R Petty's New Media Blog

I had the opportunity to attend the Get Motivated Seminar in Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena this past Tuesday, and I am very glad I did. The traffic was an issue for most (I took the bus) and the food & concessions layout was not well planned, but I made it through…tired, motivated and mostly unscathed.

The day was INCREDIBLY HOT! It had to be at least 80 degrees (or at least it felt like it) at 7 AM when I caught the bus into downtown. And it was humid and muggy, so I got an iced coffee at the Crazy Mocha (local place-love it!) on the way over from Penn Ave. to Mellon Arena. If I was gonna sit in a seminar, even if it was motivating and electrifying, I knew I would need some caffeine! Well, the powers that be at Mellon decided that all of these people who used their brains and brought a bottled water or a snack to sit through a 9 hr day were just gonna have to do without. They searched all bags and confiscated every bottled water, soda and food item they found. It looked so sad, laying there in a pile on the floor (the trashcans had already overflowed) and it was a disgusting waste of resources and money! I assume this is so that approximately 17,000 people would be forced to buy terribly overpriced food and beverages from Aramark (I believe they do the concessions there, or at least they did last year) for some unconscionable price so they’d make lots of $$$$$$$$. Well, I threw a mini hissy-fit cause she tried to take me beloved latte (soy latte as she later found out). I didn’t actually MEAN to throw a fit, I was just shocked that she would try to take my stuff, (I was still asleep, kind of). After being told I could get a coffee inside, I told her of my allergy and she allowed me to step to the side and finish it before going in to give my ticket at the next door. Kudos for me, she forgot to check my bag and my glorious bottled water remained unrevealed

I found a seat inside and awaited the series of speakers. I took some notes, because I found many of the speakers made good points and were entertaining. I also tweeted a good many highlights that day (you can check me out at twitter.com/shorty1973) and what follows are some notes on what I found to be interesting, helpful, funny, motivating or just mentionable.

1. Dr. Earl Mindell

He had some interesting points, many of which seemed true enough. His prepared slide show of “10 things you should never eat” included donuts, fries and burgers, hotdogs, twinkies, and over-processed foods. This was like the kid’s primer on bad foods and he shared some funny anecdotes about how people only ever decide to go to the restaurant with the ‘BIG M’ about 30 seconds before they pass it, so it’s best to just keep driving right past it. Mindell also warned that people should avoid soda, because it is loaded with 16 teaspoons of sugar in every serving. I think he may need to do some further research, the danger in soda is the high fructose corn syrup and I can think of no mainstream soda manufacturer that uses sugar anymore. I believe it was the mid 80′s when Coca-Cola made the switch, (http://www.mahalo.com/answers/soda/when-did-coca-cola-switch-from-sugar-to-corn-syrup), and everyone else followed suit. He did mention that diet soda uses artificial sweeteners and he also mentioned one of his books, which is about natural remedies. However, beware of what this man has to say. I found several sources that caution that Dr. Mindell is not truly a medical doctor. In fact one non-profit claims “according to CBC, Mindell received his Ph.D. in nutrition from Pacific Western University. The Washington Post reports that Pacific Western University is an unaccredited institution offering “Public Paid for Bogus Degrees.” KVOA TV News 4 reports that Pacific Western is one of seven schools labeled as a “diploma mill” by federal investigators at the U.S. General Accounting Office, (http://goji.breathe.org/). And Dr. James A. Lowell has a great amount of research that disputes most of Mindell preaches: (http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/NegativeBR/vbible.html).

Dr Mindell also stated that people should eat more soy, but too-much-soy has been linked to a number of issues for both men and women, so before you go believing a doctor at a seminar, do you own research and talk to your own doctor!

At least Mindell only did a very soft-sell of his book!

2. Terry Bradshaw

He was funny, a great pick-me-up for the morning and got everyone to wake up and laugh! Terry is an incredibly entertaining personality. He has this ‘Everyman Quality’ and even though he won 4 SUPER BOWLS, you can relate to him. His message seemed to be more about being on a team, getting to know the people you work with and learning how to have fun with them, even when the team is struggling. I can buy into that!

3. Krish Dhanam

I have never heard of this guy, but I was a little blown away! Originally from India, this man was a true American Patriot. He appears to love the US, loves that we offer opportunity without regards to class or upbringing. and he made some very important points.

In order to be successful you must:

Develop Leadership-become someone that others want to follow

Build a Partnership-no one can do it alone, you must have team mentality

Take Ownership-you are accountable for your actions

Restore Relationships-by getting rid of old grudges you can put all your energies to better use, and you won’t have to be sorry tomorrow that you did not do it today.

Practice Stewarship-this is service mentality. There is a great book called “Samurai Selling” that is all about this idea. Trust me, by the title I didn’t want to read it either, but I am very glad that my former boss made me! (Thanks Marcia!)

If you have the chance to see this man speak, you will not be sorry. I found myself riveted and it makes sense, he joined Zig Ziglar, Inc. in 1991 (http://www.krishdhanam.com) and I am a BIG Zig-fan, which you will read more about later on!

4. Phil Town

This guy was very funny, a quick thinker and speaker and a total walking informercial, but it takes a minute to get that idea. He started off strong by talking about selling ‘covered calls’ in the stock market and how he started from nothing as a whitewater raft guide to being a multi-millionaire and SO CAN YOU! If you just sign up for his class (a value of over $3000) and you can get it today for the bargain price of $99! WOW. He also threw out a bunch of investing jargon that I believe was meant to give him some credibility like parameter search for a stock, EPS or Earnings per Share, trend analysis, valuation analysis, MACD, and the margin of safety. He also ran a slide-show presentation that made it appear you could go to this FABULOUS website and get all these great stock buying tools for FREE, but then you realize it’s his site and you have to buy the software to make it work, which is never disclosed as being included in the bargain $99 price, or if it is extra. I will never know, I, like the rest of the persons in my generation and younger ones, are turned off by blatant selling and marketing and need to have my advertising done in a more subtle, social way. However, do not let the idea that this informercial-man will speak deter you from attending the Get Motivated seminar if it comes to your town. It is still worth it, even with him involved.

5. Tamara Lowe

Co-founder of the Get Motivated Seminar Organization was Tamara Lowe, who spoke of her past life (druggie and general ne’er-do-well) who found faith and love and is now a big winner in life. She is likeable and informative and gets the audience to like her and feel inspired. But the best part of her talk (for me) was the concept of Motivational DNA “a built in acheivement code which you are born with.” Everyone’s DNA is different and that’s why it’s harder to motivate everyone the same. Some employees, or children, or boyfriends, are easier to motivate to action with certain tools than with others. Here’s how it works:

D=Dreams : People are either Competitive or Cooperative, meaning they are either Producers (results motivated) or Connectors (relationship motivated).

N=Needs : People are need Constancy or Change, meaing they like stability (facts motivated) or variety (motivated by fun).

A=Awards : People either like Internal or External recognition. The persons are either more responsive to Appreciation (motivated by their contribution) or appreciate a Bonus (like the opportunity to receive something tangible).

She has a new book which explains this, and she was a soft-sell on the book. She also explained that she has partnered with over 30 different children’s charities and that 100% of profit from the sales of the bok will be divided among those charities. She even offered a special on the purchase of a whole case for the office. I feel she left the group with a good feeling and I may actually look into picking up the book in the near future! You can check out her site here: http://www.getmotivatedbook.com. You can also take a test to see what your Motivational DNA is; mine is CSI (Connection-Stability-Internal) I am The Supporter. Basically, I like to help everyone do their own job better. OK, I can live with that.

LUNCH TIME BREAK-Mayhem. Imagine about 14,000 trying to buy lunch at a concessions stand at the same time. I think they only ran 4-6 concession areas and no little side carts for popcorn or pretzels. I imagine about 3,000+ left and tried to go into downtown and get something to walk back with. They gave us an hour. It was an issue, as I heard several people griping that they had stood in line for about 30-40 minutes to finally reach the counter and order, just to be told that they had run out of everything but hamburgers, fries and pretzels. And the prices!?! Wow, I saw a lady pay $18 for a tiny cheeseburger, greasy half-cup of fries and way-too-big soda! What is sadder is that I didn’t see any bottled water for sale, and everything that was able to be purchased at lunch at the arena was on the list of Dr. Mindell’s NO-NO foods. Hmmmm, his credentials may be questionable but at least he got the fast food part right! Did anyone at Aramark think about this? (Thankfully I had a hidden bag of carrots…HAHA!)

6. Troy Polamalu

Because of training camp, Troy appeared Live Via Satellite, as the ticket stated he might. I saw some disappointment. I also saw that some people had brought their kids, I assume in hopes to meet Troy or Terry or whomever. I mean it’s Pittsburgh, if there’s gonna be a Steeler there, from any era, there’s gonna be some Terrible Towels being waved and a bunch of people in jerseys!

Troy was nervous and had made some notes, which he mentioned he was having trouble reading because he was so nervous and they looked like “chicken scratches”. He spoke of the opposites of humility and pride, of hard work and of the “beautiful struggle” of being willing to sacrifice something on a daily basis to be successful. He spoke of his family and his Greek Orthodox faith, and how he doesn’t really work for the Rooney’s but for his wife and his son. Troy stated that you have to make a choice between having a ‘passion for failure’ (being lazy and selfish) or having other more productive passions; those for hard work, building your skills, showing discipline, and repeating a task until you get it right. He was not a braggart and he showed solemn gratitude for what he made of himself. One quote summarized what he had to say; “Spirituality is the center of the life and everything else comes from that.”

7. Rudy Giuliani

Ok, so everyone is back from lunch, they are settled, they have seen Troy P., and they are ready to listen. This is obviously what happened because I was stunned and amazed at the quiet reverence that came over this hall as America’s Mayor spoke. I have never seen, or thought I would see, 17,000 people as silent as this group. They seemed to hang on his every word!

They were some pretty good words to hang on though. Rudy stated that leaders are made, not born, so there’s hope for us all and that for you to become a good leader you have to constantly study, concentrate and improve. You have to take responsibility for your own actions and that at some point you will need to get help from someone to get where you want to be. He also listed the 6 rules for being a good leader.

*Have Strong Beliefs-have goals, lead from your beliefs not by polls. You have to stand for something bigger than yourself and use it to guide how you live and lead others.

*Be an Optimist-people want to follow the hopes and dreams of someone they believe in. “It’s easy to find people to tell you the problem, it’s harder to find people to tell you the solutions.” Find those people and surround yourself with them.

*Have Courage and Take a Risk, but Respect Fear…it can work for you!

*Have Fun-God has truly blessed us!

*Teamwork-you can’t accomplish anything alone. You need to ask yourself ‘what are my weaknesses?’ and then go out and find people who are strong in those areas to both help you and teach you, then you learn from each other. He also said that if you ask yourself the above question and you don’t think you have any weaknesses, ask your wife, she will tell you! (He injected his speech with many little quips and anecdotes; the audience laughed and was pulled from the serious talk appropriately then quieted down quickly, so as to not miss the next point…amazing!)

*Communicate & Motivate-”To be an effective leader, you must love people and care about what happens to them.” He spoke of 9/11 and how he and his team went out into the city and found that everything was much, much worse than they had thought. It really struck him when he saw a man jump from a building many stories into the air; that man took an awful chance and was sure to perish from the fall. His team, his entire city was stunned, scared and looking to him,. He had to step up, and be there when everything was going wrong, because that’s when people need you the most. He also spoke with great respect for Pres. G.W. Bush and how he came to Ground Zero and stayed for a very long time, even though all of his advisors and the Secret Service wanted him to leave. Rudy ended on a funny story of how a huge firefighter hugged the President and a Secret Serviceman warned Giuliani, “If anything happens to him, you’re a deadman.” And he grinned and knew that it would all be okay because you have to trust people to do the right thing.

8. Zig Ziglar

I am a huge Zig-fan (as previously stated) and I have read several books. I have a copy of Selling 101 and used to carry it with me everywhere when I was in sales! here is one of my old favorites:

“When we carefully listen to the prospect’s elaborate interests, desires, hobbies and other thoughts, we are putting them in debt to us. They then have the feeling they owe us something, and consequently, they are more willing to listen to our story since we have given them the courtesy of listening to them.” This is how I intend to do my work now, and in the future.

But this was the first time I heard him speak. I was a little disappointed, but only marginally. He is 82, and was helped onto the stage by his son. It seems his son, Tom, and daughter, Julie, have taken a key role in keeping up with the ZZ brand. They both help him with the writing and publishing of more books and it’s nice to see a family all involved in the same business. Zig, who was once a bigger motivator for sales people, now seems more concerned with the ideas of making yourself successful at home, which will lead you to greater success outside of the home, no matter what line of work you do. Zig also experienced a bad fall in recent months and an explanation of that event followed. A video was presented and demonstrated some of Zig’s past motivational subjects. However, there was a great deal of talk of the Home Court Advantage, like in sports. Zig claimed he ‘brought the prettiest girl in the place,’ speaking of his wife of roughly 60 years. I think he must have done something right to not only have kept a spouse for such a long time (we should all be so lucky) but to have children who love him and respect him so much that they want to work with him everyday. Here’s some pearls of motivational wisdom from the master:

“If you get knocked down reaching for a goal, it doesn’t change the goal, just the direction you take to get to it.”

“Complaining makes problems worse, but positive response helps you solve problems.”

“People in a relationship who love each other and respect each other will have more success both at home and in their business.”

“You can have anything in life you want, as long as you help as many other people get what they want.”

“Motivation won’t last but neither do bathing and eating. But if you do both everyday you’ll live longer and smell better.”

(On a side note, Zig helped me that day on a personal level. He stated that to be successful, you must court your spouse everyday. I changed the quote slightly and texted it to my BF, Jim. He texted back a cute smile emoticon and I later got surprised with flowers for no reason! I asked, why, and he said “because I’m successful,” Thanks Zig!)

9. Paul James & Bob Kibbett
(Sadly, no pictures to be found.)
(Originally when I posted, I originally stated that all the following information was from Paul James only. I recalled later that the synopsis below was from 2 different speakers. Paul James spoke of real estate sales–no interest in that area so no review here–and how to make income in this manner. Bob Kibbett spoke on website creation and SEO. Sorry for the confusion!)

These guys were mildly informative. Once again, another soft-sell for a one-day class on how to start a website to sell stuff. The class includes a free website template so you can get your site up and going in no time. The part of the speech I liked was the brief discussion on SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. I am unsure if the class actually teaches how to do this, so I didn’t sign up (it was only $30 for you and a family member to attend). I wanted to maybe look into it after-the-fact as the class isn’t until September, but I can’t find this guy on the Get Motivated site, or by name. Perhaps this is a little iffy. Glad now I didn’t buy the class!

10. General Colin Powell

Another first for me, I have never seen Colin Powell speak. He was delightful. Funny, likeable, respectable and he has the demeanor of a true leader and a military man. He made jokes about how he didn’t miss a lot of things from being the Secretary of State, but he missed him private plan after he ‘gave it to Condi and now Hilary has it somewhere, who only knows where.’ He reminded us to never forget the people who have served us well and that education is a big priority to he and his wife, as it should be to all of us. He says the children are the future and his grandkids all want to talk to with Twitter and Facebook and email. But he doesn’t know how to do all of those things (I would be glad to teach him, for a small fee for service!) He mentioned that his grandkid said he had added him as a friend on Facebook, but Colin replied “I’m not Facebook,” to which the response came “Sure you are.” General Powell’s response was that he never signed up and he needed to look into having it removed. “But Poppy,” says unnamed gradnkid, “you have over 15,000 fans.” Actually it’s 16,740 as of 11:51 pm on Thursday. So the General is gonna leave this page right where it is. Check it out, just search for him on Facebook.

Above is just one example of many anecdotes that proved this military and political powerhouse to be endearing, human and honest. He stated the world is equalizing, becoming flatter and that the competition in the global market is good for the US. He stated that we, the US, cannot fall into the trap of trying to close our borders to those who may try to do us harm, because then we would also close them to those who will help us to stay strong; that we must stay an open country and true to ourselves, otherwise the bad guys will win. Powell also reminded us to inspire people as they self-motivate, so they will continue. “Get good followers and inspire them to acheive goals…give them a sense of purpose.” And if you give people the tools and support they need to do their job well, they will believe in you and may just follow you out of curiousity, to see how you get them out of a seemingly impossible situation.

Two other points demonstrated the need to congratulate people and compliment them when they do well, so they know they are valuable. But it is also neccesary to have standards in place, and expectations. Make people be accountable, when they are not doing their job, or just coasting on the work of others, you must get rid of the dead weight. It will inspire those who want to do a good job to continue on that path.

The day was interspersed with big door prizes, a rap-DJ-light show, soulful singing, and a dance-off. Great funny items that probably kept more attendees from falling asleep and got them talking to the strangers around them (worked for me)! There were some infomercial moments, but it makes sense because someone has to pay for this type of event; I mean, at $5 a head, or $20 for the whole office, there is no way that covered all the costs.

Bottom line: invest in yourself, network, and do right by the people around you…they will be more likely to do right by you!