Geoff Steck’s

THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY

TGIM #268

TO KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING,

YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW …

How would you complete the title phrase? In these days of massive change at so many levels, many of us are reexamining the path that brought us here and plotting the direction forward. It’s an interesting exercise that should be done regularly, in my view.

So in that spirit I tried the complete-the-phrase challenge recently with a bunch of acquaintances and got a sweeping array of response.

Here are some: To know where you’re going, you’ve got to know…

… Where you’ve been.

… Where you’re going to start.

… Where you are now.

… Where you come from.

… Where you’re “at.”

All true.

All on the right track.

But also, all too easy.

Why? Because they only go in one direction (pun intended): Down the path of “Where.”

“Where” is OK, but … Certainly a great deal of talk about goal-setting is premised on the easy-to-grasp concept of “where.” The parallels to travel, having a destination, mapping out a route in advance, etc. are commonplace. And they’re unquestionably worth knowing because they are good and valid strategies.

But lately I’ve been thinking that, before you tackle the “where” part of the process, there’s a more fundamental answer to the challenge.

What do you think about this twist? To know where you’re going, you’ve got to know –

WHO you are.

Everybody sing:

Who are you?

Who, who?

Who, who?

I really wanna know.

(Even for the musically challenged those lines should be familiar from the opening of the original CSI television series. In fact it’s The Who singing the title song from its 1978 double platinum album.  And just a bit more trivia: The TV spin-off CSI shows use more songs from The Who in their opening sequences.)

Am I having a “CSI” moment? A Pete Townsend flashback?

Well, maybe. Just for fun. But also with a serious purpose in mind.

TGIM Takeaway: When you know WHO you are, you just may get to a better-for-you place, via a much more interesting journey, than where you’d end up plugging a destination into your mental GPS and setting out down the road it lays out for you.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Put first things first. Knowing who you are and what you really want must precede charting out where you’re going if you are to end up at a destination that’s worth the effort of the journey.

How do you do this?

It’s not as easy as you might wish. Most adults have some firmly implanted ideas about who they are, created over time by their circumstances, opportunities, twists of fate.

So how do you determine if those formative paths taken are at the very core of your being or just so ingrained and habitual that you think they are?

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: I’ve been casting around for questioning strategies and have come up with some that seem like steps in the right direction.

To help reveal who you really are, consider these:

► You’re the sole winner of the jumbo mega-lottery. You’ve got millions! Now that you no longer have to focus on making a living, what will you do with your time and your life? What do you want to experience? What do you want to accomplish?

► What does the 94-minute Hollywood movie of your life look like? What’s the title? Who plays you? When in your life does it begin and end and what’s the “narrative arc?” How does the audience feel when the lights come back up? What are they saying as they leave the theater?

► Quickly complete the sentence “I am a ….”

What popped into your mind? Perhaps the title on your business card (VP of Marketing at Big Deal, Inc.) … your relationship status (loving spouse) … your favorite non-curricular activity (Civil War re-enactor) … self-deprecating insight (big, fat, loser geek) … your personality (optimist) … or some combination of these?

Now add the words “one who calls myself” between “I am” and your answer.

Think you are really those labels?

► You have an hour to kill in a bookstore while you wait for a friend to arrive. What sections do you browse?  What specific subjects do you look for in these sections?

► Same bookstore. It has a massive magazine section. You’re handed a coupon for five free magazines. What do you take away?

► What would you be doing now if you were the opposite sex? What would you want to do?

► If you had been born in a totally different culture or time, what would it be and what would you be doing at this stage of your life?

► Turns out there is such a thing as a Fairy Godmother and she appears, wand in hand, and says you may start over from any point in life that you want. When and what changes would you make in schooling, career path, friends and relationships?

And finally, here’s my favorite “Who are you, really?” challenge:

► If you died at this moment, what would you most regret not accomplishing or experiencing? (This is way more revealing than creating a bucket list.)

As you might be sensing, there isn’t really a quickie exercise to complete self discovery. The idea of these challenges in the instant moment isn’t to get to a deep, complete, breakthrough understanding of the “real” you.

But at least one should be an idea starter. I hope it tweaks your (self) interest enough to encourage you to set some time aside and think about, and discuss with those who know and care about you, the many roles you play and are capable of playing.

So where is the real you going? Start from that understanding of “who” as you plan the journey to “where” in the eventful days ahead.

Gotta go now. I’m looking forward to continuing our interaction along the way.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. William Stafford (1914-1993) poet, pacifist and 20^th U. S. Poet Laureate wrote:

“Who are you really, wanderer?”

and the answer you have to give

no matter how dark and cold

the world around you is:

“Maybe I’m a king.”

P.P.S. One essential element of every journey into personal understanding and future focus is the ability to “sell” – not just goods or services but your ideas, your abilities, your beliefs and values  – to others as well as yourself. In that spirit, Mastering the World of Selling – the Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales belongs in every business and personal library. You can order your copy (copies?) and lock up all the exclusive bonuses available to TGIM fans and friends HERE.

You can also find the latest Empowerment Group International goings on at the new-look website by clicking HERE.

GEOFF STECK leads Alexander Publishing & Marketing, a company he formed in 1986. The core AP&M mission: To create and publish leadership, sales mastery, self-improvement and workplace skill-building resources and tools. The focus: Areas such as business communication, staff support, customer care and frontline management. Geoff also puts his corporate and entrepreneurial experience, independent perspective, and skills as a catalyst to work for other firms (ranging from multinational corporations to more modest operations), not-for-profits, and individuals who have conceived or developed programs or initiatives but are frustrated in getting them implemented.

Geoff Steck’s

THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY

TGIM #266

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR MY FRIENDS

Guess who has a birthday today?

No, not me. At this stage of my life I feel it’s sufficient to agree with the Groucho Marx observation, “Although it is generally known, I think it’s about time to announce I was born at a very early age.”

The birthday celebrant is Eric. And this TGIM message is my gift to him for this year. It’s got several parts.

Here’s the prime one: Happy Day, my friend. I value our long-term relationship … appreciate the thinking we’ve shared over the years … and look forward to the many eventful days ahead.

Here’s one nearly as important. Since I don’t your specific birthday, dear reader, I’ll take this opportunity to convey the same message to you: I value our long-term relationship … appreciate the thinking we’ve shared over the years … and look forward to the many eventful days ahead.

And here’s yet another –

A gift for all of us.

Next Monday, one week from today, the most exciting sales, business and self-improvement book of the year becomes available.

Mastering the World of Selling

The Ultimate Training Resource

From the Biggest Names in Sales

The driving force behind this must-have work:

Eric Taylor. He put more than three year’s worth of brain, sweat and earnest effort into bringing together the greatest experts in selling and persuaded them to share their very best thinking with you.

So here’s the birthday deal: Eric gets the rest of today’s TGIM to fill you in on the need-to-know details of this masterwork that belongs in every business and personal library (so maybe you want to get your hands on at least two copies).

And next week he’ll use the Monday TGIM space to get underway one of the most generous, bonus-packed e-launches ever.

Everyone gets great gifts. Everyone gets great value. Everyone gets great actionable information you can put to use immediately.

So pay attention now and along the way and you’ll get a great “New Year” start on creating your next Best Year Ever.

…First, I want to thank Geoff for the birthday wish and also for providing such inspiring content in our newsletter for the past year.

Creating, compiling and orchestrating everything that went into Mastering the World of Selling has been a labor of love the past three years. It would not have come to fruition if I didn’t have the tremendous support of my family, friends and certainly Geoff carrying the FYI /TGIM newsletter torch.

I have to tell you, the sacrifice and the journey in creating this book has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.

The quality of the sales trainers and sales training companies that contributed to Mastering the World of Selling is the beyond reproach.

This book could very well be the last book on selling you’ll ever need!

So here’s the scoop…The BIG PROMOTION starts next week on Tuesday, August 24th…

But you don’t have to wait until then to order your copy.

Here’s the link to order your copy today!  http://masteringtheworld.com

KEEP YOUR ONLINE RECEIPT!!!!! And here’s why…

Next week you will get an email from me with a link giving you access to download more than $2,000 worth of hand-selected Bonus gifts from our contributing authors!

But you will need your order number!

Until next week…have an amazing day and thank you Geoff and everyone for the birthday wishes!

Make This YOUR Best Sales Year Ever!

Eric Taylor

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

GEOFF STECK leads Alexander Publishing & Marketing, a company he formed in 1986. The core AP&M mission: To create and publish leadership, sales mastery, self-improvement and workplace skill-building resources and tools. The focus: Areas such as business communication, staff support, customer care and frontline management. Geoff also puts his corporate and entrepreneurial experience, independent perspective, and skills as a catalyst to work for other firms (ranging from multinational corporations to more modest operations), not-for-profits, and individuals who have conceived or developed programs or initiatives but are frustrated in getting them implemented.

Geoff Steck’s

THANK GOODNESS IT’S MONDAY

TGIM #265

WHAT TIME DOES THE 9:00 TOUR DEPART?

In my recent travels I came across a cruise ship tour director who shared a bit of the lighter side of his responsibilities as well as some customer-care wisdom worthy of TGIM consideration.

As the cruise director of a small ship it was his job to have all the answers; to confidently lead people in the enjoyment of their hard-won leisure time and to field the most unthinking questions without appearing ruffled or overly amused.

Easier said than done. He said that no matter where he cruised – Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and back – his human interactions would leave him nearly as speechless as the exotic locales.

Some typical-but-puzzling customer/cruise passenger queries:

• “Is this snorkel gear waterproof?”
• “Where are all the undiscovered ruins?”
• And the classic: “What time does the 9:00 tour depart?”

He told his tale with the practiced skill of a stand-up comedian. So there might have been some exaggeration. Still, while I can’t guarantee the authenticity of everything he reported, from what I saw of the kind of folks he was herding, much of it seems likely to me.

So I’m going to repeat this story pretty much as he told it.

My coworkers and I used to say that when our cruise ship passengers left home, they checked their luggage and their brains at the airport gate.

These were not stupid people.

Quite the opposite, in fact. They were leaders of industry, lawyers, professors and the like.

But for some reason, when we would anchor off palm-tree paradises and explore sandy shorelines or exotic landscapes, they’d go a little loopy.

“Is this thing connected?” one man asked me on a Virgin Islands beach.

“Connected to what?”

“To land somewhere?”

“It’s an island. It’s not really connected to anywhere.”

“Oh, that’s neat.”

Thankfully the ship employs local experts – people who spend their lives working to find detailed explanations for every natural event. They can tell you the growth rate of the Belizean butterfly and the difference between a doctorfish and a surgeonfish. (No, it’s not more “schooling.”)

But even their studies failed to prepare them for the passenger who asked if she could snorkel under the island of St. John. (Her guide told her, “You can try.”)

Similarly, one time at a beach in the British Virgin Islands a guest asked if the water went all the way to the bottom.

And speaking of water, a grandmother of six was beachcombing when she stopped to gaze at the breath-taking Caribbean water. She told the naturalist she wanted some of the water to bring home to her grandchildren.

The naturalist obliged. He got a clear plastic container with a lid and scooped up some water. When he showed it to the woman, she huffed, pointed into the distance and said, “Oh no. I want blue water.”

No one meant to sound thick, of course. Especially the retired nurse who asked if the hiking excursion on Sage Mountain on the island of Tortola would involve inclines.

I reminded her she’d be dealing with a mountain which pretty much ensures there will “inclines.”

“It didn’t say that in the brochure,” she said.

“But it did say you’d be hiking on a mountain,” I said.

“I’m going to have to talk to someone about this. It made no mention of inclines and people need to know!”

People do need to know. Snorkel gear is made to be waterproof. Islands are completely surrounded by water. That water starts at the bottom. And the 9:00 tour departs at – you guessed it – 9:00.

TGIM Takeaway: Blame the islands, not the people. Simply by setting foot on a distant island (or any get-away destination) the “real” world, along with its disciplined thought processes, becomes a far-away tiny little island of its own.

Isolate the body and the mind will quickly follow.

At many levels that’s the purpose of a vacation. The improbable beauty and laid-back lifestyle of vacation paradises the world over – or just a day at the Jersey Shore – can send the brain into a euphoric state of what might be fairly appreciated as “underdrive.”

How can the water be so blue? How can island inhabitants who, in global terms, seem to have so little appear to have everything they need? How can a warm beer in a plastic cup and a sandy hot dog taste so good? If we’re encouraged to accept the casual concept of “island time” why can’t the 9:00 tour start at 10:30?

TGIM ACTION IDEA: The essence of first-rate customer service is grounded in mastering the concept that “the customer is right” — even when they are ridiculously off the mark. That doesn’t mean folks with mistaken ideas must always and unquestionably be deferred to at every turn. But it does require extending almost superhuman levels of patience and understanding to bring them gently back to reality.

But, hey mon.

No worries, mon.

That’s what we here for.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T. S. Eliot (1888 –1965), the American-born English poet, playwright, and literary critic, wrote that in the closing lines of his poem “Little Gidding,” the concluding segment of the larger work, Four Quartets, a set of poems published over a six-year period. The end of the poem can be understood as describing how he attempted to try and help the world as a poet.

What do you think? Eliot believed that even if a poem can mean different things to each reader, the “absolute” meaning of the poem needs to be discovered.

P.P.S. Here’s another great book discovery for you, no travel required:

With the countdown clock ticking toward the August 23 launch of Mastering the World of Selling – the Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales you’ll want to pre-order your copy and lock up all the exclusive bonuses available to TGIM fans and friends HERE.

You can also find the latest Empowerment Group International goings on at the new-look website by clicking HERE.

GEOFF STECK leads Alexander Publishing & Marketing, a company he formed in 1986. The core AP&M mission: To create and publish leadership, sales mastery, self-improvement and workplace skill-building resources and tools. The focus: Areas such as business communication, staff support, customer care and frontline management. Geoff also puts his corporate and entrepreneurial experience, independent perspective, and skills as a catalyst to work for other firms (ranging from multinational corporations to more modest operations), not-for-profits, and individuals who have conceived or developed programs or initiatives but are frustrated in getting them implemented.