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By Roger Crawford. This was originally published on Roger's blog.
We have all used a hands-free, automatic faucet. It has a proximity sensor, and once hand motion is detected, water starts flowing. Those faucets are typically found in airports and hotels. Now I’m a dude with only three fingers. Let me tell you something: Automatic faucets are, well, not so automatic. When I’m ready to wash my hands, I stand in front of the sink, do a few finger waves, and get nothing. Since the finger wave doesn’t work, I begin doing the “Backpack Dance,” trying to trigger the infrared. (If you’re over 30, Google “Backpack Dance.”) The rapid arm and hip movements cause me to sweat more liquid than the faucet! At this point, I have a decision to make: Leave without washing my hands (yikes!) or ask for help. When I was younger, I often felt embarrassed to ask for assistance because of my hands. Today it’s just a humbling experience and a reminder that we all need one another. I find someone in the men’s room and ask, “Will you please wave your hand in my sink and turn on the faucet?” You don’t hear that request in a men’s room very often, and the looks I get are priceless. On a few occasions, a person has asked if they were on Candid Camera or being punk’d. Despite the unusual request, no one has ever been unwilling to help. In fact, through this experience, I’ve made new friends and even booked a speech as a result of someone helping me. The most common response I receive from people is, “Thrilled to give you a hand” or “Blessed to help you.” Here’s what it has taught me: Don’t underestimate another person’s willingness to help. I share this story with you for two reasons: During the difficult times we’re living in, I want to encourage you not to be afraid or embarrassed to ask another person for a hand. We’re living through a period of unprecedented challenges that are out of our control. It’s reasonable to need help and encouragement from others to manage the uncertainties of our world today. It is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength and wisdom to ask for help when you need it. Also, let’s all commit to looking for ways to reach out and give people a hand. You’re at your very best when you support and connect with others. We’ve all heard, “It’s better to give than to receive.” Think about the last time you helped another person. How did it make you feel? It’s a gift and a treasure to be a positive influence in another person’s life. You can inspire others to focus their energy not only on what is but also on what can be. All of you have something significant to share and contribute. You have unique insight and inspiration to give others that no one else has. Being a hero doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do something heroic. It means showing up and being willing to make a difference. One message I share with audiences is this: “All of us have handicaps. Some you can see; most you cannot.”As human beings, we’re all imperfect, and that is why we need each other. Today we need each other more than ever! Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Shep Hyken
Here’s a question, and I think I know the answer: Would you do business with an airline that didn’t offer the ability to book a ticket online, check-in online, and get your boarding pass online? Assuming that every other airline has these self-service digital options, what if one didn’t? Would you be willing to call for a reservation, wait on hold, pull out your credit card to verbally give your payment information, and stand in line at the ticket counter to check in on the day of departure? Would you choose to fly with this airline over the others? I feel I can safely say the answer is, “No!” Assuming everything is comparable among all airlines – the planes are similar, the seats are the same and the pricing is competitive – you would almost certainly not choose to do business with the old-fashioned airline, for one simple reason: The digital experience, at least as it applies to flying, is an easier experience. It’s simple. Easier wins. Faster wins. More convenient wins. If it means using digital to achieve easier, faster, and more convenient, then customers will use a digital channel. The point is, you can’t fight digital. More and more customers are looking for digital and self-service options. Our customer experience research finds that 41% of customers prefer digital first and the phone second. That number increases year after year. Customers prefer a self-service solution on the Internet over calling a company, being put on hold, potentially repeating their story, and more. Easy is better, therefore, in many instances, digital is better. So, back to the original question. The airline that doesn’t make it easy for the customer to do business, and that means using the digital experience, will lose. Metaphorically speaking, you don’t want to be that airline. If you feel as if you’re lagging in the digital world, what can you do to catch up? If you’re already offering your customers digital solutions, what can you do to make them better? Sit down with the team and consider the following questions:
Most companies already have a digital presence. If a website or app makes life easier and more convenient for your customers, they will want to use it. So, don’t let your competition take your customers away from you, simply because you haven’t kept up. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
A small drip coffee and a blueberry muffin. This was the order placed at a Starbucks by a gentleman named Jim. Jim didn’t seem like he had many friends or family. He lived alone across the street from this coffee shop in a retirement home. Every afternoon at 2pm, he’d walk across from his apartment, walk in with a big smile and place the same order. There was a short interaction between Jim and the baristas working. They’d thank him for coming, offer him a compliment and a good-natured criticism of his beloved Philadelphia Eagles. Then, they’d tell him they looked forward to seeing him tomorrow. In other words, they would simply be kind to a gentleman who frequently felt alone. You won’t believe the impact the sweet, simple gift these Starbucks baristas gave had on their customer. These baristas would do one additional thing before handing Jim his coffee and blueberry muffin. They would write a short note of encouragement on it. It wasn’t much. They’d write a favorite quote, affirmation or acknowledgment that they were grateful for him. Jim would take his items, thank the baristas and walked back to his retirement home. One afternoon as it approached 3pm, they realized Jim hadn’t made it in yet. When he failed to return the following day, a barista walked across the street to check in on him. The receptionist shared that Jim had passed away over the weekend. Although these Starbucks baristas only knew Jim from their momentary interactions with him, every one of their hearts broke when they learned the news. Jim had become part of their family. A beautiful reminder that you matter and your actions and words shape the lives of those around you. The following morning a family member entered the store and invited them to the memorial service taking place the following afternoon. As humbling as it was to be invited, it was what they saw entering into this facility that caused them to lose their breath. In this room, with just a few family members and friends, were three large round tables. These tables were stacked high with old Starbucks cup sleeves with handwritten notes on them. Jim may not have received lots of visitors, may not have received lots of mail, but every day he received a simple love letter from his friends across the street. And after finishing the muffin, or drinking the coffee, he would add the new sleeve to the stack to be reminded of the love that others felt for him. Writing a simple note on a bag. Offering a little encouragement on a cup. Looking people in the eyes. Seeing someone else as a unique, worthy and important individual. This all seems so little, insignificant, small. But for Jim, it was a reminder that he mattered, that he fit in, and that there were people who loved him. Don’t underestimate that doing little things well greatly elevates the lives of those around you. My friends, in a marketplace that so frequently feels disconnected and isolated, all too often we view our jobs, tasks, and even life itself as being insignificant. We forget the incredible power and possibility we possess through doing little things well to elevate the lives of those around us. Today, be reminded of the magnificent power of your life to influence change for good. It turns out regardless of our age, status or job title, that the ripples created by our actions truly do have the ability to impact lives around the world, across the street and across the aisle. Not sure where to start? Start with the reflection in the mirror. And start today. Today is your day. Live Inspired. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Ron Culberson. With a master’s degree in social work, Ron Culberson spent the first part of his career working in a large hospice organization as a clinical social worker, middle manager, and senior leader. As a speaker, humorist, and author of "Do it Well. Make it Fun.The Key to Success in Life, Death, and Almost Everything in Between", he has delivered more than 1,000 presentations to associations, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations. His mission is to change the workplace culture so that organizations are more productive and staff are more content. He was also the 2012-2013 president of the National Speakers Association and is a recognized expert on the benefits of humor and laughter.
During December, the phrase “holiday spirit” comes up a lot. After a particularly challenging year, I’ve been thinking about how this phrase relates to the end of one year and the start of another. I mean, what is holiday spirit? And why is it limited to a few weeks between Thanksgiving and January 1st? I felt it was a good question that required a bit of scrooginizing to figure out (See what I did there?). First of all, the phrase “holiday spirit” means different things to different people. Traditionally, people who celebrate holidays like Christmas or Hanukkah may make a connection between a sense of spirit and their faith. For others, this phrase may relate to the impact of beautiful decorations and traditional music. For some, holiday spirit may be the feeling they get when they engage in gift giving. And for a few, it’s simply the warm sensation they experience after throwing back a cup of whiskey-spiked egg nog. That version of holiday spirit will definitely deck your halls! But rather than worrying about the origin of the phrase, I’m more interested in why we don’t embrace this spirit throughout the rest of the year. It reminds me of what our pastor once said during a Christmas Eve service. Standing in front of the largest crowd all year, he said, “You know, we’re here every week!” Holidays, like vacations, don’t happen every day. The infrequency makes them special. In fact, if you went on a vacation every day, it would get old fast. The “holiday spirit,” on the other hand, is something we could pursue every day. Here’s how… Celebration. One of the primary purposes of a holiday is to celebrate. We hold patriotic parades on the Fourth of July. We raise a glass of champagne to toast fresh starts on New Year’s Eve. And on Thanksgiving, we share our gratitude for football…well, and other things. But have you ever thought about celebrating the smaller experiences in life? I used to think we should celebrate Tuesdays because they only comes once a week. Seriously, though, Tuesday is the oddball of the week. Monday is dreaded, Wednesday is hump day, Thursday is almost Friday, Friday is TGIF, and Saturday and Sunday are the weekends. Tuesday has no identity. So maybe we should celebrate it more often. When we engage in a celebration, we stop our normal routine to acknowledge or revel in something extraordinary. Ironically, every minute we are alive is extraordinary. In fact, the alternative to being alive is not great at all. So, perhaps we should celebrate Tuesdays, or the completion of an important task, or eating healthier food, or the sight of a beautiful sunset. If we really pay attention, all of these smaller celebrations might have a greater impact on us than the tinsel and turkey that we celebrate once each year. Memories. It’s been said that the sense of smell is a powerful memory generator. When I think of the scent of a pine tree or the aroma of turkey cooking, it reminds me of my childhood holidays when everything seemed simpler and full of wonder. As kids, our primary responsibility was to eat food and open gifts. We didn’t have the stresses and responsibilities of adulthood. So, those memories warm our hearts. That’s probably why we retell so many family stories around the Thanksgiving table. As a former hospice social worker, I know that it’s important for us to remember. When we acknowledged our memories, without getting mired in them, we make the connection between our present and our past, thus experiencing the emotions that go with those connections. For instance, during the holidays, many families acknowledge someone who has died by lighting a candle or having an empty chair at the table. These rituals keep us connected to those loved ones who are no longer with us. Perhaps we should do this at other times throughout the year. Some days, we might want to sit down and take a moment to remember. The memory might be sad or it might be happy. By experiencing it, we bring it into our consciousness rather than burying it—which is a healthy thing to do. Connection. One of our favorite experiences during the holidays is to gather together as a group in order to, well, dive into tense social and political arguments. Seriously, the holidays can create stress because as the saying goes, “you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family.” This is not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes there is a skirmish or two. The point of our gatherings, though, should be to enhance our human connectedness. Holidays might be the only time we get to spend with certain friends or loved ones and those connections are important for us to maintain. It turns out that close relationships are good for our well being. That’s one of the reasons I prefer Thanksgiving to Christmas. The goal of Thanksgiving is to gather together around a meal rather than focusing so much on gifts and decorations. When we spend quality time with one another, we actually receive a different kind of gift that will last a lifetime. And the best thing about human connections is that we don’t have to wait for the holidays to engage in them. If we make a point to nurture these relationships throughout the year, we create lasting bonds. Generosity. In my humble opinion, the best part of the holiday spirit is the generosity that occurs. Perhaps, in our attempt to enjoy our own celebrations, we become more aware of those who have less. Or perhaps during the process of buying gifts and food, it’s easy to get a little extra and give some of it away. Regardless of the reason, generosity flourishes during the holidays. And this is definitely something we can do all year long. What if we considered giving something away every week. Maybe, it’s some spare change. Maybe, it’s an article of clothing we no longer wear. Or maybe, it’s the gift of our time. By giving to others, we may make their journey a little easier while enriching our own lives as well. Bottom line, the holiday spirit can come from a celebration of memories, connections, and generosity. But why wait for the last few weeks of the year to enjoy it? If we consider celebrating all year long, we might just create a new tradition called the “everyday spirit.” Give it a shot. And in the meantime, happy holidays. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Steve Gilliland
This holiday season, words like discouraged, doubtful, and uncertain have replaced convinced, confident, and faith. Now, more than ever, we need to believe. For many of us, this year has challenged our confidence and left us disoriented and startled. Yet, with the whole world of new possibilities in front of us, we find it challenging to take a step forward. Sometimes we’re tested - not to show our limitations, but to discover our strengths. Now more than ever, we need to believe. What You Believe, You Receive Believe in moments and make them. Life isn’t perfect, but it has perfect moments. Believe that time heals. Time won’t make you forget, but it will make you grow and understand things. Believe that laughter is worth finding. In the darkest of times, laughter helps transform our perspective. Believe in gratitude because it produces abundance. Abundance is the result of appreciation, not accumulation. Believe that tears can cleanse. People don’t cry because they’re weak. People cry because they’ve been strong for too long. Believe that what you get is a result of what you give. Giving is not about donating. It’s about making a difference. Believe in someone you love. This season, be the reason, someone believes. Believe that living with less brings you more of what matters. Look for the good in every day, even if somedays you have to look harder. I Believe The song I Believe includes some of my favorite lyrics. I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows. I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come to show the way. I believe above the storm; the smallest prayer will still be heard. I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears every word. Every time I hear a newborn baby cry, or touch a leaf, or see the sky, then I know why I believe. Be The Reason This holiday season, whenever you have someone else’s attention, remember that your actions can convince them that the world is a cold, frightening place or that it’s full of love and joy. Believe that you have the power to make someone feel seen. Believe that every candle lit is an opportunity to make a wish. Behind you, all your memories. Before you, all your dreams. Around you, all who love you. Within you, all you need. Believe! Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
In the roughly 19 months since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, America’s hospitals have borne a huge amount of the pressure and accountability for managing the effects of an unknown and unpredictable virus, and more recently for the complex process of disseminating vaccines. Our nation’s hospitals are doing all of this with relatively little public or political credit, and at great expense to overworked staffs and organizational financial health. And now perhaps, if we are fortunate, we may be starting to come out of the worst of COVID. However, for hospital executives and their boards the question is: coming out into what? How will post-COVID America, its economy, and its culture affect the relative strengths of traditional healthcare provider organizations? And, with COVID having greatly accelerated the growth of virtual business models, how will COVID affect basic patient care delivery and the encroachment of non-traditional competitors on that traditional delivery system? In the absence of clear answers to questions such as these, hospitals and health systems need to prepare for many paths to many alternate strategic scenarios. This preparation will require sophisticated analyses and high level discussion at both the management and board levels. The overall strategic considerations are likely to be the most complex and intricate that healthcare providers have wrestled with in contemporary times. To assist with this strategic re-consideration, I offer the following post-pandemic preparation checklist. Costs. Every hospital and health system has come through COVID differently. Depending on the speed and absolute degree of the return of volumes and revenues, the pre-COVID cost structure still in place at many hospitals may require significant reductions. Given the general economic insecurity in towns and cities across America, any such cost reductions will need to be accomplished in a most thoughtful way. Strategic Repositioning. What does the local and regional market now look like? What about new competitors from national companies? What does your health system portfolio now look like? Are there specific assets within the portfolio that have been damaged? Has overall competition changed? Have direct competitors been weakened or become more aggressive? Are non-traditional competitors making moves into your marketplace? Organic Growth. Do opportunities for organic growth remain in your market? How might COVID have created new opportunities? Inorganic Growth. A competitive marketplace damaged by COVID may offer new and real opportunities for inorganic growth. Inorganic growth, however, always requires unusual levels of both preparation and organizational aggressiveness. Partnerships. The post-COVID environment may create and era of transformative partnerships. Last month, 14 large health systems announced a partnership to create a large-scale database to revolutionize disease prevention and treatment. Just a few days ago, Amazon Care, Ascension, and Intermountain Healthcare announced a coalition to promote care in the home through telehealth, digital therapeutics, and provider home visiting. Hospital and health system executives will need to be attentive and alert to such innovative partnership opportunities and their potential competitive impacts. Telehealth. What is the position of telehealth in your market post-COVID? What is your own level of telehealth capability? How will telehealth impact your overall delivery system and possibly the competitive balance in your marketplace? Importantly, what is your organizational point of view relative to the role of telehealth in your post-pandemic delivery system? For some time we may be in an economic, cultural, and clinical condition where we have many more questions than answers about organizational direction in the post-COVID environment. This suggests that any generic roadmap to the future remains unlikely to impossible. Preparation, though, is both possible and essential. Only with precise and well-thought-out strategic and financial assessment and direction can complex healthcare organizations reasonably expect to navigate the post-pandemic fog. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
What is “the good life?” It’s the name of a rock band, an old movie, a Tony Bennett song, and numerous novels. But what is the good life for you? Is it determined by you, or someone else? Most people agree with the definition of “the good life” as a sense of satisfaction, adequacy, comfort, well-being, contentment, even in the midst of disappointments and suffering. But for some, this is in contrast to the assumption that enough is never good enough. To enjoy a good life, they need more. To me, this thinking is fostered by two things: excessive goal setting and the media. Setting goals to achieve success, to fulfill dreams, to have it all, and set no limits is great and honorable, but it can suggest that enough is not satisfying. Especially when it is combined with a second feature of our society, consumerism. The media makes it hard to be satisfied with enough. There are constant pressures from producers and advertisers to purchase and possess the latest and best. Social media sites snare people into comparing themselves with others who have more things, more work, more beauty…the list goes on and on. All this can make us feel insecure, or “lacking” in some way. Mentally, there is a lot of pressure if we are always striving and never arriving. This raises the question, “How much is enough for the good life today?” If we can’t answer that question, it suggests that we can never be sure that we have enough wealth, possessions or security. Think about it. Write it down. How much is enough for you? Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
Words like ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’ can feel overwhelming and out of reach. Too often, we think an idea must change the world or have a billion-dollar value in order to count. Instead of establishing an impossibly high minimum threshold, let’s think of innovation more like fresh, delicious salsa: mild, medium, and spicy. A flavor option for each of us. Let’s start with the spicy version – INNOVATION (all caps). This is the big stuff, the world-changing inventions we celebrate in the media. Inventing the electric guitar was an INNOVATION. Digging the Panama Canal, INNOVATION. The combustion engine? Yep. INNOVATION. We’re talking life-altering, history-making, legendary innovation. Movable type. Penicillin. Wireless communications. But something doesn’t need to reshape history to be innovative. One double-click beneath INNOVATION is Innovation (capital I). Think of this as your medium-spicy salsa – important ideas that each of us may discover once or twice a year, not once in one hundred lifetimes. Maybe it’s a new product offering that helps boost revenue 28 percent in just six months. Or a new production process that creates a 13 percent cost savings. Capital I Innovations are juicy and meaningful even though they may not have books written about them by future generations. And then there’s the mild-flavored, often-bullied innovation (all lower case). I refer to these micro-innovations as Big Little Breakthroughs. While I adore these petite powerhouses, lowercase innovation can be dismissed as not valuable or potent enough. A lowercase innovation might be reimagining the way you conduct a job interview, refining the process to submit an expense report, or discovering a faster route to work. Small but mighty, it turns out that 72% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product comes from these Big Little Breakthroughs, from everyday people creating everyday innovations. As the most overlooked and underutilized of the innovation family, these bite-sized sparks are the pound-for-pound champions. They are less risky, easier to discover, and faster to implement. They cost less and are accessible to us all. They stack nicely and build upon each other, adding up to large wins over time. And if you really want to develop an all-caps INNOVATION, the best way to get there is to hone your skills through practice on a large number of lowercase innovations. Let’s stop thinking of ourselves as lacking innovation simply because we haven’t patented 193 inventions or launched a billion-dollar company. And let’s not fall into the trap of thinking we aren’t creative because our first attempt at art didn’t rival Frida Kahlo or Salvador Dalí. Instead, let’s celebrate all levels of creativity and innovation, realizing that the more we cultivate little ideas, the greater our breakthroughs will become. Great innovation — just like great salsa — comes in many flavors and varieties. The more we expand our palate to enjoy each style, the more we’ll savor the delicious outcomes we seek. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Laurie Guest
We are headed into the final push of serving our customers during a holiday rush. I think it’s possible that this season could be one of the most challenging we faced in a long time. Why? Because the customer emotions may be running hotter and the pocketbooks may be running thinner. What does that mean? It means we must really be prepared—armored up—for the best possible engagement with our customers. We need to make the experience as pleasant as it can possibly be, every single time they walk in our door. Let me share a brief story. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is often known as Small Business Saturday, and people are encouraged to shop locally in the town in which they live. I am a big fan of shopping locally. I live in a small town of about 45,000 people in Northern Illinois (about 60 miles west of Chicago), and we are not a tourist town. That means that all our small business owners need to survive on local foot traffic. How do they do that? With great service and great products. So on this Small Business Saturday, my husband and I headed out to safely do a little Christmas shopping. We went to four different businesses that offer similar products; home goods, antiques and collectibles. The first store that we walked into was a cute little shop with two floors. At the bottom of the basement stairs the last step is a little awkward and they’ve got a lot of warning signs so that people don’t fall. We were the only customers in the store and two women (the owners, I think) tending the shop. They had not greeted us when we walked in, they never asked if they could help us find anything, they never engaged with us at all. So here’s the part that really bothered me, the only sentence either of them said to us the entire time we were in the store: “watch the step!” As I used the handrail to go downstairs, what I was thinking to myself was “How about I watch the step and you watch the front door?!” How is it possible that we could walk into the store and not receive a greeting? Not receive any type of service to make sure that our needs were being met? There were three items in that store that I would have considered buying, but I ultimately did not because, as you know, I believe in great service to my core. I refuse to buy from someone who doesn’t go the extra mile to make the connection, who doesn’t engage in a way that makes me want to do business with them. And so there is only one lesson for today’s message and that is: this season, you’ve got to mind the door every time that door opens. If you’re not, your customers will feel it and take their business elsewhere. This season, more than ever, is the time to make every interaction count. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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