Col. Mark Tillman Interview

Interview With Ross Shafer

What One Dictator Said To The Other Dictator

(Take a History Freak. Surround him with the world's top leaders, athletes and business gurus for a over decade. Here's what you get.)

We've heard of stories of a young leader going to an elderly statesmen seeking wisdom, but rarely do we think of dictators getting together and talking about how to better oppress their people- or more than that, how we can learn from them. Sometimes the best way to learn how to do something better is to learn how others have done it poorly.

You may have never heard about Herodotus, the man Cicero called "The Father of History", but I'm sure you've heard of some of the stories he's passed down to us. If you've ever heard of a thing called the Marathon, or the Battle of Thermopolaye, (recently made into the movie '300'), you can send Herodotus a thank you note. But Herodotus also took an interest in some lesser known leaders and events, including Periander of Corinth. Periander had taken over from his father, a tyrant who had ruled Corinth with an iron fist for 30 years before passing away. Initially Periander was a kinder, gentler dictator, so to speak, than his father had been. Periander was a pretty smart guy, too. He is considered one of the Seven Sages of Greece with his most famous saying being 'Practice is everything. This is often misquoted as being practice makes perfect." He even invented the first railroad, called the 'Diolkos', which ran for 1,300 years. It was horse drawn, and carried ships across the isthmus of Corinth, saving sailors the long and dangerous trip around the Peloponese- kind of an ancient overland Panama Canal. Because of this money-generating innovation, he was able to abolish taxes for his own people. However dissent still rose up against him. With his father gone, he looked around for someone older in the same position from whom he might learn- a kind of knowledge sharing of best practices between dictators. He decided to send one of his messengers to Thrasyboulus, the tyrant of Miletus, to see how he'd become so successful and stable in crushing rebellion and keeping himself in power. Or, as Periander put it, to find out "what mode of government it was safest to set up in order to rule with honor". The messenger arrived in Miletus and asked his master's question, but received no response.

Instead, Thrasyboulos led the messenger out of the city and began to walk through a field of corn, simply refusing to answer the messenger's repeated questions. Instead, Thrasyboulos "went breaking off and throwing away all such ears of corn as overtopped the rest. In this way he went through the whole field, an destroyed all the best and richest part of the crop; and then, without a word, he sent the messenger back."

As you can imagine Periander was waiting on pins and needles for his servant to get back and report. But the messenger could only say that the famed Tyrant of Miletus had not uttered a word, had apparently lost all his senses, and exhibited bizarre behavior by destroying his own property. In short, he might have said, "That dude is crazy!" Periander had the messenger back up and report Thrasyboulos' actions, and immediately grasped their significance. In order to stay in power and have complete control, he needed to repress or destroy the best and brightest citizens. From that time forth, he ruled 'with the very greatest cruelty', executing or banishing the leading men of the city and taking their wealth, stripping the leading women of the prized clothing and jewelry, and shipping away their children. He even killed his own wife and banished his son. His primary goal had become ensuring his position, not helping in the growth of his city or its people.

So you've got to ask yourself, was Periander a good leader? On one had, he did become very rich, both through the income from the Diolkos railway and from the riches taken from leading citizens. He managed to keep his position and stay in power for several decades. Most leaders do want to become rich and powerful. Upon his death, however, it became obvious that he certainly did not 'rule with honor', as he claimed. With the best of his people gone, there was no room for growth, a power and knowledge vacuum was created, and Corinth was severely weakened.

We can take Periander's story and flip it around to show us how to be a good leader. As a leader, do you go around to your best and brightest, to your 'tall stalks of corn', and help build them up and grow, or do you tear them down and throw them away. Are you open enough to bring together people who are smarter and better than you in some areas in order to be successful, or do you avoid them or scare them away?

How can you build others up this week?

Meetings: A Medical Miracle Love Story

This is a great video by Joe Malarkey and Joe Calloway.

'Spencer's Premiere'

I hope you like the latest installment in the 'Four Minute Booking' series. This is especially good if you're a fan of 'The Office'. I've been made fun of for doing a tw0-handed handshake in the video, but that just goes to show how much the other agents wish they would have had an action shot, rather than just delivering lines.

Iman 'Obama' Crossan passes 9,000,000 views

Iman Crosson, America's leading Obama impersonator, has just crossed 9,000,000 views for his 'All The Single Ladies' parody on YouTube.


My favorite is still the Superbowl call, but, hey, we'll take it!

Jason Jennings visit

Jason Jennings was kind enough to come by the new office for a talk about his new book 'Hit The Ground Running'. As a way to welcome him, all of the agents decided to wear blue shirts, apparently. We're not a creatively dressed bunch. In addition to being a talented writer, Jason has got a great radio voice, and he loves to use it to tell fascinating tales. I kept expecting him to end one with "...and now you know...the rest of the story."

Surviving and Thriving at Thanksgiving

My wife is a champ. We had 25 people over at our house for Thanksgiving, and 13 people who stayed the weekend. My daughter Brooklyn was nice enough to congratulate me after finishing the annual Habitrot 5K that many of the family run every Thanksgiving morning. We then went to Krispy Kreme to offset anything positive gained by running the 5K. My 90 year-old grandmother/jazz pianist entertained us by playing 'It Had To Be You' at an impromptu concert at our house that weekend with our neighbors. It turns out that was the only song known by both a 90 year-old-Virginian and some 30 something New Yorkers who met up with some Hoosiers in Tennessee.

The Slow Fat Triathlete

One of the fun parts of this job is getting to know some of the speakers out there. Jayne Williams wrote the book 'The Slow Fat Triathlete', which actually was a big help for me in getting ready for my first triathlon. I took the point home that you really don't have to care what you look like in sports clothes. My 'Clydesdale' days are hopefully gone forever (Clydesdale is a category guys over 200 lbs can enter), but I think everyone can have those worries about their appearance. Its also great that she challenges people to do things they haven't done, or think they couldn't ever do. She's as funny on the phone as she is in her book and speaking, and is just motivating from what she's personally accomplished and overcome.

The Forgotten Birthday

So my dad calls me up a few weeks ago, and asks if the weeked of the 17th is a good time to come down. I called up my wife to check the family schedule, and she asked, 'Why would he want to come down that weekend? Brooklyn's birthday is the weekend after that.' 'Um...that weekend is my birthday,' I replied. 'Oh, yeah,' she said.

My babe, Terry Bowden

So I 'm sitting here responding to an email from a client when my phone rings. I saw it was my wife's number on caller ID, so I clicked the button on my headset and said, 'Hey, Babe.' My wife is from California, and insisted on 'babe' being our preferred term of endearment when we were dating. I really didn't want to, but she's gorgeous , so I've made it work. After uttering 'Hey, Babe', this man's voice answers back, 'Uh, I'm calling for Brian Lord. This is Terry Bowden.' I looked down in shock to see that my wife's line was still blinking as 'ringing', and that Terry must have called in just as I was clicking my headset. I gave a little laugh, explained the situation, and got a good laugh in return. Away from the phone I hear, 'A guy just called me 'babe'. Then back to me, 'I'm sitting here with my wife, I just had to tell her that.' I'm sure all those Alabama fans out there are saying I deserve to feel silly, what with working with a former Auburn Tiger head coach turned college football analyst and all. Luckily he's a nice guy, and was nice enough to get back with me on some event questions while his assistant was out sick. My wife got a good laugh when I told her, too.

Carlson's Raider and the Cheesecake Factory

Last Saturday, my wife and I were able to get one of her sisters to babysit our two girls so we could go out on a date. It wasn’t at night and there was no movie to see, but any alone time is great to have. We’d finished eating at the Cheesecake Factory, and as we were walking out, we passed a table with a very elderly gentleman in a wheelchair and his wife. I saw that he had a red US Marines hat on. This little voice inside me told me told me I needed to go and say hello to him and thank him for what he did for us. But I didn’t.

We walked out into the mall, and my wife headed out to her usual spot checking out home décor and I went to my usual spot which is the history section of the nearest bookstore. I couldn’t really enjoy myself, because I knew I should have talked to him. We met back up, went to a window shop at a couple more stores, and then walked out to the parking lot. I started to pull out, but parked back in.

“Do you remember that guy with the Marines hat in there?” I asked my wife. “I should have talked to him. I bet he’s a World War II vet. I going back to see if he’s still eating.” My wife said she thought I should, too. She’s cool like that.

Luckily we were parked just outside the restaurant, and he and his wife were still eating. I came up beside him and said, “Hello, sir, I noticed your hat, and I wanted to thank you for what you did for our country.”

“Oh,” he said with scratchy voice, “You’re welcome.”

I wasn’t sure what to say next, so I asked, “So where did you serve?”

“I fought in the Pacific against the Japanese,” he replied.

“Which island?” I asked.

“A lot of them,” he replied with his scratchy voice.

“All over the place,” his wife chimed in, sweeping her arm in a big circle to emphasize the point.

“I was part of Colonel Carlson’s Raiders,” he said with pride.

“Wow!” I replied. I had no idea who Colonel Carlson was, or what his Raiders did, but I wasn’t about to let him know. Luckily he continued.

“We were a suicide squad. We were worst than terrorists. We’d go into an island, to clear the way for the Marines. Then they’d clear the way for the Navy. Then they’d clear the way for the Army.” He paused. “127 of us left the base, but only 38 came back.”

I didn’t know quite what to say, so I stuck out my hand and said, “Thank you again sir for what you did for us.”

He grasped my hand with his own thin hand, but still he still gave a firm shake and a smile. “You’re welcome.”

I went back to the car and relayed the story to my wife. Almost at tears, she said, “I can’t believe only 38 came back. I don’t know how they could do that.”

And to me, its amazing. We drove off from in our nice car, from an upscale mall and a restaurant, knowing that we didn’t have to think about living or dying or fighting to be free that day. We could because men and women gave their lives in 1776, 1942, or even July 3, 2008, to protect our freedom.

Post script: As soon as I got home, I looked up Col. Carlson’s Raiders. Sure enough, they did exactly what he said they did. Col. Carlson even was the guy responsible for bringing the Chinese phrase for ‘work together’, gung ho, into the American vernacular. I’m hoping to find the movie ‘Gung Ho!’, starring Robert Mitchum, which was inspired by Col. Carlson and his Raiders. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_F._Carlson)

My Favorite Horror Movie

As I’ve gotten older and started a family, I’ve realized there is a horror film out there that has existed all along, but has just now become apparent to me, and it is the ‘Friday the 13^th’ of its kind. I’m speaking, of course, of the movie ‘Father of the Bride’. It’s a cute movie I’ve seen before, usually in 3 minute segments. You can watch a baseball game on another channel and flip to it in the commercials to see Steve Martin do something uncomfortable. The blue tuxedo scene is classic, as is his interaction with Franc, aka Martin Short. But now that I have two little girls, one approaching three, the other one and a half, that I see it in its true spectral light. It forces me to realize that someday, hopefully in the late 2040’s, that I’ll have to give these two little feisty, pudgy-cheeked little girls away. This scares me to death. I’m writing this down so I have it on record for the future, but I do get to spend a lot of time with my girls. I’ve taught Sydney to growl, and Brooklyn to count to 10 in Spanish. They both crawl all over me and beat me up on a regular basis. They both go crazy and run to the door when I come home from work (although Sydney hasn’t learned to hug yet so she either barrels into me or runs up to me then runs away.) But I’m sure when they go off to college or get married or whatever, I’ll still wonder if I didn’t spend enough time with them or read to them or just give them enough hugs. As much as this hits me now, I’m sure I’ll be an overwhelmed, quivering mass of humanity as Brooklyn and Sydney try to hold me up during the Father – Daughter dance at their weddings. I’d completely missed all this father-daughter stuff the first time I was ‘Father of the Bride’, and now its all I seem to see.

Side note: The leading song of this genre is ‘Butterfly Kisses’. It’s more effective than a stun gun in putting fathers out of commission for up to several minutes.

Going Green Early

What is less expensive than taking your one year old to Chuck E Cheese to play in the ball pit? Let her climb into the recycling bin in your kitchen pantry. Syd absolutely loves playing in the bottles. Its a huge mess, but she's so cute, we can't help but let her do it.

Premiere has gone green as well. We now have 'green' eContracts. Rather than a lot of printing, signing and faxing, you can now sign offers electronically. Add that in with thousands of contracts annually, and you save a lot of paper (not to mention time and money). Not too bad!

BRIAN SOLVES THE WORLD CUP OFFICIATING PROBLEMS

7/6/06 BRIAN SOLVES THE WORLD CUP OFFICIATING PROBLEMS

I'd never really watched much soccer before this World Cup, it's actually very entertaining. I know many of you may not have much of a background in soccer,

or 'futbol', as its called, so I thought I'd put together this brief tutorial for you. In the World Cup, each country gets together its very best, highly-talented and skilled male models to play against another country's male models. It doesn't matter the country- Portugal, Ghana, Brazil, England- they all come straight out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. David Beckham is the rule, not the exception. It's a little know fact here in the States, but the entrance to the field from the locker rooms is actually a catwalk, which the players traverse after watching Zoolander to get pumped up for the match.

It's very important to be good-looking, because the most important skill- more important even than running, kicking, or even breathing- is getting sympathy from the refs. I've not yet seen a World Cup match that wasn't in some part decided by the officials making a bad call. What happens is, a player from team A runs within 10 to 15 feet of a player from team B, trips on thin air, then writhes in pain and desperate agony on the ground with his hands covering his face. ("Oh, no, we can't see the pretty man's face!" yells the crowd.) The referee then crosses the field to where the player from team B is standing, and holds up either a yellow card or a red card, depending on how wide the grimace is of the player from team A. The player from team A was inevitably 'attacked' near his opponent's goal, so he gets a free kick from within 3 feet of the helpless goalie. It's amazing how the game works. But its not really the players' faults. They have to act this way, because if they don't, the other team will, and they'll end up getting blown out by devastatingly one-sided scores like 2-0. However, I do have a solution to this problem, and I'm going to send it on to soccer's governing body of FIFA (complete name: FI-FA-FO-FUM). Instead of just having yellow and red cards, the refs can also have a blue, water colored "cry-me-a-river" card. After a player flops, the ref can run up to him, shove the blue card in his face, and tell him in his language of choice to stop being a cry-baby. After a player receives 3 blue cards, he is forced to grow a pencil-thin mustache, which will invariably make him less good-looking (except in France), therefore limiting his ability to get endorsement deals from Adidas.

I'm actually going to wear my France shirt on Friday, just to upset another agent in our office, Taylor, who is very much against the French team. Why? He went to Auburn, and since they pretty much haven't won anything in forever, he's pretty much anti-everyone else. Maybe he thinks France is the Crimson Tide of Europe. Anyway, the World Cup Final on Sunday is pretty much a win-win for me. My wife and I went to Paris for our anniversary, and I speak a little French, so I'm happy if they win. My wife is Italian, so we're also very happy if they win. The other cool fact is they if Italy wins, there's a silver lining for the US team. The only team that has played Italy and didn't lose to them, is the US. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

WHEN NOT TO LISTEN TO MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS

6/27/06 WHEN NOT TO LISTEN TO MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS

Due to several consecutive rain-outs, our church league softball team was forced to play back to back to back to back make-up games this past Saturday in 85 degree heat with no breaks. We'd just lost the third game by a heart-breaking 22-21 tally, and were emotionally and physically exhausted. We clearly didn't want to be there, and the other team opened up a commanding 16-0 lead. Now, I had just recently finished reading Stephen Mansfield's book on one of history's greatest motivators, Winston Churchill, with the "Never, never, never, never give up!" quotation still ringing in my ears. That's great for defending your homeland and all, but as it turns out, not so great for recreational softball. I hit the ball into the outfield, and, rounding first, I saw that I had a chance to stretch a single into a double. As I slid into second, my first thought was "Safe!" My second thought was "#&#^@$#*@*(!!!!." The second baseman had missed the relay throw from the outfield and it hit me at high speed directly on the corner of my jaw. After two doctors visits and multiple x-rays, I found I had two fractures and had to get my jaw wired together yesterday.

It has been suggested that I try to use this wired-shut jaw thing to gain sympathy from clients. But if you think about it, I only have to deal with this dilemma for three weeks, whereas the Dallas Maverick fans in our office, Shawn and David, have to deal with their problems for an entire off-season. So far, I think the sympathy ploy is working for them.

DAVID (sobbing): I really thought Dirk and the Mavs had it this year. (sniffle) I really did.

CLIENT: Oh, you poor boy. Let me book a speaker from you. And I'll FedEx over some hot cocoa, too.

I think the biggest thing I'll miss for these three weeks will be my favorite game with my 10 month old daughter. I'll go to the other side of the living room, lie on the floor, and play dead. She'll crawl across the floor as fast as she can and then pounce on my head with a belly flop. Hopefully she won't have grown out of that by the time she's 11 months old.

One big plus is that with an all liquid diet, I'll probably lose some weight. I'm saying the over-under is 7 pounds, but my wife is thinking 17. 17 pounds in 21 days? She also thinks I'll get my 6-pack back, which has not been seen since the Cincinnati Reds last made the playoffs. The 6-pack still exists, mind you, its just been cleverly hidden behind a thick layer of Chick-fil-a waffle fries, sweet tea, and Sonic breakfast burritos.

I'll be back in tomorrow, but if you call me between now and July 17, forgive me for mumbling!

The Spelling Bee Story

6/16/06 SCRIPPS HAS NOTHING ON ME

I am amazed that the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee was recently televised on live, national, prime-time television, and that more than 10 people tuned in to watch. So, I figure that if that event is interesting enough to keep ABC from airing the pilot episode of “Lost” for the 43rd time, the story of my own spelling bee experience could warrant a blog.

Back in the mists of time, I was a 4th grader at Kokomo Christian School without too much interest in the academic side of things. Now don’t get me wrong, I did love learning things. Its just that I wasn’t that competitive with grades and such. In Christian schools, you basically have three kinds of kids- ‘normal’, which I felt myself to be; ‘trouble makers’, whose parents sent them there trying to reform them; and finally, ‘highly serious achievers’, kids whose grades were the end-all be-all of their existence. I say ‘kids’ in an attempt to be general, but they were in fact all girls. Not a single self respecting guy would be caught dead trying to be smart. As you can imagine, we all thought one of those girls would be the designated representative for our school at the Indiana State Spelling Bee.

To choose the winner, our teacher devised a two part test. First, there was the written test. Any of several hundred possible words would be read by the teacher from the front of the class, and the students would write them down. Anyone who got 80% and were in the top six would qualify for the second round. I remember I was sixth, with a 79.6%, which rounded up to 80, thereby just qualifying me to make it into the second round. The scores from the first, or written round, would be averaged with the second, oral round.

My competition in said round was very stiff. Among the five girls- and I’ll change their names so you can’t look them up in a phone book and then go taunt them, but so they can still recognize themselves should they by some amazing chance now be a corporate speaker or meeting planner- were some of the toughest spellers the greater Howard County area has ever produced. There was Kristin Schmydt, who worked so diligently and seriously she may have only spoken out loud maybe three times in the six years I knew her. Also among those wishing to take the crown was Stephanie Hule, who was nice and all, but seriously, who needs to wear their Brownie outfit like three times a week? And finally, the prohibitive favorite, Michelle Wilton. She prided herself on her tightly braided blonde hair in addition to her grades, and I remember her crying once when she only got 19 out of 20 on one of our regular weekly spelling tests.

The odds were not in favor of the young Brian, especially since it wasn’t just who would win the oral competition, it was the average of the two scores. I’d have to do so well, and they so poorly, that it would outweigh the 100’s the girls had gotten on the written test.

(EDITORS NOTE: Wouldn’t you have to be a pretty sad person if one of your Glory Days was a 4th grade spelling bee?)

(AUTHORS NOTE: Just be quiet. You try coming up with a new blog idea every week.)

And so the oral quiz began. The six of us were sitting in chairs at the front, with the teacher standing to the side, reading off the word for us to spell. The first words were always really easy ones, all answered correctly, but then something strange began to happen. The trouble-makers started taunting the contestants. The teacher quieted them down, but it opened the door on my first break. One of the girls actually missed a question. Then the rest of the boys (only boys made up the trouble makers) realized that I was the only boy up there, and began to cheer whenever it came around to me. Well, encouragement is something they, well, encourage in a Christian school, so the teacher couldn’t very well stop them. Suddenly the ‘highly serious achievers’ realized no one was cheering for them (after all, all the highly serious achievers were up front competing), and began to wilt under the pressure. They started to miss words rigt and lefft. Our classmates started to really get into it, inching their chairs forward, laughing, cheering, clapping. So far I'd only missed one word. The teacher paused to tally up the scores before starting the final round. The suspense in the room was palpable. Without revealing the scores, she started giving each of us our final word to spell. One by one, the girls misspelled their last words. It was ladies first, so the very last word to be attempted was by me. The teacher paused, then said, “I’ve tallied up the scores, and if Brian gets this, he wins.” She might have been subtly trying to unnerve me, because like any good teacher, I’m sure she wanted someone who actually cared about spelling and studied to represent the school at state. She would not be so lucky. She read the last word, which was a relatively little known book of the Bible at the end of the Old Testament, pronounced “NAY-hoom”. “N…” I started. A hush fell over my classmates. “A…H…U…” The crowd (or soon to be mob) was silent. “…M.” Everyone looked expectantly at the teacher, but I already knew what she was about to say. “That’s correct," she said. It was all over.

All the boys rushed up and there was general pandemonium (P-A-N-D-E-M-O-N-I-U-M, pandemonium). I was surrounded, so I couldn’t see if Michelle was crying or if Stephanie was fidgeting in her Brownie outfit, but I’m sure Kristin was being very quiet. All I knew was that I had just won what was likely the most dramatic comeback in KCS spelling bee history.

The trip to Indianapolis for the State Championship was rather anti-climactic. I was surrounded by 95% girls, of whom 100% wore plaid or floral print dresses. I was one of the few people who weren’t carrying around their own well-worn dictionary. The preliminary rounds were conducted in cramped classrooms, where mini-spelling bees were conducted, and you were moved into ever-larger and larger classrooms. It was single elimination, so the furthest I got was a closet. The word I missed? “Tomb.” How lame is that? We left for the long drive home well before it ever got to the auditorium for the finals. I was happy to have at least gotten out of a day of school.

This experience gave me confidence, and my above-mediocre ability to spell has served me well in my current position, as there are a lot of speakers with tough names- Peter Ricchuiti, Tony Alessandra, Vince Papale, Mike Eruzione, etc. I guess it was good for sumthing!

MR. LORD GOES TO WASHINGTON

6/1/06 MR. LORD GOES TO WASHINGTON

There are some perks of working at this job. A guy in our office, Frank, occasionally helps out with White House events, and I was able to use his extra seat at a Kenny Chesney concert for the President in the East Room of the White House. The concert was great, and I think you can even see a photo of it and me on the White House website (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060516-11.html). Prior to the concert, Frank and I found ourselves in line to shake hands with the President.

There's a time to give a sales pitch, and there's a time not to give a sales pitch. Being in a receiving line with President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Howard, and the First Ladies of the United States and Australia is a time not to be a sales guy. My plan was to simply say "Its a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Prime Minister. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. President," and move on.

As Frank and I get closer, I see Prime Minister Howard standing there and chatting, holding a tea cup, saucer and spoon, taking a sip from time to time. He's not quite a tall fellow, possibly 5'7 or 5'8, with a ring of white hair, and glasses, looking every bit like your old favorite univerisity professor. He looks at me, and since I'm a good 20 years younger than the average guest (50s-60s), assumes I must be a White House staffer.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Prime Minister," I say, and start to shuffle the next two feet over toward Bush.

"Yes," he replies, and surprises me by asking over his tea cup, eyebrows raised, "So, in what part of the White House do you work?"

"Uh, actually, sir, I work for a company called Premiere Speakers Bureau. We book business speakers and leaders for corporate events." I felt that was very to-the-point and not at all ‘salesy’.

President Bush gets a grin on his face and says loudly "That means he's trolling for people like you!" while shaking my hand.

Frank is standing behind me and trying not to laugh at my having just been made fun of by the President. What was even funnier to me is that at that moment, President Bush's body language was exactly like my dad's after he thinks he's said something particularly funny- big grin with lips pressed together, eyes sort of half closed, kind of nodding as he silently chuckled to himself. It made me feel a bit at home in the White House that the Harvard-Yale educated, most powerful man in the world was acting just like my Indiana farmer/truck driver dad. Had he added on a good "I reckon", I would have instinctively asked to borrow the car for a date Friday night.

But the dessert and concert were great, and a good time was had by all.

COWBOYS VS. THE POWER OF THE SUN

6/8/06 COWBOYS VS. THE POWER OF THE SUN

Tonight begins the battle for supremacy in the NBA, between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. I think we can look at this scientifically, and come up with some answers as to who I should pick to win. First, how many clients will I offend by picking the Mavericks, and how many will I offend by picking the Heat? I can easily say that we have more events that take place in Florida, with Orlando, Miami, Naples, etc, being some of the biggest event destinations in the world. However, there are at ton big companies located in Texas, so we can't upset them, either. Also, we have speakers on both sides. Former Maverick Walter Bond (http://www.premierespeakers.com/walter_bond), and Heat Coach and President, Pat Riley (http://www.premierespeakers.com/pat_riley) are both in the Premiere fold. I've been booking Riley since I first got here, but with Riley's in-season commitments cutting into his speaking time, I now book Bond more. We must be careful about who we favor.

Actually, who cares about ruffling feathers, I'm going with Miami in six. Take that, Shawn Hanks and David Loy, your beloved Mavs are going down! Cuban did graduate from my mom's alma-mater, Indiana University, I've always liked Avery Johnson, and a guy on my softball team looks like a 5'10 Nowitzki. But the Heat are going to take it to them. I'll even give you the order of who will win what games- Heat, Mavs, Heat, Heat, Mavs last gasp win in game 5, then Heat close it out in Dallas, 95-86. Peyton shuts down Jason Terry a good part of the time, D-Wade will get his, and the suspension of Mav's back-up center DJ Mbenga will show up huge, as Diop and Dampier repeatedly get into foul trouble guarding Shaq. Finals MVP? That's a tough one, but I'll say Shaq. It'll be close between him and D-Wade, but since voters will feel that Shaq doesn't have as many shots left at this, they go with him. Lets get ready to celebrate on the 20th! To read a much funnier Finals pick, read my all-time favorite sports writer Bill Simmons at (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060608)

Email your picks to me at brian@premierespeakers.com

OLYMPIC TRAINING

5/8/06 OLYMPIC TRAINING

As I've mentioned before, when I took this job at Premiere, I wanted to approach as a way to get my unofficial Ph D. in Knowing Stuff.

I realized I had this opportunity to learn from some of the greatest thought leaders, writers, authors, motivators, and athletes in the world, and I wanted to take full advantage of it.

One such opportunity has been getting to know 2 time Olympian and world record holding downhill skier Cary Mullen. Being a young guy (37?) who is great at accomplishing goals despite being an underdog, the majority of his speeches are to companies who want to get their bright, young sales people and leaders to the next level. I figured maybe I fit into that category, so why not take advantage of some time with Cary? It turned out to be a great experience for me. I was able to go through with Cary step-by-step process of setting goals, the mental focus needed, why it worked for his team, and how I could apply it. So now if I get a bit off kilter in my goals, I can remember my "Big Worthy Target", and get focused again.

Don't forget that you as an event planner can take advantage of this kind of thing as well. I know there's a good chance that you're going to have to run around getting last minute hotel rooms while your speaker is going on, but try to catch as much as you can. We can all get better!

To learn more about Cary and watch his video, click here: http://www.premierespeakers.com/cary_mullen