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Every time I visit or revisit a country, I learn or re-learn some of life’s lessons. Here are just three from my week in Vietnam that might help you.

Life Lesson # 1) Prepare for the unexpected in advance. I LIVE by this principal and say the best friend for a speaker / trainer is Justin Case. Always have back-up, Just In Case. I got to Vietnam armed with new slideshow software called Keynote 2. We always specify a 10-foot or larger screen. We ended up with a 6-foot screen. It was hard to read some words from the back of the room. Fortunately I got into the room at 7:30 AM to set-up for the 9 AM start. I had to go through every slide one-at-a-time to resize and reshape slides to enlarge type to fit the small screen.

Lesson: I should have checked the screen size the night before as usual. For your life, what problems can you prevent by checking them out the night, day, week, month before?

Life Lesson # 2) Talk to the locals. I had a welcome drink in the bar and talked to a new Vietnamese father about his 14-month-old daughter. I shared with him some secrets on free information for health on the Net like www.WebMD.com and he shared with me a beautiful Vietnamese legend of the creation of Vietnam. This is my 5th trip to Vietnam and never heard this story before. I used it in my last seminar opening and it was loved by the participants and gave me a special connection with them.

Lesson: Have you talked to your people at work in a social way lately after hours? Have you taken a walk with your kids and talked casually in the past few days? Have you chatted with clients or suppliers about matters other than work and learned key insights into who they are as a person recently? The insights can transform how you relate to them.

Life Lesson # 3) Change your attitude about the environment. I stayed in HCMC for the first time at a wonderful boutique hotel, The Duxton. The GM, Gregory Keating told me that the local power company informed him the hotel’s power would be cut at 8 AM and he would have to turn on the back-up diesel generators located above my room and so during the day there would be some noise and vibration. While he was willing to move me from my suite, I declined as it was daytime only. When the diesel motors started, my first reaction was I should have moved. Then I thought it sounded familiar. Yes, it sounded like the motors on a cruise ship or a ferry taking me to beautiful tropical island. I ‘pretended’ I was in a luxury suite in a cruise ship and it was just fine.

Lesson: What irritations do you have in your life and re-think or reframe them. Does your husband snore? Think of it as the sound of love and silence is loneliness. Does your boss ‘bark’ on Monday mornings? Think of it as the sound of money coming in as the boss it part of your income. Does your son listen to music you cannot stand? Think of it as the sound of transition from child to adult. (Hey, my parents HATED my rock music)

Lessons in life come to us every day. Be ready. Be open. Be receptive to and learn from them. Got a lesson to share or a question to ask? Just leave your comments and ask me questions one to one through the blog.

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3 Methods for Staying in Shape

Why work hard to make money and die young? Why work long hours only to grow old and be so feeble you cannot enjoy the fruits of your labour?

Here are 3 Methods for Staying in Shape and hopefully live longer, live better and enjoy life more. CAUTION: Check with a doctor before starting any exercise regimen!

Method #1: Stretch. Most old people lose their flexibility, limiting their spectrum of activities. These three simple stretches, a few times a day can keep you flexible. (Yoga is a wonderful stretching activity)

o Stand straight and slowly touch your toes, working to get your palms to the floor.

o Stand straight and slowly rotate your hips as far around as you can clockwise and anti-clockwise to loosen up your hips, back and upper legs.

o Slowly roll your head in a circle both clockwise and anti-clockwise (Caution: NOT if you have spinal injuries)

Method #2: Strength. What we do not use, we loose. Strengthen all key muscle groups 2 times a week to exhaustion. Good, simple exercises include:

o Push-ups with a straight back, breathing regularly.

o Sit-ups with knees bent help prevent back injury (65% of the back`s support is from stomach muscles…do not do if you have back problems - 50 a day may also eases constipation)

o Leg work. Biking, in-line skating, walking, running, stair machines or just climbing stairs for 30 minutes to an hour. (Going up stairs is easier on knees than going down where you put double or triple your weight on your joints)

Method #3: Aerobics: Give your lungs and heart a great workout 3 to 5 times a week. If you are doing the leg work just mentioned under strength, you are accomplishing 2 things at once. Rowing machines, playing basketball, netball, water polo, handball, racquet ball or other sports also gives you an aerobic workout.

Interesting, just 10 minutes of jumping rope or hard punching a body bag have the same effect, but few people have the stamina to go a full 10 minutes. Swimming takes about 45 minutes to accomplish the same effect. Dancing 20 to 60 minutes works really well.

Caution: Playing tennis you only average 5 minutes of aerobic running in 30 minutes of play and golf played with carts is rarely aerobic in nature. You need to do 20 to 30 minutes of non-stop aerobic activity to gain the most benefit.

Some people do better with the same set daily and weekly routine. Others need variety. Find what works for you and like Nike says, “Just Do It!”

Got comments or questions? Just leave your comments and ask me questions one to one through the blog.

Smile Makers:

Exercise can be a funny thing.

A man and wife were avid joggers but seldom ran together because they ran at different speeds. One day she started out before he did. Two kilometres later, he overtook her and said in his best Humphrey Bogart voice, `Where are you going, sweetheart?`

Without missing a stride, she replied, `Your pace or mine?`

———-

Waiting for an aerobics class to begin, several class members were chatting about fitness and diets. One woman said her brother-in-law quit smoking, quit drinking booze and quit watching TV - all at the same time. Another woman thought no human being could possibly do this without acquiring at least one bad habit for compensation. Jokingly she asked her, `What did he start doing instead of those things?`

After a slight pause, the woman smiled and said, `Well, my sister IS pregnant now.`

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Someone once said, `They don’t care how much you know until the know how much you care.` I believe that is true so here are 8 ways to tell people that matter to you at work and at home, how much you care about them.

1. Active listening is probably the single most important way to say you care about someone. As they share, do not just nod your head. Repeat a bit of what they say and ask questions.

2.  Write a personal note. Putting a written note (not an email) on someone’s desk for them to find later is a powerful motivator and easy way to show care and concern. Simply stating, `I just wanted to say I appreciate what you did for me. Thank you so much. It is a joy to work with you.`

3.  Remember what that person likes and give it to them. If they like a special brand of chocolates, when you see them, buy a bar or box and present it at an opportune time.

4.  Say it with flowers. If someone does a favour for you, send them a small potted plant. Everytime they water it, they will remember that you cared enough to say `thanks`.

5.  Perform a favour. I can still remember the day in 1978 when I had a ton of orders to write up and my supervisor Karl Bjornson was leaving the office at 6 PM, saw me doing all that paperwork and put his bag down, grabbed some of the work and stayed an extra hour to help me.

6.  Laugh at their jokes. My father would always laugh at a customers joke, even if it was one he knew very well. Why? The reason for a joke is to make people feel good. Laughing at their jokes makes the teller feel good. Ever had someone say at the end of a joke you told, `I’ve heard that one before.` or `I don`t get it.`?

7.  Ask them to help you or to do you a favour. This may fly in the face of logic initially, but trust me, it works. Soliciting help in the right way endears people to you. `You know so much about this…`or `It is a lot to ask I know. Would you be willing to.` or simply, `I really need your help and expertise on something.` You stroke their ego and have more opportunities to thank them and bond with them along the way.

8.  Pray for them or better yet, with them. When my wife an I kneel and pray together as husband and wife at the end of the day and she hears me thanking the Lord for her in my life or when it is her turn and she thanks God for me, well, I just love her all the more.

Saying `I care about you.` takes a little thinking and a little work, but it can literally mean the difference between breaking even or exceeding targets; between surviving a relationship and thriving in it. Start letting people know how much YOU care, today!

Talents Used = Success in Life.

We all have inborn talents, unique to us and given to us by God. How many of your talents are you using each day? Were you put on Earth to only use some of them or ALL of them? Why were you given those talents? If you are NOT using your talents, will you be serving God & humanity to the best of your ability OR making yourself happy? If you ARE using your talents, will you be on the right path in life?

What occurred to me through these questions is this… If we all were given unique talents, whatever we do in life should flow FROM our talents and we should USE them to the fullest extent. Talents left unused are like rain falling on the ocean. It definitely adds to the volume of water, but who will ever notice?

Ask yourself what are your top 20 talents and make a written list of them, prioritising them from your greatest to the slightest talent. You may have to think back to talents used in your youth and maybe forgotten about. Consult close family and lifelong friends as well as trusted colleagues at work to complete your list. It is wonderful if you come up with more than 20 but strive to compile at least 20 talents.

Share your list with your boss and your family. Ask them to help you use your talents and volunteer to do work that draws upon your talents.

This is not a magic formula for success. It is just simple truth. If you are using to the best of your ability all the talents God gave you, how can you fail? If you are hiding or ignoring the greatest gifts you have been given, how can you succeed? Start using more of your talents today and experience a richer, more fulfilling life and lifestyle as your reward.

Got comments or questions? Just leave your comments and ask me questions one to one through the blog.  I really value your input!

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Tags: god, inborn talents, success, success in life, Success Strategies, talents, talents used

Sales for Non-Sales People

Selling need not be a mystery or a Herculean effort. In fact, it is the simplest process in the world. Here is the simple PPC selling system for non-sales people:

1) Proposition. “Hey big boy, wanna buy my service?” What is your unique proposition? Want your boss to give you a raise or increment? You need to prepare some valid reasons why you are worth more. What have you learned that makes you more valuable? What can you do that no others can do? What have you saved or made for the organization? Who is paying more (and hiring) in the industry for the same skills? If you can’t think of a valid proposition, you will never be able to make a sale to an intelligent ‘buyer’.

2. Presentation. “How do I look to you honey?” Talking too fast or too slow, emphasizing the wrong points or not emphasizing the key points can ruin a ’sale’. If you want to sell your boss on a bigger budget, think SET: Show - Emotion - Tell. Show what you want to get across visually. Powerpoint, posters, pictures, props. ANYTHING visual. Then Tell the boss the reasons why, explaining every slide, graph, prop in detail, but not minutia. Connect the Showing and Telling with emotional stories or reasons to trigger a response. “The reason to jump on this now boss is the huge growth potential in both the India and China markets. You can easily show the MD how we DOUBLED in size in just 2 years if we can just increase our budget to…” Catch the drift on making the boss a hero and if visuals support the words, you have a pretty good chance of making the ’sale.’

3.  Close. Ask for the order. Never say, `What do you think?` That is cerebral. You want them to act. Best: `Then, with your approval, I will go forward with this so we can begin saving money; gaining profits; winning market-share; improve morale as soon as possible.` It is assumptive and sells a benefit.

Do not accept, “Let me think about it.” or “I will take it under consideration.” These are the same as NO! If someone wants to think about it, say, “Wouldn’t it be better to think about it while I am here so if you have any questions, I can share the reasons why you should…? or, from my friend Jeff Thull, `In other words, NO!` It is usually as hard for someone to say `no` as it is to say `yes`. If they say `no` always ask `why` and push for specifics. If they have a valid reason, at least you know why. If not, it gives you another reason to push again for a close.

Do not be mystified by sales. Just use the PPC formula to start selling your ideas, services or products today.

For more information, just contact us.

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Here are 10 ways to cut waste in your office:

1.  Set up red rules and blue rules for all office supplies. When do you use good letterhead and when do you print on plane paper. When do we print copies VS. when do we send it electronically. Red rules you NEVER break. Blue rules you are flexible on.

2.  Fully use everything you buy. Print out a piece of paper only to find a typo or it wasn’t what you expected? Don’t throw it away. Reuse the back side as scratch paper or for future printing experiments.

3.  Don’t duplicate resources. Each office may not need it’s own set of records. One central space may be enough. Better yet, do it electronically for faster access and pooled sharing.

4.  Put strict email policies in place. NO jokes. NO naughty or funny photos. NO cc everyone. NO Bcc emails. You won’t waste any time looking at useless information.

5.  Replace wall switches with motion sensors in conference rooms, toilets, tea rooms or any room that is infrequently used. You enter, the light goes on. No motion after 5 minutes, the light goes off. (This also tells employees not to hide in the toilet for an hour, making their colleagues work harder to cover for their laziness.)

6.  Instead of receptionists or security guards sitting and doing nothing most of the time, find work for them. If they are not checking Ids or greeting visitors with a smile, they can be sorting, folding, phoning, stapling, conducting research, or some other useful function. I asked two guards outside of a special school. I was interested in helping the children. The guards said, “Oh, I don’t know anything. You must call the school.” At LEAST have them read the organization’s literature so they know what they are doing!

7.  Lease out your resources. Instead of retrenching engineers, do what Honda does and lease them out during your slow periods. You have LCD projectors and AV equipment, lease it or hire it out if not in use.

8.  Sell resources no longer being used. Retrench some workers? Sell off their computers and other no longer needed equipment. In 2 years time if you start hiring again, those old computers won’t be worth much anyway. Ask some employees to volunteer the time at night to sell it or auction it on the Net and the profits go to the company’s Family Day. Alternatively, let employees purchase old equipment for family use at a huge discount. You are not using it anyway and it can be a real perk for a parent wanting a computer for their 12 year old.

9.  Don’t save books, read them and then give them away. You read a great management book? Give it to your 2nd in command and ask what she thinks of it. You get rid of clutter and train your people. When he / she is done, ask them to do the same.

10.  Take a course in Time Management to stop wasting TIME. Most people are BUSY but not very PRODUCTIVE. We offer a fantastic course in Proactive Time and Stress Management at SIM (65) 6468-8866. We also conduct Time and Stress Management Seminars and Workshops in house from 1 hour to 4 days in length (most are 2-days long). Just contact us.

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8 Meetings Tips to Make Your Meetings More Productive (8 GEMS)

Are all the meetings you hold at work productive or do they sometimes fall short of your expectations? Well, here are 8 GEMS to help you make your meetings more productive (Actually, GGGEMSSS).

1.  Get with the Agenda. Have your agenda out well ahead of the next meeting you run. Far too often the full agenda is only available at the meeting itself and people come unprepared. Getting a weekly meeting agenda out to all a day in advance or a monthly meeting up to a week in advance allows people to have the relevant facts and data at hand.

2.  Groom your successor at every meeting. You will never be promoted until you have someone to take your place. Meetings afford you an opportunity to let your second in command get the practice necessary to fill your shoes. Then guide and nurture them depending upon their performance.

3.  Get control. If you are at a meeting that your boss is running, offer to take the minutes and then sit at the right hand of your boss. It is a position of power and if the boss or someone else rambles, you can say, “Sorry, for the minutes, are we still on agenda point 3 or have we digressed?” You can get the meeting back on track without the boss losing face.

4.  Easy to get input if you ask the right questions. Never ask, “What are your inputs on this?” People cannot think of something they cannot picture clearly in their minds. Ask questions they can picture like, “What 3 ways can we reduce the cost of this procedure?” What 3 ways can we increase the efficiency of …” You will get some real golden nuggets when you ask the right questions.. (tons more of these tips in our book, Mining For Goldú…Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team)

5.  Meeting Milestones. Set not only an exact start and end time to the meeting and stick to it, but make sure you have milestones along the timeline. Assign a timer and tell her / him, we need 15 minute warnings so we keep on track for an hour long meeting and 30 minute warnings for a half day or longer meeting.

6.  Shoot out bullets. No longer have long minutes from meetings. Take them in short bullet form, that is, a bullet and then the basic concept. No need for a capital letter and a full stop, just concepts. Easier to record, read and will actually be USED.

7.  Stretch their imaginations. Have a 30 second group stretch every 30 minutes. Takes so little time but adds so much more energy to your meeting, getting you great results and solid gold productivity.

8.  Stand for Success. You have 45% more energy standing than sitting. Consider shorter meetings focusing on one topic and have everyone stand while they discuss the topic. The changed dynamic will also afford you greater creativity from your team.

These 8 tips are only one of hundreds we offer in our programmes, books and audio books.  How to get people to Open - Up and share their ideas in a meeting?   If you’d like to know more about how to facilitate meetings, check out my “Mining For Gold! Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team” Package.

The “Mining For Gold! will show you how to:

• get people to open up in meetings
• gain control of meetings before you lose it
• set the ground rules
• keep people with more power from asserting it
• get ideas to flow smoothly and quickly
• keep meetings light and fun
• handle difficult participants
• and more…

——–
“Fun to read and easy to understand and apply, Michael Podolinsky’s Mining For Gold fiilled with useful information. If you want to reach your people – I mean really learnt what they are thinking – this is the book for you…”

- - Dato Lawrence Chan Kum Peng CSP
Founder & Executive Chairman, Personal Development Leadership Management Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd

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How to Find Joy at Work!

So many people wait for happiness to find them instead of going out and looking for it. They complain at work, `Why did I get stepped over for that promotion?` or `Why won`t the boss give me a big increment (raise)?` Funny thing is, even if they got it, their joy would be short lived. Soon after, they would want more and more and more.

Until you find the CORE reasons to have joy at work, you will always be second best and never get all those things you want. Sorry, please do not `shoot the messenger`. Reality, people create much of their own reality in life based upon the joy and enthusiasm they have for their work, the people around them and their overall attitude.

GUILTY AS CHARGED: I found myself, ME, Mr. `Motivator` with a bad attitude a few years ago. In almost every conversation, I would bring up something negative about someone or something. It was usually under the guise of humour and poking fun, but still, it was negative. That realization and changing it made a huge difference for me in both acquiring the love of my life, my wife Sarnai AND in my overall business development.

Although I still catch myself from time to time being negative (usually with taxi drivers…I am not sure why), the transformation is amazing and the kinds of people and business opportunities that are coming my way are, well both exciting and humbling.

Here is the CORE(S) method of changing your attitude and finding true joy at work:

1) Cut the negative talk. Cut out repeating anything negative about people. Cut out saying negative things about work. Harder than it sounds. Try it TODAY and if you can make it one full day without a single negative comment, you are doing an amazing job. Negative talk kills joy, positive talk builds joy up.

2) Omit the parts of the story that make others look or sound foolish. Sometimes I would catch myself sharing stories that made me look good and others foolish in the process. What I discovered was, I did not need to put them down to build myself up. The joy flows from being positive and upbeat. People respect that…including the little voice inside you.

3) Remind yourself how lucky you are to have your job. There are a ton of people out there who would LOVE to have your job and do what you do. They are out of work. They REPORT to you. They are in your competing company looking at you as lucky while you look back at them as being lucky. Until you get happy at where you are now, changing jobs will only transfer that bad attitude around. Find the joy in THIS job, in THIS day, in THIS assignment before you look for joy somewhere else.

4) Excite yourself! Carl Luther, my mentor in the mid 70`s to early 80`s was a master trainer and consultant. He taught me that animals crawl out of burrows in the morning. Only fully alive and functioning professionals LEAP out of bed and throw their arms into the air and say, `Boy am I enthusiastic!` As silly as it sounds, it works. Other motivational speakers use `YES!` or some other cue to excite themselves. What I use is a new project, a new approach, a new client, a new business angle, a new promotion, new newsletter (like this one) or any small change to get myself going and spur on the joy of the work day. It works for me. Find some little thing that works for you and use it daily if not hourly.

Get EXCITED about your job and you will be surprised how your boss and colleagues will notice. Get EXCITED about your new set of goals and you will be surprised how you will work so effectively to attain them. Get EXCITED about a negative worker as a challenge to find the right way to motivate him/her.

I learn daily about excitement from my 2.5-year-old daughter. She gets excited when a courier delivers a package! She gets excited when we ask, `Do you want to go out?`I had that kind of excitement when I started my business 22 years ago and then after 17 years lost it. Well, I found it again and you would be surprised the quantum leaps we have been taking. It really puts the joy back into business.

5) Smile. I know I harp on this one a lot, but it is so true. Are you smiling now? If not, why not? Costs nothing; changes attitude. Put the joy back into your day with a smile. (At least people will wonder what you are thinking of!`

There are 1000 ways to find joy in work, these are just the CORES. Seek joy today and I guarantee you, tomorrow… will be even better.

To your success, find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

• Browse through Michael’s Products, Speech Topics, Seminar & Workshop Topics and  Public Seminars
• Check out what they say about Michael
• Click here to contact Michael to find out more about his training

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