February 21, 2008 by Kyle.

I went to a Billy Joel concert last year. Great show. As many performers do, Billy Joel introduced the band during the concert.

Drummer, backup vocals, keyboard player…

Wait. Keyboard player?

Billy Joel is a fantastic pianist. In fact, he is often known by the title of one of his early hits, The Piano Man. So how tough is that job interview - keyboard player for Billy Joel?

Even though most people don’t know the name, Dave Rosenthal, he is clearly an extraordinary musician - a Black Belt, if you will, because he has put in the time, honed his skills, and chased his goal of being a world class musician.

It was great watching Billy Joel play his grand piano while Dave maneuvered around his numerous keyboards and synthesizers.

What are you a “Black Belt” at? In what area do you seek to be world class?

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February 18, 2008 by Kyle.

Judge at a beauty pageant!

How cool is that! You get to stare at beautiful women and rate them - without your wife giving you a hard time!

Wow, Kyle, how do you get a gig like that?

I met the pageant director at a business function. She found out I was a professional speaker and later contacted me about being one of the judges since the contestants’ verbal presentations were critical in the scoring.

In this particular pageant, the women had 30 seconds to tell the judges and audience about their platform or social issue (such as childhood obesity, scoliosis, illiteracy, etc.).

Their score for that 30 second presentation counted for half of the total - as much as the evening gown and fitness wear combined (sorry, no swimsuits at this particular pageant).

30 seconds to engage the audience, articulate their message, make it concise yet compelling. 30 seconds to make eye contact - with the entire room.

It’s easy to give a 45-minute speech. Very difficult to nail a 30-second presentation.

How would you do?

In front of hundreds of people. Being scored by judges.

Work on your presentation skills. You may not become Miss Ohio or Miss America, but those skills can help you become Miss Division Manager or Mr. Vice-President of Marketing.

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February 3, 2008 by Kyle.

My wife and I recently flew to Corpus Christi, Texas with my sister-in-law and her pilot husband in his Beechcraft Bonanza airplane. If you’re not familiar with a Bonanza, it’s a small, single engine airplane that holds 4 people. You can buy one for about $120,000.

It was an adventure for us! Flying at 6000 feet, looking at landmarks, listening to the air traffic controllers on our headsets.

A few minutes after we landed at Corpus Christi, another aircraft landed and stopped nearby. It was a Hawker jet. Nice airplane! It’s a $10 million aircraft.

Now, here’s the test. A lot of people would have seen that gorgeous Hawker jet and envy would have ruined their whole trip.

“Wow, I’d give anything to have an airplane like that…”
“Can you imagine what it would be like to ride in that jet?”
“Boy, we could have cut 3 hours off our travel time in a plane like that.”

My brother-in-law admired the Hawker but commented, “Yeah, it’s nice, but I couldn’t afford the fuel it would take just to start it up.”

We continued our trip and had a fantastic time, grateful for the time to spend with family, grateful for a safe flight, rather than griping about what we didn’t have.

What are you grateful for? Do you give thanks or spew complaints? Would your spouse agree?
Your co-workers?

Give thanks this week for something you normally take for granted.

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February 3, 2008 by Kyle.

I sent an email to the Technical Support people recently to ask a question about their software. I soon got an email back from a gentleman who assured me he would be glad to help me, but first required me to give him my email address.

Huh?

Dude, check the email message you just sent me, and look in the “TO” box. That’s my email address.

Unbelieveable.

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