When I am speaking to audiences about how to get rich by giving, I almost always tell the story of Becky Zaheri. Becky exemplifies one of the key points of my speech - “Use adversity as the inspiration to take action”. I was thinking about her yesterday when I heard on the news that it was the second anniversary of Katrina. Though I have written about Becky Zaheri before, she is worth a mention again. Her amazing actions have been profiled on the Ellen Degeneres Show, on CBS News and countless other shows and newspapers.  It was two years ago yesterday that a hurricane named Katrina changed her life. She mobilized thousands of volunteers to clean up New Orleans and her Katrina Krewe organization continues to foster anti-litter awareness among residents, schools, and businesses. Becky has some advice for others. “Whatever your gig is, just do it. Pick the thing that works for you. Be diligent about it, until you make it happen. Be patient, be willing to sacrifice and don’t stop until you achieve your goal. Start with your friends, your family, your co-workers and get it going. As long as you feel good about it and are making a difference, you don’t need an army of people. One person can make a difference.”  You could be that one person today.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

By now, you have seen and heard the response of Miss South Carolina as she answered a question on why 1/5 of Americans can’t find the US on a world map. I must admit, at first I laughed too…and couldn’t believe what she said. Her response has been shown all over the world and it’s topping You Tube’s view list. I think the real alarm shouldn’t be about a teenage girl who lost her focus answering a simple question (put yourself on national TV with millions of viewers, lights, contest pressure, etc and try to spell your name!). Why isn’t there an outcry about about why we just don’t know much about our own country? My sixth grader knows more than I do about geography and probably more than 90% of  Americans. Incidentally, presidential candidiate Bill Richardson (of no relation to yours truly) gave almost as lame an answer to a question asked of him lately. Who hasn’t said something stupid or made a statement that doesn’t make sense. We were just lucky no one was rolling a camera.

 It seems that You Tube has turned our society into this large mass of Candid Camera watchers. We like to see someone else stumble. So instead of encouraging young people like Lauren Caitlin Upton, who worked hard to be in a national televised pageant, we  laugh at the expense of an eighteen year old girl who likely just got nervous. So now we are not only ignorant about geography, we are also ignorant about how to treat other people. Having been an escort in a nationally televised pageant (MANY years ago) and now as a professional speaker for almost twenty years, I feel her pain. It’s not easy to be up in front of people while trying to make the butterflies fly in motion and communicate your thoughts. While we laugh at this humiliated young girl (btw, she did a masterful job on Good Morning America this am laughing at herself) what are we teaching our kids about failure and risk taking?  Let’s let little Miss Sunshine off the hook…and go teach some civility and while we’re at it, some geography to US Americans everywhere.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I received a Google alert yesterday that led me to the a story about the San Francisco 49ers. They are using their training camp like every other NFL team. They are putting the team through rigorous physical training, daily practices, skill development, game preparation, etc. They are also giving them food for their minds. Read the story below by Chrissy Mauch.

August 26, 2007

Since taking over the team three training camps ago, head coach Mike Nolan has probably scheduled hundreds of meetings for his players, but in addition to the daily meetings to review practice or game tape, Nolan incorporates a few motivational speakers to his camp agenda.Linebackers and assistant head coach Mike Singletary works with Coach Nolan on the theme and then goes out and tracks down impressionable speakers to address the team. With this being a year of high expectations, Singletary sought speakers who understood the concepts and importance of team and hard work.“Mike Nolan and I will talk and I’ll say, ‘Mike this is the theme of what I’d like to do. I want it to be about team,’” said Singletary. “This year has to be about team, the coaches and the players coming together and making it happen.”

Curt Menefee, the new anchor for Fox’s NFL pregame show also featuring Terry Bradshow, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson, was the first to take center stage during the opening week of camp. Menefee had an hour to share his life experiences, and used it to stress the necessity of taking advantage when an opportunity lands in your lap.

“”He talked about how he was always ahead of the curve, he was always ready when the opportunity called for him to step in and do the job that he was asked,” said wide receiver Brandon Williams. “I just look at that and take it right to the field. As a two guy or a three guy, if a one guy goes down, you have to be ready for your opportunity. Your opportunity can either shine a positive light on you or it cans shine a negative light on you and you obviously want the positive.”

Menefee also gave the team some pointers when it comes to dealing with the media.

“It’s really important that you learn that you’re in control of the questions,” said veteran quarterback Trent Dilfer. “Your attitude and how you handle questions really is what the public knows you as. We wear these helmets so they don’t get to know us as people. They only get to know us through the media. It’s a great opportunity to show your personality, show who you are to the masses, the people paying our salaries and the people supporting us on Sundays. It’s a message that young guys can’t hear enough.”

Rocky Blier shakes hands with Michael Robinson while Brian Jennings waits his turn. To watch the video of the three guest  speakers, click here now!

Next up was Rocky Blier, a four-time Super Bowl Champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers who overcame a war injury and returned to the NFL when all odds were against him.

“He was a very inspirational talker,” said wide receiver Arnaz Battle, a graduate of Notre Dame, also Blier’s alma mater. “When he came in, I didn’t know much about him because he was before my time. It was good to see a Notre Dame alum give courage and an inspirational talk to younger guys who are going through similar things, playing in professional football. It’s a tough task, but he’s a guy who overcame a lot of adversity and still made it.”

Aside from taking a gun shot and suffering badly burned legs from a grenade that exploded under his foot while fighting in Vietnam, Blier never met with the NFL standards when it came to size or speed.

“It was wonderful to be among greatness, just to hear his experience in the NFL, his story of how he overcame adversity in his life and his belief and hope that he had,” said defensive end Bryant Young, another Notre Dame alum. “He knew he belonged and it was just a matter of working hard to achieve his goal.”

Like Blier, Young can relate to overcoming a devastating injury that most people expect you not to come back for. Back in 1998, Young suffered a career-threatening broken leg, but determination and will power kept the defensive end on a sure track to come back from the injury.

“You just have to know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” said Young. “If I see just a sliver of light, I know that there’s promise. For me, it was just those little baby steps and just being patient which allowed me to continue to move forward, knowing it would be better.”

Singletary hopes that the story that Blier shared with the 49ers might one day serve as that sliver of light when the going gets tough.

“I think as a player sometimes, everybody is in their own world,” said Singletary. “For me, when you have someone in like Rocky, some of the things he said and talked about really spoke to a lot of the players in terms of the habits that they develop, in terms of him only having half a foot. Guys if you want it, it’s there. It really is. When you hear that it’s sort of like, ‘Wait a minute, what the heck am I talking about? I have two good feet and two good legs. I can do this.’ It’s just the encouragement like that that makes all the difference in the world.”

Closing out the camp guest speakers was another former NFL player, Joe Ehrman, who played 13 years for the Colts. Ehrman shared the death of his younger brother to cancer, an experience that forever changed his outlook on life.

Since ending his playing career, Ehrman has worked as a pastor with the lifelong mission of helping teach youth what it means to be a man. He also talked about what a man shouldn’t be measured by, and the myths that real manhood is defined or measured by athletic ability, wealth or sexual conquests.

“Being the role models that we are, we have an influence that we can show or portray to the youth, particularly the male youth of the generations to come,” said linebacker Manny Lawson. “We want to help them and make them grow up to be men. He was talking about what we can do in our NFL careers, but also life in general. I think with the story of his brother the message was really what kind of legacy do you want to leave? How do you want to be remembered?”

Ehrman also believes that the best way to secure a championship is by chemistry and working towards a collective cause – exactly the theme Singletary aimed for when he helped put together this year’s speakers.

“I think that really hit home with a lot of guys on this team because we define our success by the chemistry we have on this team,” said center Eric Heitmann. “We use that chemistry to fight for winning a championship. No matter how many times you hear an inspirational speaker or something that’s motivating, it keeps registering home with you and you just keep building on that motivation. It makes you want to change your life every time you hear it. It’s really beneficial for us and it can really help you out in the long run if you apply that message in your life.”

And as much as the 49ers care about winning, they also care about what these players do with their lives.

Fall is a great time to regroup your team whatever it is and give them some inspiration. If your organization can’t afford to hire a speaker, use a movie clip or bring a local celebrity. When people are serving either as volunteers or as employees of an organization, sometimes just a little inspiration can go a long way to help the group function better. I’d welcome some input both inspirational movie suggestions as well as other ideas on how you and your group are conducting “training camp”.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Last Sunday, I saw an email plea from a new speaker buddy, Brad Montgomery who I had gotten to know this summer at my National Speakers Association convention. Brad was in a panic. Several months ago, he had been booked to speak in Utah to a group of teachers never imagining that there would be a mining tragedy in the area in which he was to speak.  So he reached out to his fellow Certified Speaking Professional community (of which I am proud a member). He posed a question for us all. He asked what to do? You see, Brad is a commedian, a funny man, a make-you-laugh-till-milk-comes-out-of-your-nose guy. Yet he was puzzled about how to use humor in this situation. Was starting with a moment of silence appropriate? Be less funny? Ignore it? What to do?

Our community responded in a big way for him and much of it was just support for Brad. This my response to him: 

As you saw from the responses we have all been there. I was the motivational speaker at a health care association meeting right after 9/11. Two years ago, I was speaking on the day of the London terrorist attack. It’s not a fun place to be but it’s your responsibility to give it your best. Reach inside and pull out stuff you didn’t even know you had. As I thought about your plight, I was reminded of someone I had interviewed for a big State Farm Agents rally. She consistently ranked in the top 1% of agents. Half way through her best year ever, her husband dropped dead of a heart attack. She was relating this story to me and told me, “On the other side of adversity is ALWAYS something better”. I have quoted her many times with adding that it’s normal to have grieving and a period of suffering but at some point a silver lining appears. Perhaps more miners will be saved in the future, there will be an increased emphasis on safety, other employment options will be pursued, etc. When I have asked audiences about the worst thing that they have ever experienced in their lifetime the most common answer is 9/11. Sometimes I have asked them to come up with at least 7 positive things that have happened as a result of 9/11….lists include increased patriotism, higher respect for law enforcement, closer family relationships, more civility, etc. While the comedians were quiet about 9/11 right afterward, at some point people began to laugh again and laughter as you know is healing (this month’s readers digest is dedicated to humor). So what do you do? I think you do a piece on adversity and talk about coping skills that are available in dealing with adversity and go into your best stuff. People do need to laugh and even if for the moment, forgot about their troubles. YOU are the man to make that happen!

Hillary was right about one thing, it takes a village. I’m glad for the many villages for which I am a part. Glad to be able to give advice and more often glad to receive it even if I sometimes means “mining” the business of others. Note: Click here to read about how Brad handled his challenge.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I was dreading the trip. I hadn’t felt well. I holed myself in the hotel yesterday after arriving at my destination. I struggled to maintain my energy as I gave a speech today. I ate an almost normal meal for the first time since Sunday after my program and the queasy stomach returned. Yuck! At least I was able to get the earlier flight home. I even was upgraded to first class. Things were looking up. Then after everyone boarded and we started our taxi, the captain gave us the news, the instrument panel needed repair. Back to the gate. Unboarding. Passengers signed as if a loud sigh would let everyone know that they disapproved. As I was walking to the new gate, I heard a voice in a heavy accent call out my name. It was fellow motivational speaker and friend Rene Godefroy. He had just returned from a trip to his native Haiti. In our time together he told me about what he experienced in Petite Riviere, the small village where he grew up: doctors who were paid less than $100 US per month. Dentists who had to boil water on an open fire to treat patients. A little boy with Downs Syndrome, who he stumbled upon, had been left by his parents alone to care for himself. Kids who had nothing who looked to him for the assistance he traveled there to give. Rene taught them English. He paid for prescriptions. He helped his village get clean water. He fixed bike tires for kids. He hugged children. He gave them hope.

They told him, “It was a dream come true for you to come here. We have been following you. We read your website and your blog. We have seen you on TV. You are the hope for us here”. Indeed he was and is and will be. He’s going back in December. This time he’ll meet with the Prime Minister there. He knows where he came from and knows he wants to help others escape the lifestyle he had there. Rene was born in a tiny, isolated village and was an impoverished child perpetually tormented by cholera, rickets and malnutrition. Abandoned by his father and left behind while his mother sought work in the city, Rene subsisted on meager charity and the rare fish he caught with a string and hook. Some people of his village called him “Souyan”, the name of a sick and disabled old man. Few expected he would survive to adulthood.Rene surprised them. In 1983, he came to Montreal with a Haitian theater company and escaped into the United States wedged between the rear tires of a tractor-trailer. He arrived in New York with five dollars in his pocket, and two shirts and a pair of pants in his battered suitcase. In the years that followed, Rene supported himself doing hard labor for low pay. Sure in his heart that he was capable of much more, Rene taught himself English, read voraciously and dedicated himself to his grandest ambitions. Today, he is a proud American citizen, and a successful businessman, speaker and author. When the man they once called “Souyan” returned to visit Haiti, a man told him, “You are our Village Hero”.  

Today he was my hero and he made every inconvenience of my trip worthwhile.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

It’s been a rough few days - healthwise. After nursing our kids through whatever the virus of the month has been, I finally succumbed to the creeping crud. It hit me Saturday and I spent late Saturday afternoon and evening with my pillow either on the couch or in bed. Sunday was a carbon copy. By yesterday, I was “over” it only I wasn’t OVER IT! I had a fever, stomach virus and had eaten almost nothing. ”I CAN’T get sick,” I tried telling myself as I thought about my pending trip.  It was getting inconvenient and I began the internal dialogue, mumbling and complaining about it. After taking a smorgashborg of over the counter medicine, the best came in watching this clip of Nick Vujicic, a motivational speaker without arms and legs. I blogged about him recently. You just won’t believe what he can do and without complaints. If I could only be so “healthy”.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

While the temperature doesn’t agree, the calendar says summer is rapidly coming to an end. After almost ignoring that we owned a boat for June and July, we have decided to play catch up and pack as much lake time into what is left of a fast fading summer. Last night, we were out boating on the lake until dusk. Adele and I both skied and our kids enjoyed playing with The Queen’s kids (they are new boat owners). We watched the sun set and the moon rise. It was a glorious evening - an evening that makes summer fit like a glove. After too much travel and too much kid activity earlier in the summer, we are rushing to fit in boating time as each day gets shorter and we inch toward fall. As we drove up to the lake, the water was almost pure glass. I still get excited when I see a glassy lake and think about the smile that will be on my face as I pursue a game of tug ‘o war against a boat. It’s almost impossible to ski too much in my view.  

Twenty-four hours have passed and the feeling of last night still fuels me. As I sit quietly writing this with a sweet baby girl within reach, I am reminded of the nights I skied with my best friend at dusk. I started writing letters to my son when my wife and I found out we were pregnant. I didn’t want to have to play catch up some day when I was in the twilight of life to tell him everything I wanted to tell him (and since a bunch of girls). Below is a letter, I wrote to my son nine years ago this month: 

August 6, 1998

It’s the time of day, here at the lake, when my best friend and I most like to ski. In past years, we’d be rushing to fit in one more slalom run each. We’d each have a ski, life vest, and gloves and try to milk the glassy water one more time. The silhouette of him slicing the water and throwing up a fifteen-foot high spray is a picture that will be forever etched in my mind. We always seemed to ski better when the sky was crimson and the moon was rising. We knew we had to hurry if we were going to enjoy that last little bit of day. It definitely was my favorite run of the day. It may have been because I was never sure if that would be my last one for awhile. Tonight, I am here alone, you are home with mommy, and Mr. Walter is soaking in a bath. It makes him feel better. He may have already had his last slalom run at dusk. He has cancer. He may only ski again in his mind. Only God knows for sure. How I wish for one more night together with him whole. I would give anything to watch him glide effortlessly across the water right now. Tomorrow he’ll be here again and the two of us will be together. I’m sure we’ll watch the sunset and reminiscence about ski days and ski nights. We might even tell his dad about the night ski adventure when we nearly beached the boat. Everything will be almost the same, except he won’t be whole. He has taught me so much in our friendship. He and his dad taught me how to ski and helped me fine-tune my skiing on everything imaginable, including my own bare feet. Often, he would learn a trick and then teach it to me. Sometimes, I would learn a trick first and teach him. He always seemed to learn things faster, though. Now his teaching has stretched way beyond skiing. The last three years and a half years, as he has fought a horrible disease, he has taught me about life, about priorities, and about laughter. As always, he has learned something much faster than me, but this time not by his choice. While he lived a full life, he seems to be saving the most important things for the end. In what is likely the sunset of his life, he is rushing once again to try to get it all in. He is writing letters to his children and making them videotapes. He is trying to squeeze in a lifetime of advice onto a splice of tape. There are many things he wants them to know that he might not be able to tell them. He is seeing friends and family and he is making peace with God. While the lessons he has taught me have been hard lessons, they have helped me clarify my own priorities and focus. My son, I hope I am able to teach you these things without you having to experience the pain I and so many others have, watching Mr. Walter suffer. I am not sure why it’s so, but it seems like the most sacred and memorable times are as time is running out – the last ski run, the last minutes in a game, the moments before a big speech, the night before final exams, the day before a wedding, or the last moments of life. We’ll continue our quest to milk summer for all it’s worth. Don’t wait until sunset to play catch up.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I never cease to be amazed at the innovations people develop. Check out Sketch Casting. Branding expert and good friend Bruce Turkel told me about it. Click here for the second lesson. Looks like a cool tool for the blog oool. What cool tools have you heard about lately?

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com 

Here’s an inconvenient truth. It’s HOT! I haven’t seen the movie or talked to Al but maybe he’s had a hand in this heat wave to prove his point (by the way, there’s a short parody brought to you the producers of The Simpsons Movie). I thought about it this morning as the Pop-a-Lock man left his car running while trying to unlock my car. I hate seeing exhaust unnecessarily being spewed into the air so after 5-7 minutes, I kindly asked if he wanted me to turn off his car to which he replied no. I don’t know if it was pride (as in “I’ll unlock this door in a nano-second”) or if he was concerned that his car would be too hot when the job was done but twenty minutes later his car was still expelling exhaust as he worked. Watching that reminded me of a post I read last week ten-simple-things-to-save-the-world. Definitely worth a read (inside a cool room with a iced beverage). 

 Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Needed: a great high energy intro song

Next month, I am speaking for the National Exchange Carriers Association at their annual meeting in California. Apparently, as their speakers are coming to the stage, they play a song to welcome the speaker on stage and I need one…this week. I have thought about a few songs that I really like the beat to but the words don’t seem to fit. SO, I am turning to the power of the web in hopes that someone out there will suggest the perfect song.

Ruled out: You are my Sunshine, the Hookie Pookie, most popular songs from my high school or college years, Wind Beneath My Wings, ANYTHING by Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or Lindsay Lohan, rap music (is that an oxymoron or what?). What do you think? Tell me your song and why you think I should use it and you’ll win a fabulous prize (okay, I made the prize part up).

*****

I am also speaking for the Brain Injury Association of Michigan next month. My contact there sent me this link to a story about her daughter who wanted to do something to encourage our service men and woman defending our country. I’m so impressed that this teenagaer spent countless hours putting a tribute together for those in far off lands keeping us safe.

Here’s the news clip and here’s the entire presentation she made.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com