Roads of Success

Some time ago, a client of mine asked me, what is the difference between a coach and a consultant? ...a teacher and a trainer? ...and a mentor and a coach?
He inspired me to write the following:

The Roads of Success

Show me the road,

and you are my teacher.

Show me how to travel the road,

and you are my trainer.

Show me the road that you traveled successfully,

and you are my mentor.

Show me the road that you have improved for me to travel successfully,

and you are my consultant.

Show me the road that you and I will travel together successfully,

and you are my coach.

***This is just a sample!... be sure to indulge yourself in my book:
"Pecan Pie: 32 Business Success Strategies Passionately Baked To Order"

BY IT NOW on AMAZON.COM --click on link below.
click here for Pie

“Copyright (1-27-2012) by Robert V Gambone Sr.”

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Riddle Me This! (Leaders need to have fun too!)

Three men rent a hotel room. Each pays $10 for a total of $30 spent on the room.

The next day the hotel owner tells the three men that they over paid for the room as it only costs $25.

The three men tell the owner to give them each a dollar back and he can keep two dollars.


If you do the math, each man paid $9 a piece for the room for a total of $27. The owner kept $2 which brings the total to $29.


The question is where did the other dollar go?

Email bobgambone@bobgambone.com  for the answer.  

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The Role of Leadership in Referral Marketing

By Michelle R. Donovan

"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen." - Alan Keith of Genentech

The usual complaints I hear from business professionals include phrases like “My clients don’t refer me”, “My networking group is not productive”, and “I give way more referrals than I receive”. If “leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute”, then it would stand to reason that if we want to lead our referral results, we need to create ways for people to contribute to our referral efforts.

Leadership means that you’ve got to be proactive and productive in enabling people to refer you. You’ve got to make it easy for others to refer you or quite frankly, they won’t. You’ve got to give them the tools they need to be successful at referring you and empower them to use those tools. You’ve got to literally create the ways for people to contribute because without your help, they won’t or they can’t.

Not sure what I mean? Here are two things that you can do today to make it easy for other people to refer you.

1) Create a template email that other people can use to introduce you to someone they think might be a good prospect for you. Send this email to your top referral sources and ask them to simply cut and paste (modify as needed) when they want to promote you.

2) Create a list of the top ten ways that other people can refer you. Give that list to your primary referral sources. Use this as an educational tool when meeting with them and ask them for their top ten list too!

This definition also refers to “making something extraordinary happen”. There’s no question that when you effectively lead your referral network, extraordinary things will happen not only for you, but for the others in your network as well. It’s a win-win situation. Ordinary behaviors create ordinary results. This is probably what you’ve been experiencing. Extraordinary behaviors create extraordinary results. This is what I want you to experience.
 Leadership is about helping people to achieve results they never possibly could imagine. It’s about leading and guiding yourself and others beyond your perceived finish line. Leadership is all about taking action! Begin to take action today and lead your referral network to refer you like you’ve never experienced before!


If you wish to know more about getting high quality referrals for your business, you can reach Michelle at 412-741-1926 or at Michelle@ReferralInstitutePittsburgh.com.
 Michelle R. Donovan is the International Best Selling Author of The 29% Solution.
Visit Michelle’s websites at
http://www.referralinstitutepittsburgh.com/
and
http://www.michellerdonovan.com/

Three "Gives" For 2012

Give them confidence;  by reminding acquaintances of your name.

Give them hope;  by answering your phone  “… how can I help you?”

Give the peace of mind;  by confirming receipt of their email or txt.

For more information on how to strategically implement the above tactics, please contact me: bobgambone@bobgambone.com

A Christmas Story

***Reposting from 2010***

It was 5:00 pm Christmas Eve 1989, and I was locking the front door of the supermarket where I was Store Manager.

Over the years, I had made it a tradition for me to be the "closer" of the store on Christmas Eve.

Inside the store, my employees were rushing around counting their register tills, sweeping the floor, and generally preparing the store for closing down, so they all could rush home to their families for Christmas.

At approximately 5:30pm, I heard someone tapping on the front door.

“I just got off work and I need to shop for my family", the gentleman on the other side of the glass door shouted.

“Sorry, we are closed.” I answered.

“Please, I really need to shop and you are the only grocery store open.”

In the background several of my employees yelled out to me… “Mr. Gambone, I hope you don’t let him in, we all want to go home.”

I turned to my office manager and said , “Cindy, I feel bad for this guy…will you stick around with me until we get him checked out.”

She looked at me with a frown, “Well, I hope he only needs a few things, OK.”

We let him in…he was very gracious, grabbed a buggy and started to shop.

“I’ll only take a few minutes,” he said.

Then all of a sudden, he turned around and looked at Cindy and me in desperation… “Shit!..I’m sorry for swearing, but I left my wallet in my overalls at work….I can’t believe this!!!”

He abandoned the buggy and started walking towards the front door to leave.

Cindy looked at me and said… “Well, I guess we can leave now.”

“Hold on!” I said… “Sir, you pick up what you need and come back the day after Christmas and pay us.”

Cindy looked at me as if I was crazy. The gentleman was overjoyed and continued to shop.

When he completed his shopping, Cindy and I checked him out and bagged his groceries. He purchased lots of milk, cereal, bread and basic groceries along with some gift-wrap and children’s toys.

We wished him a Merry Christmas as he left and Cindy and I locked up and went home to our families.

...............the gentleman never returned...................

Yes, I took some heat from my boss when he found out…but that’s okay. I knew in my heart that it was right thing to do at the time.

It is moments like this is my life when I am reminded of the words a mentor of mine once shared with me early in my career...“The good you do, will come back to you.” Lou Z.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and may you and your family have a glorious New Year.

Bob Gambone, The Pecan Pie Guy!

"It’s Not What Life Makes of You; It's What You Make of Life."

---Some of my favorites---


"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein


"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."
Mark Twain


"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
Mohandas Gandhi


"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King, Jr.


"Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow."
Benjamin Franklin


"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
John F. Kennedy


"It’s not what life makes of you; it's what you make of life."
Unknown

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Read more "Pecans of Wisdom" from Bob Gambone in his book:

"Pecan Pie, 32 Business Success Strategies Passionately Baked to Order" buy it NOW! on Amazon.com
Copyright (12-10-2011) by Robert V. Gambone Sr.”

Lou, The Nabisco Guy

*** In Memory of Lou ***

Lou the Nabisco Guy never used selling strategies …Lou had a culture of “selling.”

I was 23 years old when I first met Lou. He was the region’s number one salesman for Nabisco from 1974 to 1985.

One day I was eating lunch with Lou and asked,

“Lou, so what do you do, to be so good at selling?....can you share some tips?”

Lou replied, shaking his head and smiling, “Bob there is really no magic tips, but I do have five core beliefs about selling.”

1.) Love and believe in your product.
2.) People like to buy, but not to be sold to.
3.) I never sell anything, I solve people’s problems.
4.) Never talk yourself out of a sale.
5.) and….Never close a sale, open an opportunity.

Lou died in 1985 from a heart attack at the early age of 63.

Lou’s culture of selling has lived on. Those who adopt it become very successful.

To be the best, you need to have more than just strategies, you first need a culture, a core belief.

Dr.Ivan Misner, New York Times best selling author and founder of BNI (Business Network International) says it best, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Today when I enjoy my favorite Nabisco crackers I always think of Lou…Lou the Nabisco Guy.