You're a Hero Too by Rick White, President 180BIZ

I want to share a video with you today that I think is amazing.  It’s Alicia Keys' new song titled “Good Job.”

Go watch the video now and then come back here to read the rest of this. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N63tvQBwSSw 

That was amazing, wasn’t it? I want you to realize that every one of us tends to be inward focused as far as keeping our businesses open and our people working. But, step back and recognize that you are a hero in my eyes. You are on the front line. You are dealing with people from all different walks. You are dealing with people that have emotions that are just in the absolute range. The fact that you are out there every day doing it, helping, keeping people on the road safe in vehicles that are dependable and reliable. You are a hero. I want you to step back and recognize how you are contributing to the greater good.

This isn't just about money. It’s more than...

The Blame Game by Rick White, President 180BIZ

I was watching the news last night and a third of the news program was all about how we're blaming China for the Coronavirus. I started thinking about it and thought that blame is a useless activity. Why? Because it doesn't do anything. What the best you can hope for is someone that'll say, “Yup, it's on me. My bad.” What does that do? It might make you feel better for a moment. But I'll tell you what, you're wasting your energy. You're wasting focus and you're wasting resources. You do not want to worry about the blame game. Guess what? It doesn't matter.

Throughout life, things are going to happen to you that aren't fair. I’ll tell you what on behalf of life, let me apologize now. Because the reality is there's going to be things that happen to you that aren't fair. You can spend your time in a blame situation where you're going to figure out whose fault it is. But I'm telling you it's a waste of time. Nothing gets...

The Quality of Your Questions by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Anybody that's been with me for any length of time knows that I honestly believe that nothing happens to me. It happens for me. And I'd like to give you an example of that. You may not be aware of this, but I am doing the live video this morning on Brenda's iPhone. And the reason is that yesterday I went food shopping for my household and my mother-in-law's household. I had my shopping list on an app in my phone. I laid the phone on top of some groceries in the basket.  When I bent down to get something from a lower shelf, my phone fell to the ground. The screen shattered rendering it completely useless.

So, in the beginning it was a little unnerving. I could hear some texts coming through which was probably my wife. I thought that she's going to think I'm not paying attention since I’m not answering her. But I couldn't. I had to wait until I got home.  When I did get home, I was a bit upset.  But...

Happiness by Rick White, President 180BIZ

 This is my family edition today and I've got something interesting I want to talk about. In fact, I spent part of the morning this morning sitting down and talking with Brenda about this book I'm reading. I highly recommend it. It's called He Who Thinks He Can by Orison Swett Marden. This book was written in 1909. I have had a problem putting it down. It amazes me how 111 years later everything he has written resonates with me.

The chapter that I read today on happiness. Orison Swett Marden said that most of us live a life in anticipation, not reality. Think about that for a second. We live in anticipation, expectation, not reality. In other words, happiness for so many people is event oriented. What do I mean by that? Write down the phrase “I'll be happy when” and complete the sentence.  This is an exercise I do with each of my clients.

I believe that our founding fathers got this wrong. They said in the Declaration...

A Growth Mindset by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today I want to talk to you about a shift that is happening now.  What do I mean by that? When all of this first started up, the Coronavirus pandemic, you were in panic mode. You were in adrenaline mode. You were sprinting to get your business healthier and keep it open through everything that was going on. Right? And you did it. Congratulations. Now there's a lot of talk about states opening back up. In Virginia, it's going to be about another two weeks before we hit our apex.  Realize that this is not a sprint.  We can't keep going on the energy level of the sprint. It doesn't work. It's going to burn you out. So, realize now you are no longer in a sprint. You are shifting to a marathon.

There are lot of things that you should be doing right now. And if you're interested, I am presenting a Webinar titled Thriving Through the Coronavirus. It’s on the second Wednesday of May.  That’s May 12, 2020 at...

What Can I Learn by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Yesterday I talked about how we don't always understand why things work out the way that they do. Not right away. Sometimes we need the gift of time to see what something does for us. So, I'm going to do something a little bit different today. I want to share with you a video that I found yesterday posted to YouTube by a group called Sustainable Human. It's only two minutes long, but it's so well worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX0OARBqBp0

[Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer who lost a horse. It ran away. And all the neighbors came around that evening and said, “That's too bad.” And he said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back and brought seven wild horses with it. And all the neighbors came around and said, “Why, that's great, isn't it?” And he said, “Maybe.” The next day his son was attempting to tame one of these horses and was riding it. He was thrown and...

You're Stronger Now by Rick White, President 180BIZ

I want you to step back for a moment. Things are still a little squirrelly and a little wonky. Things are still a challenge. So, I want you to step back and recognize that you are stronger now than you were at the beginning of this situation. You are a different person. You are an empowered person. You are in a better place today than you were the day this all started when we had to cut things down and make changes.

Think about this for a moment. You learned how to get creative. You learned how to listen to your customers better.  You learned how to connect with them on things that are important to them, not you. You learned how to get things done. You learned how to start growing your audience and are getting more comfortable with that thought process. Not to get you through this virus situation, but as a skill set that you're going to use moving forward. I'm telling you; you are much stronger today. You are better today. I...

Dreams by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today I want to talk about dreams. Yes, you heard me right. Dreams. Lately, I've seen too many people in either stall mode or in fear mode and even nightmare mode. When we start down the fear path, fear has this nasty habit of stacking. In other words, the fears stack on top of each other until you have a tower of fears. For example, I don't have many cars. My people are going to leave. I'm not going to be able to get them back. We're never going to get busy again. I'm not going to be able to pay my bills. I'm going to lose the business. My kids won't love me anymore. My wife's going to leave me. Fear just stacks and it makes it worse and worse on ourselves.

What I want you to start doing is dreaming of what is possible. Take five minutes today and close your eyes. Dream about what this is going to be like in one month, three months, six months, and I want you to dream as if you can't fail. All you can do is succeed. Dream bigger. Dream better....

Tackle or Get Tackled by Rick White, President 180BIZ

 Are you getting up early enough to tackle your day or are you being tackled by the day? Think about that for a second. I really believe you need to tackle your day and think success every single day.  Beginning right now from this point forward, no more reacting, think only about creating. If you look at that the words reacting and creating, they're the same letters. The have the same letters with totally different meanings. Here's how you create your day.

END OF THE WORKDAY ROUTINE. When you finish up for the day, sit down and reflect on your day.

1. What went well?  Celebrate what went well.
2. What can you learn about today?  Write down everything you learned.
3. What am I going to do better tomorrow?
   Write down at least three (but no more than five) different action items that will do tomorrow.
4. Get your calendar out and schedule those three things.  Once they're on your calendar, you have a much better...

Your Source by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today, I want to talk about your source.  I’ve been thinking and know that I've been blessed. I’ve been talking to aprox.120 shop owners a week lately. And I am really blessed.  This has come up a lot in my thoughts.  So, I started to think about what my source is. What's your source of security? What's your source of certainty? As I've been thinking it through, I thought that there's only four places you can really place your source of security.

Level 3: The lowest form of security is going to be external.  It's going to be events and circumstances. When the economy is doing well, when circumstances, situations and events are going the way you want them to go, then you have this sense of peace and wellbeing. The problem with that, as we all know, is it's really kind of a roller coaster, isn't it? I was reading an article by Gino Wickman. He does the EOS stuff.  A mentor that taught him that in every 10...