Blaming is stupid.

I'm going to be a little bold here. 

Blaming others for your problems is really stupid. 

That felt good to say. 

But it's not stupid just in the sense that you look stupid for doing it. 

It's stupid because you are crippling yourself by blaming others. 

It makes you stupid because instead of looking for ways you can learn from a given situation, 

you look for ways to blame others....

....which is stupid. 

Join with me today and commit to never blaming other people for your own problems.

You will be amazed at your personal growth even after 30 days of practicing this. 

Romeo out. 

Love your clients.

Loving your clients looks like this:

• Being 100% honest and forthright in your promises and actions. 
• Owning up to mistakes
• Respecting the client, respecting their ideas - not just to their face but when it's just the creative director and the editor.
• Keeping your promises
• Caring enough to make the process fun. 

Random thought on victim mentality.

"The victim is found waiting for the white knight."

Don't be a victim.

Kevin out.

United States + debt... put simply

Someone posted this easy to understand breakdown of the United States current situation at chrislocurto.com 

 

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

Stress is a choice

"Stress is a choice. Do you buy that?
Some people have a hard time with the idea. They think it's the people and events in our lives that stress us out - management, colleagues, customers, the boss, traffic, weather, market conditions - but it isn't true.

Yes, bad things happen: The economy sours, our business struggles, the stock market tumbles, jobs are lost, people around us don't follow through, deadlines are missed, projects fail, good people leave. Life is full of these.
But still,
Stress is a choice.

Because whatever the "trigger event" we always choose our own response. We choose to react angrily. We choose to stuff our emotions and keep quiet. We choose to worry."

- John Miller, QBQ (Question behind the Question)

This is a tremendous little book that we, as a team, are going through at Rhino Media Productions.
The aim of the book is to eliminate victim mentality and blame, something just about every human being can fall into if they are not disciplining their thoughts.

I recommend this book to anyone, particularly ones in leadership or ones that want to grow as individuals.

My Prezi from Marketing U

This will make little to no sense without the oratory part.
I still think it's fun to share.

This is the prezi I made for my presentation on Visual Media at the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce's Marketing U event.

The rough format was
My past
My Current
My Tips
My Favs
My Thoughts on Social Media
My forget.

Retail employees and the holiday blues..

Once upon a time.
Many, many years ago.
Actually, about 8.
I was spending my Christmas season working retail.
It was a Sam's club in Portage,
before they upgraded buildings.

This was a difficult time for me
Because at the ripe old age of 21,
I felt like I deserved so much more than a cashier gig.

Nearing the end of a particularly long shift
A tall, lone, early 30's man came through the line
with an average size cart of oversized products.

Going through my usual routine
I said "Hey, how are ya"
Not expecting a response
while I started shuffling the items across the belt.

At first he was kind of quiet,
then he began to make semi demanding comments about the pace in which I scanned
It didn't take me very long to realize he was completely kidding
but he kept up his act, almost with a straight face
but with just a hint of a grin.

Pretty soon, As I continued to scan,
 I was nearly doubling over with laughter
Grinning from ear to ear
slowly regaining my faith in humanity and brief social interactions.

What caused this man to try and brighten my day?
He obviously had to go out of his way to make the effort
It was almost as if he had worked similar jobs
that caused him to question his life decisions.

Honestly, he hardly broke character.
Enough that it was clear he was trying to make me laugh
I think, by the end, he did actually break character and
asked me how my night was going.

But I could hardly respond
Because my eyes were watering from laughing so hard
He said "bye"
I said "have a good one".

This is the only interaction I remember with any customer from my entire 6 month career as a cashier at Sam's club.

I often finding myself trying to do for others
what this man was able to do for me that night.
Simply show that I care.
And that, although they may not like their job,
and they may not get paid very well
and they may not even be doing that great of a job from your perspective

They are still a human being - worth paying attention to and worthy of respect.

Even if I'm in a hurry.
Even if the line was long.
Even if I'm not in the mood. 

Above all else - people remember how you make them feel.




This is Bing Crosby on the phone. He has nothing to do with this post. I didn't take this photo and I don't know who did. But I like Bing. and I just watched White Christmas.