Living Your Bucket List

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I’ve always loved the water, the sun and sand, and warm weather.

Whether it’s at a lake or the beach.

Combine the water with my love for athletics and I’m game for just about anything you can do on the water.

I always thought surfing would be fun.

But after trying it several times, I realized I don’t like waiting in the water forever between sets (thats where all the action is).

So when I saw kite surfing, with the constant action, it was clear, this is much more up my alley.

It went up on my vision board and I wanted to learn to do it.

So last year my wife and I took a trip to Cancun Mexico for a week to learn how to kite-surf.

(With my instructor Daniel. He was the best!)

I had a great time. It was exciting, and fun to get up and cruise across the water.
Watching other pros do it almost effortlessly was inspiring.

(I felt like almost drown at one point, which was unfortunate, but it was awesome nonetheless.)

I just ran across a video of an incredible location to kitesurf and it’s going up on my vision board today

Check it out.



The point is not for you to go out and learn kitesurfing.

The point is, whatever you love to do, or think you might like to learn to do, put it up on your vision board, look at it every day.

Think about it when you go to bed at night, envision yourself doing it in the morning and night in the theater of your own mind.

Put a plan into action to accomplish just one of your vision board goals…and then work toward making it happen!

Gratitude On The Cruise

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Every September my wife and I go on a cruise, usually to the Caribbean. We usually bring 10-20 other staff members and their spouses with us.

We have a great time, traveling the world seeing the beauty of the earth.

But something happened this last time we were on the cruise.

I was walking down the hall toward our stateroom and one of the very cheerful attendants walked past with a big smile on his face… “Hello” he said with a smile.

“Hi there!” We smiled back.

Just then an older couple walked past. They were grumpy. Irritated about something, probably something to do with not getting enough food at the all you can eat buffet..

As the attendant walked past them, they could barely muster a smile as they continued on complaining about some, no doubt, insignificant problem.

The whole situation struck me profoundly.

I see spoiled Americans cruising with their boxes and bags, full of expensive clothing, and traveling in style…We’re living in total luxury going to incredible exotic locations!

We’re stuffing our faces with all you can eat food, until we are sick…we spend a week doing nothing but pampering ourselves…]

And yet, many of us still find reasons to complain!

I’ve seen first hand many guests are upset on these trips. They still find something to complain about. To be ungrateful for. They harass stateroom attendants about how the bed wasn’t made to their satisfaction…or the room service was late. (Oh the horror!)

The contrast was sad really…between the pampered guests… traveling in style, disgruntled about something, while the stateroom attendants are working hard, smiling away while sacrificing for their families thousands of miles away.

Many of them are from the Philippines, Caribbean islands, or India. Most of them are married, many have children back at home. They are living on a boat, in cramped conditions, working extremely long hours doing hard work, for 9 months out of the year, thousands of miles from their families.

These folks don’t get to see their children grow up, or be there for their wives when mom needs a break. They don’t get to go out to the movies on the weekend for date night or take a day off.

Don’t get me wrong, they are working on these cruise ships by choice, and for many of them it’s a good paying job that gives them the ability to pay the bills back home.

That’s not the point.

The point is simply this…if there was anyone that has a reason to be frustrated, disgruntled, or be less than cheerful on a luxury cruise ship in the middle of exotic caribbean islands…you wouldn’t think it would be…the guests.

You’d think the ones with a reason to be down in the dumps would be the workers.

I couldn’t help but wonder what these people must think of us ‘Americans’ as we stomp around with scowls on our faces while we are being pampered at every turn.

Certainly not all guests behave in such a despicable manner, but I’ve seen my share of this on cruises.

Then I started thinking of myself, and my own lack of gratitude.

To my shame, even with all the blessings I’ve been given. The abundance, the health, the good fortune of my family, and friends, and everything I’ve been blessed with… I find reasons to complain.

Despite being taught from a young age the importance of gratitude, and my own efforts to teach my children the value of gratitude, of giving thanks…I know I can do better. I can be more thankful, and express gratitude to the Lord for his bounteous blessings more frequently and more sincerely.

I believe gratitude is one of the greatest traits a human can posses. It raises a person to a higher plane, a level of grace and sophistication that ingrates will never achieve.

I’ve made a commitment to myself this year to cherish the blessings and goodness of God in my life…and it never fails to bring me happiness and peace.

One of my core values is Dedication to Financial Independence; for myself, my employees and you, the people we serve.

I believe that wealth is the ability to truly experience life. To live a life that is fulfilling to each of us individually…

And I’ve found that a life that is built on the foundation of gratitude and thanksgiving is a truly fulfilled life.

 

Brett Kitchen

 

 

Billy Mays #1 Rule For Selling (RIP) PART 1

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Billy Mays is best known for his days on your television screen selling cleaning products like “OXYCLEAN” “Orange Glo” and “KA-BOOM”.

He started as a young man making sales to passersby on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

He perfected the art of the pitching, and became one of the worlds best at it…

One of the things that made him so successful was his knowledge of the most powerful human persuasion technique: The Demonstration.

He was famous for turning down huge TV opportunities on great products because of one simple reason…they couldn’t be easily demonstrated on TV in 60 seconds or less.

That was his Cardinal Rule. No demonstration = No Sale.

So as a rule, whatever it is you are trying to sell, find ways to demonstrate it visually.

This is why I’ve spent so much time and money investing in video. Video is a powerful medium, but not just for the reasons many ‘online business guru’s’ tell you.

They’ll tell you people want to be entertained. That’s true but that’s really not the power of video.

The power of video is in, you guessed it, DEMONSTRATING your product.

There are other obvious benefits, like trust, and credibility, and pre-selling your prospect, however, the demonstration that you can do on video is incredibly powerful.

My uncle and father have a business selling dog runs and dog kennels. Their product is very innovative, and unique.

When they came to me for consulting several years ago to launch the product, we put most of our time and effort into creating a compelling video that would show in the first 30 seconds the benefits of the product.

They’ve gone on to create a multi-million dollar business…and the foundation of it is a visual demonstration using video. (You can see their product at www.k9kennelstore.com)

In the next article I’ll share how to create visual demonstrations even if you have a product or service that is not tangible or visible. Many businesses, professionals, and services fall into this category…and I’ll show you exactly how to do this…next time!