Neil Richmund

I recently (October 1, 2011) stepped back into the pulpit to preach again after a 2 year absence, below is an audio file of that sermon. I did not know if I could say what needed to be said, but God gave me the words I needed at just the right time. I have also included the video from the end of the sermon featuring a song I love by Peter Furler (and great editing work by my friend Carrie Groseclose!!!). Sorry the sound is a bit rough at the beginning, but it gets better later one. May you hear something that will brighten your day, or even your life!!!

Neil

Sermon 10-1-11

One simple question today! Why do you buy? I am doing some research and would love to know why you buy something. Let’s say you are out and about and see something that catches your eye. I want to know what your thought process is to go from wasn’t thinking about it to purchase in hand. Please add your comment below (or if you are reading this via email, just hit reply and send me your response).

Thanks in advance for your answers and I want to let you know that the email version of this will be changing next week.

Have a great day!
Neil

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s day and I didn’t wear green. I don’t know if that got me on the and side of all that is Irish, but apparently that was a hug mistake. You see, a big part of what I am doing these days is creating websites for customers. I had spent about 4 hours creating a new website on Thursday and things were going along very well. Just before I was about to go to sleep last night I made a couple of tweaks and to my horror, everything I clicked on sent me to another site. A business site from…Ireland!

Somehow a little Irish Leprechaun took offense to my not honoring his day and hit me with a nasty reminder. I spent the next 3 hours recreating the site, and getting it back to where I was at 10 am in the morning. One of the big things I do when I create a new site is setup a backup to automatically happen every day. Of course this site was not to that stage yet, hence starting over again.

This is also why I am later than normal with this post/email – it threw a lot of things off (none-the-least of which was my sleep). Naturally, I have gone and checked my other sites to see if anything happened to them (none were affected) and to make sure I have the backup in place.

What happens to you when life gets “interrupted”? Do you have a backup in place? Could someone take over if required? Do you have a carefully outlined sequence of events for someone to grab the reigns and keep things rolling like nothing ever happened? Most of us don’t and that’s my challenge to you today. Take a look at you r essential, whether it’s life or business and make sure you have a plan in place, for when those cheeky little “leprechaun’s” mess with your life!

Neil

I thought I’d share a simple, but very compelling quote with you today:

“Think of the things people have done that make your day, and make a point of doing those same things for others.”

Right now, think of that person or people and commit to doing something for them.

Have a great week!

Neil

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Yes, there are way too many candles on here!

As many of you know, I celebrated a birthday since I last wrote. It was a quiet affair (which is fine by me), some fun time with my son and time to relax. Never-the-less, that’s not my point today, it’s the fact that I am now 44. Yes, to many that’s still young, but I want to speak especially to the many who think that’s old now.

You see, for most of my life I had thought that once one got into their mid forties, well, that’s almost the end of your life. As my title suggests – you had one foot in the grave. Now I’m here, not only do I know that statement to be wrong, but I know for a fact that I am not even near the cemetery!!! You see my perspective has changed, I see things differently now and as a result I can look at life from a much better vantage.

Our perspectives change all the time, we are always taking a fresh look at things or being forced into doing that, but it’s what happens next that really makes a difference. Do you step forward or do you step back? Do you take things as an opportunity, or do you see it as a pain in the neck?

When it comes to marketing and life, once things we can be certain of is that things will always change, nothing will stay the same. It’s what we do next that will move us in the right direction or away from the right direction – do you embrace it? Yes, embrace, that’s the word I want to use, because to truly move forward each and every day, we need to reach out to the opportunities that are ahead not tentatively, but like they are an old friend or family member that you haven’t seen for a while and embrace them. That’s the attitude for 2011, and it’s my challenge for you today. What change do you need to embrace? Go embrace it with all you have, you will probably be surprised by what happens next!

Have a great day.

Neil

VIRGIN Atlantic airline staff have revealed the most bizarre questions asked by passengers on flights, with “Can you turn the engines down, they’re too noisy!” topping the list.

In a survey of 3000 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew, common questions from passengers ranged from “Please can the Captain stop the turbulence?” to “Is there a McDonald’s on board?” It seems many passengers get confused about the delicacies of pressurized cabins, with many asking if windows can be opened. They also overestimate what it’s like on a plane, and have been known to ask for directions to the showers, and where the children’s playroom is.

Crew members also revealed they have been asked to book in massages for Barbie dolls, entertain rowdy children, and even help find a missing glass eye.

I found that to be an interesting news story that I read recently. Have you ever felt frustrated that people are asking you too many questions about stuff you think they should know? We all have. The key is this, as far as I can tell, the more you get people thinking about, or talking about your product, the better it is for you. I get many people who are embarrassed to ask what they consider to be basic questions, but I am always quick to encourage them to ask – what’s to say it’s a silly question.

I challenge you this week to ask more questions and encourage those you engage in discussion to ask as many questions as they can – who knows, it might just be a successful strategy. Remember you heard it first from me (well sort of!)

Have a great day,

Neil

I received this quote book from my Mother for Christmas (thanks Mum!). One of the quotes for this week read as follows:

“When people look up to you, you have a great opportunity to help unlock their potential. But you can’t do that if you insist on calling all the shots. Being right or being successful doesn’t need to come at the expense of others. Take a load off everyone: Lay down your ego.”

All I wish to add to that his week is simply this – if the shoe fits, put your foot in it, walk around in it, wear it with pride!

Neil

Why do you watch the Super Bowl? For the food? Because your team is playing (Patric)? Because your team isn’t playing? The love of the Game? or The Ads? I know a lot of people who don’t care less about the football, but are glued to their TV’s – during the commercials! Which, when you are into marketing like me is pretty cool.

A few stats – average cost of a 30 second commercial this year – $3 million. The lineup was already set last October. The winners and losers, who know really, but a VW Darth Vader and some dogs scored pretty well.

Bottom line, what’s my point to all this? You can learn some great marketing lessons from these guys:

1. Don’t put all your eggs in 1 basket (even if they are very expensive eggs). None of these companies are relying on 1 ad during the Super Bowl to see them through the next year, yet so many small business owners think just 1 bit of marketing will bring in all the dough they need. They sit, they wait, they cry they curse advertising and die. Not a good strategy at all.

2. Don’t be so serious in your advertising. Most of these ads are funny and you remember them as a result. You may not even know why they did what they did, but you know (most of the time) who did it. That’s branding at it’s best. You may not have the luxury of much branding, but if you can be humorous you will be remembered.

3. $3 million might be a lot to you and me, but for their ad budget it’s nothing. My guess is none of us could spend that much on 30 seconds of air time, but we can do something. There are a lot of businesses that do nothing when it comes to marketing and guess what, they will probably be doing something else soon. You may not have a big budget, but do something. Need ideas? Check out this Guerilla Marketing list of ideas for starters (http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/5-100-marketing-weapons). If you need a hand, leave a comment below and I’ll be in touch.

You may not be able to put all your eggs in a Super Bowl basket, but please make sure you have a basket and you have eggs!!!

Have a great day and please leave me a comment below.

Neil

What I have learned from Frozen Water!

Many of you have spent the week in a similar situation as I have, but there are many who have not, so this week I thought I would share a few observations on my experience this week with the huge ice storm that hit Indy.

I firstly have to say that I haven’t seen anything like this before. I have livied in Wisconsin and Michigan, and had a few really “rough” Southern California winters, but this one really topped the list. Why? I was stuck at home for 3 days, running out of food (I’ll tell you why shortly), Jaxon home from school (running out of things to do), and I knew everyone else was doing the same. Almost everything out there seemed like they were closed. In America, that never happens.

I have lived in the country for nearly 21 years, but I have never quite adapted to slippery, snowy, icy conditions for driving. I am still so freaked out from my first incident – in April of 1990, that I would rather not let it happen again! What happened back then? I hit a patch of “black ice” (something this Aussie boy had never seen before), and ended up dumping my fiancee’s car in a deep ditch. All because I didn’t “respect the ice”.

So that’s my point today – “respect the ice”. What do I mean? Well, we all too often think we can get by with something, or it won’t be as bad as we think, therefore we do not plan accordingly! We have all heard the weather forecasters talking about what might happen with the weather, only to see them wrong again. So eventually we marginalize them as 90% wrong, and just go about our lives. Well, that’s what I do, don’t you? I didn’t even think twice about the warnings of this impending storm. Everyone was freaking out, and I just kept going like nothing was happening. Thenm in the middle of it all when my milk ran out, I wished I had been a better Boy Scout. I spent over an hour clearing off my car that had ice on it up to 1″ thick. That’s not easy to get off.

So what has this all taught me this week? First, I need to be better prepared for any outcome. Be it personal or business, I need to know what potential hiccups can come and make plans now to avoid them, or at least be prepared for them.

Second, I have realized that life is rather fragile. I didn’t have any major incidents, but walking on solid ice is always a problem. I ended up on my rear end frequently, and one time took Jaxon down with me (all this after I had been telling him to hold my hand so he wouldn’t slip and fall!!!). The stability of the ground we walk on is very fragile, we can quickly be on ice, and if we are, can we adapt? Can we make it work in our current situation?

My parting thought. Take each day as a new opportunity. An opportunity to “smell the roses” (not that they are blooming in icy Indy), to stop and look at what you have today and recognize that. Don’t take it for granted, because while we are busy doing what we do, it could all change, and we’ll have missed a moment we will never get back!

Have a great day and stay safe while you soak in the opportunities ahead of you!

Neil

Clear as Mud?

I went to visit my Doctor recently, and as I was waiting I saw this box in his office, so I couldn’t resist to snap a picture of it with my phone. You’ve all seen them before, they are there to collect stuff, no body else needs access to. Usually it’s needles etc, but this one caught my eye in particular. Not for the LabCorp logo, but for the caption at the bottom of the box: ” NO DRUGS OR MONEY IS KEPT IN BOX BLOOD AND URINE SPECIMENS ONLY”. My first thought was – is this necessary, do we need to know that? Is it TMI (Too much information)? Then it dawned on me why that was probably there – we live in desperate times, and desperate times call for desperate measures!

It’s certainly a sign of the times, when a specimen box could potentially be the target of thieves. Apparently it’s a problem, or else the notification would not have been there, or is it possible that the blood and urine reference is there for another reason? This is not a conspiracy theory or anything like that, it’s a though provoking question for you to consider!

There are two things I would like to challenge you with today, that this box brought to my thinking. As always, I will relate it back to my favourite topic – marketing. Do the messages you put out reflect either of these two styles?

1. A warning for those who might potentially be looking for you and your services to think twice before doing so. What do I mean by that? Well all too often we market ourselves in a negative way, rather than opening the door to opportunity. I have been very aware of that lately, especially as i have a publication that offer exclusivity and doesn’t market to restaurants. Usually as soon as someone tells me they have a business that doesn’t fit my criteria I shut down – as far as I am concerned the conversation is over. I miss out an on opportunity to do business with someone in a way that might be unexpected and they miss out on whatever I could have offered them. Not good marketing on my part.

2. A clear indication of who you are, what you do and what you might expect from me. I like this a lot better. People should be in no doubt about who are, what you do and whether they have a need for your business or not. A lot   of marketing I see attempts to be all things to all men (and women), and that usually means you are nothing to everyone! I have a great system for getting that process narrowed down, if you would be interested in go over that, just let me know and we will get right on it.

Have a great day, and make sure you add a comment on my blog, so I know you are reading what I have to say. Thanks!