Posted by Grant on April 22, 2008 – 8:15 pm
I’ve made a little more progress on the book and plan to knock a lot out in the next 10 days before I leave for a good amount of travel in May. Right now I’ve got 15 chapters done so I’m around 30% finished with just over 13,100 words!
I’ve also got my list of printers narrowed down to just a couple so we should have that nailed down in the next week or two.
We’re still on track to have the book printed and in hand by October 1.
If you’re a student or someone who works with students, you’re going to want to get your hands on this book. I really think this is going to become a great resource for students as they make the transition into the real world.
I can’t wait to finish this project!
Posted by Grant on April 22, 2008 – 9:45 am
I came across this new online service, www.Jott.com. It is freakin awesome!
Basically how it works is you call an 800 number and leave yourself a voicemail. It then transcribes the voicemail and sends you an email and/or a text message to remind you.
So you’re out and about and you need to remember to call “so and so” (somebody really should name their kid “so and so”…I know my wife is pregnant right now but she would never go for it!) or you need to remember to check that website or you need to remember to do that report that was due yesterday. Just call and leave yourself a message and when you get home, there will be a email waiting for you. How cool is that?
And best of all…the service is FREE! I like free…free is good.
Check it out… www.jott.com (I should get a commission from them!)
Posted by Grant on April 21, 2008 – 10:11 am
Filed under Events, Travels
Here are some more pictures from the Oklahoma FBLA State Conference I spoke at a few weeks ago…
Posted by Grant on April 20, 2008 – 8:52 pm
Filed under Media, Random
I would be interested to know what magazines everyone subscribes to and if there is anything you get that you would recommend picking up. Here’s what currently fills my mailbox:
- Sports Illustrated - I just get it for the swimsuit issue
- Fast Company - great, forward thinking magazine
- Inc - good small business magazine
- Entrepreneur - not bad…has some good stuff sometimes
So what magazines do you keep up with?
(FYI…the swimsuit issue was a joke…it ends up in the trash!)
Posted by Grant on April 20, 2008 – 8:43 pm
Last Friday on Oprah (cue the jokes but I TiVo it looking for interviews like this one!), her guest for the show was Marcus Buckingham who talked about finding your strengths and applying them to your work. It was a great interview and he said so many things that I passionately believe and try to convey to others.
The bottom line is this: life is too short to do something you hate. Take the time to discover not only your strengths but also consider what you really love to do. As opposed to doing a job for the sake of a paycheck, wouldn’t you rather live life getting paid to do what you love?
I know I would…and I do! People actually pay me to do what I love!
At the end of the show, they said they are offering a free workshop from their website that helps people walk through some of these issues. I just briefly glanced over the website but haven’t looked in depth at it but I’m sure it has some valuable ideas.
Posted by Grant on April 19, 2008 – 9:12 am
This week I had the privilege, the opportunity, the chance…well, actually I didn’t really have a choice but I stayed in 5 different hotels this week. And whenever I travel, I have a couple of places I usually try to stay in but the more I travel, the more I realize there is really one hotel that I really like every time I’m there.
Hampton Inn.
I stayed in a Hampton Inn the other night in Atlanta and there are a lot of things that you can learn from a Hampton Inn. If you run a business or an organization, here are some things you can pick up from the Hampton Inn chain:
- Consistency: It doesn’t matter what city I’m in, every Hampton Inn I’ve ever stayed at always provides a consistent and quality experience. The rooms are all the same. The beds are all the same. The breakfast is the same. You get consistency when you choose a Hampton Inn. There are some hotel chains where in one city, the hotel is amazing but in another city at the same hotel chain, you want to sleep with one eye open. In addition to the consistency of the physical property, they are extremely consistent in their branding. The look and feel of every piece of signage and literature is consistent. They do it right.
- The Little Things: I’ve just started noticing it but there are a lot of little things that Hampton Inn does well. A quality continental breakfast that is good and hot is always nice. They continue to offer free wi-fi internet while so many hotel chains have started charging for this.
- Value: Every time I stay in a Hampton Inn, I feel like I get more than I paid for. A company is smart to under promise and over deliver and that is what they do every time. Nobody wants to feel like they got ripped off but everyone wants to feel like they got a steal of a deal.
So as you look at what you do in terms of business, you have to ask yourself:
- Are you consistent in your business? Does everything have the same look and feel?
- Are you doing the little things well?
- Are you providing a value that makes people feel like they get more than they paid for?
If you think people don’t notice each of these things, you’re kidding yourself.
Posted by Grant on April 18, 2008 – 10:01 am
As I travel around and speak in different settings to various audiences in different parts of the country, there is always one common trait among every group of people. It may be with a group of high school teenagers at a conference or a group of business professionals in a seminar. It may be in the deep South or the great Northwest. Regardless of where I’m at there and who I’m speaking to, there is one thing that every group has:
Invisible Lines.
In literally any and every place I go, it doesn’t take much to see the lines. Sure they are invisible but you can still see them. Although we wish we couldn’t see the lines, they are pretty obvious.
They are the lines that divide people.
We divide ourselves by status, race, money, job, background, family, heritage, religion, and gender.
I’ve found myself recently noticing these lines more and more in the places I go and I have to ask the question…
Am I part of the problem or the solution?
What about you?
Posted by Grant on April 17, 2008 – 7:20 pm
Generally my wife will keep up with my blog so that I assume she can keep up with the random thoughts that swim through my head. But this week our home computer has been acting up so she hasn’t been able to read any of the blog.
So she calls me tonight to tell me about a fortune cookie she got. I found this ironic since I just posted about a fortune cookie. But what was even stranger was the saying inside her fortune cookie. It said this:
“Good clothes open many doors. Go shopping.”
Obviously this puts me in a bit of predicament. I have 2 thoughts on the situation:
- Am I the only one who finds it just a little strange that while I’m out of town my wife gets a fortune cookie that tells her to go shopping?!?!
- I mentioned in my blog about my fortune cookie experience that I should be expecting a “wondrous opportunity” in the days ahead. Is this my “wondrous opportunity?” To let my wife go shopping?!?!
I don’t know who writes these fortune cookie quotes but I bet this “shopping” one was put in there by some disgruntled wife. You can’t blame a girl for trying…
Posted by Grant on April 17, 2008 – 6:45 pm
Yesterday as I was waiting to board my plane in Nashville, there was a guy standing next to me talking on his cell phone. Of course this isn’t unusual in anyway but I couldn’t help but overhear his end of the conversation. Now generally I don’t find myself eavesdropping but this was different.
The gentleman was clearly emotional about something and was calling a series of people to tell them something. And with each call he made, his first line was the same:
“We just found out he has cancer.”
And then he would begin to choke up with emotion.
This guy was on my flight sitting a few rows behind me and occasionally I would just glance back at him. Other than eavesdropping on the phone call, you wouldn’t really have any idea what was going on in this guy’s world.
To me, it was a simple reminder that you never really know what someone else is going through.
Posted by Grant on April 16, 2008 – 7:54 pm
Filed under Funny, Random
I’m sitting in the Nashville airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta and I’m watching all that the Pope is up to here in the States. So as I watch the Pope, I have a couple of questions and observations:
- Does the Pope sign autographs?
- If the Pope signs autographs, what exactly does he sign? Just “Pope”?
- When you write “the Pope,” does the need to be capitalized? He really is the Pope isn’t he? How many other Popes are there?
- Is anyone actually named “Pope”?
- Wouldn’t it be ironic if someone named “Pope” actually grew up to be Pope?
- Twenty bucks says the Pope was a wild man growing up. You know he was brutal to kids on the dodge ball court. But how cool would that be to be watching this and realize…I got knocked out by the Pope in dodge ball when I was growing up.
- Do kids today want to grow up to be the Pope?
- Will MTV Cribs ever do an episode on the Pope’s crib, the Vatican?
You can come up with some pretty random thoughts about the Pope when you’re tired…
