Potential ain't Capacity!

By Marita Greenidge

I watched a live stream from my church Faith Temple today. How's that for embracing technology? I love how this church uses direct marketing and technology to build relationships with its congregation. It makes me smile as a marketer.

As usual the message was powerful and uplifting.

A section of the sermon stood out for me. The pastor, Steve Edlin, said sometimes we give people keys to vehicles before they have the capacity to drive. Well he didn't quite say it like that but that was the overall metaphor.

And the meaning? Sometimes people have the potential to undertake a task but do not currently have the capacity to handle that task. Maybe they are not in the right state of mind; maybe they haven't learnt all they need to know to do a great job.

Just because someone has potential, doesn't mean they are ready for the job!

This can be extended to many parts of our life. You may have the potential to run a marathon but 3 months before the race you might not have the capacity. It requires training. You may have the potential to be a great wife or husband but you're still trying to figure out who you are and what you want to do in life. Requires a little soul searching. You may have the capacity to be a great entrepreneur but you don't understand accounting, marketing or business planning. Requires a little skill-building.

Potential ain't capacity and you have to build your capacity before you can unleash your true potential.

Have an awesome week everyone!

Slavery? Today?

By Rebecca and Glenn Fadner

Slavery ended in 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, right? Guess again! Slavery is "alive and well" throughout the modern world!! Oh, it's illegal in over 80% of the countries, but it still exists. In fact, estimates range from as "low" as 4 million to as high as 27 million people enslaved, with the US State Department settling on around 12 million. Contrast that with an estimated 4 million slaves in the US immediately before the Civil War.

Trafficking in human beings is "tied for second" (with illegal arms) as the second largest criminal activity in the world (after the drug trade). And if you think it only happens "over there", think again! The US is both a destination and an origination point for victims of trafficking.

Because combating the trauma of those rescued out of trafficking is central to the mission of our supplier STOPStart, we are taking the opportunity to become more informed about the scourge of human trafficking and how to combat it. We will be attending the first Global Forum on Human Trafficking in Carlsbad, CA on October 8-9.

We'll have more to share from what we've learned, but we want to encourage YOU to become more informed as well. Here are several resources to assist you:

• "Not For Sale" - David Batstone A look at examples of human trafficking worldwide AND how a number of organizations are working to combat it.

• www.notforsalecampaign.org - Up-to-the-minute information on how people are organizing to combat modern-day slavery

• The Salvation Army Human Trafficking site

We encourage you to become informed and involved!

What’s having a Life Anyway?

By Marita Greenidge

If you don’t go to bars or parties on the weekend guess what, you don’t have a life! At least that’s what television teaches you. Essentially having a life boils down to the presence of certain activities in your life – drinking alcohol and partying.

I too got trapped in this, joking with friends that I “didn’t have a life” when I stopped bar hopping and partying.

But hey what’s having a life anyway? To me having a life is doing the activities you love. I realized that heading out to party on the weekends wasn’t really that exciting anymore. Actually halfway through the night I’d be drained and bored (how’s that for proof of getting old?...lol) Well it wasn’t that I couldn’t keep up; it’s really that things that don’t excite me drain the life out of me.

I’d rather be having a quiet dinner with a few close friends or reading/watching something about marketing. Instead of going to loud beach parties, I’d rather spend quiet days at the beach listening to waves and reading a magazine/book. Instead of going to bed at 6 am after a crazy night on the town, I’d rather be getting up at 6 am to head to a hike.

Your definition of life is whatever you make it. It’s whatever you do that makes your existence rich. If hiking, photography, dancing, singing, playing a sport, reading, spending time with your family etcetera are the things that excite you most, if they are present in your life, then you most certainly have a life.

It’s Friendship Day People…so who are your friends again?

By Marita Greenidge

Can you do it? Can you really walk hand-in-hand with someone who’s not going where you want to go? At some point along the journey someone’s going to have to let go or both your journeys will come to a screeching halt.

Pretty simple concept…let’s make it even simpler. You are kind enough to give your friend a ride to the supermarket. You buy all your groceries and are ready to head back home. If both of you live at the same house then great, you return home together. If you don’t, you have to drop that friend off. If you decide you want to hang out with your friend a little more because you enjoy their company so much then you’re stuck at that friend’s house until you leave. Meanwhile your groceries are sitting in huge pile because you decided to linger and not go on to do your business. Your journey has halted and you haven’t reached your destination. The frozen food is getting warm and the hot food cold.

In life, who you surround yourself with has such a crazy impact on your life. It morphs your thinking because you become immersed in a way of life. If societal status and gathering ‘things’ are the ambitions of your friends, then you may slowly find that those become your ambitions as well. And we may not want to admit this but think about the way you speak…the words you use….those bits and pieces you pick up along the way. I never said the word “awesome” before I came to Rochester but now it’s ingrained in my vocabulary….a little gift from my classmates who said it so frequently. I’ve passed on “altrighty” to my roommate. You see how this works. These things solely creep up on us and we don’t realize until it’s ingrained.

You want great habits and ways of thinking to seep into you. You want peer pressure to have a useful purpose like encouraging you never to cheat on your spouse or to volunteer to tutor young kids or adults. You don’t want it telling you to buy the latest non-essential object as the only way to feel worthy.

You do this by surrounding yourself with the right kind of people, the ones who are going to the same place you are. It’s the reason in your career you’re encouraged to join associations related to your fields. You get all the good info on the recent developments in your industry and a group of people that can help if you get stuck in a problem.

It’s easy to see this applied to a career so why is it so difficult to apply to our lives?

Are You Committed?

By Marita Greenidge

Are you committed? I mean are you really committed? It’s pretty easy to say you’re committed because words are easy. I can say anything I want in the world but following through with actions is the difficult part.

I wanted to gain an MBA. After the first quarter I was told my full scholarship wasn’t really a full scholarship. I was literally faced with being kicked out of school because I couldn’t pay my bills. Perfect time to give up, right? Nope…

Commitment doesn’t mean that you’re in it only for the good times. The true test comes when the waters become choppy. I made the decision that I was going to get my MBA from Simon and I was surely going to make that happen. I now possess an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship so I guess I can say staying true to the course paid off.

Marriage, friendship, goals…..having kids. These are all things that require a strong commitment because you know what? The journey won’t always be easy. Spouses will annoy you; kids will upset you; things will not always go as planned. But you have to be strong enough to say, “I made a decision and I’m going to see it through”.

Right now at KVI sales are down. But guess what? We made a commitment to our suppliers and we’re going to stick with them as we navigate through this challenging economic time. What about you? Are you honoring your commitments?

Don’t Settle for Mediocrity….Be Extraordinary

“Along the way, we settle,” began Seth Godin’s post. And I thought about this, along the way sometimes we do settle. We settle in relationships and we settle in jobs. In relationships we just don’t want to be lonely….in jobs we just need to make some money.

The personal development books will tell you, you don’t have to settle and any motivational speaker worth his/her salt will tell you the same. But then you take a step back and look at your life and wonder “Gosh, how do they really expect me not to settle? These are just easy words; they don’t have to live my life.”

And you know what, that’s true…they don’t have to live your life. But I’m going to throw my hat in the ring and also say settling is bad. I’m a realist although if you met me you’d probably think I’m a naïve optimist :-). I want everything to be amazing but I recognize things aren’t always so simple for everyone in the world so giving up-in-the-air solutions is a sure-fire way for people to turn away….I’ve seen people lose their faith because they aren’t given practical solutions beyond “Trust in God”.

And I trust in God but sometimes when dealing with real issues you need a lot more than those words.

Let’s take a look at jobs. Sometimes you do have to settle for a job which isn’t ideal because without it you might not be able to repay student loans or support your family. However that job doesn’t have to be the end of the line; there may be skills you can glean that help you get to where you want to go. There may be connections you can make. Don’t look at the situation with a closed mind; view it as a stepping stone to getting you where you want to go.

Relationships are a little bit more tricky…it’s obviously completely unfair to be using someone as a stepping stone to someone else. But with these I’d have to recommend that settling is not an option. If you know what you want and what makes you happy then you deserve nothing less and anything less will make you unhappy. Of course you shouldn’t have a laundry list of things that need to be checked off…people are only human remember!! But I’m sure there are some key traits you don’t want to compromise on. So don’t…..and these key things are usually better as character traits instead of superficial qualities.

So what makes me qualified at just 26 years of age to be speaking such things? Let’s say I’ve been there and done that. Settling never makes you happy.

Making Choices in Your Life

At one point in my life, every time I’d settled on path I wanted to take someone else would come along with a great piece of advice that made me feel like I should switch to an alternate path. Gosh if I had a dollar for every time I changed my mind since beginning grad school I’d probably be well on my way to becoming a millionaire. Alas since no one pays for such things I was forced to tread that old beaten path to becoming a millionaire…yup I decided to try my hand at acting. Okay, just kiddin’, although I wish I were partly kiddin’. I feel very inspired by Angelina Jolie :-).

Back to the point at hand – I felt I was getting so much advice that I really didn’t know what to do. “This would be a great application of your skills; you could make considerable money pursuing this career; you could live a fulfilling life if you did this…blah blah blah”…the list goes on. It was like I was getting advice to get clarity and then I needed more advice to make clarity of all the advice. It’s like what Barry Schwartz talks about in the “Paradox of Choice”- more choices don’t necessarily make you freer/happier but can really make you more paralyzed. That’s exactly how I felt.

It starts like this – you get advice 1, 2, 3, 4,….and so on..Then it goes “Which of these pieces of advice is good?” You get so much advice that you have to then sit down and think about which advice is best to take. Truth be told you can end up pretty confused….especially if some of that advice is conflicting.

My solution to this crazy scenario? Don’t ask a bunch of people for advice. (Ironically here I am giving you advice…lol). Have a few trusted people in your life that you turn to that can help you out in situations. These are people that you know have your best interest at heart and are relatively balanced people. Yes that means no talking to random strangers on the bus OR even random acquaintances.

I have a core group of friends and business associates that I appreciate and seek for personal and professional advice. Not all questions go to all members of the group, like I don’t ask my professional associates for personal advice. And some friends I don’t ask for business advice. I turn to those more experienced than I. Quality over quantity….remember that. Digging for diamonds in a pile of rubble is simply time consuming and frustrating.

I opted to narrow my choices by the metric of quality and it has worked pretty well for me. I’ve chosen KVI and the field of marketing and I’m very convinced this is what I’m supposed to be doing. There’s such a calm when you know you’re on the right path.

Be sure to watch Barry’s video above. It’s pretty thought-provoking.