I am one week into my plan to give up Twitter, Facebook and other social media. That part is going well. It’s the giving up personal email and cell phone use while in the car that has me cheating a little. I did sign on to Facebook twice but only to get a number or email I couldn’t get somewhere else. As much as I yearn for more time away from technology, it has become a way of life (and in many cases improves productivity). Even though I didn’t meet all of my goals, I have felt good about some of what has happened. Since I started my plan on Mother’s Day, I have:

- prepared two meals and cooked out for the family twice

-  played my guitar four times this week

-  started to organize finances and investment info

- played more games and read more books to the kids than I had in awhile

- penned 8 - 10 letters in my own handwriting!

I like where this is taking me and look forward to a total Facebook free week and continued sabbatical from other social media.

I’ll post again in a week or so.

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, healthcare organizations and professional associations. He is president and founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

The Collapse of Distinction - Great title. Great book. And never more true than today. My professional speaker colleague Scott McKain has a strong point of view in this book and I really like (and agree) with what I have read so far. My main take-a-way: we’ve so standardized so much of business that the truly distinctive companies (and perhaps individuals) are becoming extinct. McKain writes about customer service. That’s his domain. I write and speak about being RICH in a way I like to think of as distinctive. McKain is in a good space as there will always be a need to point out how important it is stand out. I think I am in a good space too as there are a plethora of books (and motivational speakers) who claim to have the secret to becoming wealthy. But few talk about what it really means to be RICH. As I thought about McKain’s examples and my own experiences the last few days, I have had both RICH examples (people who both get customer service and have figured out the RICH life thing). Executive director Freddie Templeton, and the many of the wonderful audience members from the Colorado State Association for Health Underwriters (my Thursday client) get it. The GREAT team at the Grand Hyatt TOTALLY gets customer service and while I didn’t have conversations about their RICH lives, I am guessing they get that too. The staff at the REI Fort Collins store gets it – they’re living their dream working in a career that keeps them close to outdoor activities that they love. It’s easy to GIVE great service when your passionate about the product or service. Colorado State University business school Dean Ajar gets it . Colin Powell, he’s clearly passionate about making a difference and he is smart and funny too!  Loveland Pass ski area get the RICH part but totally missed the service part today. Finally Delta airlines, whose chair I am sitting in as I write this really miss the mark. Due to a string of poor customer service interactions, Delta has finally motivated me to patronize another major airline. As a company they don’t get it at all.

Being distinctive makes both giving great customer service easier and living RICH more attainable.

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, healthcare organizations and professional associations. He is president and founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Sitting to the left of my computer screen is a book entitled “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino. It was given to me as a graduation gift from Dr. Rob Tate, a professor at Florida Southern College where I earned my undergraduate degree. In the front of the book, Rob wrote the following:

Tim,

Please accept this book as a token of my appreciation for the friendship you have shown me. Thanks for providing a listening ear, a strong shoulder and an occasionally needed kick in the seat.  Maybe someday I can repay the favor.

He did…many times.

After I graduated college, I started working with IBM in a marketing branch office. It wasn’t a good job fit and over time I became less and less motivated about my career there. One day, after being put on a 60 day performance improvement plan, I picked up the book Rob had given me. I devoured it and read it exactly as Og suggested (reading the scrolls three times per day). I am convinced that the book not only helped me turn around a very difficult work situation, it also helped inspire me to start my career as a professional speaker.

Though I never actually had Rob as a professor, his simple gift had a profound affect on me and my life. Rob was a great and well liked teacher and influenced many young people including me. As you think about gifts this holiday season, think about giving something that will have impact and lasting influence and take time to thank people for both the tangible and intangible gifts you have been given.

Yesterday I received a call from my Alma Mater, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, FL. The call was from my friend Rob Tate who was an English teacher there when I was a student. While I never had Rob as a professor, we became friends and have kept in occasional touch through the years. Rob now works in the development department and asked me to sign a letter to be sent out to my classmates who graduated with me. The purpose of the letter is to ask for donations to buy books for the library. I haven’t written the letter yet but in thinking about it, I was reminded of some of the most important books I read during my college years. I probably won’t tell Rob that the books I read that had the biggest impact on me, weren’t any of the books I checked out or borrowed from the library - those books helped me earn my degree in Business Administration. The books that helped shape my life, had nothing to do with reference books or text books like economics, business, finance, accounting, calculus, biology, etc. The books that helped shape my life taught life skills and were read not during the semester but over the summer or right after graduation and included How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Magic of Thinking Big by David Swartz, and The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandio (which Rob gave me for my graduation gift). While I would add other books to that list today, those are books that I read around my college years that had an impact on me.

Someday, I envision a shelf, room, or perhaps even an entire floor in my college library (and colleges and universities throughout the world) with books donated by alumni. These books won’t help students write term papers on their required courses but instead will be books that inspired new thinking, books that helped people make a difference and books that changed the life of the reader as well as those the reader touched in their lifetime.

Imagine you have been given the task to create such a place. What books should go there? How did a book change you, your life, career, etc.  Create a short best seller list and post it here.

Inspirational speaker Tim Richardson speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, healthcare, and financial services. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I am not sure how I missed it but I hadn’t heard of the book The Go-Giver until brought to my attention by a professional speaker and author named Lisa Earle McLeod (who I also just learned of tonight as well). I just read an article she wrote entitled Mastering the Art of Guilt-Free Giving. Now I am curious about both Lisa and this book that is apparently creating a lot of buzz in the business community. Lisa came onto my radar screen because of her comments about The Go-Giver book on the Huffington Post blog. I am not sure how much of her comments about giving are sarcasm or are in fact the way she feels about giving. I know I’d love to talk to her about that as I do have a different view. Take a moment and read Lisa’s comments. You might also find the review of the Go-Giver on Finance-Weblog.com of interest.  If you have read the Go-Giver, I’d love to know what you think of that too. I like the sound of it …

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 and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

I just returned from my NSA convention in New York (not National Security Administration, not National Safety Association but National Speakers Association meeting). Over the next few days, I’ll be posting about some of the speakers I heard while there and some of the other RICH experiences I had. It was fabulous being in New York. I LOVE the energy of that city and the addition of almost 2000 professional speakers with a theme of NSA Rocks made it even more energizing. At our opening, our members were encouraged to dress like rock stars and we had lots of rock music playing throughout the weekend - thus the title of this post adapted from the ACDC song Back in Black.

Our closing speaker today was Cathie Black, CEO of Hearst Publishing and author of the new book Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life). She had a great message but unfortunately for the audience (and for her), it was obvious that someone else wrote the speech which she practiced a few times then read it to us. Now she read very well and occasionally wandered from her script with supportive examples but her speech wasn’t nearly as effective as it could have been had she prepared a bit more and trusted her gut. She is a very powerful speaker who no doubt can move an audience. She has proven herself over and over again with many successes including leadership of USA Today and launching Oprah’s O magazine. I have little doubt she could have stood up in front of our membership and spoken extemporaneously with great success. Right out of the gate she broke one of her own rules from her book:

#1 Take risk that are calculated not crazy. It wouldn’t have been crazy in my view for her to  have taken risk with us. What did she have to lose? She wasn’t paid for her speech, we weren’t a group of executives evaluating her presentation and we weren’t shareholders, board members or a leading client. Taking a risk in presentation style or delivery would have underscored a valuable point and driven it home. She choose the safe route. Most do which is why few rise to the top. There’s certainly more dialogue that could occur here and I invite some discussion. Here are the rest of her points which I thought were excellent.

#2 The worst-case scenario is rarely as bad as you think

#3 Go two steps beyond what you are asked to do

#4 Know when to give up control

#5 Never stop learning

#6 Don’t personalize things that aren’t personal

#7 Make your boss look good

When I first met my wife, the above phrase is what she would use to describe a day with beautiful weather or a day in which everything went just right. She said it with such vigor and enthusiasm too. It was one of the things that attracted me to her. Today was that day for both of us. For the second night in a row, we took an evening walk around our Mitford (the adopted name I used for the hamlet where we live). We reflected on our early dating years and how comfortable we were (and still are) with each other. We sat in our new favorite place - a swing overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains. We held hands as we watched the moon rise and stared transfixed by it’s glow. It was indeed a moment to exclaim, “What a GREAT day!”

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Book suggestion Triple Bottom Line: How Today’s Best Run Companies are Achieving Economic, Social and Environment Success and How you Can Too! I’m also reading a New York best seller entitled Marley. It’s the story of a dog and his owner. It’s quite humorous and well worth a read. What are you reading?

Last year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shane Claibourne for my Richest People in America project. If you have been reading this blog, you know that each year, I release a list of the REAL Richest People in America, people who are rich because they give. Shane has the distinction of growing up in the East Tennesse town in which I now live (I call it Mayberry or Mitford from Jan Karon’s fictional books of the same name). Anyway, Shane is a radical kind of guy. A student of Tony Campolo for whom I recently wrote and a guy who is shaking up the political world. Part Obama supporter part McCain supporter, this guy and the movement he is leading could shake up the political process with his Jesus for President book tour. Check out the author of Jesus for President on CNN.

Today is National Bike to Work Day sponsored by the American League of Bicyclist. It’s also Elected Officials Appreciation Day. I have an idea: next year, combine the two - ride your bike to work WITH your elected official. They just might learn something from you and you just MIGHT be able to help them get a snapshot of your world. IF there happens to be anyone who rode their bike with an elected official to work today OR if you are an elected official and you rode your bike to work today, be the first to contact me by Friday May 23rd and I will send a fify dollar US Savings Bond to the charity of your choosing OR to a worthy college kid OR to the Jeff Roth Cycling Foundation. Bike on…I will tomorrow in Tour de Blount and off now to an appointment…on my bike.

BTW, I am speaking to a group of high school students tonight for their high school graduation. My topic is 18 Things to do BEFORE you turn 18. I have written the speech but have left 4 of the 18 open for whatever moves me at the moment. What would you tell an 18 year old to do in the next 18 years if you were giving the speech?  I am also giving them a list of some of 18 - 36 “must read” books. Many of the suggestions are from my own experience and some are coming from my professional speaker colleagues. What books would you suggest to an 18 that will shape their thinking, inspire them and challenge them to greatness?

Recently, at a speech for NAIFA Georgia, several of the participants recommended some of their “RICH” reads. These are books that impaced them and their business.  Check them out and add your suggestions.

It’s Easier to Succeed Than to Fail by Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-fil-A)

The Psychology of Winning by Dennis Waitley

What Makes the Great Great by Dennis Kimbro, Ph.D.

High Probability Selling by Jacques Werth

Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Effective Listening Skills by Art James & Dennis Kratz

Trump:  The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump & Tony Schwartz

Heaven by Randy Alcorn

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

The Bible 

What I am reading now:

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow