Community Bank Consulting Blog

If you've never failed....

Many of us were taught that being unsuccessful at something is a reason to quit.  This video makes a strong case indicating lack of success indicates a need to keep working at it.

The challenging economy we have faced recently is going to cause lots of people and businesses to throw in the towel and conclude their financial life is ruined.  That is only true if you accept it as the truth.

Enjoy this short video.  It reminded me that failure mean quitting.

Jeff Simpkins

Initiate change. Who me?

I've interviewed Steve Kruskamp, E-Commerce Marketing Manager at 1st Mariner Bank, Baltimore, MD on BankTalkRadio twice.  I love having Steve as a guest because his energy is contagious.  He is vibrant and willing to initiate change.

When I asked Steve if he encounters resistance in his quest to be innovative, his answer was something like "of course," yet he moves forward while still "playing by the rules."  He often hears "Steve, let's wait and see" when he suggests trying new things, yet he manages to move forward.  Steve is an initiator; the brand he represents is stronger for it.

Seth Godin did a blog post a few days ago entitled The initiator that starts "I'm just here to learn" and concludes with the question "How often does your brand initiate rather than react?"

Learning is a great!  Duplicating success is great!  Following is mediocre.

Are you an initiator or always a follower?  What is the real risk of being an initiator?

Follow a leader like Steve... take being an initiator out for a test drive!

Drama; Don't Do It - Guest Post by Dustin Britt

Thanks to Dustin Britt (pictured at right) for allowing me to feature this guest post.  Visit The Squeeze, to see more work by Dustin.

Please take a moment and read this short, well written post.  You'll quickly understand why I chose to share it.  Enjoy!

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 One of my favorite shows on TV is Top Chef. Through watching it over the last several seasons, I've learned that there is a difference between people who can cook really well and a Chef. You've got folks with real talent that can't get it all together in the time allotted and certainly can't work with other people. They are the ones yelling, running, and cussing up a storm down to the last second. It makes for good TV, but these guys never win. Its the contestants that, sure - may stress - but do it with purpose and with little if no drama.

Back to business...

If you find that business is theater, you're in the wrong building.

Business is about accomplishing objectives together for a purpose. Drama is about bringing attention to yourself (as seen on TV).

I have certainly been guilty of drama, especially when there's the risk (AKA stress) of not getting to that business objective. But it is not a helpful tool. If anything, it spends your energy and the energy of those around you on something that distracts from the real chance to maybe, just maybe hit that goal.

So here's the question that you've got to honestly answer to yourself...do you thrive on drama? A few easy ways to tell:

• Does every task you work on come down to the last possible minute - with you cranking it out mere seconds before catastrophe strikes?
• Are you beating up those around you with your stress as you barrel your way down to a last-minute result?
• Does the end product reek of lackluster quality, due to steps skipped as you cranked out your last-min result?

It really doesn't have to be last min...really. Just a little planning, communication, and thinking more than just for today. That'll mean you've got to say goodbye to drama though. Either that, or you can seek out the next spot on reality TV.

You matter by Seth Godin

Seth Godin writes some amazing business books and has one of the best blogs on the web.  Seth is a master of speaking volumes with a limited number of words.  I came across this post on his blog last night and like it so much I want to share it.

I highly recommend subscribing to his blog, located at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Enjoy!

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach 
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com
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We help community banks, finance and real estate professionals:
• Reach prospects, customers and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology

You matter (Blog Post by Seth Godin, June 15, 2009)

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
• When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
• When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
• When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
• When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
• When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
• When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
• And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
• When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
• When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
• When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
• When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
• When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
• When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
• And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

100% Responsibility

I've been called in a number of times over the years to work with organizations experiencing various types of challenges such as:

• Profitability lower than expected or lower than peers
• Customer service challenges - both internal and external
• Staff "not playing well" with one another 
• Workflow bottlenecks 

A tool I have used with tremendous success over and over is the book The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be  by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer.

For the record, The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is not just for organizations that are experiencing significant challenges.  It is a tool that I recommend to everyone!  I've used it with 17 year old kids trying to figure out what they want from life, to 70 year old executives trying to figure out what they want next in life.

The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is also not a "read it once from cover to cover and put it away" kind of book.  I suggest reading it once cover to cover to get a feel for the material, then going back and working through each of the each of the 64 principles at a pace that feel right.  My prediction is if you work through the process at a pace that allow the material to sink in and become habit, it will be an eighteen month to three year process.

I have had the very good fortune to personally work with Jack Canfield, including a one year program in which I spent two days with Jack each quarter as part of a very small group for  a year.  After working so closely with Jack, I can truly say he is genuine.  He practices what he teaches; his private life looks like his public life.

100% Responsibility

Let's look at some of the key points in Principle 1:  Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life.

"If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life."  This includes:

• the level of your achievements
• the results you produce 
• the quality of your relationships 
• the state of your health 
• your physical fitness 
• your income 
• your debts 
• your feelings 
• everything 

Canfield and Switzer quote George Washington Carver as saying "Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses."

They go on to say "Taking 100% responsibility means giving up all your excuses -

• all your victim stories  
• all the reasons why you can't and why you haven't up until now 
• all your blaming of outside circumstances 

  "You have to give them all up forever."

The Winning Formula

"Do more of what is working, do less of what isn't, and try on new behaviors to see if they produce better results."

The Strangest Secret in the World - Part 3 of 3

In part 3 of 3, Earl Nightingale gives us some specific recommended steps:

Each day, start with a blank sheet of paper and capture ideas.  I have read that Thomas Edison would go in a room with nothing but a table, chair, and a light.  He would take a blank pad of paper and spend time in silence thinking and capturing his ideas.  In our multi-media world many of us fail to allow ourselves time to think quietly and capture our ideas.  Once you allow yourself to use this process, the results will be amazing.  Don't be surprised if it takes some time for the noise in your mind to stop in order to allow ideas to begin flowing.

Our rewards will be in exact proportion to our contribution.  In the 1980's I spent a great deal of time with the material of Zig Ziglar.  He used to say "we can have anything is life we want as long as we help enough other people get what they want."

Unless what we are doing is built on truth, we're building on sand.  Many people do things that are out of integrity and then make up great stories of how they are justified in doing so.  If what you are doing requires a story to justify it, you're most likely building on sand.

Research and development.  Never overlook the value of investing in research and development!

And the most important point, the strangest secret:  we become what we think about most of the time.  Use this secret to your advantage by thinking about what you want.  Most people invest a significant amount of energy into thinking about what they don't want.  Many companies invest significant time and money into documenting what they don't want.  Conduct a test.  For thirty days focus all your energy what what you DO want, give zero energy to what you don't want.

Now spend about six minutes listening to and watching Earl Nightingale.  I wish you great success!  Please share your thoughts by using the Comments link below!

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffsimpkins
Facebook:  http://profile.to/jeffsimpkins
Free Webinar Wednesdays:  http://www.freewebinarwednesdays.com/

We help community banks:
• Reach prospects, customers and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology

The Strangest Secret in the World - Part 2 of 3

In part 2 of 3, Earl Nightingale talks about how many of us live our lives out of habit rather than choice.  Nightingale reminds us how many people conduct their lives as a result of NOT making choices rather than choosing.

Keep in mind this video was likely made about 40 years ago.  Notice the references Nightingale makes that are a reminder of how much closer we were to the industrial age at that time.

Although the references to a more industrial society seem rather outdated, notice how the core principles remains true.

As you watch this video consider this question:  are there things we are doing in our company (policies, procedures, practices) what are a holdover from past times that no longer make sense?  Be honest with yourself. 

I did work with a large company technology company in recent years.  They were very proud of their management training program that was essentially industrial age management training straight out of college textbooks of the 1950's and 1960's, and earlier.  Did they get it completely wrong?  Absolutely not!  There are certainly core principles from the industrial age that are as true today as they were decades ago.  What they failed to realize is when you run an information age business like an industrial age factory,  innovative thinkers eventually move on.

Please enjoy Earl Nightingale as he discusses part 2 of The Strangest Secret.

Please use the comment feature to share your thoughts after hear the words of Mr. Nightingale.

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffsimpkins
Free Webinar Wednesdays:  http://www.freewebinarwednesdays.com/

We help community banks:
• Reach prospects, customers and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology

The Strangest Secret in the World - Part 1 of 3

I am constantly reminded of how fortunate we are to live in the age of the Internet.  I was using YouTube today and ran across this tremendously valuable video excerpt of Earl Nightingale delivering Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret.

I was born at the end of the Baby Boomer Generation.  As a child growing up in the late 1960's and through the 1970's I remember even at that early age being intrigued and amazed by the wisdom of the words of Mr. Nightingale during his daily radio segments.

The message in Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret is as timely today, more than twenty years after his death, as it was when it was written!

In doing research for this blog post I discovered a fact that literally caused me to get chills.  Earl Nightingale was one of twelve surviving Marines aboard the USS Arizona when it was bombed in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  1,177 lives were lost as a result of the bombing and sinking of the USS Arizona.  About a week ago I visited the memorial erected above the sunken USS Arizona for the first time in my life.

I encourage you to watch and listen carefully to this short video filled with valuable lessons.  Insights that are valuable to all of us personally and from a business perspective in the current economy.

You'll chuckle at the beginning of the video as Nightingale describes the wonder of the latest technology; the cassette player.  Imagine what delight he would have felt with the iPod!

Please use the comment feature to share your thoughts after hear the words of Mr. Nightingale.

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffsimpkins
Free Webinar Wednesdays:  http://www.freewebinarwednesdays.com/

We help community banks:
• Reach prospects, customers and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology

Napoleon Hill talks about his meeting with Andrew Carnegie

I feel very fortunate to have run across the below video by Napoleon Hill on YouTube today, and to be able to share it with you!

I consider Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller--Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century one of the most valuable books I have ever read!  I use it personally and recommend it on a regular basis to friends, consulting clients, coaching clients, and others.

This is such a valuable book that few months pass that I do not find myself rereading one of the chapters in the book.  I have used chapter 10 on Master Minding (now commonly spelled Masterminding) as a guide for numerous Mastermind groups I have participated in and helped others to start.

Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller--Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century will possibly be the best $7.77 (the price at the time of this writing) investment you'll ever make.

Please share your comments on the book and this video using the comment feature of the blog.

Enjoy!

Jeff Simpkins, Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach
Community Bank Consulting, Inc.
www.CommunityBankConsulting.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffsimpkins
Free Webinar Wednesdays:  http://www.freewebinarwednesdays.com/

We help community banks:
• Reach prospects, customers and clients using low-cost and no-cost marketing tools
• Deliver world class customer service by choosing and using the right technology