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Guest Post By J.Sewell Perkins

Success Coaches Institute

My daughter never missed an opportunity to take her well-prepared list to the mall and monopolize Santa until he knew everything on that list. It so happened that the Santa at the mall was the same Santa I hired each year for the holiday open house at my main store. The point is that my daughter’s entire interaction with Santa over her seven years of life had been with the same Santa.

In the season of her eighth Christmas she was exposed to the alleged wisdom of a friend’s teenage sister who, for whatever insane reason, didn’t believe Santa is real. She shared her beliefs with the two younger girls and planted seeds of doubt in their believing minds. They wanted to believe but armed with this new information decided to find out for themselves and devised a plan to do just that.

They visited the jolly ole elf and sat on his lap together with the idea that one of them would distract him with her list while the other would slip her little hand inside his coat to see if there was a pillow. The pillow would of course debunk the myth of Santa. Guess what? There was no pillow.

I shared the story with Santa, or Buck as he is known in the off-season, and we devised our own plan. My daughter and I had dinner in a little restaurant at the mall and as dinner ended and I was paying the check, she asked to go see Santa. Off she went and by the time I got there she was reading off her endless list. Buck looked at me and winked.

My daughter came tearing down the platform hollering “I think he is real; he knows my whole name.” To say she was excited would be a gross understatement. Her friend’s teenage sister continued to insist that Santa was just a fat guy in a red suit and my daughter once again began to doubt. The plan Buck and I had devised was not yet completed, however.

On Christmas eve just as my daughter was on her way to her room to begin getting ready for bed…what was that? No doubt about it; that was the sound of sleigh bells. Next we heard a hearty Ho Ho Ho and when we opened the door there stood Santa with his big, black bag full of the things on my daughter’s list and under one arm was the huge, handmade rocking horse she had requested. Santa followed us into the living room and began placing the gifts under the tree. The shocked look on my daughter’s face was representative of the state she was in. Once the presents were placed and Santa was turning to leave, my daughter reached up and took his hand as she said, “Santa, some of my friends don’t believe in you but I BELIEVE.” They hugged and he waved as he made his exit.

Yes, that was the night that I learned that Santa is real. You see, I later found out that his mother had what was believed at the time to be a massive heart attack and she had been rushed to the hospital earlier that day. He spent time with his mother but believing she was in good hands, although he was still quite concerned, he left the hospital, donned his Santa suit, applied his makeup and headed to our house. He later told me there was no way he was going to disappoint a child on Christmas Eve. More important than the gifts Santa brought that evening was the thrill for my daughter of knowing once and for all that Santa is real.

Buck, at first sight appears to be just a regular guy who works in construction during the warmer months, but he is actually one of the many Santas that walk among us every day. No, they don’t all wear red velvet suits but they are the people who give of themselves, serve where needed and spread joy wherever they can. We find them in all walks of life.

There’s no doubt about it; my Christmas gift that year was the revelation that there really is a Santa…in fact, many of them and they walk among us throughout the year unnoticed. In fact there were several of them at the hospital with Buck’s mom that Christmas eve and she lived to learn what I learned that evening… Santa is definitely real.

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As a Life and Business Development Coach for nearly two decades J.S. (as she is called) works with national and international corporations, corporate leaders and small business owners. Additionally she coaches many individuals who are seeking to change their lives for the better and realize their maximum potential.

At one point in her career she was recruited by the president of the Robbins Companies for their coaching team. On the team for only a short while she was asked to assume the position of head coach which she accepted and assumed the responsibility of coaching the coaches. Not too long after that she was chosen to coach on Tony’s hand-picked Elite Coaching Team.

Now, back in private practice, she continues to pursue her life mission which is, in her own words, “To make each life I touch better in some way for my having touched it.”
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[Note from the Proprietor: This here post is J.S.' entry in this month's What I Learned From... groupwrite project. If you'd care to join the fun, well Bubba, we'd love to have ya! Don't worry; there's still plenty of time. All you have to do is click on that cute little link there and read all about it.]

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You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Guest Post by Brad Shorr

One thing about traveling and getting out in the world - it gives you a healthy dose of humility. Last week we were traveling in Boston and one Saturday we took a walk through Harvard Square. Very impressive and very humbling. The buildings looked smarter than I do, to say nothing of the people.

I was blown away by the Harvard Book Store. As I perused the history section, it quickly became obvious I wasn’t browsing through the dumbed down, thinly populated shelves of my suburban, strip mall Borders.

A couple young ladies were browsing nearby - unassuming gals who, in my neighborhood Borders, would have easily passed for hair dressers from the beauty salon next door. But then I heard one of them whisper to the other, “Can you believe I only have one semester of Greek? I’ll finally be able to concentrate on my dissertation.” Much giggling ensued. Funny stuff, I guess, if your IQ is 170.

Me? All I could think about was finding a sports bar to watch the college football games.

After traipsing around the Square, we finally found a bar. It boasted two giant plasma TV’s, but one was off and the other was tuned in to the Weather Channel or something along those lines. You’d never see that in Chicago on a Saturday afternoon.

More strangeness: the place was nearly empty. A couple at one end of the bar was engaged in a deep conversation over a nice chardonnay. A thirty-something man at the other end was engrossed in a thick,- old book (probably written in Greek).

Finally, I asked the bartender if the TVs worked. They did. I asked him if we could watch a college football game and he gave me an odd look, as if to say, That’s weird. Wouldn’t you rather watch “Jeopardy” reruns? … Is it dumb to waste time watching football when I could be studying Aristotle?

… It reminds of my college days. Just when you think you’re smart, you find out you aren’t. I attended Northwestern University. A pretty fine school (the Harvard of the Midwest, as it is sometimes called), and we knew it.

My junior year I was an officer of my fraternity. My fraternity brothers and I were feeling pretty good about ourselves - great school, high GPA’s, members of a fraternity with a national reputation for academic excellence, leaders of the upward march of humanity. Yep, there we were. Future captains of industry.

Until we started hanging around with our fraternity brethren from the University of Chicago. U of C - ever hear of it? Arguably a school to make even Harvard look like an also ran. After a few months rubbing elbows with these studious gentlemen, we began to feel, well, stupid.

Once, in a Hyde Park drinking establishment, one of us commented on how brilliant they were compared to us Northwestern folk. They laughed and laughed. “What’s so funny?” we asked. They said, “Around here, we’re the dumb ones. Do you think serious U of C students would have anything to do with a fraternity? We’re idiots.”

That was a chilling revelation. It taught us a few things. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t assume you have all the answers. Don’t try to impress somebody by throwing your credentials on the table - they might have a pair of aces to beat your kings.

How about you? Did you ever bump into somebody who humbled you intellectually? Was it a character builder, or a character … hmm … um … what’s the opposite of “builder”?

About Brad Shorr
Brad Shorr lives in the Chicago area, and is president of WordSell, Inc. He helps organizations strengthen their online business presence with business blogs and compelling web content.

Brad writes extensively on his own and on many other blogs, mainly about writing, online marketing, entrepreneurship, and sales and business humor.

Expanding…

Expanding…

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

For today’s post I invite you to take a little trip across the ocean to beautiful sunny Hawaii, home of one of my favorite folks, Rosa Say, and Joyful Jubilant Learning. However,  in spite the sunny and warm surroundings, in a somewhat ironic twist this month’s JJL post is actually about an incident that happened while snow skiing in Colorado.

Now, I realize not everyone has had the opportunity to ski on snow (or on water, for that matter), but I’m tellin’ ya, it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced!

Ahhh… yes, I can see it now… the beautiful scenery, surrounded by lofty mountains, the soft breeze rushing into your face, the almost subliminal shhhhh as your skis gently slice through freshly fallen powder, the sudden thud! as your body smacks into a tree…

Yep; no doubt about it; snow skiing can be one heckuva blast!

Anyway, the October theme this month over at JJL is Blunderiffix, wherein the challenge is to contribute a blooper, a mistake or an outright boner we’ve experienced - and what we learned from it.

Naturally, my biggest problem is narrowing the list down to just, y’know, one. *sigh*

Anyhoo, why don’t you pop on over and check out Just Hangin’ Around.

(P.S. If you go there and don’t see it, keep trying. It’s supposed to be posted at 12:15 am Hawaii time.)

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“Ski Texas” © graphic kindly provided with permission of the artist, Jim Neaves, at J. R. Neaves Consulting

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You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Breaking out of his comfort zone

ANNOUNCEMENT (sound of trumpets): Today I have the distinct bad luck misfortune honor to become the newest member of that exciting, dynamic, and not to mention extremely handsome writing team at Scrambled Toast (sound of one hand clapping).

What the heck is Scrambled Toast, you ask?

Well, it’s the spawn insanity brainchild of my buddy Brad Shorr, who writes prolifically (and quite authoritatively, too) at Word Sell, Inc. on the subjects of marketing and copywriting. However, whenever he feels like a wild hair is coming on, he writes over at his other blog, Scrambled Toast. At least, he used to.

Unfortunately, it’s become sorta neglected lately. Despite that, Scrambled Toast still seems to generate significant traffic. Go figure! So, rather than just taking it out back of the shed and, y’know, putting it out of its misery, Brad decided to try and revive the little darlin’.

The other day he issued an open invitation for any suckers nutcases writers who enjoy writing in a humorous vein (or if not, perhaps a jocular artery), and might like to join him to see what could be done to reinvigorate it.

Not being one to shy from a challenge, I decided to take the ol’ bull by the horns, if you get my meanin’ (unlike the unfortunate fellow pictured here). So, every now and then I’ll be posting something over at Scrambled Toast, just for the fun of it. As a matter of fact, today’s post is there right now:

Sure, But Would You Wear the T-Shirt?

Generally speaking, I’ll be writing about… well, why not go read it yourself? You’ll enjoy it, I promise. And if you like it, go ahead and subscribe, why don’cha?

But hey, you never know; it could be about… you! Naw, just kidding. Really.

[Note from the Proprietor: In case you're wondering why there are so many repeats of Scrambled Toast, I'm utilizing a marketing technique called "repetition". Let's see how it worked, shall we? Close your eyes and answer this question:  So what was that website again?]

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Photo credits: I have no idea whose photo this is, but lemme just say…Yikes! Just, yikes!

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You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well!

Mrs. MZM forgot to lock the door to the Zone’s Inner Sanctum again, and I managed to loosen my chains and escape (sound of angry mob, sirens, bloodhounds, and helicopters).

Hey, this time I managed to get as far as Chicago before they caught me. Profuse thanks to my good buddy Brad Shorr; I’m guest posting at Word Sell Blog today. (I’ve always wondered… is it called the Windy City because of the weather, or because there are so many bloggers there? Never mind.)

Since Brad’s blog is related to business writing, sales and marketing, I decided to throw caution to the winds and talk about something I actually know very little about: sales (but don’t tell Brad, ‘K?). However, despite the fact that I’m no salesman, I think I actually can contribute somethin’ valuable that applies not only to sales - but to life.

So why don’t you click on this cute little link here and read The One Key to Success in Sales - and Life. Leave a comment, if you like. Heck, rant and rave if you’re so inclined! Just don’t forget to come back, y’hear?

And don’t worry; I’m feelin’ much better now.

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well, whaddaya know? After my last guest appearance at JJL, they let me keep my membership card! Who knew they would be so easily fooled into thinking I was, you know, somebody? Promise you won’t tell, OK?

Anyway, this month’s theme is the number 8, which at first thought seemed kinda inconsequential to me. I mean, c’mon; what could be so interesting about the number 8?

But after I gave it a bit of thought (sound of gears grinding) and considerable research (which is code for “I Googled it”), wow, was I surprised! Pop on over and read “The L8, Gr8 Number 8” and see what you think. What the heck; go ahead and leave a comment, while you’re at it.

[Note from the proprietor: As soon as my post gets published over at JJL today, I'll post the link here. Should be any minute now...]

[Further note: For some reason, I think I caused a slight snafu on the date; my brilliant and ground-breaking post is due to be published at JJL on the 14th. So hang in there, folks, it's comin' soon! I'll pop the specific link in as soon as I can.]

In the meantime, I think I’m gonna follow Brad Shorr’s example and relax the rest of the day. But, uh, don’t forget to come back!

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Photo: Sleeping Cat, by zamario

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You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!

Today we have the final installation in this week’s guest post marathon, with the anchor leg being run by none other than your friend and mine, Liz Strauss of Successful Blog (sound of crowd going wild)!

No matter what I could ever tell you, words are simply inadequate to describe the queen of relationship blogging. Back when I first began the Middle Zone, I accidentally stumbled across Successful Blog - and was so intimidated by the accumulated information, helps, and advice it literally scared me away! Luckily, good sense prevailed and I came back; I now count Liz as a genuine friend and continuing inspiration. If you’ve never visited her site, well Bubba, you’d better run, not walk, as fast as you can, and get there! You’ll understand what I mean.

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Editorial Wisdom

By Liz Strauss

Her name was Connie. She had just graduated with a Masters in English. She was bright, cheerful, and a fabulous thinker. That’s why I hired her. I was pretty sure she could run the world in a year or two. I figured she’d have no problem keeping track of me and the editors on my team.

Welcome to the world of publishing, Connie.

It happened just as predicted. Connie soon charmed leery editors into letting her help with what they were doing. Even those least ready to let go of their work would look for the morning meeting to go over things with our team member. She had won them over in a matter of days. Her work had lightened their load.

I was pretty pleased that things were working out as I had planned.

I kept coaching Connie to understand that editors have trouble with letting go of details and responsibility. I kept telling her how impressed I was that she had their trust so quickly.

I was also pretty pleased that I didn’t suffer from such fear of delegation.

Then one day I was looking at a package that Connie had prepared for me. It had everything, including a formal letter with my signature… This was a bit disconcerting.

“Connie,” I said, “Could you c’mere for a sec.” She came in. I spoke as kindly as I might. “One day, I’m sure I’ll feel great about you signing my letters, but I think it’s too soon now.”

“Liiiiiiz,” she said smiling. “YOU signed that.”

“Gosh, I’m glad I didn’t get all ballistic and weird over that. It could have been really embarrassing.”

She laughed and said, “Oh, I know editors have a problem with delegation. Sure is a good thing that you aren’t one.”

I kept my editorial wisdom to myself the rest of the day.

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Thanks, Liz, for giving us a glimpse of the Whacky World of Publishing. And many, many thanks to all the illustrious guest authors this week:

Karen Swim, of Words for Hire

Brad Shorr, of Word Sell, Inc.

Joanna Young, of Confident Writing

Y’all drop by their places and check ‘em out. Heck, add ‘em to your RSS readers, why don’cha? You’ll be glad you did!

To the four of you, I give you a big ol’ tip o’ the hat for sharing your wisdom with the Middle Zone community!

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!