CompassCast™
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What do Employees Want?
In this 7 minute audio, Business Coach Scott Graham provides an overview of the mistakes most companies make when attempting to motivate employees and offers a solution: the Work Expectations Profile.
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Ten Things to Remember About the Pilgrims
This Thanksgiving, as you gorge yourself with turkey, fixins' and rest for a massive shopping spree on the next day, remember the following:
- The pilgrims were illegal aliens.
- Border fence? Not even an ocean thousands of miles wide could keep those who wanted in from getting in.
- The pilgrims came here not because it was perfect but because it was better.
- The pilgrims came here to work and create a life not for a hand out.
- The pilgrims had faith -- and I don't mean faith in god -- they had faith that things would work out.
- The pilgrims came at the worst time of the year -- just before winter -- and they still survived.
- The first pilgrims to arrive didn't steal anybody's jobs. Instead they dug up burial sites and stole food stored by the locals. Then a few years later, they invited two leaders from the locals over for food and murdered them.
- The pilgrims came here to practice religious freedom believing that state religions impinged on the freedom of conscience. They would probably not be in favor of our 1954-modified pledge of allegiance or motto, adopted in 1956, "In God we Trust."
- Thanksgiving wasn't about a big party with loads of food while you contemplated how you were going to get the best bang for your buck the next day. It was solemn. It was about praising and thanking God. If the pilgrims here today they would probably by in a church praying and not at the dinner table or watching parades, football and old Christmas movies. When is the last time you prayed around gratitude instead of asking for a "fix" or a "solution"?
- The Pilgrims didn't "count their blessings" as so many people do these days on Thanksgiving day. They were truly grateful. Period. Imagine for a moment that during the 12 months HALF your family and friends died. Not one. Not two. HALF. Would you, like the pilgrims, be able to find gratitude at the end of all that? They did. And they did it without Prozac or mental health counseling.
Why do we forget these facts? Why don't these images of what America was at the start shape our Thanksgiving traditions by filling us with emotions? Emotions like shame for what happened to the locals by the "illegals". Emotions like openness for our current "illegal" who continue to want to come her because it is better-not-perfect. Emotions like faith and hope? Why don't we think of church and prayer on Thanksgiving?
Instead our minds are filled with an image of a green bean casserole.
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What Get's You Inspired?
Play hard. We hear that a lot from life / business coaches. Unfortunately, many of us hardly play.
I wonder why that is. Maybe because we think we can't. Maybe because we think there is no one behind us. Maybe because we are so paralyzed by our own drama.
So when we se someone whose life goes against this current of self-doubt and self-centeredness, we are inspired.
I recently came across this report from CBS New about Jason McElwain, a high school basketball team manager. Take in this video and if you are inspired, as I was, take a moment and tell me why you think that is -- personally -- what values of yours does itbring to the forefront as you watch this news clip? (I'll post the first comment so you can see what I mean).
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The Silver Man in New Orleans
There are many ways you can interpret this blog post. It is both astory of tenacity, unwillingness to fail and ingenuity. It is also a storyof duplicity. However you slice it, it is a story of assumptions and howwe think and perceive the world around us.
Background
Along the streets of the French Quarter you see many NewOrleans street performers singing, dancing and not moving. I am mostimpressed by these people who don't move a muscle, performing as humanstatues for hours at a time (probably because having donemultiple vipassana courses and gone through3 sittings each day of Adhitthāna, or "Strong Determination"starting on Day 4 where you site for an hour without changing your posture -- Iknow how hard this is)..The Bearded Silver Man
So it is no surprise that I noticed the beardedsilver man who was sitting outside Sacks Fifth Avenue on Canal Street onemorning. The next evening while walking down Bourbon Street, I came acrossthe bearded silver man once again, sitting in the middle of the street in thesame position -- upgraded with a phallic balloon for the risqué BourbonStreet. He seemed to be garnering wuite the tips from passers by.
The Truth
A few hours later while walking back to our timeshare Idiscovered the truth. This bearded silver man was no man at all but a manikin. It's owner would prop it on a bike and take it from site tosite, posing it and putting a bucket labeled "tips" behind it.
I spoke with the manikin's owner before he rode off and he told me that hehas been carting the manikin around for quite some time since he lost hisjob. He said, "I make thirty to fifty thousand dollars a year -- alltax free."
What does this have to do with Business Coaching / Life Coaching?
Lots. First there is a piece about not taking unemployment lyingdown. This guy and his manikin concept reflects definitely out-of-the-boxthinking. No marketing costs, no advertising, no employees, no MLMs, nocredit card processing fees. Just move the manikin every few hours andcollect the money.
Second there is a piece about how we perceive and interact with the worldaround us. The manikin routine is dependent on two factors: peoplehave to believe it is really a person sitting there. Because of the streetperformers in New Orleans, it is easy to believe it is a person sittingthere. Then the more you start to think, "No way can this really be aperson sitting there so still for so long," the more you are likely toeither reward the manikin or go up and touch it to see if it is a realperson. But how likely are you to do the latter? -
Innovative Program to Help Local Businesses
PRESS RELEASE
October 8 2011
Tonimarie Tassinari
Bear Intent Massage Therapy and Bodywork
Phone: 603-491-4746
Email: tmofbearintent@yahoo.comFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Innovative Program to Help Local Businesses
Tonimarie Tassinari, a massage therapist in Lebanon New Hampshire, and Scott Graham, a business coach from Fairlee Vermont, have combined their talents to help local businesses impacted by Irene or the lagging economy.
"It comes down to marketing and solid financial stability" says Graham in identifying ways that local businesses will survive through this challenging economic time.
To help businesses, Tassinari and Graham are each donating a service. Tassinari is donating one massage each month to a local business to use in marketing their business and boosting their sales. "I am going to put my website and my network to work for a month for each business we partner with to make people more aware of the business and when people buy something from the business they can enter to win a free massage -- an added incentive to buy something from that business," says Tassinari.
Graham is donating a financial analysis for the same business that will show them where they stand with liquidity, profitability and sustainable growth. "Comparing your businesses financial performance to what other similar businesses are doing can be an eye-opener," says Graham.
The program will be starting on November 1 2011 and business partners will rotate each month. This partnership is limited to six local businesses. Interested business owners should contact Tonimarie Tassinari at 603-491-4746 or emailtmofbearintent@yahoo.com.
Tassinari began offering massage therapy services through her business, Bear Intent, in 2006. True Azimuth, LLC, headquartered in West Fairlee, Vermont, began offering business, personal and relationship coaching in the same year.
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