D. Gardner

I have waited until the next day to post from the day before, So I am catching up today.  So this will be posted on the day I wrote it.

Yesterday, I went to hang up the sign, but Kent doesn’t open on Monday.  During the week he is only there after 10AM.  So I will have to wait until Wednesday when I am going to be in the area a bit later.

Here’s todays comment on society.

As human’s, steven hawking being the smartest, we keep slapping each other on the backs and reveling in how smart we think we are.  Between 2000 and 4000 BC we figured out how to domesticate horses.  Then 100 years ago we discovered how to make engines that replaced the power of the horses.  However, we did not replace the horse smarts.  My great grand father told me a story about going to a dance. After the dance he took the girl home and then fell asleep, as he did every dance night, as the horse would take him home. This particular time the horse returned to the Church where the dance was held. He was awakened the morning as parishioners arrived at church. Maybe my son with tell his kids about the time he accidental pushed the church address on the GPS and fell asleep after taking his date home, only to we awakened as church goers arrived to worship the next morning.

4000 years ago some power, I believe it was God, others may say mother nature or evolution, created a beast with power and smarts.  Technology that is still far superior to our cars.  Our cars are only more powerful and faster.  Think about the horse.  It runs on stuff like grass and water, wouldn’t it be cool if cars could run on grass and water.  Horses need to be trained, but can live 25 to 30 years.  That’s longer than a car.    Horses can get better with age, if they are cared for properly.   Maybe our cars will be that good in the next few decades.

I am still looking forward to self driving vehicles.

The first thing I need to get accomplished today is to get my sign up in the window of Shelton Photography.  I am hoping he will be in before 9AM.  If he is not, then I will have to wait until he gets in to put up the sign.  I will give more details as things with that project work themselves out.

This morning I had a thought about trying something new.  Mike my brother explained to me that someone had gotten a group of people together, provided them a meal and then pitched them the product he was selling.  He said that he wouldn’t ever do a one on one or small groups again.  I thought this would be a good idea for Mike.  However, my new idea is to try this for my pay for performance idea.  So I will be working through some of those details today.  I need to see if I can find a list of business owners with over 50 employees.  With this list create a mailer that I can send to each business owner.  I also need to work up a basic outline for the presentation.  I could possibly do that here.  I will need to provide each person with a small note pad to figure out some calculations.

The other thing I need to do is write down that speech to see if I can get it below 7 minutes.

I guess the first part of this is put in the disclaimer, Maybe put the disclaimer that if your business already has a pay-for-performance strategy in place this is not something that will be beneficial.

The first part of the presentation I will ask them to write down how many hourly employees they have and then to times that number by $5000 and that is the amount of extra profit you will get out of your business by implementing a p4p plan.  For instance if you have 17 employees, by implementing a p4p plan you will be able to create an extra $85,000 a year in profit.  The next calculation is the write down the number of salary employees.  Add up what you are paying them per year.  Then times that by 20%.  That will give you another opportunity for profit.  So if you have 5 salaried employees and their combined payroll is $375,000 a year times that by %20 which is $75,000 a year in extra profit potential.

I am going to try and post everyday. I have been trying to write about once a week.  However, I get distracted and the posts are farther apart than that.  So,  I thought if I try and post every day then I will get the hang of doing this quicker.  I am sure there is going to be a bunch of drivel, but in the end I believe I will get better at writing and other stuff I am trying to do.  And with that everyday writing I am going to try and get to 1000 words.

Here is a synopsis of the books I am reading.  The one I have been reading for the longest, and haven’t picked up for over 6 months,  is a speed reading book.  Break Through Rapid Reading  I think I have been working on this book for a couple of years.  I get bogged down in the practice.  However, some of the tips I have learned have really help me get through books faster.  I just finished a book The Voice Book and How to Say It With Your Voice  I read an article in the Wall Street Jornal that addressed that many times people are not taken seriously because there voice is lame.  So I looked up a few books.  I choose the ones that were the highest rated and then tried to find them at my local library.  I was able to get two books at the local library.  The Voice Book talked about posture and breathing.  It had a few exercises, but not much in the book seemed to make much of a difference to me.  However, the How to say it with your voice had a ton of exercises, then about 3/4 of the way through the book there is a chapter with a 12 minute daily routine of practice exercises.  I have been doing these for a week or so and they seem to be making a difference.  I have noticed I am able to keep peoples attention longer because my voice has more power.  It’s great because I can practice on my way to work.

I have been trying to get back to the Innovators DNA  I read a paper about the book on the Harvard Business Review about a year before the book came out.  The premise of the book is that there are innovator skills that everyone can learn.  After reading a couple chapters of the book it invites the reader to take a test online to see how innovative we may be.  After I took the test, I discovered I am not that innovative.  This was a bit discouraging.  However, they have some great instructions in activities that will make me more innovative.  So I need to get back to that.

Also from an article in the Wall Street Journal I discovered a book about relationships for married couples.  I like this book.  I am also trying to get my wife to read the book.  Before I read this book I read another book by the author.  It had some good ideas, but it wasn’t something that really spoke to me about my relationship with my wife.  This second book did a much better job presenting me with ways to understand why things were happening in my relationship and then gives guidelines to improve our relationship.  I have only gotten to chapter 5, because I am waiting for Amanda to catchup.   I think she is satisfied with our relationship and so I have to find a more effective way to motivate her to move forward on the relationship.  I’ll wait until after I have finished to the second book to see if it’s worth mentioning to future generations.

Roman is out selling in Kansas and requested I send him a book.  The Psychology of Selling  I sent this book him and looked it up at the local library.  They don’t have a copy, but I can check out the ebook.  The ebook is a new experience for me.  But I thought I would give it a try.  I am readying scriptures on my phone.  So guess I have been reading ebooks for a while.   I’m only 30 pages into the book.  But I like it so far.

My job status is UNKNOWN!  For now I have one.  But that could change any day.  I am actively looking and I am getting better at marketing myself.  I’ve gotten a few interviews and I have one really good lead.  We’ll see what God has in store for me and my family.

I am having fun with my little electric car.  I’ve put about 1700 miles on the car in a month.  I am going to have to scale back my fun because I should be at about 1250 right now.   I am hoping that I find a job that is closer and it will cut down on my miles.

I am also trying to help my brother Mike get his video business going.  I think we have some good ideas, but it is going to take some work and executing to get these things in place.  My favorite idea now, is the one where we get a bunch of people together, feed them lunch and pitch them on the idea of video for real estate.  I will need to keep pushing Mike to get that done.

Roman is doing well with selling alarms, however, he only has three more weeks before he comes home to get ready for his mission.  I wish he had more time to figure out the selling thing.  I would like to figure out the selling thing.

I am also working on my speaking at Toastmasters, I think I am going to be giving a speech this week about my first pay for performance jobs.  I still need to work on it a bit because I am going over the time limit by a minute or two each time I have practiced the speech.  Maybe I will write it down just to see how long it will take.