When making a business presentation, lesson 101 is always remember that the client hires who they like and trust and not the one with the best power point presentation. I remember a few years I was meeting with Goldman Sachs, and we had this mac-daddy presentation ready for the meeting.

After everyone said their hellos and who knows who etc. it was time for the presentation. I was the lead on our side, so we plugged in the power point presentation, and I was getting ready for the full 30-minute PPP deck. I got to the first slide (I am not kidding) and the main GS guy in the room looks at me and said, “we can go through the presentation or we can just jump to us hiring you on several hotels.” I hit the off key on the power point and said let’s go to the hiring part. Ha. We had spent a week on that presentation and didn’t even use it. My point is to always take the lead form the client.

Many clients just want to get to know you. Every company has handouts (that no one reads) and presentations (that people yawn through) so if you have the opportunity to skip ahead, always take that option.

That was a successful example, now let me tell you a failure example. We were meeting with this important client and there were four of the client team in the room and the head of the group was on a speaker phone in the middle of the table. Once again, I was leading for our side, and I focused on the speaker phone guy instead of the folks in the room. We didn’t get hired because no one in the room liked us because we forgot to build a rapport with the actual people in the room. Needless to say, I never made that mistake again because it was a painful lesson.

I don’t care if you are talking about business or meeting a friend for lunch. Make the person/people you are with think they are the only ones in the room and give them your full attention. If you do this in business, relationships and even church, you will win more people and influence more people than all the handout presentations in the world. KT

Your example and how you live your life are possibly the only bible some people will ever read.  Simply put, people watch you. Even if you don’t know they are. If they know you are a believer, they watch you even closer. There are those who will never pick up a bible to read but they will be reading you.

People watch everything from how you speak to how you tip in a restaurant. Regardless of what the news media says, people are looking for examples of what is right and good. The impressions you make (many times without knowing it) could be profound in its impact on others. People need the good news, and the good news is, there is a God and he is real. It’s up to us (like a billboard) to show a different kind of life than what they may see in others.

I remember years ago riding with a gentleman in a car and we started talking honestly about our different faiths. I did not try to push my faith on him but simply answered his questions. Once he told me what he believed, I remember like it was yesterday. I ask him if he really believed that. He took a long pause and said, “no I really don’t, it is just what I was taught all my life.”  People are looking for people to emulate and examples to follow.

The next time you leave the house for the day, remember the impact you could have on someone without even knowing it just by how you live your life. KT

Funny story – Guys do some crazy things. 26 years ago, me and my two closest buds started our own hotel brokerage company called Thompson-Calhoun-Fair.  One day we got this shipment of office supplies and as we opened the box, we saw that the shipper had used these big rubber bands to hold the materials in place. Now when I say big rubber band, what I mean is they looked like a fan belt for a Mazda car.

The rubber bands could take the paint off a door if you aimed it straight on.

Well,,,,,, guys being guys, one day my partner was coming into the conference room and bent over to get something out of the drawer and I got one of those rubber bands and pulled it back and shot him in in the haunches and it slapped him so hard he squealed like a nine year old girl. I laughed so hard I just about hurt myself. Well, you guessed it, before long all three of us were walking around the office holding these Mazda fan belts and we started shooting each other.

Of course, guys being guys, we had to set some ground rules, and the holy grail ground rule was that if you accidentally shoot someone in the neck or face, you’d have to stand in the penalty box and let the other two partners take a free shot.

Needless to say, we all spent some time in the penalty box. So, a week or so later I went home and was changing clothes and took my shirt off and looked at myself in the mirror and I had welts, scratches, and sores all over my chest and back. It looked like I had been in fight with three tigers. I mean I was beat up. After a while, it got so bad I’d have to change clothes in the closet. Ha

One time the three of us were in Washington meeting with very important client. We were setting up the Power Point presentation in the conference room before the client’s team came in. My partner Mark was leaning over the conference room table hooking up the projector and me and the other partner Al, were standing behind Mark as he reached over the table. You guessed it, we both took out the rubber bands and hit him so hard in the rump his eyes watered. The three of us looked like the Three Stooges laughing when all the clients walked into the conference room. It took us a good 60 seconds to stop laughing. The clients thought, what a bunch of goobers, but then they started laughing at us laughing and wouldn’t you know it, the client loved us and hired us. ha

We’ll all good things come to an end so a few weeks later we decided we would do better selling hotels than engaging in rubber band battles and only brought out the shooters on special occasion like when one of really did something stupid.

Elaine and I just moved to the lake back in June and as I was unpacking, I found one of those big rubber bands in one of the drawers. I had to laugh a little at the craziness all those years ago but as I thought about, there was an unintended bond that developed between us three partners that was special and lasted a lot of years until we sold the company.

Memories are powerful and can transport you right back to a specific time in your life and like the rubber band story, it was great to remember good times with good friends. K

I think we will all agree there are no return tickets in life. You cannot go back and do it differently. We have one shot at getting life right.

I have always (don’t laugh) been intrigued by the concept of time travel. I know it is not real and it is impossible, but it is fun to think about. However, I do believe we can time travel in a manner of speaking, by imagining our future life. You are not actually in the future but can imagine what it will be like.

The title on the blog is ‘If you could do a look-back.’ What I mean is just imagine (picture in your mind) your future self looking back on today’s decisions and which ones your future self will be glad you made today. Take Honestly, integrity, loyalty, faithfulness, generosity, love, respect, honor to name a few and trust me, your future self will be glad you made these types of correct decisions today.

God will forgive and forget your life missteps, but the people in your life cannot forget. Reputations will follow you all your life. I know this because my two son-in laws are in the same business as me and you can’t hide being dishonest and a scoundrel. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about some clients saying bad things about me, because I have a clean conscious. I have always tried my best to treat others the way I want to be treated.

So, my point, when you are faced with an important decision, take a minute and fast forward in your mind to your future self and what decision your future self will be glad you made today. KT

If you haven’t watched the movie ‘Miracle’ it is on Netflix now. I have watched the movie probably 10 times. Ha

What happened with the Woman’s and Men’s US Olympic Hockey teams over the last couple of days will be talked about for generations. Each team has won only three gold medals in 105 years (since 1920) the US has had an Olympic hockey team. Never before have both the Woman’s and Men’s team won the gold at the same Olympics.

Watching the Men’s game yesterday and the celebration after the win, warmed the hearts of America with a sporting event that was actually uplifting. Every hockey player was proud of America and proud of living in America. I heard the speaker phone call last night when the President called the whole team to congratulate them. Every hockey player was excited to talk to the President and even called him ‘Boss’ on the phone and said that both teams will be at the While House tomorrow to meet the President.

Kurt Russell is getting a little long in the tooth to play the Olympic hockey team coach in Mircle #2, but maybe he can pull it off and create another heart-warming uplifting American movie. KT