Posted by Grant on May 28, 2009 – 12:00 pm
We’ve all heard the phrase “it’s the thought that counts.” Sometimes it’s a cliche phrase used by the boyfriend who made a last minute effort to get his girlfriend a birthday present and ended up buying her a partially wilted rose at the gas station.
And then half-heartedly mutters, “hey, it’s the thought that counts.” I’m sure that relationship is going places.
But more accurately, the statement is true when it comes to small gestures that make big impacts.
Yesterday when I arrived at my hotel, I checked in and found a card and two chocolate chip cookies. This isn’t entirely unusual as I’ve received snacks and generic letters from hotel management before. But here’s what caught my attention.
The card was hand written. From the General Manager of the hotel.
That just doesn’t happen. My guess is I wasn’t the only guest checking in to receive a card.
Something so small and seemingly insignificant made a big impact in my mind.
So when was the last time you took 5 minutes to do something for someone else that required little effort on your part but left a huge impression on the other person?
Posted by Grant on May 27, 2009 – 6:55 am
Filed under Family, Travels
Tonight I will be doing the opening keynote at the Kansas State FFA Convention to nearly 1,800 students! I love kicking off events and am excited to be a part of this one.
Then this weekend I’m speaking at an event in St. Louis for the public library system. It’s to kick off a summer teen reading program, which is cool. What I’m really stoked about though is my family is going to tag along for that trip, so we’ll go up early Friday and hang out at the Zoo!
I’ve been fortunate enough to be home for a few weeks with a few local speaking engagements here and there, but now I’m looking forward to getting back to some good events hanging with students.
Posted by Grant on April 1, 2009 – 3:47 am
Filed under Funny, Travels
Yesterday, I flew into Garden City, Kansas, which was a unique experience to say the least. As you may know, I travel quite a bit so I’ve seen a lot of planes and airports, but nothing like this.
I go out to the plane in Denver and there is no bathroom, no overhead bins, no door blocking off the cockpit, and just a single seat on each side of the isle. And the best part…
The captain was also the flight attendant…I kid you not!
He closes the door, then turns around and goes through the safety speech! Then, climbs right into the cockpit.
We land in Garden City and taxi up to the gate. I don’t mean just any gate. I mean the gate…the only gate!
Welcome to Kansas. It’s good to be here.
Posted by Grant on March 12, 2009 – 3:46 am
Filed under Events, Travels
Today, I will be speaking to 2,000+ teenagers in lovely and scenic New Jersey. I’ve been really looking forward to this event and am excited about the day ahead.
I will be doing a keynote at the opening general session and a couple of workshops this afternoon.
I hope the sessions all go smooth. If you screw up in front of that many students, your blunder is bound to end up on YouTube…
Posted by Grant on March 9, 2009 – 6:47 am
Filed under Events, Travels
I had a great weekend speaking at the Indiana FCCLA State Conference in Indianapolis and then heading south to speak at the Kentucky 4-H Teen Summit. Great groups of students at both places!
Jen Staley put on a wonderful event for FCCLA and Mark Mains led a great group of students and leaders at the Teen Summit. Well done! I’m actually doing events for both of them again in a few months, which I’m looking forward to.
I’m home briefly and then I head to New Jersey this week for the FBLA State Conference…
Posted by Grant on February 5, 2009 – 12:45 pm
Filed under Funny, Travels
I’m sitting on the plane in Dallas waiting to head out to Newark. Here are some tidbits from the day…
– Original flight to Newark was canceled but then got on later option only to be moved to a flight that was supposed to go out before my original flight but was delayed..get all that?
– We are now sitting on the Tarmac where they just announced another 30 minute delay.
– There is a girl behind me who is about 8 or 9 and hasn’t stopped talking since she sat down. Her dad dropped her off and warned the guy she was next to that “she will talk your ear off”…he wasn’t kidding. She even asked the guy if she could borrow his laptop to play games! HA!
– The guy next to me is snoring and grunting in his sleep…nice. Wishing I could record the audio of this moment.
Just wanted to give you a live update of my life on the airplane at this moment!
Posted by Grant on December 4, 2008 – 4:24 pm
Filed under Events, Travels
I’m in route to Florida this morning where I’ll be speaking at a Student Council conference tomorrow. I’m excited about this event for two reasons:
- One of the students who scheduled me has a connection at the Kennedy Space Center, and he was able to get me a private tour of the place this afternoon! Pretty stoked about that! I’m kind of hoping I get to go up in Space for a tour of the moon, but I’m thinking my odds are not good. And they would probably make me sign something that if I die or if they lose me in space, it’s not their fault.
- This is my last event of the year, so after this I’m looking forward to taking some time off to hang with my girls. (By the way, when I say “my girls,” I assume you know I’m talking about my wife and two daughters. Just didn’t want you to think I was a pimp or something…)
Posted by Grant on November 10, 2008 – 9:48 am
Filed under Events, Travels
I had a phenomenal weekend up in the arctic tundra of Minneapolis at the first of three FBLA National Fall Leadership Conferences. I was lucky enough to do the closing keynote with 1,600 students in a room where there weren’t enough chairs…needless to say, the energy in that place was insane! Great event…great students…lots of fun.
I’ll be going to DC this weekend for the second of the conferences, and I can’t wait. After I finish up in DC on Saturday night, I’ll be flying over to Richmond, Indiana and do the closing keynote at the Indiana State Student Council Conference Sunday morning. It’ll be a packed weekend, but I can’t wait for it!
Posted by Grant on October 27, 2008 – 6:08 am
Filed under Events, Travels
I’m packing up this morning and prepping for a full week of travel. I fly out this afternoon and head up to Minneapolis where I’ll be speaking at a college conference tomorrow morning. After I finish up there, I’ll fly to Dover, Delaware where I’ll be speaking Wednesday morning. After that, I’ll fly cross country to San Francisco where I’ll be doing school assemblies at two different schools on Thursday and Friday, and then I’ll fly back late Friday night. So for those of you keeping score at home…
- 4 days
- 3 states
- 9 speaking sessions
- 4300 students
- 3 time zones
- 8 flights
- 6 airports
- Getting paid to do what you love….(wait for it)….PRICELESS!
Posted by Grant on September 28, 2008 – 12:52 pm
I’m packing up at the house and am getting ready to hit the road and head down to Arkansas for most of the week. I will be doing some seminars in Fayetteville, Ft. Smith, and Little Rock.
One thing that will make the trip fun is a new Garmin GPS unit I got last week for my birthday. Printing off Google maps has never failed me, but I’m looking forward to playing with this sweet little gadget!
