Posted by Grant on July 24, 2008 – 6:00 am
Filed under Events, Travels
I haven’t had much of a chance to blog this week so I wanted to check in with some updates…
- I spoke Monday in Springfield, IL to a group of state officers from various student leadership organizations around Illinois. I had a great time being a part of the event, but was bummed because I had leave so quickly after the event to catch a flight out of St. Louis. I love meeting students, so I hate it when I leave immediately.
- I flew into Knoxville and picked up my rental car. All they had for me was a bright, cherry red Mustang. It is the kind of car that begs (a) to be driven fast and (b) to be pulled over. I drove over to Nashville yesterday and tinkered with option (a) and thankfully avoided option (b).
- I’m really missing my girls…for some reason, it’s extra bad this week.
- In Nashville, I’m staying at a Double Tree hotel. I like checking in because they give you a free cookie. Wow, how sad am I?
- I’m going to dinner tonight with a buddy from high school who is building his music career here in Nashville. Really looking forward to hanging out with this dude…
- Did I mention I really miss my girls? Only one more night away and then I fly home. Being gone for 1 or 2 nights isn’t a huge deal for my wife or I but when you’re gone for 5 night in 3 cities, it starts to wear on you.
Posted by Grant on July 20, 2008 – 12:16 pm
Filed under Events, Travels
I’m getting ready to leave in the next hour or so to hit the road again. I’ve been home for several weeks with the new arrival of little Emilee Beth. It’s been nice to be home for a while, but Daddy has to go make some money!
I’ve got a 5 hour drive to Springfield, IL where I’m speaking at a student leadership event Monday morning. Then I’ll drive to St. Louis and catch a flight to Knoxville, TN where I’ll be speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, I’ll drive over to Nashville, TN and speak there Thursday and Friday. Friday night I fly back to St. Louis and then will have a 3 hour drive back home.
Just seeing that schedule makes me tired!
But I love what I get to do, so I’m looking forward to being at some great events this week! Plus, my wife just got a new laptop, so we can talk with a webcam and I can see all the girls back home.
I’ll keep you updated on the travels this week!
Posted by Grant on June 28, 2008 – 8:24 am
I’m in Atlanta right now doing some workshops for the National FBLA Conference and I’m staying in the Hyatt Regency, which is a really nice hotel. As much as I travel lately, I’ve begun to notice little things that some hotels do that set themselves apart from others. Here are some things that have happened here at the Hyatt:
- Hotel staff almost always calls you by your name. Don’t know how they it but they do…
- Received fancy cheese/cracker spread at random the other night
- Received a call from the hotel manager making sure everything was good with my room.
- I went to the hotel lounge for some appetizers last night and the after talking with the lady in charge of the food, she went out of her way to go get me chocolate ice cream! To clarify, I didn’t ask her to, but she asked me if I wanted any.
- I needed a couple of tweaks to the rooms where my workshops were and they were taken care of within minutes.
And so overall it has been an extremely great hotel experience. But then yesterday, something happened that left a bad taste in my mouth. After I finished my second workshop, the hotel staff began tearing down the room to reset for a different event. It happens and I’m used to it, so no big deal. But somehow in the shuffle, I had a box filled with all my worksheets and promo cards for today’s workshops that was thrown out with the trash. Again, it happens, not the end of the world.
But the frustration was that I could not get a single staff member to stop long enough to help me find it. There were probably 30-40 staff in there moving things around and resetting this massive room, but everyone was too busy to help one of the hotel guests. What really irked me was when I found someone I presume was a manager of sorts (dressed in a suit) but when I asked him for his help, he literally shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sorry, it’s not my problem.”
Are you freaking kidding me?!? Your staff tosses something I need and it’s not your problem?! Wow…
So I say that to say…the little things make a big difference. I had a great stay at this hotel and they did so many things with excellence but what will I remember about being here?
The staff member who pointed out that my need wasn’t his problem.
The same thing is true in your everyday life. The smallest comment. The littlest chore. The thing you did that you thought was no big deal. Any of those things could make all the difference in the world.
But is the difference that you make going to be a positive or negative one?
Posted by Grant on June 25, 2008 – 7:17 pm
I enjoyed a nice afternoon and evening strolling around Washington DC and getting to play tourist. Here were some of my stops:
Posted by Grant on June 25, 2008 – 8:40 am
As many of you may know, my wife is quite pregnant and is due in the next few weeks. This is our second so we are fairly familiar with the drill but anytime a baby is involved, it makes planning your business travel a little difficult.
So I fly into Baltimore last night where I will be speaking at the Maryland 4-H State Conference on Thursday morning. Which means I have all of today off and was just planning on getting some work done here at the hotel. I arrive late and get to bed around midnight or so.
Then the phone rings at 4am.
And it’s my wife.
Did I mention she is quite pregnant? When your wife is quite pregnant and you’re halfway across the country, you don’t want a phone call from her at 4am!
She said she was having some major contractions and was going to head into the hospital but to hang tight. So naturally I’m up and awake at this point, despite only a few hours of sleep. I begin browsing flight options and found the best option would be that I would fly direct to St. Louis, rent a car and drive 3 hours home. I’d be home for about 6 hours and then would drive back to St. Louis to catch a flight back to Baltimore so I could speak the next morning.
It was a pretty ambitious plan but I was ready to go. So I packed up everything, headed to the airport, with the instructions from the Mrs not to buy a ticket until they hear from the doctor. I get to the airport and am sitting there in the terminal just waiting for “the call” so I know whether or not I need to buy a ticket for a flight that leaves in about 45 minutes!
As it turns out, she was certainly having some strong contractions but her water hadn’t broken and she wasn’t quite there for baby-pushing time.
So thankfully I drove back to the hotel and took a morning power nap.
Quite an eventful morning!
Posted by Grant on June 23, 2008 – 9:45 am
Filed under Random, Travels
I’m in West Lafayette, IN today on the Purdue campus and am speaking at an event later this afternoon. So earlier I leave the hotel to go grab something for lunch. I pull into this parking lot in my oversized SUV (oddly enough, my only rental option available at 2.30am). I park and then try to reposition the car and in doing so, I end up clipping the side mirror of the truck next to me.
Oh crap.
And even better, the guy whose car it was saw the whole thing and came out to greet me. Thankfully he was pretty cool about it and we were able to get it fixed pretty easily. It certainly could have been a lot worse.
Another element of the glamour of travel…
Posted by Grant on June 21, 2008 – 7:09 pm
Filed under Events, Travels
I made a quick trip out to Denver this week and had the privilege of speaking at a youth event out there on Friday morning. The neat part of this event was that it was for students whose parents are in the Army Reserves. Several of their parents are stationed around the country at various bases and others are stationed around the world in combat situations. It was humbling to talk with these students and to hear what their lives are like with parents in these situations.
These teenagers and their parents are true heroes in my mind. It is because of what they do that I get to do what I do.
Here’s a picture after we wrapped up. It was one of those pictures where several cameras were flashing at once and it appears I may be the only one to actually look at my camera!
Posted by Grant on June 19, 2008 – 10:18 am
As a speaker, some seasons are busier than others. The next 10 days will be a “busier-than-normal” swing. Here is my schedule:
June 19 – Drive to Kansas City. Fly to Denver.
June 20 – Speak once in the AM in Denver. Fly back to Kansas City. Drive home.
June 21 – Home in Springfield, MO
June 22 – Fly to Indianapolis. Drive 1½ hours to hotel. Arrive around 1.30am
June 23 – Speak once at Purdue at a 4H event
June 24 – Do 3 workshops at event. Drive 2½ hours to Chicago. Fly to Baltimore.
June 25 – Day off in Baltimore. Sleep. Try not to die.
June 26 – Speak once in Maryland at 4H event. Fly to Atlanta.
June 27 – Do 2 workshops in ATL at National FBLA Conference.
June 28 – Do 2 more workshops in ATL. Fly home.
Did I mention that my wife is due with our second daughter in less than a month? Yeah. We try to keep things interesting in our lives.
After all this, I’m home for about 3 ½ weeks which I’m really looking forward to.
Posted by Grant on June 18, 2008 – 1:34 pm
I wrote the other day about the Instructions that flight attendants give but I wanted to finish my train of thought. We all know that no one is really paying attention when the flight attendant is giving their pre-flight instructions so it raises a couple of questions in my mind…
If you have a business or you are trying to get some type of message out, you have to ask yourself: Is anybody really listening to what you’re saying? If you keep doing the same things, you’re going to keep getting the same results. So what do you need to change to get your message across?
But I guess from a flight safety standpoint, I have to also ask this question:
Would anyone really remember all those instructions when they needed to know them?
I hope I would…or at least that the person I’m sitting next to would so they could save my life…
Posted by Grant on June 16, 2008 – 1:18 pm
Filed under Funny, Travels
In the last week, I figured I was on 7 different flights for my travels. And we all know that every time you get on a plane, the flight attendant has to walk through their little spiel that most people tune out. I am usually one of the people tuning out but I did catch something a flight attendant said on one of the flights. As she was explaining how to put on your oxygen mask, she said a great line. As serious as could be, she said…
“Don’t forget to breathe.”
Maybe that line is always there and I’ve just missed it but is it even possible to forget to breathe?!
I also always enjoy the instructions on how to use a seatbelt…for those who haven’t been in a car ever in their life.
