Power of One - One Little Note….
Today is the first day of a great new decade. If you are like me you may feel like your life is on fast forward. I have always been a person who sends out thank-you cards. I guess I can thank my sweet mom for this habit. But, I recently read an article about the power of writing thank-you notes. Mike Bowen is the President of Champion Awards in Memphis, TN. He has a great company and I love his perspective on life and business.
Business Advice From A Grown Up Kid
From the desk of Mike Bowen
Power of One
You know that light bulb moment. You know, when you just became conscious of something so simple that you say to yourself ” I can do that!” Thank goodness we all have these ideas. It’s the “action” part that has to take over next. Because if your like me, you have a tendency to think and analyze and rethink way to much. I can still remember so clearly one such moment that happened to me over 25 years ago.
I was a decent young salesperson but had a really deep inferiority complex. I was in my early 20’s and still didn’t think I was worthy of being ultimately successful. I went to the Memphis Chamber meetings, was a Memphis Jaycee, joined Sales and Marketing Executives. I even even listened to all the sales tapes. Zig Ziglar, Art Linklerter, Fred Herman, Tremendous Charlie Jones, Tom Hopkins, Don Hutson. Now mind you, all this greatly helped in some measure, but I wasn’t necessarily getting the satisfaction out of selling stuff that I should.
Then I met a man; Mr. Carl Carson was a great man. He single handedly invented the truck leasing business with Carl Carson Leasing. Was one of the first in the 50’s and 60’s to have uniformed logo’d trucks. He even advertised on television of all things. He was in his 80’s when I finally got a chance to meet him at a Sales and Marketing meeting. He had sold his company to Saunders Leasing, which became Ryder Leasing. He was a gracious humbled man. He was wealthy with not only money but friends as well.
After I first met him, I received a simple ” thank you” card. I can still remember the words, ” Mike, It was a great pleasure seeing you. Thank you so much for your time. Hope to see you again soon. All the best, Carl.” It made me feel so good. You know what? Every time I spoke with him at any event, I would receive another card!
One day, I stopped and asked him why he sent me a card every time he saw me. I’ll never forget what he said next. He said, Mike because you have given me the greatest gift anyone can give an old salesman. “A little bit of your precious time.” I was floored and wanted to know more. “Mr. Carson, you attend dozens of functions a month and meet 100’s of people. How do you do it?” He responded, “well son, I’m up every morning at 5:00am and I can whip out 30 to 40 of these by 6:00am.” He went on, ” I started with one card a day and now it’s a habit that gives me a great start to the day.” Then he leaned over and whispered, ” It makes me feel gooood.” I still wanted to know more. He said, “writing letters and notes was a lost art, but don’t you always get a little tingle when you open the mailbox and you have a personal card written to you.”
That very moment is when the “Power of One” hit me. If I write just one card a day each working day a week that is 260 cards a year, WOW! To this day I still try very hard to send a Thank You card to people that have given me the most precious thing they have, a little bit of themselves.
(©2009 Mike Bowen - used with permission)
So how cool was that idea? So starting today, I have taken the challenge – I am going to see if 2010 can be my official “year of the card.” Care to join me on the journey?
You can find out more about Mike’s company here: www.gochampion.net
Advent Conspiracy
Typically this blog is focused on business and the concepts of leadership. This post is a little different. It is the time of year when many of us focus on family and the more important things in our lives. Several months ago I became an active participant in something called the Advent Conspiracy. You may have heard about it this past week in the news: Yahoo.
I actually found the movement last year and shared the concepts with our college ministry this year. As part of putting the learning into action, the students chose Point of Impact as their charity of choice for giving this year. www.POIHN.org. The students finished the program this morning, raising more than $900 to buy backpacks for children in Honduras. Just amazing!
The concepts of the movement is four-fold - Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More and Love All. The idea is not to turn away from gift-giving but to make gifts more meaningful - to spend less money while making gifts more relational. This refocus to family and faith has been pretty powerful in my life. Again, it is not about forcing the concepts on others but about the very personal decision to make the change in perspective. You can learn more at www.adventconspiracy.org.
Yes - the post is a little out of the ordinary - but that is want Advent Conspiracy is all about. I just wanted to share my personal story of how AC has made a difference in our Christmas this year.
“Lead With Your Heart” Syndicated by CustomerThink.com
I received some exciting news last week from Bob Thompson, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com. Lead With Your Heart has been syndicated effective immediately. This is a great opportunity and will give me the opportunity to share insight with a whole new set of readers. CustomerThink is a global thought leader in Customer-Centric business management. The site that provides blogs, news and insight with a focus on Customer Experience.
-
Bob Furniss
As founder and President of Touchpoint Associates, Inc., Bob Furniss has more than 25 years of experience in the customer service field - assisting organizations to increase productivity and profits by bringing out the best in their people. He has shared his experience in the areas of leadership and service with some of the top companies in America - companies like FedEx, Corporate Express, DePaul University, Delta Airlines, Hanley Wood and more.
Click here to email Bob direct -
Connections
