You Only Get What You Give Blog

“You only get what you give” were the parting words at the Sacramento Airport with Marc Bregman, Past President of NAIFA Central Valley California at 7:30am on Saturday, November 16th, 2013. Marc is a giver, picking me up at my hotel at 6:30am and giving me a ride to the airport on a Saturday morning after Marc invested an enormous amount of time and energy into the success of NAIFA Central Valley California’s Advisor Expo.

Many thanks to both Marc and Heather Bregman for creating the opportunity for me to speak at NAIFA Central Valley California’s Advisor Expo on Friday, November 15th, which also included an invitation to have dinner with their family and Lars Willerup in their home on Friday evening. I can’t thank Marc and Heather enough.

There are many words for commitment and the Bregmans’ commitment shines through along with conviction, devotion, promise, responsibility and vocation, which flows through to their associations, clients, charities, faith, family and profession. While I was with the Bregmans I witnessed the value of family and their dedication to creating a better life for those that they serve going above and beyond the call to serve with personal acts of kindness to their clients at their time of need.

Marc and Heather Bregmans’ invitation to speak and make a difference at NAIFA Central Valley California continues to carry on resulting in the invitation to speak at NAIFA California’s State Conference in June of 2014 from Ron Adams, President Elect of NAIFA California.

Right now I’m on travel day 3 of 18 on my way from Sacramento to Toronto via Dallas and Chicago. I’m speaking at Pro-Seminars in London on Tuesday, November 19th and in Toronto on Wednesday, November 20th with back-to-back telephone coaching calls Monday – Thursday.

I’m flying to Houston on Friday, November 22 where I will join my wife Laura and a group of old and new friends and we will all fly on to Quito, Ecuador where we will be getting an experience of the humanitarian work that Compassion Canada is doing in Ecuador. We will be visiting three different regions and at least three different villages on our eight-day trip.

Compassion is a faith-based organization that exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

Compassion is unique in that it is 90% volunteer which means that 90% of your contribution goes to the children’s education, healthcare and social programs which are administered through the established and trusted churches that are in the communities where the children and their families live.

Laura and I sponsor three children through Compassion, Genevieve in Africa and Andrea & Michael who we will be meeting while we’re in Ecuador. Andrea & Michael are pictured here on the right.

We begin our travels in Ecuador in Quito for a day, then travel to Otavalo for two days, and then travel further north in the Andes Mountains to visit a remote village. From there we fly to the Esmeraldas Province on the Pacific Coast for two days where we will spend time in a fishing village and experience A Day in The Life of a Mother. Wednesday we travel back to Quito to meet the students in the Ecuadorian Leadership Program, and visit the Compassion Ecuador office to understand how the Compassion Programs in Ecuador are managed and administered. Thrown into this trip with school/project visits and family home visits we will do a little sightseeing and experience local markets, and on our last day – our sponsored children Michael and Andrea will join Laura and me to spend the day with us at an amusement park. We are grateful that we will have a translator with us for the entire day, and we have an entire day to devote to our sponsored children.

I’ll be sharing our experience with Compassion in Ecuador in my December newsletter.