The long awaited shipment of our first audio book is here. I enjoyed recording this and am sure that you will benefit from listening to it.

The book store price for the audio book will be $34.95.
It will not be available on our web site for at least a week.

BLOG SPECIAL!!! $25.00
That’s $10 (well $9.95) off for 10 days only!

From today (May 24) until June 2, you can save $10 plus shipping by ordering now.
To cash in on this special offer you can order directly from our office, by e-mail, or by posting a comment on this blog asking us to contact you. DO NOT post any credit card data on the blog or e-mail.

I see too many signs saying, “No Refunds” or “All Sales Are Final”. I am also hearing of retailers that will only give a customer making a return a store credit, not a refund.
When I see, “No Refunds” or “All Sales Are Final”, I think, “Buyer Beware!”
I know of some retailers that post these signs to keep unhappy customers from returning. I think you should want all customers returning; for ANY reason. Doctors say that a broken bone, once healed, is stronger than it was before broken. I think that the same can be true with an unhappy customer made happy.
On the other hand, an unhappy customer left that way is likely NEVER to return, and just as likely to tell people why.
It’s challenging to obtain customers; you should want to keep the ones you get. You should never let customers walk away unhappy unless you really want to lose that customer (and his or her friends) for good.

Jim Fregosi was my business partner in the 60’s. I was dirt poor and he was making millions playing shortstop for the California Angels. Jimmy made a comment to me at lunch one day that has stuck with me all these years, and gives me goose bumps every time I repeat it.
When I asked him why he needed to take batting practice, Jimmy said, “To play at this level you can’t have anything else on your mind than tonight’s game, and when we get suited up and take practice it transforms our minds from home and everything else into why we are here tonight”
Every since hearing that I have attempted to play at a higher level than I had to. I remain grateful to Jim Fregosi for that comment.

Did you have a “WOW” experience?

If so tell us all about it so that we can all go shopping there.

If your experience was less than that tell us about that too, but leave the names out to protect the guilty.

For several months I got manicures and pedicures at the same place. I was content with the service. It was close by, and inexpensive. The last time I called for an appointment, I should have taken a clue from the owner’s hesitant reply, “Uh, oh well, I guess we can handle it, come on down”.
What I wound up with was an apparent inexperienced person that kept asking the technician next to her (in a foreign language) for advice as to what to do next.
I tolerated this incompetence until she drew blood on my toe. The owner of the salon, who assigned this person to me, may never know why I will never be back.
Customers can be very unforgiving for any sort of poor service or inconsiderate treatment.
Is my decision to go elsewhere too harsh? Should I give them another chance?

How’s your English? Are you making the right impressions when you speak?
I was excited to see this article appear in today’s Honolulu Star Bulletin about Doug Carlson’s great new book; http://starbulletin.com/2007/05/20/business/story02.html
I was honored to have Doug work with me on E-Mail Etiquette Made Easy. HE AND I had a great time writing that one.
Cut and paste the above link into your browser and order your copy today.

It was mid-December when I contacted Budget Rent-a-Car saying that I needed a car on Maui on Christmas Day. “No way”, or something like that was the response. I had to understand, since Christmas Day begins the busiest week of the year in Hawaii.
I week later I was on a plane to Maui and got into a discussion with the guy next to me. He turned out to be a VP of National / Alamo Car Rental. I explained my Christmas Day dilemma and he said, “If I can get you a car, can we have your business?” I said, “You can for that trip, for sure. Where we go from there we will have to see; I have been loyal to Budget for more than 25 years.”
He gave me his card saying, “E-mail me your flight information and I will see what I can do”. I did, and when I arrived on Maui on Christmas Day, there was a driver waiting for me with a brand new car.
Well that was a year and a half ago, and I have not been back to Budget since.
It pays to be willing to go the extra mile to get business.

We are pleased to announce that our new 9-Step reminder cards have arrived.
They are business card size, and designed to carry in your pocket for a quick review anytime you need one.
Call and ask me for a sample, or just go ahead and order a bunch from any of us. You can even click on “comment” to this post, tell me how many you want and I will get them to you without posting your comment.
They are quite colorful, designed to last, and we are recovering our cost at only $1 each.
What a Deal!
Click on the the photo to see a close-up. Click your back button to return to the blog.
Ron

Have you ever wondered how they train fleas to do tricks on a small stage? A flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field. In spite of that, “flea trainers” get them to stay in one place with no restrictions.
Here’s how they do it. The fleas are put into a jar with a lid on it. Their natural instinct is to jump out of the jar. When they jump and hit their heads on the lid of the jar, it hurts, and they begin jumping with less and less intensity until they are jumping up and down in the jar, but not high enough to hit the top.
Once they reach this stage of conditioning, they are removed from the jar and will continue to jump, but no higher than the height of the jar they were “trained in” for the rest of their lives.
Have you ever hit your head on the lid of the jar? If so, did you keep jumping? If so, how high? Human beings often times limit themselves because of past painful failures and cease to jump high enough to succeed from then on.
You are not a flea.

JUMP OUT OF THE JAR

The harder I work the luckier I get.
The best way to find luck is to be out there looking for it.
Success is only luck; ask any failure.

If success were a matter of luck, all of the successful people would be living in Las Vegas, where luck matters. Success is attracted by thinking the right thoughts and taking the right action. Failure is doing just the opposite.

The neat thing about this is that intelligence and education are not the major factors.

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
-Albert Einstein