Famous Quotes - Attitude Quotes

Famous Quotes - Attitude Quotes

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

- Marcus Aurelius

Attitude Quotes

Famous Quotes - Perception Quotes

Famous Quotes - Perception Quotes

Beauty is about perception, not about make-up. I think the beginning of all beauty is knowing and liking oneself. You can't put on make-up, or dress yourself, or do you hair with any sort of fun or joy if you're doing it from a position of correction.
- Kevyn Aucoin


Perception Quotes

Zingers

Zingers - January 2008 Zinger - "Renewal? Which Policy? On What?"

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Zingers - "Renewal? Which Policy? On What?"

Selling Where Ever You Are - A Book Sale In My Girl Friend's Kitchen

Selling Where Ever You Are

A Book Sale In My Girl Friend's Kitchen

Saturday afternoon Amy and I decided to cash in a gift certificate we had received from a friend and associate. It was for a meal at a place where you choose an entrée, assemble the ingredients in Ziploc bags, take them home and cook them following the directions furnished. Luckily, Amy called the place to make certain they would be open on a Saturday afternoon; they were just about to close but said I should come on over and they would have everything we wanted, prepared and waiting. It was an interesting experience.

I was greeted by a lady with a wonderful smile and personality; a positive POD (Perception Of A Difference). She greeted me by name because she had talked with Amy on the phone; nice touch. I handed her the gift certificate and she began to make up an invoice at her computer; she was also getting information from me for future follow up.

"Have you purchased from us before?"

"No, this is our first time."

She looked at the Gift Certificate.

"Oh, Steve gave you this, we like him, how did you come to know him?"

"He is a friend and sells our book and seminars for small business owners.

I handed her my card and when she had read the back of it, told me,

"Since we started this franchise, I have been reading a lot of books, trying to learn how to market what we do. I need to learn what it is that causes a person to want come in and buy or keeps them from doing it. Will your book help me with this."

"To market successfully, you need, first, to know how we buy. We all perform the same five steps in every buying decision, we may do this in ten seconds, or over three years, but the crucial step will be completed early in the process. The key is what happens in the first five seconds. We look at your store, we enter, and glance around, then either turn and leave or stay to talk with you or your associate. In those five seconds a perception has formed in our mind with out any conscious effort or control. For the person, who turned around and walked out, it was negative, for the one that stays to talk, it was positive. What you and or your associate do next strengthens that positive perception or destroys it. This is a fact.

"The book is written in true stories from which you learn what you can do to make that perception positive far more often."

"How do I buy your book?"

"From the Web, from a coffee shop or the Duck & Decanter on Sixteenth St. and Camelback where Steve first introduced himself to me, or let me get one from the car."

Another customer came in; I got a book and some bookmarks from the car and waited while she took care of the customer. Then I gave her the bookmark, our major marketing tool. It is very effective, because it says just enough, but not too much, about the book, with reader comments extolling the results they have experienced after reading it. She read both sides, I handed her the book; she spent 4-5 minutes looking through it while I waited in silence.

"I'll take the book, now let's finish with getting your dinner paid for, I'll pay for the Book with cash."

"Wonderful, I'll sign it for you."

I usually carry a bookmark in my pocket, but this worked out well.

You can sell anywhere and everywhere you are. I once landed a Perception Of A Difference Workshop sale in a hotel restroom, but that is another story.


Wes Zimmerman

wes at perceptionofdifference.com

Kiwanis

Kiwanis - Changing Communities One Child At A Time

I and over 220 other people, of both genders and many colors, attended a Kiwanis convention this past weekend. We came from Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Arizona, to Sierra Vista, on the Arizona border with Mexico. For most of us it was a long drive and took three days of our time. We did it so we could share our experiences helping poor and less fortunate children in our respective communities. We also built new relationships and strengthened existing ones. Even though I have been a member of Kiwanis a total of sixteen years in three states and have attended classes like this many times, I learned new things and enjoyed it.

I live in a "high rent" community in the Phoenix valley where kids in need are not readily visible. Our clubs members have had to look carefully before finding children that really need our help. Kids with hard working parents, that do not do drugs and alcohol and still cannot put much food on the table. Their children depend on school lunch programs for one good meal a day, and not much during a weekend. The wonderful thing about these children is that they enjoy life, work hard on their schooling and are fully supported in that by their parents.

Our club provides, backpacks, warm jackets, pencils, paper, and other school supplies that parents provide to their kids if money is available. We do it from our own pockets and through various fund raising activities. We have fun doing it. We laugh together, sweat together and sometimes wipe tears together. We are one club of hundreds in the world. Each of us has found or taken the time to stoop down and help others.

I write this to ask you to take up the challenge of helping others, even though you are busy. Join a Kiwanis club in your area and share the fun experience of helping kids all the way up through their teen years. Clothes and pencils when they are kids and leadership mentoring as they go into high school.

Thank you,


Wes Zimmerman

President
Scottsdale Airpark Professionals Kiwanis Club
480.628.2450

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Don't Believe Everything You Read


Of late I have been reading a collection of Blogs that come to my email address every morning.

They are basically political in the sense that the person putting the collection together is picking them for political reasons. He/she is "grinding a personal axe" of course, but interestingly is including both sides of some parts of it. There frequently are copies or excerpts of newspaper articles with opposing viewpoints or Perceptions of what happened in a public situation; often supported with a different set of "facts."

There is nothing new about this; after all, people have been gathering actual "facts" to support different positions, since the dawn of communication. What bothers me is the perception I have formed, that a larger segment of our population is accepting these "facts" than I thought was the case years ago. The perception has formed in the process of perusing reader comments posted with this blog collection. Is it possible that we have been given so many incorrect or unchecked "facts" by the media over the years, that we now believe anything we read, or hear?

Our children do not accept everything they read or hear. The do not because Amy and I taught them not to; we did it by telling them that anyone can write anything they wish, true or not, and by their seeing us question things in publications, and school textbooks. They saw us check the purported facts by looking things up in encyclopedias, our five-inch thick family dictionary, and in competing publications. Why did Amy and I do this? Because we had been taught to do it, in our homes and schools.

Mother and Dad repeatedly admonished my sister and I, not to believe everything we read.

"Just because it is in the paper or a book, does not mean it is true."

That was repeated at home and, believe it or not, in school, over and over again. My teachers all taught us that, beginning as I remember it, in about the first year of high school. My history teacher would quote from different history texts to show us that History is subject to being rewritten, because "professors of history must write books in order keep their jobs." She had her own set of books, old and worn, that had what she believed were the facts, the true ones. In almost every one of my high school classes, you would earn the wrath of the teacher if you quoted something from the paper and had not checked it out in other sources. The library was where you would be sent to check out the facts and write a report of what you found there.

In my selling career I have found it very helpful, to check out the "Facts" in my own and my competitor's sales brochures, even their company annual reports. Knowing which "facts" were valid and being able to show how I had determined that, was instrumental in my success in selling. It made me a Professional, in my customers and competitors minds.

"Don't believe everything you read" may be the deep down reason I use true stories in my Zingers and in The Perception Of A Difference, books. None of them "tell you anything." You decide what makes sense as you read and apply them to your own daily situations.

Thanks for letting me share thoughts with you.

Wes Zimmerman

Consistent & Honest - These two are all that matter

Consistent & Honest

These two are all that matter


Our house was on a hill, easily seen as you drove in to the development's main entrance. We'd chosen the lot because being on a hill would give us the ability to see the horizon. Every one of the 1,000 plus houses in the development would look the same, but each would be home to a different set of people and people make a difference.

A homeowners association was formed and initially financed by the developer. I was one of about 30 attending the first meeting. We introduced our selves one by one and got acquainted. When I got home Amy asked,

"How did it go?"

"Okay, I guess; I was elected president."

"How did that happen."

"I don't know."

Today, I cannot remember how it happened. I served in that position for 18 months with a dedicated team of officers and Directors, who strove to help new residents feel at home and appreciated. This was our goal, it wasn't always easy as board meeting attendance grew to 130 plus and the community grew by 20 homes a month. We knew a change in structure was needed and guided the community to vote for incorporation as a city. In the evening a few days after that vote, our six year old son looked out the front window and said

"Daddy, there are lot of people at the door."

There were 27 and they asked me to run for Mayor.

They told me they wanted me to run because I had been consistent in striving to do what was best for the community as a whole. That evening, in our very crowded living room, a lot was said to educate me on why I should be the first Mayor, but two words I never forgot were consistent and honest. The message I never forgot was that I had always worked for the community good, not my own. Dad had said, "Always think about what is best for the other fellow and do not give him less."

I accepted the challenge after Amy and I talked it over with Him. I campaigned by meeting every soul that could vote, in many different living rooms in the evening and weekend coffee klatches. It was fun, hard work, and thankfully, I lost by three votes: Always wondered who the three were.

The winner made a lot of promises and told a lot of half-truths during the campaign, I said nothing to refute them. He had never served as a community director, but claimed he knew the facts. Eight months after he took office, a recall election kicked him out. I had been promoted and moved to another city, by that time.


I was reminded of this life experience while watching the nominating process in Iowa this week. The people that participated in that process seemed to think those two words and what my Dad said were very important. I know they have served me well in business and personal relationships. Dads complete saying was " When you are selling do not think about your wallet; always think about what is best for the other fellow and do not give him less. Then your wallet will always be full."

Based on my life experience, He should have said, then your wallet, and your life, will always be full.


Wesley (Wes) Zimmerman

Zingers

Zingers # 1207

December 2007 Zinger

Zingers - December 2007 Zinger

"You'd have thought he was buying the company."

"He is."

Part two of "The Perfect Job. . . Ended Too Soon"

Last month's Zinger did not address my friend's question, what did I do wrong? Instead it addressed what the employer, the CEO, did not realize about himself, which ultimately caused him to fire my friend.

In this Zinger we learn what my friend did not realize he was actually doing when he accepted the job, and what he could have done if he had.

Wes Zimmerman

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