People Will Summarize Your Life in One Sentence-Pick It Now
‘What do you want your legacy to be?  What would you do if you knew you only had a short amount of time left to make an impact?  Eventually our lives will be summarized in a single sentence.  What do you want yours to be?
Clare Boothe Luce cleverly called this your “life sentence.”  It’s the one sentence that you would like people to say about you when your life is over.  If you are intentional about creating your legacy, people at your funeral won’t have to wonder what your life sentence was.
What Do You Want to Be Known For?
I encourage you to begin the process of writing your life sentence.  Yes, this will take some time and thought on your part, and it will cause you to ask yourself what do I really want my life to be known for?  What do I want my legacy to be?
Sociologist Anthony Campolo tells about a study in which 50 people over the age of 95 were asked one question:  “If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?”  Three things consistently emerged:
• Reflect more
• Risk more
• Do more things that would live on after I am dead
If you want to create an intentional legacy, you need to rethink your priorities.
Live Life Fully
Too many people make their life an intermission.  Instead, you need to make it a mission.  John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, has been a close friend and mentor to me for some time, and he shared with me a lesson about living life to the fullest that has stuck with me for years.
Coach Wooden knew his players, and he could tell when they weren’t giving 100 percent at practice.  Instead of calling them out where everyone could hear, he would go over and put his arms around them and say, “I know you’re probably tired or you were up late studying for exams, and I know what you’re thinking.  You think tomorrow you’ll come back and you’ll give a little extra, and you’ll try to make up for what you didn’t do today.  I just want you to understand you can never give more than 100 percent.  So if you give me 60 percent today, you can’t give me 140 percent tomorrow.  If you give 60 percent today, you leave 40 percent on the table.  And you’ll never get it back.”’

All the best!

 
Tim Schmidt

My martial arts instructor always tells me to relax. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this. Well, I think I’ve finally figured out a way to metaphorically relate to what my instructor is trying to teach me. (I use the present tense because he STILL has to tell me to RELAX during every class!)

This metaphorical comparison has to do with, you guessed it, marketing! YES… one of my favorite topics. You see, many people struggle with marketing and sales because they need to RELAX and have a little fun. Good marketing really boils down to a social interaction between two people. And if you’re uptight and only concerned with “making a sale,” well this will come through loud and clear to your prospect. Here’s where I’m going with this. Try to relax and have fun when you’re designing your next marketing campaign or promotion. Now, you still have to follow all the age-old direct response marketing rules, but you must remember to have fun.

Here’s a little example of a video I created this morning to act as a “teaser” or “preview” for an upcoming membership sales promotion for my USCCA business.

http://www.deltamediallc.com/tyranny/

Remember, this is just the “preview” video. It’s supposed to kinda leave you hanging.

All the best!

 
Tim Schmidt

Anyway, I ran across this formula in the book ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen M.R. Covey and it ROCKS!  It really makes sense not only in business but in life generally.

LOW Trust = LOW Speed and HIGH Cost

HIGH Trust = HIGH Speed and LOW Cost

Now I love the example he gave in the book.  He talked about how before 9/11 you could get to the airport 30 minutes before your flight and just wiz on through the lines.  So, trust was high, speed was high and the Airlines costs were low.  Ahhh, remember the good ole days?  What is it NOW!!!  Get there almost 2 HOURS before your flight so that they can check every inch of you, your baggage and perform a full background check.  (Ok, just kidding about the background check)  Perfect example right!  Currently, there is low trust, the whole process is slow as molasses and the costs are extremely high!  We don’t even get peanuts or cookies as a snack anymore! 

How can we compare that to your life?  Not just business but life in general.  Because as you can see from the formula’s listed above the more you trust, the easier life is.  So now the big question, how can we build more trust in your life?  Some people think that ‘either you trust someone or you don’t’ and I’m not going to address each and every circumstance but I will say this.  If you find yourself NOT being very trustful of a lot of people, well there is one common denominator in that equation my friend, and that’s YOU.

So how does trust work?  According to Stephen Covey, ‘it is a function of two things:  character and competence.  Character includes your integrity, your motive, and your intent with people.  Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record.  And both are vital.’  We trust people who are honest, and whose skills have proven they can get the job done.  Both of those things are learned behaviors that we ALL have to work on. 

He's got a different trust equation, but any way you factor it, TRUST is important!

“Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him” – Booker T. Washington 

All the best!

 
Tim Schmidt

The following expert is from a book called ‘Launching A Leadership Revolution’ by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward, which is excellent for anyone who wants to improve themselves to have positive influence over others.

…There is a story Franklin himself tells in his autobiography about his troubles with relating to people as a young man.  A confidant took him aside one day and was both bold and kind enough to share the truth with Franklin that people didn’t like him.  Although he was amazingly brilliant, nobody cared.  They couldn’t stand to be around him.  He was too argumentative and opinionated.  His informer even told him that people would see Franklin approaching on the street and cross the road so as to avoid any contact with him.     Franklin was devastated.  But his reaction to the cold hard truth was perhaps one of the most important components in his meteoric success.  As a young man, he decided to do something about it.
 First, Franklin began tempering his statements to people so as not to offend.  He worked hard to become less dogmatic in his choices of words and tones of voice.  Then, a few years later, while sailing from England back to the colonies, he undertook “the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection,” commenting that “I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined.”  So Benjamin Franklin deliberately set out upon a program of personal growth.  He selected thirteen virtues he felt worthy of his attention and organized a demanding schedule of improvement and tracking.  He would work on one virtue for four weeks at a time, recording his progress or lack thereof, then move on to the next virtue, repeating the cycle over and over throughout several years.  Regarding his faults that had surprised him so much, he “had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.”  As an old man he would say about his little project, “But on the whole, though I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was by the Endeavor made a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been, if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible.”

Not just another idea out of the sky! Ben put daily effort into his success!

Franklin’s thirteen virtues were as follows. 
1. Temperance
2. Silence
3. Order
4. Resolution
5. Frugality
6. Industry
7. Sincerity
8. Justice
9. Moderation
10. Cleanliness
11. Tranquility
12. Chastity
13. Humility

He would focus on one virtue each week for 13 weeks then begin the process again working on each virtue four times each year.  I encourage you all to DO things with specific intent just like one of our founding fathers!  Imagine if he would NOT have undertaken this task of improving himself.  Would the course of history have been changed?

Happy Independence Day!

 
Tim Schmidt

Hi Brian,
The LAST thing you want to do is send an unsolicited email. You should ONLY do email marketing with lists of people who have requested information from you. Okay… with that being said, now let’s solve your problem! I will have to make a few assumptions here since I don’t have your full story. So, since you’re trying to reach the top executive of a company, I’m going to assume you’re selling a product or service that is expensive and acceptably profitable. So with that assumption being made, I’ll assume you can afford to spend a little money to acquire these leads.
Here’s what I’d do…

1.) Write a 10 page “insider’s report” for executives in your industry. For example… “How to Identify the Top 7 Ways Employees Attempt to Embezzle Money” (This would work if you’re selling forensic accounting services or something like that!)

2.) Rent a mailing list of executives in whatever industry you’re in and MAIL them a single sheet of paper that directs them to a website where they can download this report for FREE.

3.) When they arrive at the website you simply tell them that not only will they get their free report, but you’ll also send them a FREE weekly “insiders’ newsletter”… all they have to do is enter their email address and name.

4.) So… 5,000 names will cost you $500 to rent. The mailing piece will cost you $5,000 to print and mail. You’re offering something for FREE so a 5% response rate is somewhat reasonable. That works out to 250 leads that cost you $22 each. But now you can build that relationship with these 250 prospects for very little money since you’ve got their email address!
-Tim

Ever feel like this dog chasing his tail? I have!! A new marketing strategy will get you straightened out.

June 18, 2009
Bill 
Just wanted to know when you will be releasing your free eBook–Tim Schmidt, TRIBAL FORMULA. Thanks, Bill
Hi Bill,

I will be releasing TWO free eBooks sometime in the as-yet-to-be-determined future. Their titles will resemble “Tim Schmidt’s Tribal FORMULA Revealed Volume 01 & Volume 02″. They are both currently in development! Stay tuned.
-Tim

June 16, 2009
Ben H
Hey Tim there is a gun store in my area and the owner is at an age to pack it in.  Do you think the climate is sound enough to buy a reputable gun shop?  I know this is not much info but I was curious, thanks.

Hi Ben,
First I’ll make a few assumptions. 1.) The gun shop in question is at least somewhat profitable. 2.) The gun shop owner is willing to sell you the business for a reasonable price. 3.) You are ready and willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to make this business work. Okay… IF all three of my assumptions are correct then YES, YES, YES… this is the BEST TIME EVER for you to get into this business. Ben, if you decide to go ahead with this, keep in touch. I’d love to help you with your marketing plans!

All the best!

 
Tim Schmidt