Tony Michalski's Master Key Coaching

Four years ago this week I made a decision that I knew was coming for the past 45 years. In the words of ole blue eyes, “I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and ev’ry highway”. But I was ready to travel the biggest unchartered course of all, and ready to no longer be doing things “My Way.” I came home to carry on what my father started.

Here are the top four things I’ve learned over the past four years that have not only kept me alive but actually enabled me to thrive.

1. It takes time: I recently read a book review on Amazon where the reader stated, “My only disappointment with this book is that it does not offer any real secrets to becoming successful overnight.” That’s right, despite the fact that we live in a society addicted to YouTube videos and reality shows devoid of any reality, there is no such thing as an overnight success. It takes doing things repeatedly for years, sometime decades, or even a lifetime, to gain any traction. If you’re not willing to dedicate your life to sharing your gifts, then you’ve got nothing worth sharing past your 15 minutes of fame. But if you know “why” you are doing what you’re doing, time doesn’t even enter into the equation and you’ll never ask the self-serving question, “how long will it take?”
2. No one can grow your business but you: If I had a nickel for everyone who promised me they could grow my business I’d have at least $200. The fact is none of them can do this. How do I know? I’ve hired plenty of them to do it! In doing so, I helped them grow their businesses, but after a while I realized they were the only ones in the relationship getting paid. You really are the only one who can truly take yourself to the next level. Sure, you can game the system by timing sales to produce an artificial “bestseller” but that’s not true organic and sustainable growth. I can pay to gain millions of followers on twitter. So what?? Be honest. You do the work. And always remember, if you want it bad, that’s how you’re going to get it, and usually after you paid someone else dearly for it.
3. Eliminate the waste: My father used to tell me, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Never were truer words spoken. This gem applies to everything in your life. Stay focused on what you do best and to hell with the rest. And the bottom line is that you must produce a bottom line, otherwise you will not remain viable. Waste can come in the form of people that suck your time, drain your resources, and don’t do what you are paying them to do. If they are not with you, they are against you, and it’s time to eliminate them.
4. The more you give the more you get: My father told me that the more books he gave away the more money he made. I used to assume it was because he was a salesman of unprecedented skill and star quality. But the truth of his point is that freely sharing books and what he learned from them was his way of tithing. You don’t give to get; that’s trading. You give because that is the true meaning of life. And life rewards us when we comply with this gorgeous truth. I have a plaque in the office given to my father thanking him for donating $200,000 to a particular college. I remember wondering if there would ever be a time when we could do that again in a single year. Well guess what? After four years of numerous free speeches, countless giveaways, sponsorships of wonderful people and events, and the publishing of hundreds of thousands of books, we were able to give $189,500 this year alone. Close enough: I’ll take the cigar!

People ask me how I do it. The answer is simple: stay focused, work hard, use discretion, have a purpose, and try new things. If they work continue; if they don’t discontinue.

And that, my tremendous friends, is what I’ve learned in four years!

——–

The original article can be found on Tracey’s blog. You can also leave a comment there.

Tracey C. Jones
President

Follow Tracey on Twitter, Linked In, Facebook and her Blog.

Tracey C. Jones is the president of Tremendous Life Books. Her father, the late Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, started Executive Books for the purpose of changing the world one book at a time. With an exceptional leadership background, Tracey became the company’s new president in 2009 in order to carry on her father’s legacy.

Tracey was born and raised in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. As a high school graduate anxious to see the world, she attended New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM, earning an associates degree and an appointment to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1988, she earned her degree and commission and entered the Air Force as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer. Her first assignment to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina took her overseas, where she participated in the first Gulf War. Upon her return to the States, Tracey moved to Bitburg Air Base, Germany and then RAF Lakenheath, UK where she honed her operational skills and filled command roles of increasing responsibility.

After twelve years as a commissioned officer, Tracey left the Air Force in 2000 and moved to Austin, Texas working for a top manufacturing firm in the semiconductor industry. There, she continued to develop her skills, this time in the civilian workforce as a project manager. While there, she earned an MBA in Global Management. Tracey recently moved back to Pennsylvania from St. Louis where she most recently was the project manager in charge of a diverse base operations service contract for the government. She is excited to be back in her home state, close to her large family, and humbled to carry on Charlie’s legacy and love for books and for Christ. Tracey enjoys biking, golfing, traveling, spending time with her pets, and of course, reading!!!

--
© Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching | | (0) Comments

We could all use a healthy dose of Tremendous this holiday season and Being Tremendous is just the medicine we’ve been looking for! We’ve scoured the archives and created a beautiful, full-color, hardcover book with free DVD that brings Charie Jones, one of the greatest speakers of the last 60 years, to life like never before.

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones rose from a broken home and the squalor of the Great Depression to become a bestselling author, a successful entrepreneur, and one of the top twenty speakers of the 20th century. His speeches and writings, filled with surprising insights and hilarious anecdotes, have changed the lives of thousands and influenced some of the greatest figures of our time.

Open this book to any page and be immersed in the warmth, wisdom, and humor of Charlie Jones. He reaches out to you in these pages so that you, too, may lead a Tremendous life!

Filled with never-before-published material, Being Tremendous presents page after page of funny, inspiring, informative, and motivating stories accompanied by photos, memorabilia, and QR links to videos from throughout Charlie’s life and career. If you knew Charlie Jones, this book brings him roaring back to life. If you never met him, now is the time to find out what you’ve been missing!

Being Tremendous is a must-read and the perfect Christmas gift for family, friends, business associates, clergy, even yourself! Purchase 50 copies and receive a 50-percent discount, so order now and make it a Tremendous Christmas!

--
© Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching | | (2) Comments

Do you want to get rich? I mean, do you really want to get rich?

Here are 11 important facts that I learned in my many years in business that allowed me to make over $500 million.

1. I learned very early in life that the ONLY way to make money was to “sell” something … either a product or a service … something people wanted or needed — or do something for them they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do for themselves.
2. I learned to “make do” with what I had until I could get what I needed to do a better job.
3. I learned that I had to do anything necessary (but legal) to get to where I wanted to be, even if I didn’t like doing it. Especially if I didn’t like doing it! You must do ANYTHING you need to do before you can do what you want to do.
4. I learned to never ask anyone to do anything for me that I wasn’t willing to do myself. Everyone who has ever worked with me has taught me about what they have done for me and how they did it. After a while, I could do it, too — but maybe not as well as they did.
5. I learned to “pay” for what I wanted. If I couldn’t afford it, I saved-up to be able to afford it. (Sometimes if seemed like forever.)
6. I learned that no matter how long it took to achieve my goal (whatever it was), it would have been just as long if I hadn’t persisted, but I would have accomplished nothing.
7. I learned that NOTHING is as easy or as fast as it should be. It only gets easier and faster when you know how to really do it — and learning how to really do it is just a matter of doing it over and over and over until you finally find out how it works. Of course, if you give up after the first (second, third, or fourth) try, you’ll never do it.
8. I learned most of what I know from my mistakes and failures. My successes never taught me anything. They were only based upon what I had learned from my mistakes and failures. (That’s why those who are afraid to make mistakes, or fail, never achieve the success they desire.)
9. I learned that my most prized possessions were my customers. People who, directly or indirectly, paid for my lunch every day. (That’s why, unlike my contemporaries, I reply to my customers emails personally.)
10. I learned that “money” is NOT an end unto itself — it is only a way of keeping score. (The saddest people in the world are those who are forever chasing the almighty dollar — and the vast majority of them have no real respect for money.)
11. I learned to ASK for what I wanted or needed — and to graciously accept a “NO” as readily as a “YES.”

YES … you can get rich. But you’ll have to do it yourself. No one will do it for you!

I get tickled by people who want to start at the top of the ladder. For some unknown reason, they honestly believe they are better than I am, since I had to start on the bottom rung and climb up one rung at a time.

When I mention the above, I often hear “Yeah, I could do that, but it will take too much time. I need money now — and I don’t want to just make a little money, I want to get rich.”

Sorry, you’ll have to start where I started. Do what you need to do to make a little money. Then, do more and more of it to make more and more money. As you make more and more money, the greater the opportunities you will have to make even more money. Nothing succeeds like success … even small success.

The more things you don’t want to do, the fewer and fewer things you will do — until you are doing as most people do: NOTHING but dreaming!

I can teach you “how” to do it, but you won’t get it until you actually start doing it yourself.

Jim

http://www.MustardSeedsShovelsMountains.com/

--
© Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching | | (0) Comments

As I sit here in my creative studio, I gaze outside and marvel at the spectacular day in front of me. I can’t help but observe the growth of the ivy that continues to envelop my house. It has now managed to weave its way along the perimeter of my porch. Somehow it has achieved what it set out to do: artlessly grow! It puts in the time — daily, weekly and monthly. Its focus is centered on one key objective: continual growth. It maneuvers itself forward towards the light, slowly blanketing each bit of surface.

The audiences that I inspire often comment, “Gerry, it’s easy for you to create. It comes naturally to you. You’re a super achiever.”

My audiences only witness the final product: a new book; an article; a magazine; an audio recording or a new presentation.

What they don’t see is the perspiration and the daily discipline behind the curtains.

Have you ever driven past a new subdivision that appears to suddenly spring out from the ground? We underestimate the tremendous effort involved in its creation. So many of us are infatuated with the future as a destination for happiness and peace. We also overlook the beauty and the wonderment that is directly in front of us. We can’t speed up the future no matter how hard we try; similarly, we can’t force a plant to grow no matter how much we will it to.

What you can control is the daily, weekly, and monthly actions that you intend for yourself in the present.

What I know for certain is that we all have a life purpose — and when you fixate on “putting in the time” you will uncover your true potential and you’ll help others live “in-spirit” with their why — the true path to being inspired.

At the end of 2008, I declared to myself — and then to the world — that I was going to live a life of inspiration. My life goal became aligned with a purpose of inspiring one million people to action across 33 countries. In the past 3 years, I have put in time and taken incredible action through the delivery of a myriad of inspirational presentations, publications, articles, and events.

As I leaned into my life purpose with determination, passion, and enthusiasm, I discovered I was able to shift my perspective of time. Through this process, I have managed to achieve greater results in far less time. My process consists of daily visualization combined with stillness of mind. I focus on harnessing new levels of energy and I align action with tremendous belief. When you create with this new mindset, then anything is possible.

Plato argued that time is constant and life is the illusion. Einstein noted that our understanding of time is based on its relationship to our environment. He further noted that the faster you move the slower time moves. Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one. There is no difference between past, present, and future time.

As I continue to live a life in-spirit, deeper levels of awareness for what I can “shift” have opened up. I have become fascinated with two significant concepts: The ability to create in less time and the power to completely re-create oneself.

For example, what used to take me a year to create now only takes several weeks. How is this possible? If time is an illusion, then I have demonstrated that we are the only ones that determine just how long it will take to reach a goal. As I continued to step into my greatness, discomfort and challenge presented itself. The more discomfort, the more disciplined and focused I became. I recognized the power in the statement: energy flows where my attention goes. I allocated energy towards what I wanted. When fear presented itself, I focused on what I could control by visualizing the end result of all that I was creating and taking action through creation.

My Process of Creation:

Imagine it
Believe it
Take daily action
Receive it

Putting in the time for me means living a disciplined program that starts at 5:45 am with my hour of personal power. Thirty-five minutes of physical exercise followed by 25 minutes of stillness and meditation. I quickly recognized that I needed to harness new levels of energy, so I adopted a new diet that included healthy smoothies, juicing, an explosion of greens and supplements from Usana Health Sciences. I carve out the time with very specific coaching days so I can pour myself into select clients who are on a path of doing great things. I continue to allocate writing days with a goal of publishing 17 books and producing monthly articles, tips, and inspirational audio productions.

Over the past three years I have reached incredible milestones, however this year has been the most impactful for me to date. I truly believe that when you are living your life “on purpose,” you reach a state of flow. As I write these words and glance at my past books, I ask myself, “When did I produce all of this? Was it me or something more powerful working through me?”

Everything that I do whether it’s writing, recording, coaching, extracting, presenting or inspiring everything is aligned with my why: to creatively inspire people and ideas to action.

This year was by far one of the most challenging — and equally the most fulfilling — times filled with tremendous personal and professional growth. Audiences often feel that inspirational speakers and authors like us never endure discomfort, sadness or fear. Well, let me set the record straight, we are human just like you. This year I was presented with some of the most life-challenging situations. In spite of these challenges, I managed to write over 1,000 pages, publish two books, produce 100 articles and tips, record over 50 audio and video productions, launch a 24-page glossy magazine, launch 12 major events and creatively coach 25 amazing DEFYENEURS, my inspired breed of entrepreneurs.

This year, I have even experienced a deeper and richer love. I spend more quality time with my two amazing daughters and travelled to 12 incredible destinations with my life partner.

This is your time to uncover your why and achieve your goals by putting in the time. Here is how you begin:

1. Go to the art store today, purchase a canvass, and paint that beautiful art that has remained dormant in your mind.
2. Get some clay and sculpt that magnificent form that has always been there.
3. Write that manuscript, regardless of what you think of it.
4. Draft that article and send it to a magazine publication for consideration.
5. Download an audio recording program and produce your first cd-rom with those beautiful poems and songs that you have stored in the abyss of your soul.
6. Stop what are you doing this very moment and grab your loved one sitting next to you and embrace them with the most passionate kiss ever.
7. Spend time with an expert in the field and ask them thought provoking questions to kick start your dreams.
8. Begin to THINQ and live a daily powerful question like: What would make this the biggest and the best year and live it for thirty days.

Keep putting in the time. You are the architect of your life if you don’t design it, then someone else will.

Gerry Visca, Canada’s Creative Coach®
International Speaker | Author | Consultant
RedchairTM Branding
www.gerryvisca.com
gerry@redchairbranding.com
905.528.6032

--
© Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching | | (0) Comments

When I teach public speaking classes to California workers, I remind them how important it is to listen to an entire question before offering an answer. It’s human nature to guess where a question is headed as it is being asked, but it’s not in anyone’s best interest.

A perfect example of how jumping to conclusions can steer you in the wrong direction is demonstrated in a conversation between media mogul Oprah Winfrey and actor/writer Tina Fey during an Oprah Winfrey Show episode. Fey asked Winfrey, “If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, in the history of the world,” Fey begins, “What would you order?”

Winfrey, taken by surprise, pauses, laughs, and answers, “I would probably you know, have Jesus over for fried chicken,” Oprah says. “That would be great.”

Unexpected questions provoke a few laughs in the right situations and enormous fear in others.

There are some tips, however, to make questions less scary and to help you feel in control:

• DO YOUR HOMEWORK:  Whenever you’re preparing a speech, think of the questions that you expect to be asked. How about the ones that make you a little weak in the knees?  Write them down and add the answers so that you can practice to keep your messages as clear and concise as possible.

• SET THE RULES FOR QUESTIONS FROM THE START:  Envision the question-and-answer period ahead of time. Do you want questions while you’re speaking or after?  Let people know from the start and whether there are time limits.  Ground rules like those help everyone stay on the same page.

• TREAT QUESTIONS WITH RESPECT AND COURTESY:  This rule pertains to the questions you like and the ones that you’re not particularly fond of. You stay in control when don’t take questions personally. Don’t judge a question. Answer it.

• REPEAT THE QUESTION:  By repeating the question, it assures you heard it correctly, offers an opportunity to stand corrected, is a courtesy to others so that they hear it right, and it buys you some extra time to craft an answer.

• STORYTELLER QUESTIONS:  To prevent someone from telling a story before asking a question, when calling on someone, try talk show host Larry King’s method of asking, “Your question please?”

Also, never let the questioner hold the microphone because if you do, that person will have control.  (You don’t want to get into an amplified wrestling match.)

• CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC: Acknowledge in your presentation that some people may disagree with some thoughts on the topic. Then, if there are hostile questions, remember that the hostility is about the topic, not about you.

• TURN THE TABLES:  If your answer to a question is not satisfactory to the person in the audience who won’t let it go, turn the tables and ask, “Do you have some of your own thoughts on that question?”  Giving a person a chance to air his/her thoughts, might be enough to keep things calm and the session flowing.

• INSINUATING QUESTIONS: When a questioner insinuates that, for example, your timetable for adopting a new policy is too lengthy, sidestep the questioner’s judgment and dive into the reasoning for the timetable’s schedule.

• IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER:  Be honest.  Don’t guess.  No one’s perfect.  Offer to provide an answer if the person will contact you at the email address or phone number you provide.

• UNASKED QUESTIONS:  If there’s a question that you think should have been asked but was not, offer it yourself without insulting your audience.  Instead of saying something like, “I’m surprised no one asked this question…,” say, “Here’s another question that may be helpful….”

• TIME’S UP:  End a question-and-answer period on a positive note.  Avoid phrases like, “I guess there aren’t any more questions,” or “Since we’re out of time….”

Choose instead something like, “Thank you for your thoughtful questions and if you have more in the future, here’s how you can reach me…”

• KEEP THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE: Answering questions is an opportunity for you to show what you know and to demonstrate your skills as a communicator.

Remember, public speaking and answering questions can be seen as either a burden or an opportunity. How are they be viewed by you?

——

Judie Fertig Panneton is a published author and an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years experience in newspapers, magazines, television and radio. She is a first-generation American. Her father was born in Holland; her mother in Poland.

She has written two books based on a collection of stories. Her latest is PROUD AMERICANS: GROWING UP AS CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS.

--
© Anthony R. Michalski/Master Key Coaching | | (0) Comments