We have come to the end of our week of family vacation at Mandorla Ranch about an hour outside of Missoula, Montana. One of my clients offered me a week with all my children and grandchildren at her lovely bed and breakfast in the mountains, so we were all together for a vacation for the first time in nearly 5 years–the Gawliks: Gretchen, Randy, Owen 5, and Simon 2 3/4, from Portland, Oregon; Erin Glanz from Portland, Oregon, and the Glanz family: Garrett, Ashley, Gavin 12, and Kinsey 9, from Seattle, Washington and me from Sarasota, Florida.

The whole family in Montana

(Just a note: This was an interesting barter situation. My client is the Executive Director of the Educational Travel Association. She asked if I would be the keynote speaker for the Travel Learning Conference’s 25th anniversary in February of 2011 in exchange for a week for my family at her ranch. It was a win/win situation for everyone, and a creative idea for all of us during these tough economic times!)

I had asked each family to plan a family activity that would be fun for everyone, so the first morning Ashley and Garrett organized a “Family Scavenger Hunt.” We were placed in teams, and each team had to either find and put in their bag or take a picture of special things around the ranch, including a stuffed badger, a gold rooster, a man with a funny mustache (Randy!), an old wagon wheel, different colored rocks, 3 horses, and so on. We all had lots of fun, and the competition was fierce!

The family room at the ranch

The bar in the family room

Randy, my son-in-law is a skater, so after lunch we went to a skate park in St. Ignatius, then for huckleberry shakes (a specialty in this part of the country), a gorgeous scenic drive through the national Bison Range where we saw a black bear and elk but only ONE bison.

A stop at the bison range

The only bison we saw!

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Barbara is honored and thrilled to be voted by meeting planners as “one of the best keynote presenters ever heard or used!”

MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS MAGAZINE, July 1, 2010

FEATURED ARTICLE: “Planners’ Favorite Speakers”
Loren G. Edelstein. July 1, 2010

Meeting planners were asked, “Who is the best keynote presenter you have ever heard or used?” Here’s what meeting planners told us (listed alphabetically).

(You can read the whole list on the link below; however, these are the impressive names just before and after Barbara):

Bill Gates (Microsoft chairman; )

Rudy Giuliani (former New York City mayor; )

Barbara Glanz (improving employee morale, retention, productivity;)

Dr. Al Gobar (real-estate economist; )

Doris Kearns Goodwin (presidential historian, political news analyst; )

Al Gore (45th U.S. vice president, author of An Inconvenient Truth; )

To read the entire list, which includes a number of Barbara’s NSA friends, go to www.meetings-conventions.com/articles/planners39-favorite-speakers/c35020.aspx

I just finished a heart-lifting experience of working for several days with Togo’s in San Jose, CA. They are a sandwich company with high quality ingredients which uses a unique deli style 1:1 service model. Unlike Subway and Quizno’s, they offer a personal connection between the sandwich maker and the guest. The company was founded in 1971 outside San Jose State University, by a young college student with a big appetite and a little money. He also had a clear vision of Togo’s as a service organization:

It was really fun working at Togo’s. We put on a show daily, dazzling the customers with our sandwich making skills, speed of service, and friendly interaction. There was a lot of camaraderie among the crew members and the atmosphere was a bit like a circus and the customers were part of the festivities.

Jeff Sweetman, Mike Cobler, the Founder of Togos, and Barbara

However, over the years, that vision became increasingly blurred and service became re-defined as a set of tasks instead of a passion to serve. So, our cause was to bring a team together for a day to craft a new service vision, mission, values, and plan that would re-energize the franchisees and employees and give them a laser focus on their strengths – quality of food, speed, one-on-one interactions, and an edgy, fun atmosphere. And what a day it was! 😉

Jeff Sweetman, the Director of Franchise Services, took the lead in this process by holding town hall meetings with many front line employees, surveying all Togo’s sandwich club members, and collating all the complaints since the beginning of the year. It was amazing how closely this feedback correlated! We also met with the founder of Togo’s, Tony Gioia, the CEO, and several members of the Executive Leadership Team to get their support and buy-in. Finally, a team was hand selected, consisting of several employees, some key franchisees, and several corporate staff, and we spent the day focusing on our objectives. The team is called “The Johnny Project” based on my story of “Johnny the Bagger®”, showing how one person can change a whole culture.

Some of the Togo's Franchisee Team

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Barbara was recently featured in the “Gulf Coast Business Review Meeting Planners’ Guide 2010” in an article titled, “Make Your Presentations Sizzle!” by Heidi Kurpiela. The Headline:

“International motivational speaker and self-help author Barbara Glanz shares her presentation wisdom. One of her ‘musts’: Touch people’s hearts.”

She goes on to explain, “Here’s why she is regarded as one of the best:”

* SHE’S FUN.
* SHE MAKES THE CONTENT PERSONAL AND RELATABLE.
* HER ADVICE IS EASY TO FOLLOW AND SHARE.
* SHE USES SENSORY STIMULATION.
* SHE’S GENUINE.
* SHE EXUDES CONFIDENCE.

A sidebar includes “Barbara Glanz’s Do’s and Don’ts:”

DO’s

* Organize your thoughts before speaking.
* Share a few powerful personal stories.
* Practice what you preach.
* Be positive and energetic on the podium.
* Give people ideas and advice they can implement.

DON’Ts

* Don’t wing it.
* Don’t focus only on yourself.
* Don’t cram too much rhetoric or theory down people’s throats.
* Don’t lay it on too think.
* Don’t shamelessly pitch your own books and DVDs.

If you would like to read the whole article and get more specific ideas, go to pages 8 and 9 http://www.review.net/legal-notice-uploads/GCBRMeetingPlannersGuide.pdf.

To learn even more about Barbara’s work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com

Yesterday I got an email from a person from Walmart who had heard me speak at the Society for Human Resource Management convention in San Diego last week. He had purchased my book, “The Simple Truths of Appreciation — How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference” and these were his words:

“I just finished reading your book ‘The Simple Truths of Appreciation.’ I am in the middle of an e-mail to a colleague who has been a sounding board and truly become a good friend. I am sending him a note to thank him for being an important part of my life. I have a couple of others that are on my ‘hit’ list today to send e-mails to as a result of reading your book. I have a lunch appointment with a young man who is an HR professional with another company. Plan on appreciating him for the contributions he is making to our local SHRM chapter. I am also thinking through how to put my “personal signature” on all my work. This is fun stuff! You have a true gift, Barbara. Your ability to make people feel special is infectious. Thanks for making the (my) world a better place!”

Just a few minutes ago, I received this follow-up email from him:

“Wow! Look at the response I got from the first ‘thank you’ email I sent today. Made me feel good! This is an excerpt of the response:

Man! Just read this and I got a little emotional… I have an all day meeting with Store managers in my region today and this is just what I needed to get me going.

That is the power of appreciation. ”

To order Barbara’s book, go to www.barbaraglanz.com/products/books/

I spoke yesterday to several thousand people at the national Society for Human Resource Management conference in San Diego, CA. My presentation was titled “The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger®,” and like the book and the story, it focuses on the ten simple truths of service, choices we have in every interaction, and how one person can make a difference.

I ended, as I do every presentation I give, with a thought from a precious friend of mine, Og Mandino, who passed away several years ago. (He told me once that he had sold enough books to go five times around the equator! His most famous book is “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”) I always ask the audience to close their eyes as I share Rule #10 from his book, “A Better Way to Live:”

“Beginning today, treat every person you meet, loved one or stranger, friend or foe, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person you meet, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster. And do so with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”

The audience was wonderfully responsive, and I even received a quick standing ovation at the end. The rest of the afternoon people kept coming up to me as they met me in the hall to thank me and tell me how much my words had meant to them; however, one person made me realize how important it is for me to constantly be aware that I am just the messenger. (My friend Ken Blanchard’s definition of “ego” is “edging God out!”)

She shared that the night before she left for the conference, she and her husband had had a terrible fight and they had not spoken since. She said as soon as I had finished speaking that day, she went out, got her phone, and called him to talk it through and apologize. She said, “After hearing those words, my life will never be the same again.”

What a blessing it is to remind people of how important it is to love and care for one another, whether the person is a family member, a colleague, a customer, or just someone you happen to meet in passing. Like Johnny, we can ALL make a difference every single day. Whose day will you brighten today?

To learn more about Barbara’s presentations.

To order the movie or the book about Johnny the Bagger®, go to Barbara’s Products.

The principle of giving appreciation is basic to all the work I do. As a member of Recognition Professionals International, I have been reading an interesting dialogue about the issue of rewards and recognition for managers. One member shared about a fun, immediate reward that has been instituted for employees in her company called “You Rock!” The idea is that when an employee does something special for a colleague, they receive a rock from that person to put on their desk as a symbolic reward for having done good work. Then, they are to pass that rock on in the next week to someone who serves them in an extraordinary way. Although this was not designed to include management, one of the employees gave his rock to a senior person who had not completely bought into the idea — this manager had thought it was a bit silly. After receiving the rock, however, he expressed how good it made him feel and that he now understood why this small bit of praise and recognition DID make a difference.

In his “KnowHR” blog (and reprinted in the Fall 2009 issue of the “Conference Board Review”), Frank Roche spoke succinctly and brilliantly on this point:

“I don’t remember what age I was when I noticed that people no longer told me that I was doing a great job. It’s not like I stopped doing good work — it’s that people think that once you get to a certain age or certain place in life that you don’t need praise anymore. … But what I do realize is that people need praise throughout their careers. Senior managers like to hear that they’re doing well as much as they did when they were junior functionaries. It applies to everyone — the price of praise is free. Tell someone today.”

So, no matter what our level, our age, or our job, we all need to be appreciated. Who can you appreciate today?

NEED IDEAS TO APPRECIATE PEOPLE? Each of Barbara’s books with “CARE” in the title, “CARE Packages for the Workplace,” “CARE Packages for the Home,” “Handle with CARE,” and “CARE Packages for your Customers”, all have a whole chapter on “Appreciation” filled with low cost or no cost ideas you can use every day. Also, you will love “The Simple Truths of Appreciation — How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference.” It is filled with stories of ways people have appreciated one another in all walks of life.

To order any of Barbara’s books, go to . www.barbaraglanz.com/products/books/.

My mother, Gertrude Lucille Bauerle, turned 92 in May. Although she no longer talks or takes care of herself because of dementia, she still looks beautiful. She is always smiling, and the people at the home love her because of her sunny attitude. I just finished reading the book, “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova, about a woman who is a Harvard college professor and gets early onset Alzheimers at the age of 50. The book is written from her perspective, and what touched me the most is that even though she could no longer respond, inside she was “still Alice,” still thinking and feeling just as she did before. It made me so much more cognizant of those people we care about who develop dementia and Alzheimers and how important it is for us to treat them with just as much respect and care as we did before, rather than simply talking around them. I strongly recommend this book (although it is a bit scary when you see yourself having some of the same symptoms! 😉

Mother celebrating her 92nd birthday in Grand Junction, CO

A Lifelong Learning Adventure

Last week I was privileged to take part in a wonderful life learning experience – a week of lectures and classes on the campus of KU taught by top college professors to a group of educated and interesting adults. The professors who taught each of the nearly 75 different 90 minute sessions were all volunteers who had to “apply” to be a part of the week. The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for example, good-naturedly told us in his address that he wanted to teach a class but had gotten turned down! He shared that the goal of Liberal Arts is “To understand what it means to be human,” and that was certainly the purpose of this week.

Barbara and the KU Jayhawk

It was interesting that the professors all week told us how much they were enjoying us as an audience – we came on time, listened, asked insightful questions, and did not sit texting on our cellphones! 😉 . Interestingly, they nearly all talked about the “silver tsunami” –that the % of people over age 65 will double in the next two years and the implications that will have for our society.

We individually ahead of time planned our “curriculum” which consisted of choices from diverse areas of learning, including politics, religion, science, education, life skills, film, history, and art. We were each able to experience fifteen 90 minute classes and several lectures and addresses to the entire group as well as walking, museum, and bus tours.

Carolyn, Barbara, and Karna, all mini-college attendees!

The full group presentations during the week included addresses from the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Chancellor of the University, a film screening of “The Only Good Indian,” Steve Hawley, an astronaut from NASA (participated in 5 shuttle missions) who spoke on “Inside Space,” a session on “Flamenco for Everyone,” and a presentation on “From the Golden Valley to Silicon Valley-A New Era of Cancer Treatment” from the Executive Chairman of Genomic Health.

Strong Hall, the Administration Building

This was my schedule of classes with several of the major learnings from each:

“The Psychological Toxicity of Modern Life”—Stephen Hardi

• 99.9% of our existence as a species was as Hunter –Gatherers. Our bodies were designed for a different time and place. Diseases of modernity include – Obesity, Diabetes, Hardening of the Arteries, Asthma, Fibromyalgia, Cancer, Depression.
• 70% of adults are clinically overweight. Today our appetites are calibrated to sugar, salt, fat and starch rather than the natural foods of our ancestors.
• 50% of all American adults will be diagnosed with a serious mental illness at some time in their lives. Depression can cause brain damage because cortisol, the chemical produced by depression, turns off brain growth. Chronic stress is toxic!
• The average American teenager spends 7 ½ hours a day in front of a screen, not counting the 1 ½ hours of texting. Today’s lifestyle is an environmental mutation. Depression is 10X lower in the Amish society, for example, because of their simpler lifestyle.
• BCNF is the brain growth hormone. It can grow new connections and repair brain damage at any age. Exercise stimulates BCNF – 40 minutes of brisk walking 3X a week is recommended. A couch potato measures 10 – 15 years older for biological age while regular exercisers measure 10 – 15 years younger.
• Single best current marker for heart disease – CRP, a blood test that measures inflammation. Meta-analysis pooling all studies proves that regular aerobic exercise is better than a stent after a heart attack.
• 80-90% of Americans get sub-optimum levels of vitamin D3. It is an anti-inflammatory that regulates our immune system. We NEED sunlight!
• Ways to combat this toxicity:
Physical Exercise—single most important medicine
Omega-3 Fats
Sunlight
Social Connection
Healthy Sleep
Engaging (anti-ruminative) Activity
• His book is “The Depression Cure” by Stephen Hardi
(Note: This was one of my favorite sessions!)

The Campanile which is the most famous landmark at KU. You walk through it and down the hill at graduation.

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Click on the link below to watch Barbara answer this question:

How do I handle constant change in my workplace?

Find out more about Barbara’s newest program on embracing change, “EXHAUSTED, CONFUSED, and TICKED OFF – Hope for a New Beginning When Change Has Done You In!” by visiting www.barbaraglanz.com/programs/topic5.html.