“If you don’t go out and get it…I will”

Quote of the day for me from Gary Vaynerchuck @garyvee -

So on my way to work I occasionally stop into a Dunkin Donuts to grab a donut or two.  Almost evry morning there is a gentleman there that is either talking with his friends or just sitting drinking a cup of coffee.  I watched him most morning when I came in, and he always has a smile on his face.  Most mornings if he sees you walk in the door he will say good morning to you, and ask you how you are doing this great morning.  I have never seen him upset and he always seems to have a smile on his face.  I have to admit I like seeing him at the place in the morning and it is really nice to start the day off with people that are happy around you.

We canot change the fact that we have to wake up each day and go to work so why get down about it and start the day off with a negative attitiude.  Stay positive, and remember these words I heard him tell someone today.

“If you woke up this mornig that you made it to role call, so have a god day”  So very true, so go and have a good day.

Frank

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Business Heroes from frank gorton on Vimeo.

Who are your business heroes?  Who are the people that you look up to in the business world.  For me I have two, Richard Branson and Gary Vaynerchuk.

I have been a fan of Richard Branson for a number of years.  I have read a couple of his books, and admire how he got started, and all that he has accomplished so far.  In the interviews that I have seen with him he always seems very grounded, and seems to have a good heard on his shoulders.  He is very successful, and yet still does not come across as a snob.

Gary Vaynerchuk is just awesome.  I first came across him looking at Twitter and have been a fan ever since.  I have seen numerous presentations that he has given at conferences, and have bookmarked almost all of them.  I find his presentations to be very motivational, and his everyday common man approach makes him blend in with the crowd.

When you look at these two people, they have a true passion for the work that they are doing.  They are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, and they have fun doing it.  In addition they have a strong sense of family, and know what is really important.

Who are your business heroes? WHo do you admire? Let me know below.

Peace
Frank

I use Social Media everyday and it is at the center of all I do both professionally as well as socially.  I think all of the various tools that surround us allow us to reach and connect with people in ways that we had never really anticipated.  In previous post you will see that I talk a lot about how tools such as Facebook allow you to talk and listen to all of your connections/friends in both an active and passive mode.  These connections are all centered around the fact that you have a connection to the poeple that you are monitoring.  You have a connection to them, either you work with them, went to school with them, or they are a friend or family member.

But there is much more to just an interactions then you could have imagined.  I recently saw a presentation from Ted.com (http://ww.ted.com) that showed how one person has created a program to pull together emotions and feeling from blogs out on the web.  He pulled this information into a program that they showed the view of all of these various emotions to allow you to watch and see what the web is feeling at a certain time.  The presentation is a very powerful tool to see how blogs, one of the first social media tools allows people to share their feelings with others, and how by grouping that information you can see how the general community is feeling.

In looking at this presentation you can see why blogs are such a powerful tool.  I kind of use this blogs as both a sounding board for ideas, thoughts or just rant about things that have happened throughout the day.  Blogs are changing the way that people get their daily news and information, and are quickly becoming the main source of news for some people.  This project is a step in the direction of allowing us to gain the thoughts and emotions of a community based on their direct interactions with their communities, in an unobtrusive approach.

I thought the idea of pulling together various emotions from people through their blogs was an amazing project.  The whole idea of social media is a connection with people, and this allows you to gain a larger view of how people are feeling with the ability to then dig deeper and eventually connect to the users blog.

Once you have viewed the presentation above take a look at the actual site and play around the tool for a bit it is very impressive.  The site is located at WeFeelFine (http://www.wefeelfine.org/)

So why do you blog or use Twitter?  Is it because you want your voice to be heard?  Do you have a message you want people to hear?  Do you view it as a form of therapy?  Tell me why you blog, and leave me a link to your blog.

Be Well

Frank

Have you ever taken a long look at the dynamics that make up your family?  I mean really looked at who in the family is the one that really made the family stick together and foster all of the communication?  I grew up in a great family, and when I first started dating my wife, she actually called my family the “white picket fence family” because we all got along, loved one another, and were always happy.  In looking at this statement I would have to say I agreed with her, I had a great childhood, and would not have changed anything that my parents did in their parenting practices at all.

About 10 years ago just before my wife and I were about to get married my mother passed away with Cancer.  I would be lying to you if I did not tell you this was devastating for me even as an adult.  I love my mother very much and could always count on her to make sure we all got together.  I was blessed with the fact that my parents went against the odds and made their marriage work.  See recent research has now shown more people get a divorce then stay together, so kudos to them for making it all work and making it seem so seamless to us.

Now the dynamics of my family have changed, and things are very different then they were 10 years ago.  My family has grown with 2 kids, my father has now remarried, and my sister is married with a child as well.  I still love my family very much but have noticed that the overall dynamics of our family have changed over the years.  We chat one the phone, and try and get together when we can but it is obviously not the same, and when I sit and think about that it actually is depressing.  I wish we still had the “white picket fence family” vibe going, but things are different.

In looking at the way my family is now, it is very clear my mother was the matriarch of the family and the glue that kept everyone communicating so much all growing up.  Now I am not saying my father, my sister, and I do not communicate, but there is a big difference from the way we chatted and hung out before and the way we communicate now.

So I have learned a very big lesson in this life experience that I have gone through over the last 10 years.  Communication is hard and requires a great deal of work.  This is in both the personal world as well as the professional world.  In looking at the lessons my parents taught me, we learned you should always try and be as personable as possible when dealing with people.  This is something that I try and install in my children today and I hope they receive the same message as I did.

One has to realize that communication is a two sided exercise.  It is not alright to just talk and not to listen.  You can gain a great deal of information by just allowing yourself to take in what the other person is saying.  You can learn from their communication habits, and interpret their emotions.  I would have long conversations with my mother sometimes and I would just talk and talk and I now realize that she would listen to take in all that was going on in my life. See the act of listening allows you to gain a true sense of who that person is, and what they are feeling.  In other times my mother would do all of the talking and I would just listen, sometimes it just feels good to say what is on your mind.

Social media and all of the fancy tools all breaks down to some of the basic and fundamental things we all learned when we were growing up.  See just as your parents probably taught you, we need to spend just as much time listening to others as well as talking.  In addition I think if in your communications you try and be as personable as possible, you will come across as a more genuine person.  This is key in social media and life, with all of our communications.  See the issue with all of this is that you want to establish a personal bond with all of those you communicate with every time.  Now the level of that personal bond will vary based on the objective of the conversation, but I can assure you that the more you connect with people the more you gain out of the conversation.

So what are the take aways from this all:

1. Communication can be hard for some and requires work.
2. The more you practice the better you get.
3. When talking or writing to someone make sure you spend equal amounts of time listening as well as talking.
4. Be as personable as the situation allows.  Think about it we all would rather talk to someone that is nice and caring then someone that just wants us to say what they need and go away.
5. Spend more time with your family, and thank your parents.  I think to many this may seem obvious but you never know what will happen in life.  I loved my mother and wish she were still around today.

Life is unpredictable make each conversation count, you never know who can help you out based on a conversation or connection you have made.

Be Well
Frank

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Hello everyone Happy Hump Day! Here is to wishing all of you a ROCKING GREAT DAY!

Be Well
Frank

Each week I do a guest post for Pink Heels for a series called Tuesday Tech Talk.  This has been a great opportunity for me to help others and share, and since I am a big believer in Karma, this is my way of increasing my overall Karma points in that big tally.

Here is a re post of the article that will run on their site this Tuesday.

In life we all go through a point where we start a project or business and then we lose our motivation.  We all start the project with the best intentions, but then things change, life changes and then you end up starring in the mirror wondering how are you ever going to get that project moving forward.  Well I am here to tell you all you need is to create yourself a serious of great motivational messages or videos to help steer you back on track.

Over the years this same scenario has happened to me several times.  See I am a “dreamer” as my father would call me.  I love the idea of getting a bunch of new projects starting and then I need motivation or inspiration to help keep me moving.  I like to have more then one project going in the hopper, this is just my DNA.

Since I now recognize this I have started created a couple of things that I do to help keep me moving and plowing straight ahead.  A long time ago I sat down and wrote a note to myself.  This note was more like a self reflection as to what do I want out of life, and why I need to do everything possible to get there.  This note was also brutally honest, and serves as a kick in the tail when I need it.

While a note to myself is a start, I have over the last year found a couple of people that I follow that occasionally give a motivation presentation in a video blog or presentation. I have bookmarked these videos into a category called inspiration.  Here are two of my favorites:

Building Personal Brand
Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library)

I cannot say enough about Gary.  While his deliver can be raw, I also like the fact that he is real with people.  He grew his wine business from a $5 million family business to a $45 million wine empire.  All because he believes in the “hustle” as he put it, great stuff in my book.

Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better
Tony Robbins

According to Tony Robbins there are Six needs that motivate us:

• Certainty – Having this allows us to focus
• Uncertainty – We need variety
• Significance – We all need to feel important
• Connection and Love – We all need to feel love
• Grow – We all need to grow
• Contribute beyond ourselves – The secret of living is giving

So what motivate you? What makes you want to get up in the morning and keep going? When you are back is against the wall or you have a huge obstacle in front of you, what is your motivation? Leave your secrets to motivation in the comments and share with others, in this world I think we can all use a little help, and to share and help one another is a very rewarding feeling.
Peace
Frank