It’s The New Rage
Stand Up Paddle surfing started right here in Hawaii. As far back as the 1940’s when Hawaiian Beach Boys used to paddle out to the breaks standing up to avoid getting their camera gear wet when taking photos of tourists.

Learn How
Surf-n-Sea is always right there when something new takes off, but this one is the most natural of all. They are giving Stand Up Surf and Paddling lessons and claim that anyone can do it.

It’s Easy
Store manager Eddie Crawford says, “If you can walk down a three foot wide sidewalk you can learn to stand up paddle.” With a semi-private beach right behind the store adjacent to the scenic Wailua River, Stand Up Paddling at Surf-n-Sea is the best place to learn. Ask them when the next Full Moon Paddle up the Wailua River is.

Mid Week Magazine
Congratulations are in order to our newest Morning Report client for this great midweek magazine spread.

Nina Thai - Owner
Nina Thai opened her Angels by the Sea Hawaii boutique store in the Waikiki Marriott Hotel in 2010. Her success was almost immediate, and just talking to Nina will show you why. She is super passionate and excited about her self, her store, and her merchandise; most of which is designed and actually created by Nina herself. Passion Sells!

Her Story
This story in midweek magazine describes Nina’s background, how she came to Hawaii, and how she came about opening the store.
We are proud to welcome her to the success dynamics family of Successful Businesses.

An Honor Indeed

For any Hawaii company to ber recognized in this national magazine’s list of 500 fastest growing companies is exciting. On a personal note, it is even more exciting to be able to call Hawaii Energy Connection a Success Dynamics client. To read more about this honor, CLICK HERE: 

Winners!

I get the opportunity to work with many successful people, and when I first met with Steve a Chris a few months back I commented to them that it’s like working with Apple in the early days.  They bring an aura of excitement and enthusiasm to work every day, yet in a relaxed, even casual way.

Win/Win

Their KumuKit product is a win/win deal for the company, their salespeople and most of all their customers. Solar is a fast growing industry, but HEC stands out because of the service and attention they provide to their customers while at the same time reducing, or even eliminating their electricity bills.

Surf’s Up!
Every year Hawaii features its Triple Crown of Surfing and everyone is hoping for the biggest waves possible.

“And the Winner Is…”
It’s quite an honor to win any of these events and historically the top surfers in the world are there hoping to get this year’s trophy.

Congratulations Joe Green
Joe Green is the owner of Surf-n-Sea, a 15 year client of ours. Joe has many talents. Besides building an enormously successful surf shop in Haleiwa, he is an accomplished surfer himself as well as being a talented musician and song writer. Something that started out as a hobby has become a new venture for Joe; making custom ukuleles. This year the Triple Crown of Surfing commissioned Joe to make custom ukuleles to be given out as trophies.

To see them CLICK HERE:

A few months ago I dropped in on Joe at his North Shore home to see his ukulele workshop. I was amazed to learn how much work goes into this craft, so I made this brief YouTube of the process.

To see it, CLICK HERE: I think you will be amazed too.

RIP
I was extremely sorry to hear about the passing of Howard Konrad. Howard was the proud founder of Lahaina Scrimshaw and Jessica’s Gems. He was always happy to remind me that he was my very first client when I started Success Dynamics in 1991. He also prided himself to be the first to pay me every month with a handwritten check. We shared a lot of good times these past 20 years as well as weathering some storms. In spite of some of the tough times, Howard never backed off when it came to providing his team a sit down breakfast on the 2nd Thursday of the month which included $100 and $50 bills for top salespeople, and drawing winners.
Howard is survived by his ever supportive wife Cheryl and daughter Jessica whom Jessica’s Gems was named after.
Howard was loved by all of his employees.
We will all miss you Howie.

Opportunity Abounds
This is the sort of news that I love to get in the morning;

Aloha Ron,
I see that Hawaiian Accessories had a record setting month in March. Nothing seems to slow these guys down. Doing their Morning Reports is a pleasure for me. I love seeing records broken.
Tammy Morris 
Success Dynamics - Morning Report Team

Hawaiian Accessories is a 20 year old company, and a long time client of ours, so setting new records is nothing to be taken lightly. For me this acheivement is especially rewarding haven taken this company “under my arm” personally just a few short years ago. Curtis started doing all of the things we suggest. In addition to the Morning Report, we started having monthly Success Rallies, Monthly Contests, and Opprtunity Shopping. We revised the compensation program, hired new people, and gave them the attention needed.
The next time that someone tells you that business is “slow”, just send him or her a link to this post, or better yet give me a call. This is a great time to stand out above the rest.

So Exciting!
I had the pleasure of making six presentations to this wonderful group of Brighton Store Managers from all over the country while they were “conferencing” on Maui this week. I get to meet a lot of enthusiastic people, but none more excitable than these people are. Mahalo for the opportunity.

Too Excited!
I must have been too excited on Monday evening following dinner with several Brighton managers at Leilani’s in Whaler’s Village. I failed to see the uneven sidewalk when walking back to the Hyatt Regency, stumbled and took a dive. I made a “five point landing” with my knees hitting first, then my fingers followed by my right shoulder, rib cage and finally the side of my face. I posted a photo of my fingers at the time on Facebook and was told that it was “gross.” Yes it was, I’m sorry for that.

Should I or Shouldn’t I?
Doctors on Call at the hotel was closed, so security came to my room and patched me up enough that I could make my two presentations Tuesday morning. I’m not fond of going to the doctor, so I debated as if to go at all. Jerry suggested that I go to the clinic at Whalers Village and I am glad that I did. I saw a good example of empathy as they cleaned the sand out of the wounds, poured a stinging disinfectant all over them, and gave me a painful Tetanus shot in the arm. The doctor there told me that if I hadn’t treated these wounds there was a 97% chance they would get infected, which could possibly lead to “Lock-Jaw:” not very good for my profession. In the days that followed my left foot started swelling and reached the point where I could hardly walk on it.

Making Sure
I reluctantly went to the hospital for X-Rays. I saw an orthopedic surgeon and after reviewing the x-rays he assured me that there were no fractures. YEAH! He then prescribed lots of rest and “TLC” at home; Yeah, Right!

“Doctor Retail”
He then sent an assistant in to show me some “relief options.” It felt as though I was at Nordstrom as he had me try on various orthopedic boots and shoes. After being convinced that none of them was going to increase the healing, I said, “I’ll think about it” and hobbled away in my Converse shoes. I’m glad he hadn’t read Retail Selling Made Easy. One “Okay but…” and I might be wearing something very unfashionable.

Michael Han
Congratulations to Michael Han and the entire Wedding Ring Shop team. Retail Merchants of Hawaii presented Michael with the 2010 HO’OKELA Oahu Retailer of the year award at their annual luncheon today.
We at Success Dynamics are proud to have had several of our clients win this award over the past 20 years and are looking to many more in the years to come.

Whaler’s Village - Don Reaser - 2004

Maui Dive Shop - Jeff Strahn - 2004

And Buys At Lahaina Scrimshaw
The room was abuzz when I arrived for my monthly Success Rally with Lahaina Scrimshaw this month. Paris Hilton had just been in their Front St. Store. She bought an exotic butterfly in acrylic and 6 Jimmy Hepp photos. She spent $975. Everywhere I went people were talking about her being there, but not everyone was selling. People buy when people sell.
To see more of Paris shopping CLICK HERE: And remember; celebrities buy too.

It’s common at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa

Eddie Crawford - Store Manager 

At one of our regular manager’s Success Rallies at Surf-n-Sea on a Sunday morning, the manager, Eddie Crawford shared a very interesting story with us. He said that he received a call a while back from a local bank. He said that a very pleasant woman told him that they were doing an Economic Outlook Survey, and asked him if he would answer a few questions. One of the initial questions was, “Looking ahead do you anticipate sales to be the same as last year, down 10%, or down 20%?” Eddie laughed and asked, “Where’s the up option?” Eddie said that she was taken back by his reply and said, “Nobody is answering like that.” A few minutes later she asked about staffing; “Do you plan to maintain the staff you have, cut back by 10% or cut back by 20%?” Eddie again asked, “What about increasing it, that’s what we want to do?” She said, “Oh, I forgot, I’m talking to the optimist.”
Surf-n-Sea survived the Gulf War in 1991. When “911″ hit it was business as usual at Surf-n-Sea while others placed “Going Out Of Business” signs in their windows. When there were two major landslides shutting Haleiwa off from the rest of the island, sales kept right on climbing. Then came the so called recession. Eddie has good cause for his optimism. Sales continue to go up year after year.

Success Rally
I have been meeting with the staff at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa for close to 15 years. I have seen (and even caused) many changes in that time frame. One of those changes has been an increase in sales that is close to 10 times from where it was. Another change required a willingness to get outside of their current comfort zone and embrace the system; Pro-Active, No Pressure Selling.

“Aloha”
Salespeople began greeting customers and attending monthly “Success Rallies.” Next was a willingness to provide all new employees with their own copy of Retail Selling Made Easy. The Morning Report then came along, and Surf-n-Sea was one of the very first companies in Hawaii to get it, even in its initial raw form.

Be the Optimist

To enjoy continued sales in any economy,  tune out any negative thinking, and become an optimist like Eddie Crawford, owner Joe Green and the pro-active staff at Surf-n-Sea. It’s Easy! You can do it too.