My good friend Adams Hudson has asked me a favor and I was more than happy to oblige. He is doing a f*r*e*e marketing tele-seminar on September 7th (this Thursday). This is a not a "selling seminar" and it's aimed more at plumbers (than HVAC) and helping them get started in the "right" kind of marketing. National Talk Show Host, Larry Stevens, will be joining Adams and each participant will receive several marketing tools, seminar guide book and real world examples. Click here to register.


 Road Improvements  

“The Black and White TV”
By Mark Matteson

It was the Summer of Love. 1967. I was about 10 years old. We had a Black and White 19” Television. There were three channels to watch, (Four if your had a lot of tin foil and were patient and creative with the rabbit ears!) Everyone in MY neighborhood had a B&W TV. Then the magic day came….the 25-inch color console was delivered to the house. No one home but me. The TV guy delivered it, set it up (NO remote control or cable, hadn’t been invented). Then he turned it on….Living Color! Kirk Douglas (Michael Douglas’s DAD!) was fighting some Roman Gladiators and the blood was RED! Whoa Daddy! This was amazing. For three hours I was glued to the set.

Now fast forward a few years....

One morning I invited Pat McCarthy to breakfast and he agreed. He is the author of “The Nordstrom Way,” the best selling business book on Customer Service and Sales Effectiveness. I asked him what the secret of his overwhelming sales success was. You see, Pat had consistently sold well over a million dollars a year in men’s clothes in the downtown Seattle Nordstrom store. The next closest person was half that amount.

“It requires becoming other-centered.” “That is to say, you have got to care more than most people are willing to. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Pat was consistently their top performer year after year.

It has taken me 10 years of study, reflection, trial and error, and observation to understand fully what Pat meant that day.

Here it is as simply as I can make it. The 10 Differences of a different life:


OTHER-Centered SELF-Centered

1. Actively Listening to other      1. Talking about yourself
2. Working to understand           2. Waiting to talk
3. Empathy                             3. Narcissism
4. Creative Caring                    4. Indifference
5. Appreciation                        5. Criticism
6. Gratitude                            6. Cynicism
7. Responsibility                       7. Blame
8. Optimism                             8. Pessimism
9. Joy                                    9. Depression
10. Hard Work                        10. Sloth

As a kid the SELF centered column came naturally to me. I have invested the last 25 years of my life working to live in the OTHER-Centered column.
How? Reading books, Associating with Positive People, Attending Seminars, Finding Mentors, Writing in my Journal, Listening to CD’s and Thinking, Reflecting upon and keeping what works and what doesn’t.

My friend Andrew Bennett said to me during a Team Building Seminar we were facilitating in 1995, “Mark, it’s not about you!” Ouch! You know what? He was right. I need to take my ego out of the equation in my relationships with others. When I do, the results are amazing. Here’s what will happen:
 Other people want to spend more time with you but won’t know why
 People open up and tell you things they don’t tell their barber/nail person, spouse or best friend
 They will give you their business, their time, and their friendship
 You kids will WANT to spend time with you
 Your Bank Account will increase
 You will have more Joy in your life
 You will live longer

Earl Nightingale asked a powerful question years ago. Here it is:
“How Can I Increase My Service To Others?” He went on to say, “Understanding that my income is in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of service rendered. Do you want to earn more? Serve more! Like the woodstove, you will get back what you put in. Want more heat? Load up the stove. It’s that simple.”

Okay, say you want to change. You are convinced. But how? Answer, One Thing At a Time! Go to our website, www.mattesonavenue.com and click on the brand new PDF Special Report entitled “Dashboard Decree.” It’s F*R*E*E. It will show you the way. Try it for 30 days. If anything positive happens, try it again for 30-more days. It’s amazing. It works!

Is it worth the effort? You bet. I promise you one thing. Living Color is muuuuch better than Black and White, especially on a 54 inch LCD big screen with surround sound! Now how do get those other 532 channels? Say how do you program this TIVO anyway? I want to record the new Michael Douglas movie…I better call Kevin Thomas!


 

 Did you know?

Price of a new home
2006: $290,600
1967: $24,600 ($149,147 in 2006 dollars)
1915: $3,200 ($64,158 in 2006 dollars)

Cost for a gallon of regular gas
2006: $3.04 (as of Aug. 7)
1967: 33 cents ($2.00 in 2006 dollars)
1915: 25 cents ($5.01 in 2006 dollars)

Price of milk
2006: $3.00 gallon
1967: $1.03 gallon ($6.24 in 2006 dollars)
1915: $ .36 gallon ($7.22 in 2006 dollars)

Cost of a first-class stamp
2006: 39 cents
1967: 5 cents
1915: 2 cents
 

More cool facts

 One for the road

This months One for the Road is "The Invisible Employee" by Adrian Gostick.

This months web site is www.halurban.com. Check it out! Hal is a speaker, author, teacher and much more.

  Watch "The Road" Buddy!

Short and Sweet is coming....

Eager To Impress The Boss

A young executive was leaving the office late one evening when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Listen," said the CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document here, and my secretary has gone for the night. Can you make this thing work?"

"Certainly," said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button.

"Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy."


 The Boulevard

PLANNING ON KEEPING YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS? According to Purdue University, and most experts, it’s not only important to have written goals, but you must have a plan to reach your goals.

Goals 2006 is the complete program to help you "create a life on purpose." Will 2006 be just another ho-hum year that started with good intentions? Or will it be YOUR Year! Your year to lose that weight you're tired of carrying...start that business you've been talking about...get out of debt for good. Are you tired of being stuck in the same gear?

Go see why one program graduate, Lucy O. said, "Breaking through, or at least finally recognizing, what my barrier is with writing goals, is a MAJOR accomplishment - one I've been trying to find for over 15 years! And I finally got it - I GOT IT!" Click Here

 The Wire's Conduit

This months Wire tip is for anyone who gets s#p#a#m. I'm sure this applies to some of you. Here's a scenario that might peak your interest:

I use Comcast for you primary email. All my accounts forward to this account. I love to hate Comcast but I have to admit the connection is very fast (even if I have reset my cable modem once a week). I have three s#p#a#m filters that all my mail goes through. The first is the Comcast filter and that one gets about 95% of the s#p#a#m. It has never given me a false positive (just dumb luck). The next filter is built into MS Outlook and it grabs some of the rest. I have a special folder (which Outlook setup) called "Junk E-mail". I can not change the name or location and I have to check it periodically for false positives but once I add that email to the approved list, it flies right through. The last filter is built into Norton. It suffers the same as Outlook. I can turn either Outlook or Norton filters off if I like but they seem to work to the point where I get maybe one s#p#a#m a day.
Depending on your email provider to do all the filtering will work but you will have to train it to do so. Start with their filter set low (or off) and go in daily to add those people to your approved (or white list) You can also "black list" certain ones too. You will have to go to the on-line version of your email provider. Then use your Outlook or Outlook Express to bring the mail into your computer.

It's really amazing how many s*p#a#m emails I never see. When I'm away from my main computer and I check my mail on-line, I see about 150 a day sitting in the filtered folder.

Did you wonder why I spelled s#p#A#m this way? That's so someone's filter doesn't see the "word" and filter out the whole message.

Questions? email Kevin at kevin@mattesonavenue.com Have a web site? Need a web site? Need an update? Need an E-zine? Ask about our package plans. Ask about my fr*ee analysis for your site.

 

 End Construction  

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