I’ll Get You A Blanket But It Never Came

20 minutes on the tarmac after circling the airport for 30 minutes – see below

“I’ll get you a blanket out of first class” said the Air Canada steward, but it never came.

It’s 1:10pm PDT on Tuesday, May 15th and I am about two hours into a four hour Air Canada flight from Vancouver, BC to Toronto, ON on my way to Oshawa, ON to speak at the Advocis Durham Education Day on Thursday, May 17th, 2007.

The reason that I asked for a blanket is because it is freezing cold sitting by the door in the emergency row … I’ll know better next time, I usually have an aisle seat anyway.

This is one of those times where this Blog acts as my journal at the same time and I am type setting what I’ve already been writing over the course of this day.

* * *

It’s 9:55am and I am sitting on the tarmac at the Comox, BC airport in a Beechcraft 1900D awaiting the takeoff to fly to Vancouver, BC to catch an 11am flight to Toronto, ON.

Today seemed like a rough start so I am sitting back and examining myself for the reasons why:

Last week was a full week of coaching, speaking in Richmond, BC & Regina, SK along with the travel.

• Saturday was invested in potting plants and gardening and the day wrapped up with a neighborhood lobster and crab cookout
• Sunday was invested in writing my May 15th E-Newsletter while sitting on my patio enjoying the ocean air along with the chorus of song from the birds
• Monday was invested in a full day of coaching, management on the fly and packing for Tuesday’s travel. The management on the fly included:
o Client coaching call preparation
o Client coaching call follow up
o Blog writing
o Filing/office clean up
o Bookkeeping strategies discussion
o Payables
o E-Newsletter editing
o Delegating the transcription of the MP3 recording of our PowerPoint
o Prospect calls and correspondence

So why the rough start to today?

Simple.

I invested all of the time that would have gone into my Personal Practice and Planning in writing the E-Newsletter.

The E-Newsletter took priority over organizing my week and packing my office up to go out on the road.

I allowed my business to run me versus me running my business.

This explains the rough start and the more I journal into this Blog the more clear I become.

Even though the business can feel like it is seamless sometimes, and to a major degree Laura has a lot to do with this, the business running me can eventually become uncomfortable because I am not leading … being a Leading Advisor.

For fun, I am writing down the action steps for the day:

5:30am PDT – answer e-mails and pack up my office
6:30am – shower
7:30am – travel by chauffer to Comox, BC while proof reading Laura’s E-Newsletter edits

8:45am – arrive at Comox Airport
9:00am – e-mail Laura with E-Newsletter edits and answer e-mail
– talk with Laura on the phone
– start planning review and prioritize projects & actions for week
9:30am – board airplane
9:55am – plane leaves (late)
– hand write this blog
– continue planning review and prioritize projects & actions for week
10:20am – flight lands in Vancouver, BC
– rush to catch 11am flight
10:40am – arrive at gate
10:50am – board plane
– continue planning review and prioritize projects & actions for the week
11:15am – “take off eh! We are 15 minutes late!”
11:25am – completed planning review and prioritize projects & actions for the week
11:25am -start review of Public Speaking Follow Up System Flow Charts for a 4pm PDT teleconference with Laura & Christina. As I complete the review I realize that while the big dream is to create an automated system the system has several parts that include; * MindGenius/FlowCharts, * CRM, * Technologies that include things like Appointment Generator, Auto Responders, Survey Monkey … the system still has the tried and true red, white and blue requirement of personal contact.

12:15pm – create draft system for follow up to May 29/30th Toronto Independent Financial Brokers Summit as Laura and I will be leaving for England right after the event and the coaching leads must be scheduled right after the event as it will be too late when we get back on June 11th.

System for follow up to May 29/30 Toronto Independent Financial Brokers Summit

1. Discuss with Laura
2. Create system so that Christina can follow: * receive speaking response form, * call prospective client to schedule, * record notes, * schedule appointment in Maximizer
3. Discuss with Christina
4. Offer expectations
5. Assess for coaching
6. Teach: * clearing, * scripts, * roll play

12:25pm – start review of new 1.5 hour PowerPoint and reduce back to 1 hour to suit Advocis Durham Education Day on Thursday, May 17th, 2007

12:55pm – edit actual PowerPoint slides

( Are you getting the picture of what I do when I am on the road? 🙂 Some people exclaim “oh, my, you have all that travel … I would not know what to do!” It is simple! Get a business! )

1:20pm – complete the type setting of this blog (so that we have come circle)
1:55pm – I am now caught up with my writing and have about 75 minutes of flight time left and the last thing I can do is re-prioritize the list and give it another go. I’ll review the list and I may or may not continue with my work today and just take it easy … believe it, or not.

( Thank goodness for my 6 hour auxiliary laptop battery because I am just running out of juice in the main laptop battery at 2:15pm … Scotty, switch it to auxiliary power! )

Priority Projects

• Intention – Client goal of 35 over the summer
• Intention for Advocis – add value
• Give thanks
• Understand that: public speaking follow up system + membership website + group coaching + business school + steps + specifics = vision
• Middleton marketing
• Fee adjustment
• Binder planning forms
• Budget: new business plan + v/a, transcriptions, membership site, marketing associate, savings speaking, savings telephone, savings merchant account
• Pro-Seminars Las Vegas Planning
• Quarterly live workshop planning
• One on one client follow up system
• Speaking prospect follow up system
• Membership site investigate
• Product development to include Group Coaching & Advisor Business School
• Product & Speaking Titles
• Team

Team:
• Request team to provide a list of their projects by priority
• Speaking follow up system

Personal:
• Investigate more Critical Illness and/or Disability Insurance – note to client readers. I have been dealing with Nelson Deslippe for quite some time and I am good where I am.

2:45pm – pre-write a few e-mails to Laura
3:00pm – time to close up the laptop as we are landing in 15 minutes

I’ll be picked up by a chauffeured car in Toronto and driven to the hotel in Oshawa, ON where I will work all day tomorrow (Wednesday) on the phone with clients while getting acclimatized to the Ontario time zone.

5:23pm PDT
8:23pm PDT – I’m in the limo heading east on the 401 towards Oshawa, ON in bumper to bumper traffic, heavy rain and thunder and there have been tornado reports in Southern Ontario.

Thank goodness that Laura hired a car for this trip. We were supposed to land at 6:30pm EDT and we circled the airport for about 30 minutes due to the thunder and lightening and then we sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes because of a lightening alert as the ground crew is not allowed to work during an alert. Then the baggage was at least 25 minutes.

The bright side is I had a conference call with Laura and Christina about Automating The Follow Up Of Our Public Speaking. We reviewed a Flow Chart that Christina created based on a previous conversation along with a Mind Map that I provided. This entire process is creating clarity and segmenting each area of action.

It will be around 9pm EDT when I arrive at the hotel … just in time for dinner … ah, the life of Reilly.