Today I spoke for the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. I shared this story with them given to me after speaking to a group of administrators at the American Health Care Association.  

I was in training at the beginning of my career. At the facility where I worked, there was a woman in a wheel chair that only stared. The staff said she hadn’t spoken since she became a resident several years before. This lady, Mary, who hadn’t spoken in years became my project. I was determined to get her to talk as there was no documented medical reason for her not to verbally communicate. Every time I saw her, I would get down on one knee and talk to her while patting her hand and smiling at her. After months of trying and without getting a response, I began to treat her the way the rest of the staff did which was to treat her like she wasn’t there.  Then I went to work for another facility and totally forgot about Mary and my goal.  After six months, I returned to my original position. As I stepped off the elevator onto the floor to greet the staff, Mary was there sitting in her wheel chair looking at me. I walked over and patted her hand and started to walk on by. Very unexpectedly, she reached for my arm. “Where the hell have you been?” she asked. I was speechless and floored with emotion. The staff went crazy. After that day, we couldn’t her to stop talking. She had very foul language but we welcomed her communication. She died seven months later. But she died back in touch with her family, the staff, and with me.

When you think you aren’t making a difference, don’t give up. That experience was a defining moment in my career. 

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

Twitter with Tim or get LinkedIn

Dear President Obama:

PLEASE do cut or eliminate wasteful spending but DON’T eliminate meetings that help businesses thrive. It’s at the very meetings some leaders want to cancel that businesses meet with prospective customers, develop new ideas, and expose company leaders, managers, and staff to speakers that educate, train, and fire up their employees. In my view, your job is to lead our country back on the road to economic recovery, NOT block people from having productive events that contribute to a thriving economy. Yes, please cut waste but don’t eliminate necessary meetings!

I am one of many who are very discouraged by the broad brush being used by some of the negative media. I am also in disagreement with the legislation that Sen. Kerry has introduced that bans Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) recipients from hosting, sponsoring or paying for conferences, holiday parties and entertainment events. How are these organizations going to turn things around if they aren’t educated, motivated, and challenged to make changes in their businesses? How are employees going to be productive when all incentives for doing great work are taken away from them? When people meet, amazing things happen. Also, celebrations are a good and necessary component for improving employee morale as an unmotivated workforce makes more costly mistakes and results in higher turnover. How would Congress get things done if there were no meetings held in 2009? Why would you want to further cripple the economy by eliminating productive meetings and conferences? I understand and share the concern that taxpayer funds are being used for questionable items, but Sen. Kerry’s comments and actions are part of a disturbing trend that paints company travel and events as a picture of lavish, unnecessary parties. When in truth, the vast majority of meetings, conventions and conferences are cost efficient, well planned tools used by companies to drive business and provide an economic boost to cities that host the meetings.

So please, encourage effective meetings, don’t eliminate them. Brainstorm ways businesses can help each other, don’t hurt them. If there is ever a time where it’s important to meet, it’s now. Do your part to help breathe life back into our economy. Don’t stifle it. You can support meetings by being a keynote speaker or by holding a town hall meeting as part of a convention or conference. Having politicians speak for industry events could help attendance while providing better insight into what happens there. Please help turn things around, but don’t hinder us. Our very future is in your hands.

Sincerely,

Tim Richardson

NOTE:  You can have a letter sent or emailed to President Obama, John Kerry, and to your congress rep and senator by going to the National Business Travel Association website.

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

Today I thought about someone who impacted my life more than 30 years ago. I was reminded of him as I sat in the Boy Scout Sunday service this morning.  When I saw my son sitting in the front row, I started thinking about the positive impact the scouting program had on my life. My mind drifted back to when I was a scout. I am sure I attended a Boy Scout Sunday event but I don’t remember it. What I do remember is the impact that one of the adult leaders had on my life. His name is Bob Burgess. He’s a writer and adventurer and he’s one of the most interesting people I have ever met AND I had the pleasure of living across the street from him from age 8 through age 14.   When I first met Bob, he had a VW van that had a pop up camper on top. He also had a sailboat and a monkey. His coolest factor was OFF the chart! Bob would travel around in that camper writing magazines articles and camping in places where he was researching.  He had a small office outside his home with a Royal typewriter where he wrote. The office couldn’t have been more than 200 square feet but it was like a museum to me. Artifacts and pictures from his adventures adorned the walls. Right over his desk was the jaw of a large shark he had caught. I loved going over to see him because he always had a story. I lost touch with him for several years after we moved away from the small North Florida town where we both lived but reconnected when I moved back to nearby Tallahassee, Florida when I graduated from college. About twenty years ago, Bob invited me on a weekend trip to write a Huck Finn like story on living on a deserted island while eating only what we caught from the bay that surrounded the island. We stayed up until 4:00 am and I sat mesmerized by a star filled sky, the intoxicating sight of an open fire and Bob’s stories and adventures.

Bob has lived a life many can only imagine. He’s traveled all over the world, diving in some of the most beautiful places in the world. He spends two weeks each year living on his sail boat in the Keys while hunting lobster.  He and his wife Julia traveled in Europe for two years after they were married. Between his writing and traveling he made time to volunteer with our local Boy Scout troop where he brought his enthusiasm and zest for life to our outings. He taught me a lot about loving the outdoors, about being excited about life and what it meant to be a leader in scouting. His teachings came full circle when I interviewed him recently for the book I am writing. He told me he was impacted by a speaker he had heard at a high school rally more than 60 years ago. He told me the speaker said you can do anything you want to do provided you believe you can do it. He told me he still remembered that after so many years. He told me keep the following quote from Press on scotch taped it to my Royal typewriter:

Nothing in the World can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common and unsuccessful than unsuccessful man with talent. Genius will not - unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Bob told me that Press On was his guiding creed for his life. Thank you, Bob for being a guiding force in my life.

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

Last night, as I watched President Obama speak, I wondered what McCain’s thoughts were about the speech. I wondered how different the speeches would have been had McCain been speaking rather than Obama (Obama is clearly a much more gifted speaker). Then I received an email with some wise words from a professional speaker friend of mine - Scott McKain. Below is what Scott had to say about yesterday’s speech:

I just returned from my son’s Boy Scout camporee (which basically means lots of boys, lots of testosterone, and lots of smelly clothes). When I was a scout, women were forbidden to come on camping trips –there are just some things that we just didn’t want them to know and it just would have ruined everything to have them there. Tonight, as in every troop event I have been on, there were women – gross me out! So I have been thinking both about women and my scouting experience. One aspect of scouting is Order of the Arrow, which is an elected leadership honor. The OA has a motto - WWW which means We Want Women (at least it did when I was a scout!). Actually, if I told you what it really meant, I’d have to kill you. So you’ll just have to keep with the teenage definition we gave it. In truth, I think scouting is probably better with women participating. Our troop has a boy with Downs Syndrome and his mother (or father) is with him at every event and our troop welcomes her and other women as well. If women had been involved in scouting when I was young, I probably would have never gotten a swirlie (if you don’t know what a swirlie is, you can ask a scout from my era. Trust me you are better off NOT knowing). Men leaders in my day either just let it pass (not referring to other things scouts do on campouts) or are just too full from Dutch oven cooked peach cobbler to walk around and see what REALLY happened to young scouts. So I am thankful for the difference woman make in scouting.My friend Kathy Roth, founder of the Jeff Roth Cycling Foundation, emailed me about other women making a difference - Women Writing for (a) Change.This is an organization, a writing center of sorts, located in Cincinnati founded by Mary Pierce Brosmer. Women Writing for (a) Change was initially started with the idea that, through writing and sharing their work, women might make systemic changes in their lives, and thus, the world. Over the past 15 plus years, it’s grown beyond that. There are writing workshops for families and men as well. In the summer, there are writing camps for girls. The biggest focus remains women.I also learned today about Lending Promise another very cool project that involves woman.  I must confess tonight, I feel like a womanizer and the great thing, is that my wife is okay with it….just for tonight.  

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 love the name Zig Ziglar (even though I just learned his real name was Hillary). It’s just fun to say. I love saying it almost as much as I love hearing him. He’s Living Rich in many ways! I have heard him speak several times in the years I have been a professional speaker. Two years ago, at age 78 he was the best I have ever heard him. Yes, he uses many of the same illustrations and stories that I have heard before. Yes, he gets down on one knee just as he did early in his speaking career. Yes, he emphasizes a word for dramatic effect. And yes, I think history will recognize him as one of the greatest motivational speakers of all time. So last month when I had the opportunity to hear him again, I decided I would take my son. He had a full day of activity including needing to be at Cub Scouts for his last meeting before moving up to Boy Scouts.But I thought that hearing Zig was important enough that I drove home during a lunch break in the program I was attending, picked him up, and brought him back with me to hear Zig and a few other speakers. It opened the door for some great conversation on the way home.

Like many parents, I believe my son has been gifted with some great qualities. He loves to learn (and frankly could probably score better on the SAT at age 11, than his father did at 17!); he is compassionate and caring; he is helpful; he is fun to be around; and he has some innate leadership qualities. It’s for the last reason that I brought him with me to hear Zig speak. Until I was an adult, I never heard a professional speaker, motivational speaker, inspirational speaker, or any speaker other than my teachers and ministers Since my mother was a teacher and my father was a minister, I became very skilled at tuning out anything disguised as lecture or advice giving. If one seed was planted that day that will help my son realize his dreams then it was more than worth it to bring him to meet and hear Zig. It’s likely, that Russell, like all of us, will need regular opportunities to hear great speakers and teachers. I think it’s a parents job to nuture the seeds of greatness that they see in their children. For without nurturing and direction, the path they travel down will be full of big zigs and big zags.

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. He also is a leadership speaker, customer service trainer and sales motivator. For more information go to www.TimRichardson.com

I heard on Paul Harvey this week that the top airlines for customer service were Southwest and Continental. I am not surpised. In particular, Southwest has done an excellent job with word of mouth marketing. CEO’s, new start-up company leaders, professional speakers, customer service trainers, leadership speakers, business coaches, and many authors all have spread the gospel of Southwest.

There’s a new book out called Word of Mouth Marketing. It’s written by Andy Sernovitz. I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my list. Check out what Sernovitz says:

1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.

2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.

3. Ethics and good service come first.

4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).

5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.

6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.

7. Be interesting or be invisible.

8. If it’s not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.

9. Make the story of your company a good one.

10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.

11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.

12. Honest marketing makes more money.

It seems like JetBlue has broken most of the above twelve in firing David Neeleman. Where is the reward for honesty? For fessing up when you mess up? For treating people with dignity and respect. I have to believe that it’s not very fun to work at Jet Blue right now and it’s probably not very fun to fly with them either. In fact, the University of Michigan released a study this week that reported that airline travel isn’t much fun these days. Go figure.

I read this statement by Adam Hanft on the Fast Company blog site:

“The JetBlue scenario follows exactly the script that I warned against back then, and I predict that the airline will gradually squander the emotional connection it has built via its relentless and joyous focus on the customer.”

It’s seems former CEO Needleman was punished for admitting to a mistake. Does this mean more cover up when mistakes are made? This is poverty thinking at it’s worst.

*****

Speaking of poverty thinking, have you been keeping up with the Food Stamp Challenge? When I read about it, I realized how excessive we can be in the USA. It made digesting a recent $45.00 dinner for one a little difficult. Living on $21.oo a week, isn’t Living Rich in the USA but it might be in developing countries. Wonder what would happen if our Food Stamp Challenge politicians lived on the meal plan of someone from a remote village in Africia?

To read how some congressmen are doing, check out Tim Ryan’s Blog and Jim McGovern’s Blog.

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 businesses,
professional associations, insurance companies, and health care
organizations. For more information go to www.TimRichardson.com

I just read something on my friend Eileen McDargh’s blog  about the Whole Foods Market CEO, John Mackey. It seems Mackey is donating all his stock options to two company foundations and working for only $1/year. This is an extraordinary example of leadership and service. As I was reading this, it reminded me of one of the most incredible leaders I have ever met - Richard Davis, the current CEO of US Bank. I met Richard before addressing 500 US Bank employees at their annual company meeting. Among the powerful points he told his managers that I would address later that day were:

Smash the Water Cooler
Bungee Jump
Get a Life!

OK that was MY interpretation. One of his first comments was “I need your help”. To the 400 or so gathered, he asked them to stop the rumors that were be discussed by the water cooler. It seems that some were saying that this #6 company in industry would be merged with or taken over by one of the 5 competitors that were bigger. It had even been inaccurately reported in the press…(imagine that?) One by one, he took each of these competitors and gave a most convincing argument as to why there wouldn’t be a merger or acquisition. His points were solid, his research was well documented, he did his homework AND I believe, he won his case. Why did he do this? He told his team, “I want your focus to be on improving on a fantastic year. I want you to do this without having to look over your shoulder and worry if you’ll have a job or not (I kind of wanted to make sure I’d have one too!)

So let’s get to work and while you at it, help me stop the unproductive gossip with those who report to you.”

WOW what a positive and powerful way to tell people to stop gossiping!

He next asked them to Bungee Jump off a 1000-foot bridge in Australia wearing a red wig and a clown suit …well that was my interpretation of his message on taking risk. He talked about their products were really commodities in their market and how once an innovation was introduced, their competitors were quick to emulate. He acknowledged the specific innovations that those in the audience had developed and praised the work of several people. He urged them for this to continue. He said “execution is almost as important as innovation and some of you will be executed if you don’t innovate”…well not really, BUT he did implore them to continue to think innovatively  and even told them NOT to come back from the morning break if they weren’t prepared to put it all on the table and take risks…calculated risks. In front this audience, he asked one of his EVP’s if he had ever said no when this EVP asked him for anything for which he had asked. Randy’s reply…not once.

He concluded with this “Get a life!” He shared how he had attended 14 of 17 basketball games of his teenage daughter (where he “quietly” coached from the stands). He spoke of shopping with his wife and daughter at the mall, and about how supportive the company was of charity and community organizations. He said that he felt like he was a better leader because he turned it off when it was time to turn it off. Somehow I suspect that when he is working, he REALLY turns it on!

I must confess I wondered how a man in charge of such a large company could really do this. Could he turn it off? He had to work Saturday’s at LEAST to check his email…so I sent him one early on a Saturday morning… He responded…on Monday morning at 8:13 am!

I learned a lot more from this man for whom I would love to be mentored. I hope you have learned something too. Here’s the Tim Take on all of this

1) When you hear people in unproductive talk, stifle it…in a positive way. If you can’t convincingly dispel the unproductive talk, ask lots of questions of those for whom you trust who can. Don’t let the Wally and Wanda Whiners destroy morale of others.

2) Take more risk… If you are not falling flat on your face, you’re probably too comfortable. Develop a new idea or an innovative approach. Bounce it past a coworker for whom you trust. Share it with a colleague or friend OUTSIDE your work world, and maybe most powerful of all … get input from someone with a very divergent viewpoint. When they are telling you what you DON’T want to hear…shut up…and listen … intently. Consider their feedback… all of it. Sleep on your idea and then ACT on it.

3) Live your life with a focus on what you value. When at the office, it’s hammer time. When you’re home, it’s homer time (and I don’t mean Homer Simpson). I am not sure if attaining perfect balance is possible but I know this “When values are clear, decision making is easy.”
You or I may never be a president of a company of the magnitude of my new friend Richard Davis. BUT we certainly can smash the heck out of the water cooler, bungee jump in a clown suit, AND most importantly, GET A LIFE…a rich one at that!

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

From www.CourierNewsOnline.com

Before the BIG game, Bears Coach Lovie Smith said - No motivational speakers required. Instead, they would get their inspiration from within during their final team meeting. Perhaps, Lovie should have as the Colts brought in a motivational speaker (according to the article, their speaker was not someone like Matt Foley, the late Chris Farley’s farcical motivational speaker who lived in a trailer down by the river). Their speaker was Former Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves. “Helio and I have gotten to become good friends,” Colts coach Tony Dungy said. “He actually let me in his pit when they were getting ready for the Indianapolis 500. I think it’s a big stage and the Super Bowl of their sport and he’s won a couple of them.”

Smith choose NOT to have a former player or inspirational speaker. “I’ll cut you off right there,” Smith told a questioner at Friday’s press conference. “We’re winners, we go through the same routine. I don’t really bring in a lot of outside people. We have coaches, we have players and that’s the way we do things. So we won’t be doing that.”

My question: Should he have? If so, who should he have brought in and why?

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