Ian Thomas, my friend from O’Neil Software (who graciously sponsor the show) interviewed me about the book, writing it and more.

This interview is different for me as I am normally the one doing the interview. Special thanks to Ian for doing such a great job on the interview.

Not only was it a great surprise to see Ian Thomas, it was also my actual
Read more]]> This is a replay of an interview that I did on my podcast, the RIMproReport.

Ian Thomas, my friend from O’Neil Software (who graciously sponsor the show) interviewed me about the book, writing it and more.

This interview is different for me as I am normally the one doing the interview. Special thanks to Ian for doing such a great job on the interview.

Not only was it a great surprise to see Ian Thomas, it was also my actual birthday on that Thursday April 19th.

My arrival,
Read more]]> It was in the small mountain town of San Felipe, Chile that I embarked on this amazing journey called life. My young Canadian parents were missionaries in Chile and I was the second child to arrive during their stay. At the time of my birth, my Dad was doing a religious broadcast on the local radio station. He rushed to finish the broadcast and to get to the hospital – only to discover that I had already been born.

My arrival, though wonderfully healthy, was not without its related issues. The Chilean officials did not recognize the legitimacy of my parent’s Canadian marriage license, and as a result my Chilean birth papers clearly indicate that I was illegitimate.

I still have the actual birth certificate in my possession. I also have the telegram that was delivered to my grandparent’s home in Canada announcing my arrival. All it said was… “Tommy Arrived Eleven Bothhwell”.

You might scratch your head a little at the message, but it makes perfect sense when you consider that telegrams fees were charged by the word. So, in an attempt to say everything that needed to be said in as few words as possible, my Dad shortened it, much like a Twitter message. What he was really saying was “Tommy arrived at eleven o’clock. Both he and his mother are well.” I’m still not sure why the extra “h” was added? Possibly, it will go down as the first Tweet with a spelling mistake.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of celebrating 46 reminders of that day along the way. This year – the 47^th.

And the more of them I have celebrated, the more I come to this marker of my own length of stay on the planet with a deeper sense of the incredible gift of life that I have been given. Despite some bumps and frustrations along the way, I am lucky to say mine is a wonderful story. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve seen and experienced a lot. I have accomplished many things I am proud of and more than ever, I love the life I now have. I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

But I also face the unavoidable reality that I have fewer years now than ever. As Steve Miller pointed out in his 1976 song, “Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.”  I’m discovering that time – at this age – seems to slip faster than ever.

So my birthday is a strong reminder to me that there are unfinished chapters in my story.  I have much left to do. And even bigger things to accomplish. There are challenges I still need to face. There is a lot to learn and to share. There is more love to give and countless memories yet to make. There is another book to write. And many more speeches to give.

I want this life of mine to be a magnificent story. At this point in my life, I am keenly aware that I am the author of my story and today and every day I have the opportunity to write another new page. And I’ve decided the story is about to get better.

This “illegitimate” Chilean-born, Canadian missionary kid’s story is about to add some wonderful new chapters to the first 47. Stay tuned.

How about you? How is your story unfolding? What new chapters are you writing into it? What big things do you have left to do?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make it great!

I discovered that the popular caricature
Read more]]> To the delight of my Irish friends, March is a month of celebration. A pint of Guinness and some green festivities mark their special day – St. Patrick’s Day. Within the revelry, the expressions of luck are exchanged. You have no doubt heard of the “luck of the Irish” that somehow has been connected to the jolly, little imps known as leprechauns seen on greeting cards, pub signs and the advertising surrounding the day.

I discovered that the popular caricature has little resemblance to the real leprechauns of Irish mythology. The real ones – at least as described in legend – were grumpy, alcoholic, insufferable elves in the employ of Irish fairies. They made shoes for the fairies – hence their description as cobblers. As luck would have it… the leprechauns often missed out on discovering the treasure the fairies carefully guarded, which was only revealed to the occasional human who found a pot of it at the end of a rainbow.

The luck of the Irish is not found in the 1000+ years of invasion, colonization, exploitation, starvation and mass emigration seen in the country’s history. That doesn’t seem to be very lucky to me. The real story seems to emerge from American origins in the silver and gold rush era where a number of the most successful and famous miners of the day were of Irish or Irish-American birth. These included James Fair, James Flood, William O’Brien and John MacKay, who were known as the “Silver Kings” of Comstock after they hit the famed Comstock Lode, the single largest silver deposit in the history of North America.

So it seems the real luck of the Irish is actually related to these four business people who understood that luck is the result of great effort. Ben Franklin said that “Diligence was the mother of good luck.” Ray Kroc of McDonald’s fame said that “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat the luckier you get.”

As a younger, less experienced person, I assumed that based on their good fortune, certain people were “lucky”. Yes, admittedly, some of them had breaks along the way, possibly provided by someone else’s hard work or their own opportune encounters, but hidden beneath the surface of most “lucky” people was a significant amount of effort that fueled it.

During the last couple of months I have completed one of the most difficult tasks of my life… writing a book. Over the years I have started writing numerous books on a variety of subjects, only to have them sit, unfinished, as more pressing tasks came along. I never knew how hard it would actually be to complete one. The emotional, mental and even physical work was exponentially greater than I could have ever anticipated. Yet, despite it all, later this month, I’m going to have a book to share with you.

And this book will bring rewards to me that others may see as luck or what I might have once called luck. But I know differently now. And as I watch business owners bemoan their own luck in marketing, I am again aware that luck is not a great strategy to win clients. The Mother Lode of leads is not found in rainbow ends, it is the direct result of spending countless hours in the back breaking, important work of day-in, day-out marketing.

This month, I choose to look for luck in the same vein as the Irish Silver Kings and encourage you to the same.

(To learn more about my book, check out YouAreTheLogoBook.com)

Bottom line, yesterday the conference attendees got involved in the record center challenge. It was a combination of lip synch and music video. The teams were required to create a music video during the challenge. During the night, a video editor worked to make it into a finished product.

This morning
Read more]]> We’re just finishing the O’Neil Strategic Partner Conference. I’m on stage here with Ian Thomas proving how incredibly easy it is to leverage these events for your own marketing.

Bottom line, yesterday the conference attendees got involved in the record center challenge. It was a combination of lip synch and music video. The teams were required to create a music video during the challenge. During the night, a video editor worked to make it into a finished product.

This morning we saw all seven entries and a distinguished panel of judges chose the winning team video.

So, here’s the video showing the winning entry in the contest.

By the way, we raised almost $26,000 for Make A Wish Foundation in the process.

Congrats O”Neil and the entire conference attendess for a great event.

You see, I am at work in my lair creating a pretty exciting new project… one that I am extremely excited about.

It involves the whole of what I have spent years figuring out… and while I am not yet ready to share it, I am more excited about this than anything I have done in a long time.

I’ll keep you posted.

It’s incredibly easy to say… “Oh that doesn’t apply to me.” and miss out on so many valuable lessons and opportunities.

The home site to the video series is.. RIMproTV.com

Take a look…

Today as you click through this
Read more]]> It’s an amazing moment in your life when you have the opportunity to realize that your life is not just something that happens to you but is a story that you have a significant hand in creating. You have the opportunity to take the pen in your hand and begin writing a new story for your life, despite what your current reality is. And the most wonderful part about it is… the possibility is endless.

Today as you click through this blog/website, you will be reminded that life is for living. That your life matters. That you can become that which you desire. It will not always be easy. Most of what is holding you back is not out there… it’s deep inside of you.

Despite where you are, what you’ve done, and what you might believe about your life at this very moment, something good is about to happen to you.