Summit Club Podcast

18/12/2024

Insiders,

Lots of things are going through my mind at this time of year. One thought was a “gift” of the best things to look for in whom to acknowledge for a great 2024 contribution. I came up with my “answer” from a book by Patrick Lencioni (a favorite business author) called “The Ideal Team Player”. Three characteristics to look for, develop, and acknowledge are “smart, hungry, and humble”. Anyone with that combination is bound to succeed and I even have a live, breathing example.

His name is Michael Bonner. He was one of our “Sales Champion Roundtable” members in summitclubpodcast.com episode #24 in 2020. Here’s the email content I received from him this morning. Feel free to forward it, as it shows why we selected him then and why he’s still a sales champion today:
Hello Friends,
This holiday season is another in which we need to consider the appropriate holiday gifts to the associates we are so thankful for. In recent years, we have discovered that traditional office visits and gifts were not practical, with many offices utilizing remote work. After receiving so many heartwarming responses of gratitude for converting our typical holiday gifts into charitable contributions, we've decided to again donate towards the care and services for those that need it most by way of the following charities:

Wounded Warrlor Project is a charity and veterans service organization that offers a variety of programs, services, and events for the wounded men and women of military actions. Ronald McDonald House (Philadelphia) believes no family should have to deal with their child's medical crisis alone. It provides temporary housing globally to thousands of families while they receive specialized healthcare treatment.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital aims to advance cures and means of prevention for pediatric diseases through research and treatment and ensure that no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family's ability to pay.

American Institute for Cancer Research, whose mission is to promote, expand, and encourage public knowledge on the links between diet and cancer, the causes and treatment of cancer in general, and to fund, support, and encourage research on the causes, prevention, and treatment of cancer.

Gary Sinise Foundation supports our nation's defenders, veterans, first responders and their loved ones, while upholding the importance of keeping our country strong by caring for those who serve.

Cheers and Best Wishes from Qulnn Construction. Inc. to you and yours for a safe and healthy holiday season.

A salute to Mike Bonner and to all of you who keep the spirit of the season alive and well. And don’t forget those three elements of “The Ideal Team Player” in your searches and rewards and recognition efforts.

Make Every Day Matter and, like Mike, Be One of Not Many.

The late Toby Keith says it all; just open the link:

https://youtu.be/tN75_1X0N3c?si=OVtQtQSTUK53I3-b

Official Music Video for Santa, I’m Right Here performed by Toby Keith.Stream more music from Toby Keith: https://stream.lnk.to/TobyKeithIDSubscribe to Toby ...

19/11/2024

Insiders,

I was checking in on LinkedIn this morning and saw a post from a Lars Behrendt, CEO & Innovator. He discovered somewhere the “long lost” 1984 Steve Jobs keynote presentation from the International Design Conference in Aspen. I said in my “re-post” it’s incredible from our 2024 vantage point to absorb the impact of what he thought and what he accomplished. He was even wearing a bowtie (they paid him $60 so he wore one)! Apple….amazing. Might want to check it out.

Got me thinking, how proactive are we? Covey’s first habit….be proactive. What contribution are each of us making to something? Who could you ask or where could you look to discover how to make something, anything better, cheaper, simpler, smaller, larger, faster, slower, more important, easier? I think I’m going to ask my clients, my Masters Roundtable members, my team members what can I do to make something better? How about being more productive starting right now!

How about a “get it right, do it now, whatever it takes” mindset?

Call that “expired prospect”
Ask a better question of the opportunity you lost
Text a customer/client/prospect about a:
New opportunity
New product/application/process
Research that competitor
Research behind a post (Like I am doing with Lars Behrendt) to:
Get smarter
Discover something new to talk about when “bonding” during a sales call
Teach something new to a team member or employee
Get rid of something:
A lousy customer
Something you’ve been procrastinating over
A forever prospect
A relationship
Organize yourself better
Throw some old s**t you haven’t touched in forever OUT
Go through that little pile of notes you keep meaning to follow up on your desk
File stuff
Get your car washed (if it looks like a loser’s not a winners)
Answer calls the same day even if you’re saying “I didn’t forget you”
Take the long way home
See what’s been happening that you missed
Listen to a podcast
Listen to your favorite music

For God’s sake “Be The Best of You”!

All from hearing Steve Jobs say “I’m not making a piece of s**t and I’m not taking….I’m putting back into the pool of human experience”.

How about we all make a commitment to make something better? And I'm taking the long way home listening to a favorite song of mine and one of my WIOQ team mate Donna’s favorites from back when.

Join me………Supertramp.

Be One of Not Many and Make Every Day Matter.

23/10/2024

Afternoon Insiders,

Crazy time I know, hurricanes, economy, interest rates, border, unrest, customers, prospects, crime…Not easy and some days just difficult to stay grounded!

When I’m overwhelmed by all the “static”, what works for me sometimes is to “step away”, write down things I need to deal with. All of it. Then decide priorities. Just making the list helps me get rid of the some of the “things”, or push them off to a future date. Be realistic and as Stephen Covey used to say, “Big Rocks First”! Then fill in some of the less critical things. For me, just managing the list calms my mind, and real or imagined, I feel more in “control”. John Condry, management trainer and guru that I’ve collaborated with always said “excellence is attainable, perfection is not” (Nobody’s Perfect!). Take a break…reconnect with a long time client (for me, Steve from Unipak and breakfast at Bob Evans) and clear your mind. Can always check out Don Miguel Ruiz “The Four Agreements” for help.

The “principle” to embrace when the going gets tough? Never Surrender. Never!

Make Every Day Matter and Be One of Not Many!

REMASTERED IN HD!Official Music Video for Never Surrender performed by Corey Hart.Follow Corey Hart: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreyhartofficialFa...

11/09/2024

Insiders,

This is the “first” of a series of posts that talk about what I’ve learned from my “library” over these many years of managing, leading, training, and coaching.

In thinking about a starting point, I’ve identified one of the first “business reads” that surprised and educated me as “The Peter Principle” by Dr. Lawrence Peter and Raymond Hull.
The subtitle was “Why Things Always Go Wrong”.

Here’s the “gist” in my words. “The more you know the further you go” until you don’t know enough to go further. It really says that you keep advancing/getting promoted until you’re not capable of going further. If you were really competent, you’d get promoted until you aren’t. It’s called “Occupational Incompetence” and it’s still everywhere.

There are lots of “posers” out there that we’re all forced to deal with. My thought is that when you have a direct report who is so accomplished and capable that they make their position look easy, maybe sometimes you should keep them there and incentivize them to share their competency with others around them.

Think of sport……stay playing their “best position” and pay them more. Phil’s won last night in the bottom of the 9th because the right players did the right things well.

Just saying. Until the next visit to my “library” make every day matter.

Listen!

Watch the official music video for Alphaville - Forever Young (Version 1) from the 1984 album 'Forever Young'Subscribe to the Rhino Channel! https://Rhino.ln...

27/08/2024

Insiders,

Yep, I know. Seems like all I do is talk about books. Elon Musk’s was almost a million pages….but worth it.

Now, I was having a coaching session last week with a really good young sales guy, and he said something like “nobody wants to deal with the real issues because they’re afraid to be honest”. I said sounds like "Fear of Conflict" from "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni and he said “exactly”, he’d read it! The conversation then moved on to the specifics of his issues. But…….

I decided to let you all know about some of Lencioni’s books and why you might decide to read them. I like them because he always illustrates the books' “messages” with a fable that demonstrates the lessons learned around the business issue(s). Here goes:

"Five Dysfunctions of a Team” focuses on the team challenges of:
Absence of Trust
Fear of Conflict
Lack of Commitment
Avoidance of Accountability
Inattention to Results

I’ve facilitated the “program” many times and always produced success!

“The Ideal Team Player” has three “key virtues” that are “game changers”:
Humble
Hungry
Smart

Another productive resource in “raising the performance bar”.

“The Advantage” constructed around “four disciplines:
Building a cohesive leadership team
Creation of Clarity
Overcommunicate Clarity (not a typo)
Reinforce Clarity

Yes Clarity is the most important building block of “The Advantage”

"Five Temptations of a CEO” a “wake up call to all those who dare to lead” (no kidding)
Protect their career (status)
Desire to be popular
Make “correct decisions”
The Desire for harmony

I know, not in your world (uh huh)

Anyway, for many, it’s the last week of the summer, and next week it’s back to work (the show)! I know, refocus on wrapping the third quarter and getting in gear for the fourth. Along with many other things that might be “on your plate” I’d suggest putting one of the above on it! If you’ve read them all (good job!) I’d suggest you reread the one you didn’t really like (you might be surprised this time).

One of my "striving attributes” (not there yet) is to read as a life long learner, so if you have feedback on any of the above, please provide it. If you’d like to do a book review podcast on one of them let me know. If you have suggestions for other reading, don’t hesitate to offer them. In case you’re not aware, we do this for you because we care.

Be One of Not Many and Make Every Day Matter!

A perfect end to August might be an encore of “It’s five o’clock somewhere” by Alan Jackson in his boat “Hullbilly” with the late Jimmy Buffett.

See you all at work next week!

15/08/2024

Insiders,

I heard the following in a presentation a while back. I'm not sure who the speaker was, but it might have been Lester Thurow, the author of "The Zero Sum Society.” Anyway, I found it valuable and thought it worthy of passing on to all of you.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish”: Proverbs 29:18

"Columbus was smart in the sense he knew the world was round. But in MIT terms, Columbus was not terribly swift when it came to mathematics, because Columbus had to make two mathematical calculations to figure out how much water to put on his boats. The first calculation: what’s the diameter of the earth? And when Columbus estimated that, he made it one-third too small. The second question he had to answer was, how far did Marco Polo walk? And when he estimated that answer, he made it one third too big.

Now, if you subtract a number that is one-third too big from a number that is one-third too small, you make what is called a major mathematical error. Columbus estimated that the distance from the Canary Islands to the East Indies was 3900 nautical miles. It’s actually 13,000 miles!

If you look at the amount of water that Columbus put on his ships, before he got halfway there, he and all of his men would have died of thirst, and the name of Columbus would probably never be in the history books.

Now, I suppose one moral you could draw from this story is that it’s more important to be lucky than smart because it just happens that exactly 3,900 nautical miles from the Canaries, one runs into the Americas! The Americas were full of gold, and they made the Spanish Empire for the next 300 years!
But that would be the wrong moral of the story because you’ve got to remember something else.

It took Columbus seven years to persuade Ferdinand and Isabella to finance the expedition. It took enormous persistence. And without the enormous persistence, he never would have been in a position to have the enormous good luck. Secondly, and even more importantly, he had the vision of doing it in a different way, or he could not have had the good luck! And so in closing, I wish you intelligence. But more than intelligence, I wish you good luck. And more than good luck, I wish you persistence. And most of all, I wish you a vision for a new world.”

So, don’t underestimate the value of “seeing” the objective. First, create the vision or “picture,” then never take your “eye” off of it when focusing on your strategies and plans.

To close this up…I’m reading “Willie, Waylon, and the Boys” by Brian Fairbanks, and every time I hear this song, what a “vision” I see.https://youtu.be/KxDDNzG1lxM?si=mhybXutN6ERtboZk

Make Every Day Matter and Be One on Not Many!

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupThe Road Goes On Forever · The HighwaymenThe Road Goes On Forever℗ 1995 Capitol Records NashvilleReleased on: 199...

30/07/2024

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23/07/2024

Summit Club Podcast, a subsidiary of Peak Performance Plus, is passionate about delivering results that make a real difference to our clients. Mark's experience is just one example of how we partner with the heart of the business, the people, to drive success.

Ready to become "one of not many"? Let's talk about how we can help you achieve your goals.

You can visit our website or DM us to learn more about our services.

18/07/2024

Insiders,

Just thought I’d share some of my experiences regarding getting things done. More and more it seems I’m hearing and seeing some really good ideas that seem to die…run out of gas….or are just forgotten about. Ideas from CEO’s, COO’s, CMO’s, administrators, managers, sales folks, administrators, team leaders and many others. Solutions and initiatives that just “die on the vine”. Things like “best practices”, “rules of engagement”, “team fundamental behaviors”, “social media initiatives”, “SEO” support, “rewards and recognition” programs, and on and on. I had to ask myself “why”?

Well, right or wrong, my conclusion seems to center around “mindset/courage”. The first organization each of us must manage is “ourselves”, and the first rule in management is “you can’t manage what you can’t control”. Consequently, get control of your mindset. If you want to (and are needed to) execute around developing and initiating your ideas, your mindset must be centered on being “proactive”. Get organized, control your schedule, manage your activities. Plan your work and “work your plan”! If you aren’t organized, if you’re not managing your schedule/activities, what do you think your direct reports or your team members are thinking?

Everybody can create opportunities to lead. You need to have courage to play/work at your best! For most people, their capabilities lag behind their abilities. We perform up to our “self concept”. Translation, you’re only as good as you think you are. Safer that way because you minimize failures. Sad.

As I was thinking this through the observations, I was listening to the Phillies pre-game show this past weekend. I heard an interview with Jeff Hoffman, first time All-Star Phillies relief pitcher. Interviewer asked about how his career led him to this great recognition? He said he was drafted #1 (I think) by the Colorado Rockies but didn’t pitch that well while there. Got traded to the Cincinnati Reds and was frustrated there that he couldn’t play as well as he felt he should. Phillies picked him up and had him in the minor leagues with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. (Hang in there with me.) Bryce Harper was sent to Lehigh Valley for a rehab assignment late last spring and the team wanted Bryce to take some batting practice against respectable pitching, but not dangerous to the biggest start on the team. Jeff Hoffman was selected to pitch to the “star of the team” (and NOT HIT HIM). He pitched perfectly, competitively but not recklessly. Compliments came from Phils exec’s (they believed in him and he gained confidence). They brought him up to the “Big Team” and the rest is history. Belief and conviction gave him confidence, and confidence has given him courage.

All of us need to challenge our “self limiting beliefs”, those thoughts and assumptions about our abilities that limit our growth and confidence. Then we procrastinate and before long, the opportunity to “pitch to the best” or "share that great idea" just fades in the background.

So, the next time an opportunity presents itself, speak and act courageously and put your ideas into action. Be One of Not Many and Make Every Day Matter!!

I appreciate you all.

31/05/2024

Insiders,

So, how about when we don’t necessarily feel “motivated”? What then? Maybe it’s the context that generates the “internal state”. Do we have to “feel like it”? Is the reason important enough?

I’m not sure, and like most of us, I can’t honestly say I don’t have times when I just don’t feel “motivated”. A few years back, I asked the question, “What do you do to get or stay motivated?” in one of my sales training classes. A fairly young guy new to selling, Brian Wendig from TBP Converting said to the group, “well some days it helps if I watch TCU The Grind”. None of us in the room were familiar with TCU The Grind, so I looked it up on my computer, and the group watched it on the PowerPoint projector.

Sometimes you need a "kick in the ass” to get motivated. FYI, there’s a book I’ve used from time to time in sales training entitled “Kick Your Own Ass” by Robert Early Johnson (a GM named Tom Kirby as a client loved the name of that book!). Anyway, not unusual that most of us, from time to time, need that kick in the ass to get/stay motivated. Getting started seems the toughest challenge to finding motivation, and sometimes a “kick” in the right place at the right time can get the fire started.

Another thought, a trigger sometimes, is your “personal avatar”. What’s that you ask? Well, our social media director Ashley Harris and I have labeled it your "personal brand” created and supported by The best version of yourself. You define what makes the best version of you! Maybe go back and watch TCU The Grind again, and in listening to the adjectives spoken (defiance, reason, don’t look back, work to do, get in your way, and fight), select a few that could, should, or do describe “The Best Version of You.”
Then go to LinkedIn, and add some of those descriptors to your profile. Next time you’re stuck and need motivation, go to your LinkedIn “Avatar” and maybe seeing the words you’re advertising to the social media world will give you the kick in the ass you need to get you motivated.

Welcome to a “glimpse” of my avatar!! You can live in fear or believe in the best version of yourself. I believe.

29/05/2024

Listen in on our Master's Roundtable as we discuss relevant business topics!

Join our second session of the “roundtable” where we will continue to explore a wide range of timely business topics through the lens of our Peak Performance Plus/Summit Club “Mastergroup”, a small cadre of business professionals with varying backgrounds and experiences.

17/04/2024

Morning Insiders,

Maybe I’m part of a very small group of folks that find inspiration in the music I hear. Again, ever since I was "single digit young” I loved music. Then may years at WIOQ, a dream job, rock and roll 24/7!

Worked in my office this morning until about 1 pm then went out to mow some grass on my tractor and relax, think, and listen to music on headphone (ear protection). I heard “Revelator” by Phosphorescent (not sure what it’s about but I liked it). Heard “Not Dark Yet” by Bob Dylan, liked that (don’t know if I heard it before or not). Then I hear “Think” by Aretha Franklin, and her voice screaming FREEDOM is stuck in my head. Instead of “Think, what you’re trying to do to me” I’m thinking “Think, what I’m trying to do to myself”!! We have the freedom to think for ourselves, about ourselves. Are we the best of ourselves? Do each of us know what the “best of us” is? We all have the “Freedom” to find out and show it to the world, everywhere and every day.

Here’s a clue. I believe we each need a “code to live" by to "be and show" the best of us every day. For Tom Brady it is “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. His ex-wife Gisele gave it to him years ago as a “Practical Guide to Personal FREEDOM”. Or, how about Max Homa, who just finished tied for third in the Master’s this weekend. I don’t know him but I wish I did. I've known his Aunt and Uncle, Jan and Larry for years. His “code” is “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” a “practical guide to the fulfillment of your dreams”.

Doesn’t matter whether you, me, Tom Brady, Max Homa or whoever. I worked with Steven Covey’s organization for 7 years and clearly embraced his 7 habits. Each of us has a better shot at being and showing the best of us every day if we have a personal code to live by.

Every day I think three (3) things:

Clint Eastwood/Toby Keith “Don’t Let the Old Man In”
“I can live in a place of fear, or believe in the best version of me"
Be the best of me every day

Think Freedom and make every day matter.

Aretha Live: https://youtu.be/Vet6AHmq3_s?si=nZB5smhU_w5SU3ky

Aretha with the Blues Brothers 4k version: https://youtu.be/RTXszRHc0qs?si=GJwiXK--b9BGUP3Z

Buy/Rent The Blues Brothers!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Brothers-John-Belushi/dp/B001BR3P3U/iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-blues-brot...

21/03/2024

Insiders, I have the room and need a moment.

I’m seeing, hearing and sensing a bit of “malaise” here and there right now. Not sure why. Not in a position to “figure it all out”, but am in a position to react. I think for the most part, it's attitude.

For instance, in talking with Ashley our social media director earlier this week, she mentioned seeing a recent Gallup poll that found that “basically, half the people in the western world are in the wrong job”. If that’s the case, you know what! That’s a lot of complaining! Personally I think it’s GIGO, you know that technology acronym garbage in garbage out. You bring a crappy attitude to your work/job, you’ll deliver a crappy performance Nice. Now you’ve found the perfect way to sabotage your career!

It’s spring….may be time for new life, new outlook, new mindset! David Sandler (President, Sandler Sales Institute) used to say,”The first organization you need to master is YOU”. What can we do to best manage ourselves? Teach yourself and learn. Be a life long learner. No excuses, set time aside to what the Air Force used to say, “read and heed (pay attention)”. Parent yourself maybe? About time for some of us..

Came across an article about Paul Epstein who spent 15 years as an executive in professional sports ( NFL & NBA) and is now a noted leadership and sales keynote speaker. He says the "key differentiator between winning and losing is mindset. Specifically, embrace an offensive mindset rather than a defensive one. Focus relentlessly on factors within your control and refuse to be distracted or deterred by adversity, setbacks, hurdles and obstacles. Don’t let it overtake your life! An offensive mindset is about controlling the controllables!”

How about this, show up every day and deliver the “best version of you”. Manage your attitude! Take ownership of you and your life and as it says under my signature block, “Be One of Not Many” every day.
We all are parenting ourselves and “managing the organization of me”.

That makes all of us teachers. Listen and learn. Be the "best version of you” and make every day matter.

CSN can help. https://youtu.be/pH3nROuAY10?si=wJG66bE2xL76GvuI

From Philadelphia when we were great. JFK, Live Aid. 1985

Crosby, Stills & Nash performing at Live Aid in front of 100,000 people in the John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia USA on the 13th July, 1985. The event wa...

07/02/2024

Insiders,

Don’t ever stop dreaming….you never know when it all may end.

I always wanted to be a cowboy as a little boy. My mother, bless her had given me the list I wrote to “Santa” with "Cowby Bots” on it. She thought I was about 5 or 6 years old. And I got ‘em.
Here’s Toby’s version, watch the video, turn up the volume and see from Oklahoma to Bosnia, Iraq, to Afghanistan: https://youtu.be/LswzFiCPGwg?si=UQkyDoqgOFmIIIfb

Clint Eastwood helps with this. Story has it, Toby Keith ran into him somewhere and asked him how he keeps going at his age. Eastwood replied “I get up each morning and “I Don’t Let The Old Man In”
The video is Clint’s the song is Toby’s. https://youtu.be/yc5AWImplfE?si=VYdw-JfaLFoYC2hy

This is why I always end with Make Every Day Matter. Love you all.

Music video by Toby Keith performing Don't Let the Old Man In. (C) 2018 Show Dog, LLC marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigershttp://vevo.ly/8dORJO

10/01/2024

Insiders,

Many have “resolution views” of the New Year….even Tony Robbins is back with a five-step, eight stage something or other (a little like Bill Wilson’s 12 step). A magic “potion” if you will to be quicker, smarter, richer, stronger, slimmer, or whatever!

Well for me, I just want to be satisfied with myself. I think it’s time not to be an “abundance freak”, or to stop trying to “over achieve” whatever that means. Maybe it’s my time to just be me and focus on the truly important things, and realize why I should be happy. The old saying when you can’t sleep says “stop counting sheep and start counting your blessings”. Maybe in 2024 some of “us” (me and some of you) need to be thankful for what we are, where we are, what we have, and “stop punching above our weight”! M.P Neary, author, says “stress is that silent destroyer that can grind us down. Stop fighting the fights you have no chance of winning”. Maybe 2024 is the time to stop fighting period. Accept "the power of now” and live each day, one at a time. Maybe start having more fun and be more “respectful”. I saw a banner on a Linkedin profile (don’t remember whose…sorry), that said “Show respect to people even when they don’t deserve it. Respect is a reflection of your character, not theirs”.

Anyhow, my thoughts for this new year are 1. Simplify as much as I can. 2. Prioritize around what makes me happy. 3. Hold myself to higher values. 4. Focus on self fulfillment. And last but not least, 5. Be thankful for what I have, every day as the picture shows below.

For me, I sum it up with Frank and “That’s Life” ,

Frank Sinatra performing “That’s Life” from Sinatra: A Man And His Music Part II.Listen to Frank Sinatra's greatest hits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQz...