarding.
https://bit.ly/2CBl5KL
Sometimes you need to make your own luck when looking to a new career/ job
There are hundred different reasons’ you may be looking for a new position. Your reason for looking/ leaving your current position will be one of the first questions you will be asked
https://bit.ly/2NFwFuW
Common Courtesy:
Today, when you email someone internally or externally from your company it’s a 50/50 chance they will respond in a timely manner or at all. The same seems to be the case when leaving a voice message, and the odds drop I would say to less than 30 % response rate when sending someone an Evite. Has technology been slowly eating away at our common courtesy.
https://bit.ly/32GP0Mn
Technology Destroying Communication Skills
 We are losing the capabilities of being able to read body language and tone of voice as there are fewer conversations happening on a daily basis. This in turn is leading to an extremely politically correct society, as we cannot distinguish what is a joke or not.
https://bit.ly/2Q8OaFA
Emigrating:
The first piece of advice I was given after arriving was too talk slower and enunciate. South Africans tend to swallow their words and run their sentences together. After fourteen years I still sometimes need to remind myself too talk slower. If you were looking to give yourself advice in life and business today what would it be?
https://bit.ly/32AsEMw
Networking Groups:
When you were climbing the ladder of success, would it not have been great to meet your future self to give yourself advice on what you should have done or not have done.
https://bit.ly/2ph9X2Q
Starting a Networking Group:
Creating a networking group can be a lot of work, throw up many roadblocks, yet can also be very rewarding.
https://bit.ly/2NGoDSi
Leadership:
How important is leadership within an organization?
https://bit.ly/34T3ytM
So what can we learn from this transformation of a side languishing in 8th position in the Premier league?
https://bit.ly/2Kje71w
Believe in yourself:
To put it another way the odds of Simon Cowell to become the next Prime Minister was 500/1, for Hugh Hefner to admit he's a virgin 1000/1, Andy Murray to name his first born Novak 500/1.
https://bit.ly/2CFqAIE
How’s your Driving?
If I was a hiring manager and saw the candidate drive in the manner outlined above prior to coming into the interview I may have some preconceived ideas about the candidate. Rightly or wrongly they may have an additional hurdle to overcome during the interview.
https://bit.ly/371SUTe
Overcoming Obstacles. Keeping yourself happy
During the process of overcoming the roadblocks and set-backs what did you do to keep yourself happy, and moving forward?! It is easy to digress into depression when things do not go the way you had planned or envisioned.
https://bit.ly/34NUZjY
Working on your Vacation:
So what do you do, when you are on vacation and have Cell Phone Reception and you continuously hear the beep of a new email coming in? Are you able to switch off?
https://bit.ly/2NGEwrV
Organizing a Golf Day.
 Our enthusiasm, belief in our group, people we knew and what we were looking to achieve drove us forward. We were excited to assist our community in making new connections and raising funds for a Non-for-Profit of our choosing.
https://bit.ly/2NKHc8d
Parenting:
If you followed all the 'rules' of today you would drive yourself and everyone around you crazy. Your child may grow up expecting everything to be done for them, not understand that everything is not put on a silver plate, that there are winners and losers (in sport and in life).........Yet........they Will all be in touch with their feelings and have lots of trophies
https://bit.ly/2CC0xSx

Prospecting - Knock Knock Anyone There?

When reaching out to prospects I believe you should look to position yourself as a Solution Provider, and not come across as a ‘Salesman’. Your goal should not be to sell or push products, but to provide insight in how you and your Team offer customer service (which I believe is lacking currently), solutions and ideas on how you can assist now or in the future.

Prospecting is hard work, yet can be rewarding. Business Owners, CEO’s and CFO’s are constantly bombarded with emails, phone calls and drop-ins which can get overwhelming and ‘irritating’. Getting a response can be difficult.

I understand that they cannot, and do not want to respond to every call, email and drop-in they receive. However, I do believe if a Salesperson/ Solution Provider shows initiative, does their research, and thinks outside of the box a courtesy call or email would be justified. This courtesy in the long or short term could be rewarding.

Business Owners, CEO’s and CFO’s should remember that the people calling on them have their own connections, and businesses they work with which may be useful to their business (or themselves personally), and how you interact with them will dictate whether they will make those connections/ referrals.

One of my colleagues laughs at me, when I get ‘upset’ that a prospect has not responded when I have gone the ‘extra’ step in my prospecting process ( e.g. written a personal handwritten card, dropped off a book in a subject matter I know they enjoy etc.). All someone is generally looking for is an acknowledgement, and a polite thank you I would love to meet, or thank you for reaching out but not interested at this time.

When saying no thank you, be polite. When you are polite, and still saying no, the person calling on you they may still look to refer your company Business, or connect you with people who may be beneficial/helpful to you or your company.
I recently had a prospect thank me for my efforts, let me know that their banker is their good friend, and had been with them for many years. The best present they could give me was my time back, as they were not a good prospect for me. I respected their response, and appreciated their candor. If I ever have a business that requires their type of service, I would be happy to provide their contact details.

On the flip side, a prospect (who is in marketing, which made their reply even more surprising to me) replied thank you for reaching out, please do not contact me further. (FYI: They had not been bombarded with phone calls, drop in’s, or emails….which can be annoying). Their abrupt response left a ‘sour taste’. This particular Marketing Company concentrates within a specific Industry that I have connections in. If I had received a polite no thank you, or even better a meeting with them, I would have been happy to make introductions. Being Polite does not cost anything, even to people you do not know.

Both emails had the same message that they were not interested, yet the one company will get referrals and respect, while the other will not. Life is short, so better not to burn bridges.
Be polite when replying, respond when you notice the person reaching out is doing their research, and is not the ‘same’ as everyone else calling on you. You never know how they can assist you, or who they may know that they can introduce you too.

“E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being.” – Jeff Bezos
"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." -Sam Levenson
Keep moving forward.