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Strategies and ideas for life and business, to help you maximize results!
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You're receiving this complimentary e-letter, either because you requested a free subscription or because of our relationship with you, your company or your association.
TOO TINY? NO WORRIES!
If you're reading The Results Report on your desktop, initially your browser or operating system might make it tough on your eyes, as the page or font appears small. No worries! Simply hold down your Windows Key or Apple Command Key and at the same time hit your + key. Each time you do this, it'll enlarge the type or page. It's that easy! Now you'll have a bigger and better Results Report reading experience. (To decrease the size, hold down your command key, while also hitting your – key.) Here's to your results!
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POWERQUOTES
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"To be a successful business pro, you need to constantly be developing new skills. Customers are more demanding and less forgiving. Professionalism, quality and value are the norm and the expectation, not the exception."
"What you know, matters. Yet more important, is what you do, with what you know."
"There are no ceilings, no paradigms, no parameters, no rules, no boundaries, (on your life or business), unless YOU place them there! So how will you prepare, for your world of infinite possibilities?"
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JEFF, SO WHATTA YA THINK?
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QUESTION: Jeff, what's a recent experience, personal or professional, that really left an impression or taught you something?
ANSWER: One of my great joys in life, is serendipity. It's that unexpected moment. The surprise experience. It's a person, a sign, a sentence, something you see or hear...that delivers a wallop. A wow! That ah-ha that forever delivers.
I had one. This summer. On August 30th!
Our financial advisor, is Donn Pall, a veteran with Morgan Stanley. He's smart. Personable. Helpful. Always accessible. A good listener. Sincere. And profoundly interested in what's best for me, my wife, our family, my business and our future.
My wife and I, quickly bonded with Donn. We all graduated from the University of Illinois. Yet Donn, did something at the U of I, that I hoped for, but didn't do. (My hardball baseball career ended as a high school senior.) Yet Donn pitched for Illinois, where he mastered a fork ball.
That dancing, dropping pitch helped Donn enjoy a terrific ten-year career as a Major League Baseball hurler. Pitching primarily for the Chicago White Sox, yet also with four other teams. Including the Florida Marlins, where he/they won a World Series Championship in 1997.
Growing up in a southern suburb of Chicago, Donn was a rabid White Sox fan. And he was drafted by the Sox in 1985. He made his Major League debut with them in 1988, where he spent the first five years of his career.
Donn still maintains a close relationship with the White Sox.
Which is why, he invited my wife and I, to enjoy the August 30th White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox game, from "Suite 249" on the third base/left-field foul line. It's an annual event for Donn and his team to hang with clients in a unique, fun, relaxed way.
During the game, Donn asked, "Would you like to meet Harold Baines?" I immediately replied, "Absolutely!"
 Now, I'm a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. However, I'm a baseball fan, who always knows and respects talent. Baines had a stellar baseball career as an outfielder and designated hitter in the American League. And he's a legendary White Sox player. (Who learned on Sunday night, December 9th, that he received a ballplayer's highest honor, election into Baseball's Hall of Fame.)
Baines played from 1980 to 2001, with the White Sox, Rangers, Athletics, Orioles and Indians. He was a six-time All-Star. And he was a coach with the White Sox until 2015, when he then became a team ambassador and spring training instructor.
In his role as an ambassador, but most important, Donn's teammate and friend, Baines stopped by the suite to visit. And it gave me the remarkable opportunity to chat with him one-to-one.
In our brief conversation, we covered his living in Maryland, his career and his golf game. (Which included a next-day round of golf with Harold's buddy, former White Sox and Red Sox catcher and Hall of Famer, Carlton Fisk.)
Baines was affable and insightful. I asked, "Harold, before a ballgame, how'd you prepare, mentally and physically." And his answer surprised me.
He replied, "The mental part was easy. I was always well-prepared and focused. The real preparation came with my study of catchers. The catcher, not the pitcher, is the one who really controls the game. They pick the pitches. And I'd study their in-game, as well as previous games tendencies, like what they'd call on the first pitch and how often."
Whoa! How good is that?!
I then asked, "Harold, what manager did you especially enjoy playing for?" He quickly replied, "Tony LaRussa. Because he was so smart." (LaRussa is also a lawyer.) And he successfully managed the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. (While LaRussa had a successful Major League Baseball career, it was as a manager, that he was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2014.)
Baines added, "What I also valued, is that LaRussa held me and every ballplayer, accountable."
Brilliant!
Because accountability is about being held responsible, for what you say, do, and say that you'll do! It's account for your actions. (And Harold told me, "If we didn't do it, LaRussa told us. And if needed, he benched us.")
So...
How well-prepared are you...for your success?
Be honest. Brutally honest.
Because if you're not honest with yourself, how the heck, will you, hold yourself accountable?
How do you want to be held accountable?
Especially, if it's something you desire and request, it's crucial to your growth.
When others do hold you accountable, "keep your feet to the fire" or push, pull and prod you...it's not to bully you. Instead, it's to help you achieve and exceed your potential.
Others see the possibilities in YOU. Do you?
The choices you make. The preparation you take. The actions you execute...
Will answer that question.
And...
Drive your future results!
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MESSAGE & MICHELANGELO!
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Bruce Turkel sees things from a fascinating perspective. And it's not because he stands six-foot-four. Instead, it's because he has the ability to help leaders and companies, as he likes to say, "uncover innovative creative solutions and strategies to futureproof their brands in a world of constant disruptive upheaval."
Bruce is a fellow Hall of Fame speaker and author, (Building Brand Value and All About Them.) In July, we were together in Dallas. And that gave us the opportunity to chat, laugh and ponder possibilities.
Jeff Blackman: You say, "Good brands make people feel good. Great brands make people feel good about themselves." Tell us more...
Bruce Turkel: For years Volvo has told us their cars are safer. While safety is important, it isn't an asset that makes a car better at its function—getting the driver from A to B. What a safety brand does do, is it allows and empowers a Volvo owner to feel better about themselves. Because driving a safe car means being a better parent, spouse, friend or citizen. 
Understanding your client or customer is the key to creating an All About Them brand. Once you know who your customer is and what they care about, then you show them why your brand helps them reach their aspirations and self-expression.
JB: Who are some of the entrepreneurs you've worked with? And what valuable lessons did they teach you?
BT: John Hendricks at Discovery Channel. He taught me the importance of strategy, when he told me his idea was to build, "everyone's second favorite network."
The Bacardi CEO, who explained that even though he sells a product, he really sells an experience.
The CEO of Babies R Us, who taught me the importance of systemizing creativity, when she explained her operations people couldn't understand the magic of creativity, but understood the inevitability and security of systems.
JB: What's your advice, to folks who claim, "For our customers, price is everything!"
BT: I try to show them, if that's the only thing their customers value, they won't be customers for long.
JB: How can one strengthen their creativity?
BT: Here are four strategies:
1. Great creative thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants. Constantly expose yourself to great music, art and architecture. Develop a voracious curiosity, so you have resources to draw on.
2. Understand that great ideas are ephemeral and fragile. When you're thinking, creating, take off your critical thinking cap and write down every thought. There's always time to cull out the bad ideas, but you never know when a bad idea is the impetus for a great idea.
3. Create lots of ideas. Quitting when you think of one or two good solutions often stops the process, long before the best idea arises.
4. Creativity must be "exercised." If you want to write great prose, write. If you want to paint great paintings, paint. Talent matters, but potential without effort equals nothing.
JB: To drive growth, what do you know, most folks don't know, yet need to know?
BT: People don't choose what you do, they choose who you are. Customers can purchase the products you're selling from lots of sources. If you haven't built a relationship that helps your customers achieve their own aspirations, you're already out of business. You just haven't realized it yet!
JB: You claim, "Special sales secrets are hidden in plain sight." What are they?
BT: To thrill your customers: Watch them. Study them. Learn everything you can about them.
 Just like a savvy poker player watches for their competitors' "tells"—your customers will show you how and why you matter to them. Their answer, and your solution, is "hidden in plain sight."
As Michelangelo answered, when asked how he carved the David, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."
JB: You stress, "think about others." What are the best ways to do that?
BT: People will listen, when what you say benefits them: Entertain. Educate. Enlighten. Best of all, do all three. Create a message that's truly, all about them!
To discover more ways, Bruce can help you craft meaningful and memorable messages, take a peek at bruceturkel.com
Want to see how Jeff helped one client drive results?
Please take a peek at this video, where Chris Randall, CEO of Ultra Risk Advisors, talks about Jeff's positive and powerful impact on his team:
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COFFEE BREAK FOR THE MIND™
Your cup of inspiration, reflection and laughter!
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THE PLAYFUL PUP!
For the past fifteen-and-a-half years, if you asked any one of our children, "Who’s your Dad's best friend?"—they'd unequivocally and quickly exclaim, "Mazy!"
And they may be right!
For Mazy was our beloved "puppy." A playful, active, highly entertaining and always loving pet and friend. She had the uncanny ability, to dance across our floors on her hind legs—for literally 30 feet! And also while on her hind legs, she'd do multiple 360 spins, as if competing on Dancing with the Stars.
Plus, once she returned from outside—after doing her business, she'd consistently sneeze once and then bolt through the house, reinforcing that she had "important" things to do that day. LIke fly from couch to couch, then sleep, eat, sleep, eat. She brought non-stop joy, amusement and unconditional love.
Though Mazy was already nearly blind and completely deaf, she was still active and happy. Yet on Thursday, August 30th, my wife and I noticed, Mazy wasn't "Mazy." She seemed docile, lethargic and was refusing to eat and drink.
Two days of home remedies, love and attention brought no significant improvements. So on Sunday, September 2nd, we headed to the vet's emergency room service. (The nurses and doctors quickly acknowledged, Mazy was dehydrated and losing weight. Fast. The primary culprit: kidney failure.)
On Monday, Labor Day, September 3rd, the doctors and nurses told us Mazy made some progress. She was drinking water. Tolerating fluids. Had a little nibble. But now needed a battery of other tests to confirm or eliminate, other suspected complications and diseases. (And whatever those tests might show, it was probably, "just a matter of time.")
As a family, we decided, that for Mazy and for us, Monday night, September 3rd at 8:35 p.m., was time to say goodbye. We cried. Not because it was over. But in remembering ALL the wonderful moments Mazy gave us. We looked at pictures, smiled, reminisced and laughed.
Now, as I drive to errands, I see her at my side, staring out the passenger-side window, as if that was her job. As I back into the garage, I see her gazing at me through the garage/mud room door’s window, ready to greet me with a wagging tail. As I glance down the stairs, I see and hear her barking, urging, "Hey JB, I gotta go out, step on it!"
If there's a doggie heaven, it just became far cooler, more fun and entertaining—because Mazy is in the house!
BARRIERS, BREAKTHROUGHS & THE BERLIN WALL!
What a kick and a privilege to be asked by longtime friend, Karen Cortell Reisman, to speak to my peers at the National Speakers Association’s influence18 conference in Dallas.
Plus, then be interviewed and asked, “What’s most important to the individuals we serve?”
https://tinyurl.com/NSAinfluence18Blackman
The background on this video, is two huge segments from the Berlin Wall that fell in November, 1989. 12 feet high. 4 feet wide. 11,905 pounds.
Literal and figurative reminders of life’s barriers and breakthroughs.
HERE COMES THE...!
Brittany, our eldest daughter and her boyfriend Rob, are shown here enjoying their friends' recent wedding.
But wait...
Rob is no longer Brittany's boyfriend. Now, he's her fiancé! These two great kids got engaged in September and are planning a 2020 wedding. Love you!
To make a submission when you see or hear something funny, quirky or offbeat, please send it to: [email protected]
Looking for the perfect gift—for yourself or others to finish 2018 strong and jumpstart 2019, then please head to Amazon for the recently released, new 5th edition of Peak Your Profits:
https://tinyurl.com/BlackmanPeakYourProfits5
Thanks again to YOU, our valued readers, clients, family and friends—who have made 2018 another remarkable year.
Wishing you, your family and business—a fun, memorable holiday season. And a happy, healthy, prosperous, rockin' new year!
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"At DUKAL we have an experienced team, exposed for many years to individuals and speakers who can help us. Yet when Jeff Blackman spoke, (a half-day results-session with reinforcement), I received comments like, 'Awesome!' 'Highly impactful!' 'Learned things I never knew, even after 25 years of selling.' 'I'll now take a different direction on how I present our value and work with customers.' and much more. Jeff's attention-to-detail and fact-gathering, made him better prepared in learning about our culture and team—than any previous speaker. And it showed! I highly recommend Jeff as an impact-player who can make any individual or company better!"
Gerry LoDuca • President
DUKAL Corp.
"We engaged Jeff as our keynote speaker at our annual national sales event. We're embarking upon a challenging time in our history, and Jeff's assignment was designed to resonate and inspire. Jeff was by far, the most engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking speaker we've ever had. So much so, elements of his presentation are still reverberating, (weeks later), around our organizational communication chain, at all levels. Thanks Jeff for a job well done!"
Michael J. Kelley • President & COO
Glantz Holdings, Inc.
"My firm, a commercial insurance program management company, engaged Jeff as a sales training advisor. He helped us design a customized training and reinforcement system. We're extremely pleased with our significant improvement and results. That's why we have an ongoing relationship with Jeff, and I enthusiastically recommend him."
Chris Randall • CEO
Ultra Risk Advisors • Bellevue, WA & Atlanta
Please click the following link,
to see Chris' video testimonial:
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