A THANK YOU worth sharing

It was a cool, crisp, clear Monday morning along the front range of Colorado. I was flying from Denver to Sacramento, California on four-day business trip. My carrier of choice, has larger than life photographs of wild animals on their tail and has a reputation as the “hometown” airline with great commercials. In the era of low fares and no service, flying has become like riding on a crowed bus in some banana republic. Crowded and no fun.

As a frequent flyer, I appreciate the little things that occasional flyers do not. Boarding the plane first, so I can stow my carry-on luggage. Extended seating, giving me a few more inches of leg-room. Free TV to check the news when I am not reading a report or a book. Little, “creature comforts” that I look forward to as a premium, “summit” member. Because my carrier of choice does not fly everywhere I have to travel, I sometimes fly on others, like the –“un-friendly skies”. I hate those trips.

My flight was two hours of uneventful bliss. We were actually arriving a few minutes early on a clear, central California dawn. As we made our descent, one of the flight attendants handed me a business card. On the front, in contrasting dark and light gray hues was printed the words, Frontier Airlines. Handwritten in freshly penned, dark blue ink, was the following. “Thank you for flying on Frontier Airlines. We appreciate your business and we look forward to you flying with us again.”

There in my hand I held the first, heartfelt, handwritten “thank you” I had ever received form any airline in twenty-six years of flying. I could not make out the name clearly, yet it was signed by the person who wrote it. The plane made a picture, perfect landing and we taxied to the gate. I gathered my belongings and was about to disembark from the plane when I thanked the flight attendant for the note. She gave me a pleasant smile and said, “Oh I wish I had written it, the captain wrote it”. I was shocked. The cockpit door was open and the captain and co-pilot waved as I left.

WOW! The power of this small gesture has me writing here to you today. While others talk about service and what they do for their customers, Frontier Airlines actually walks the walk. What one thing do you or can you do for your customers to say, “Thank You"?

Facebook | Bradley Craig Beck

Facebook Bradley Craig Beck

What have you done for your customers lately?

I recently had the opportunity to invest in the education of a customer’s sales team. An industry audio conference was offered by one of the trade organizations my company belongs to. The topic was on new trends in the industry. I paid the $60 dollar fee to receive a call-in number to listen to the conference.

Then, it dawned on me. Why not share this presentation with one of my local distributors? I called the buyer and general manager and asked if they would be interested in learning about new industry trends in a audio conference presented by one of the leading authorities in the business. Best of all, it would be my dime. They accepted my offer and the next day we listened to the audio-conference together in their conference room. The customer chose one of their managers and four of their sales team to listen in. The audio conference lasted about 45 minutes with 15 minutes for Q and A.

The discussion after the audio conference was awesome. There was exciting conversation on how to grow the business and implement the information. The benefit for the sales team was they shared the information with their customers. This opportunity strengthened my relationship with these folks and I helped invest in their future success. A minor cost with a major benefit. I cannot wait until the next event to do this for another customer.

Unintended conquences

I keep receiving e-mails that close with the following statement at the bottom, please consider the environment before printing this e-mail or some variation thereof. They often have a nice silhouette of a single evergreen tree standing like a sentential over a rushing river, in a bold, hunter green hue. Nice reminder to be environmentally conscious, but I do not need to consider whether I should or should not print something. If we all stop printing out articles or e-mails, that could affect paper companies and more importantly, people who work for them? What would recyclers do? How many loggers would lose their jobs because demand dropped? What about the trucker and the sawmill workers? If those jobs dwindle, what happens to the towns these folks live in? The stores, the restaurants, the schools might close and local governments that depend on these workers tax revenue would dry up.

Simple, harmless ideas that we all see as helping, really do the exact opposite.
Another example is when someone dies, often there is a request by the family that reads, “in lieu of flowers”, send your donations to this organization or that. While good intentioned, in lieu of hurts the florist that will not get to help the bereaved family in their grief by creating a beautiful tribute to the deceased? The florist supplier will not get an order and the grower will not have his crop harvested because someone suggested, in lieu of?

In May of 2003 country singer June Carter Cash, the wife of country legend Johnny Cash, died. Her obituary read, “In lieu of donations, please send flowers”. How refreshing. How bold. I have been to funerals where there were no flowers. The service was stark, cold and uncharacteristic of the person lying in the box. Flowers help celebrate a person’s existence. Flowers remind the survivors of the temporary nature of our lives. Flowers add color, aroma and warmth to a sad life cycle event. Flowers also bring solace and comfort to those who remember the departed.

Therefore, I will embrace Ms. Cash’s idea and ask when I die, send me flowers. Lot’s of them. Heck, send them to me now, while I am vertical. Moreover, please do not remind me to consider the environment. It will be fine without my consideration. My new, personal e-mail closing states;

please help capitalism thrive. print this email.

Toastmaster Youth Leadership Program – a star of an opportunity

16 mm film was originally an amateur movie format. A moving picture is created by taking a series of still images and advancing them frame by frame at a consistent rate of speed to create the illusion of movement. Our eyes assist by creating a “persistence of vision” to help this optical trick work.

16 hours is the amount of time we have to work with a group of amateur speakers and help them develop their ability to express themselves in a learning opportunity known as the Youth Leadership Program. This eight week Toastmaster program is no illusion, yet like a film it is a process. The program has a mission to help young people communicate effectively using a tried and true Toastmasters structure.

As in the 16mm film, the Youth Leadership Program is built frame by frame on a series of sessions that introduce various skills to the fifteen young people from ages eight to fourteen that are participating in the program. Brad Beck, ACS, ALB, Karen Dittman, CC and Sandie Sorrells are the directors behind this program being presented in the Town of Erie, Colorado for the first time. “I was looking for a project to complete my Advanced Communicator Gold requirements,” says Brad Beck, “when fellow Toastmaster Tom Hobbs suggested I conduct a Youth Leadership Program. Tom visited our club, the Erie Expressors and made a pitch to our members. Tom promised to provided the materials if we promised to conduct the program.” When vision meets action, something is going to happen. It did. “Karen and Sandie agreed to co-coordinate the program with me and we started planning it as soon as Tom delivered the materials,” said Beck.

Over coffee and croissants at the Smiling Moose in Erie, we planned our production. The materials we received gave us guidance on how to conduct the program with a Coordinators Guide and a Participants Handbook. The skills taught and practiced in these manuals include learning about chairmanship, evaluation, organizing a speech, listening, gestures, vocal variety, impromptu and prepared speech presentation. (For Toastmasters this should sound familiar). “We wanted to punch things up a notch,” said Beck, “so we created a power point program for each two hour session to enhance the program and keep the participants attention. About every fifth slide we have a funny or silly picture which keeps the kids engaged and makes them anticipate the material.”

The three split the responsibilities. Karen recruited home schooled children in our community and secured a location for us to conduct the program. Sandie volunteered to be the snack master keeping drinks and goodies for our participants to stay energized. And, Brad posted flyers at the local community center, library and submitted press releases in the local newspaper. They all take turns presenting the material.

Our participants are halfway through the program and they have learned to overcome their nervousness when speaking before an audience. Other skills practiced are organization, presentation, sharing ideas in a logical and convincing way, listening carefully to others, offering advice with evaluations, participating in and leading group discussions. With four meetings completed we have witnessed an increase in the participants self confidence as they learn and have fun.

“I am fortunate to have the assistance of some dedicated individuals from our club,” says Beck. “Karen and Sandie enthusiastically accepted the challenge of bringing this program to life and making it a success.”

Like a film there is a lot of pre-production time spent prior to conducting each session, enhancing the materials. The end product however is well worth it. “If we can help these young people become tomorrow’s leaders by giving them the tools they can use to become better citizens and confident communicators we have spent our time well,” says Beck. Word has already spread around town about the program and we have a list started for another eight week session which we hope to do sometime in the spring. 16 hours is not a lot of time to invest in your community to create your own program. Our suggestion like the directors call is, “Action”

Greeting internal and external customers

The sign read, “Welcome Brad Beck from Design Master.” WOW! What a way to be greeted. I was visiting a good customer in New Jersey and as I walked in their front door, that message was there to greet me. My name was prominent above the customer’s colorful logo. Did I feel special? You bet. I was smiling from ear to ear and truly felt like an honored guest in someone’s home. I was put as ease and knew this call would be great. This customer understood that when someone sees or hears their name, it’s makes them feel good and sets a positive mood for discussion.

In the beginning of the spring here in Colorado I did something similar at our office. I purchased a large potted geranium plant and placed it by the back door entrance. This is typically where most of our team members enter our office. I wanted each person to feel good about coming to work so I added a short sign that reads, “Through this door walks the BEST!”, and put our company logo on it. This colorful red flowering plant and that little sign greets our folk’s everyday. Hopefully it puts a smile on their face and reinforces how important they are to the success of our business.

What could you do to welcome your internal and external customers? Is there a special sign or posting you could make, to greet your customers? Little touches like these show someone cares and makes a world of difference in how one feels when we walk into a business. What are you doing to make folks feel welcomed?

The will to survive. Do you have it?

After one of the most expensive search and rescues in Grand Canyon history, John was found alive. John Fountain is a survivor. I mean this figuratively. At 18 years old, John and some high school friends set off for a hiking trip into the Grand Canyon. It was to be their last adventure of the summer before entering college. All seemed to go well for the first few hours on their descent to Horseshoe Mesa. The canyon was deceivingly beautiful. The vistas were surreal and so was the 100 plus degree temperature. After a day of hiking, the friends became dehydrated and then sick. John knew he had to do something for his friends. He needed to hike back up the canyon and go for help. Together they found a big rock to provide shade from the heat and then John left his friends with his gear, save some water and a few essentials.

John headed back up the canyon but soon found himself going the wrong way. After hiking back up a steep escarpment, he became lost and the climbing heat soon attacked John like his friends. He felt himself getting ill. He made his way back to where his companions were the next day but they were gone. They were feeling better after some rest and went to find water. John set off to find his friends. Somehow missing each other in their quest, they remained separated and did not connect. By this time there was evidence that John had come back to the place where he left his friends. His backpack was open and items removed and used. Thinking John had come back and then hiked out once again his buddies left to emerge from the canyon, only to discover that John was nowhere in sight. John’s car was still where he had left it. They knew John was down in the canyon, lost. They went for help.

Search and rescue crews fanned out into the canyon to search for John. Day after day they could not find him. John was sleeping during the hot days and traveling in the evening. The brilliant moon shining its beams of light showing him the way. John wandered the many canyons and gullies. With no food, John found whatever he could to eat. Frogs somehow kept him nourished. John found water where water was not supposed to be. Spending his 19th birthday alone, John sang Happy Birthday to himself over and over again to keep awake and alert through his ordeal through the cooler canyon evenings.

After six days John was presumed dead. Yet, he was very much alive. Some thirty miles from where he started, John spotted a lone hiker on a ridge above him. It happened to be a British man, Richard Hignett walking alone along a trail. John followed the man and finally tackled him to get his attention. When John told the man who he was, he was astonished. In no shape to go up, they went down the well-traveled trail to Phantom Ranch where they called for help. John was rescued.

John’s complete story was finally told after 25 plus years to an audience of industry peers. John held back the emotional scars that made this journey come rushing back to him in crystal clarity as he spoke to this industry conference on survival in tough times. This story gave me pause to reflect on how John’s incredible story of survival is a parable for those of us in business today. Preparing for a journey will only help you on your trek. It does not guarantee success. The choices one makes have consequences. Choose the course you take wisely. Pursue your path. Keep going in the face of adversity. Roadblocks like steep escarpments or dangerous cliffs may make you change course. Adapt to the environment you are in. Use what you have at hand to get you through. Be creative in your approach to any situation. Participate in pensive moments and reflect on yourself, your goals, and your situation. Perpetually move forward. John’s journey is our journey. We all enter a wilderness at times. The best emerge from the abyss, stronger and better prepared for the next adventure.