Valentines should be what you and your loved ones like it to be.  That is all that matters.  If it is important to her than it should be important to you.

Valentine’s Day is about celebrating our love by connecting to the ones that are special to us.   It is not meant for us to treat our loved ones with more respect and understanding than any other day.  It is a reminder of how we should be treating our loved ones on a daily basis.

We all want to love and be loved.  We may fear it, ignore it and fight the thought of it – but that still does not change our intrinsic need to love and be loved.

There is no greater achievement and a sign of a persons strength of character when they risk loving and letting others love them.

I was asked this morning: If love is so critical to us, how do some survive without love in their life?

One can survive without love.  Life is not about surviving, anyone can survive – Life is about living and in order to truly live there needs to be love, authentic love.

When you sing, sing with love – when you hug someone, hug them with love – when you smile, smile with love – do acts of kindness with genuine love – live with love revolved around you.

Let valentines day be a reminder for all of us to truly connect with our loved ones and those that cross our path in life.

Being the Olympics right now, take the opportunity to give out some golden hearts and do what you need to do to win the hearts of your loved ones.

Fred Sarkari

When it comes to our products or services, we are more attached to the value of them then our own clients are.  That being said there are times that there is greater value within our products than what our clients have perceived.

The question you need to ask yourself is:

What Perceived Value Do My Clients See

In My Products and Services?

Not What “I” see in them?

It’s like what we have seen in the real estate market in the last few years. How many times have we heard people talk about what they believe their house is worth – their perceived value of it as an owner, as the one that put all the time into renovating, decorating, the experiences within their house etc..

All these things have no value to our potential clients. Yet we expect them to see and feel the intrinsic value of our attached emotions within our products and services.

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I recently put together a Facebook group to help with my new book launch – “Your Naked Chicken.” I was so excited when I posted it that I thought I would have 300-350 people in my group within a few days.

I figured I would be guaranteed a 30% conversion rate. Keep in mind that I am also aware of the fact that the average conversion rate for such a launch is approximately 8%.

Even knowing that, the true value of my product was blinded by my emotional connection to my product.

I based the value of my product on elements

that have no value to my potential clients.

In order to see the true value in what you are offering from your clients point of view, you need to be able to disconnect yourself emotionally.  Ask yourself, “What value do THEY see in it?” irrelevant of the time, money and effort you have put into it.

Lesson reminder:

When forecasting your results, numbers, sales etc. be realistic. Always take the worst case scenario so your strategy results can be more predictable. Once you’ve achieved your initial numbers everything else will be gravy.

All that being said, if you want to support MY perceived value for MY new book, as it is all about US and OUR products. he he

COMING SOON! “YOUR NAKED CHICKEN”

Fred Sarkari

It was obvious that this man had gained the respect and love of those around him.  Walking through the offices for the first time, it was even more true that the same care, compassion and respect that categorized Ron Russell as the man he was, lived within the people in his office.

It is true that one’s respect can also be felt in the presence of others.

As I walked into his office, I was greeted by a man that instantly put a smile in my heart, It had nothing to do with what he said or did but more so that his presence had an aura of truth.

Ron shook my hand like we were old friends, we looked each other in the eye and at that point in time it was evident that I was never going to get anything less than the truth from this man.

He reminded me of how precious it is to wear your true heart on your sleeve.

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To not only say what you believe in but to live it. To not only share your success but also your struggles, as those are lessons that others can grow from.
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I truly enjoyed our frequent coffees we had as I would sit back and listen to his life journey.  He never shared his journey to gloat about his success and struggles. He always took the time to share with the main purpose to teach us to be better than we are today, to grow and to believe that every struggle we face at this moment will pass and will make us into stronger and empathetic people.

Ron Russell took the time to take care of not only his close friends, but also the community he lived in that became part of his family.
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He asked me the first time we met, “Fred what do you find as one of your struggles just moving into the Okanagan.” I replied, “I miss my niece and nephew as they are further away from me.  It felt like I was distanced from my family.” – That is when he looked me straight in the eye and said, “welcome to your new extended family – you will always have a home here.”

I truly will miss those frequent coffee conversations I had the pleasure of experiencing and growing from.

All those that had the pleasure of knowing Ron Russell know exactly what I mean when I say; there are only a handful of people who come into your world, and touch your life in a dramatic fashion the instant you shake hands for the first time.

Ron, you will be missed but never forgotten. 

My parents moved into a new community just prior to me visiting them during this holiday season.  Every time we walked by a new neighbor, my mom would introduce me.

“This is my son, he is an inspirational speaker and an entrepreneur coach, he likes the outdoors and is very active…”

After a while I realized that every new neighbor we met, my mom introduced me the exact same way.

It turned out that I was branded by my very own mom.  We are branding ourself whether we like it or not.  The real question is, are we doing it subconsciously or with intent?

There is no difference in how Coca-cola brands them self and how an entrepreneur should effectively brand them self.  The process is all principle based.

Branding yourself has faced a paradigm shift.  How entrepreneurs branded in the past will never be how entrepreneurs need to brand in these times in order to be effective.

Before you spend any time or money creating a strategy for your marketing and branding, you need to be aware of the 3 pillars that all your strategy needs to be built upon.

Most peoples brands are nothing more than fancy words and slogans they put on a piece of paper and than try to market the hell out of it.

You need to turn your brand in a movement.  In order for anything to have movement it needs to have a life of its own.  In essence give your brand life.  The obvious next question is, “how do you give it life?”

For any brand to have life, it needs to do one thing – it needs to make people feel.  A brand with life within it makes people want to be part of it.

When you give your brand life, it will become a movement.

Just like any relationship has a foundation, you need to be aware of the foundation of your relationship with you brand.

3 PILARS

Tip Of The Tongue:

If I were to go around the room and ask your clients to tell me about you, your brand.  What would you like them to consistently have at the tip of their tongue that they are ready to say?

Chasing Rabbits:

When you try to chase 3 rabbits at the same time you will catch none.  Even if you can sell your product or services to the mass – you need to have a niche market that you brand yourself to.

The more you focus on a niche the more powerful your brand will become.

Street Lessons:

If there is anything you are going to focus on when marketing yourself.  Any information that you share.  Always always always keep one thing in mind. Educate your niche market.

Now educate does not mean you bombard them with information they can already get on the internet.  Educate them based on their state of mind, their fears, concerns etc.  Things that they as laypeople can relate to and more so are craving for.

Going forward, everything you do with your branding and marketing ask yourself this question.

What emotions am I making people feel?  The answer to that question will be your existing brand.

Would love to hear about how people have made their brand different and unique.

Fred Sarkari

Instead of starting my runs and swimming during my spare time, I was perfecting my coffee drinking at different Cafe’s.

Today I was at the Panera Bread, a place I highly recommend for a soup and lunch.

There they were, a gentleman and an elderly lady sitting on a table with their coffee and a laptop.  The gentleman was showing the lady, grandma, some basic tricks on the laptop.

At one point in time he said to her “we should have brought your new laptop so you could have practiced on yours instead of mine.  Lets come back again tomorrow with it.”

His grandmother replied, “you are too busy for that my dear.” That is when the  grandson replied with the most precious words.

“There is always enough time for you grandma.”

We not only live in this fast paced decade but we have also got caught up with the momentum of always going from one meeting to another, one email to another, one event to another… And in doing so, we have lost sight of our priorities and making time for them.

The grandson had his priority right – there is always time for those we love.  The question is are we willing to make time for them?

We are facing a new year ahead of us.  Take the time to ask yourself 2 questions:

1. Who are the important people in your life?
2. Are you making enough time for them?

Lets be more conscious and commit to our loved ones.

Who will you make extra time for

and what are the little things you will do?

All the best for 2010

My last great awareness experience taught me the valuable lesson of respect in our lives.

Once again, this Christmas Eve I dressed up like I was a homeless person and spent this beautiful night of giving and sharing on the streets with strangers.

It all started with my long johns, a full belly and a warm coffee.  I was already blessed with so much more than everyone else I was going to spend this magical evening with.

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I was making my way down the Vancouver streets through the nicer part of downtown and already I could feel peoples eyes all over me due to the way I was dressed, like I did not belong on their side of the tracks.

Most of these people gave such slight quick looks that the only reason it impacted me was because it was directed towards me.  We need to ask ourselves, do we at times judge with our looks and actions without realizing we do them?  Most of the times I do not believe these people even knew they were giving me such judgmental looks.

The greatest impact we leave behind with others in our lives are the little things that we do.  These leave behind emotions that last a life time.

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When I got to the location where all the homeless lived, it was one of the most overwhelming experiences than any other city I have done this.  It felt like I was in an entirely different world.

There were people selling drugs, people using needles, others just lost in their own world of loneliness, some scary enough that I would not want to walk by their path and some just talking aloud to no one in particular as they wandered aimlessly.

There I was surrounded by people filled with their own individual stories with one commonality – bringing them all to this one location on this special night.

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And so the adventure started.  It was one of those moments that you can see unfolding before it begins.   I knew he was heading straight to my direction with  an unknown intent to me.  He walked right over to me and the first words that came out of his mouth was, “Who the F^*((^ are you and what the F*(&^%&%^& are you doing here?”  Well long story short I was standing at his drug selling territory.  After chatting for a while even he had a Christmas Spirit of forgiveness.

Once again I had the opportunity to listen to some phenomenal life stories from people in this world that we so often walk right by and only notice with judgment.

Life lessons revolve around us on a daily basis,

are we open to receiving them?

In the last 4 years of doing this I have never met an individual like Mr. Maca.

Mr. Maca has been living on the streets for 6 years now.  He has a family he has not seen or heard from for 9 years.  He is a man of high education, a Doctorate in philosophy.

He had such a calm relaxing demeanor about him and he just seemed so at peace with himself.  All logic makes me question his self-peace but it was not for me to judge but to just accept.

We ended up sitting on the sidewalk against a building for a little over an hour.  My only regret was I wish I could have pulled out a pen and paper to write down all the insight this man has.

He made me aware of the most critical lesson I learned that night.  We are always looking for the right answers or at times just answers to give us guidance, answers to fix and heal different aspects of our lives.

Mr. Maca, reminded me the main reason why we never seem to find the answers we are looking for is because we never ask ourselves the right questions.

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If we do not understand how to ask ourselves the right questions

than we will ever find the right answers.

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Take the time to become aware of the kind of questions we ask ourselves, our   children, partners and spouses, friends and strangers that cross our path.

When we start focusing more on the questions themselves it is amazing how the answers will reveal themselves.

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During your interactions and communication always ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I asking the right questions to myself?

2. Am I asking the right questions to others?

3. Am I aware of the little things that I do that affects people?

4. What emotions do I leave behind with my daily small actions and behaviors?

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2010 will be a phenomenal year.  Lets together make it a year of personal growth, a year full of love and compassion, a year of kindness, a year of intent, a year of calmness in our minds and souls.

A year where we as individuals make a difference.

Make this your year.

Wishing you all the best for 2010.

Fred Sarkari

This is the time of the year where we feel it has snuck up on us, but more importantly in no time it will feel like the season came and went with the blink of an eye.

Make sure you take the time to connect to the loved ones in your life.  Do not only tell them but show them your love, how much you appreciate them and what they truly mean to you in your life.

At the same time, give some of your moments to the stranger that pass by you.  It truly only takes seconds to touch one’s life; with passing smile, a hello, a compliment or just holding the door open.

We as individuals can change this world with small precious moments that we share with others.

2010 will be full of opportunities.  Lets make sure we do not loose sight of the precious moments around us.  The small acts of kindness we can spread into this world that will ripple throughout time.

We all have our own personal journey and story.  At times there are those angels that walk our path not judging our actions and circumstances but more so to just hold our hand through the hard times we face.

I ask you this, who’s angel are you going to be this Christmas season?

Lets together make 2010 the beginning of a New World.

Fred Sarkari

Thank you to Valley First and Cabana Grille for supporting me on this venture.

WAIT! It’s not over yet!  We still have the campaign going for a little bit longer.

Go into any Valley First Credit Union in the Okanagan and donate any amount to receive the Best Selling Book: How The Top 5% Think! Principles Of Great Leaders and receive a free appetizer from Cabana Grille.  ALL FUNDS raised goes directly to support the Women Shelter.
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It is critical that we support our community and those in need.  If everyone took the time for a small act of kindness, imagine the community that we can build in the Okanagan from within.  Spread the word to everyone to go to a Valley First Credit Union and receive your book and appetizer in order to help raise funds for the Women Shelter.

Thank you for all your support.

A special thanks to Joceylnn Wells from Valley First for helping put all this together and their internal campaign that raised another $1059 for the Women Shelter.

Igor Ansoff born 1918 in Russia is considered the grandfather of Corporate Strategy.

Igor identified 4 standard types of Corporate Decisions – Which I believe stand the test of time of creating a successful business.

PRODUCT:

Do you have a clear idea of what your business / product is responsible for?  This will connect to your brand, not only of your product and your company but in turn you as a person.

Your brand caries you into the future.  The power of your brand can create clarity in times of economic turmoil.

GROWTH:

We at times get so busy trying to keep up to daily activities that we never get around to creating strategies to actually grow our business effectively.

What plans have you created in order to excel the growth of your business for the long term.  This is so critical as no business just sustains it self.  It is either growing or falling behind.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:

A competitive advantage is what you possess that will enable you to compete effectively no matter how the market or economy changes.

Most think that competitive advantage is something no one has.  If that was the case than everyone would be a ‘monopoly”  A competitive advantage is something your business prides on and creates a brand around it.

SYNERGY:

The whole is  greater than the its parts.  Successful people know that greatness cannot be built alone.  Surround yourself with like-minded and successful people.  Learn and work with the best.  And create synergy, partnerships, with other like-minded people.

Corporate Strategy can be your best friend or your worst enemy.  I have seen it time and time again, how people fall into the trap of “Paralysis by Analysis”.  This is where people take so much time to analyze everything and anything to a point of no implementation.

Paralysis by Analysis: Procrastination caused by over planning, leading to business failure.

Everything revolves around our core personalities; how we think and what we do.  And it doesn’t have to be conscious, because we have gotten so proficient at adapting our behaviors in situations that we forget who we really are and what really makes us tick.

By now you should have realized that there is no magic formula for successful leadership. There is no book, seminar or course that can inject the right ingredients into you and your situation to make you a successful leader. Consider those that you believe were successful leaders.  Did they all have the same personality traits?

For example, in managing information, a leader can be the center or hub of an organization’s communication wheel or he/she may prefer to sit at the end of a hierarchy that reviews information and simply presents them as options to the leader.  These are contrasting styles, but both can be effective in the right situations.

By its very definition, leadership involves providing guidance and direction to followers. Understanding how personalities influence actions, responses, purchasing decisions, etc. can help a leader provide guidance and direction.

Consider the impact of personalities on a sales meeting: We all know that purchasing decisions are not made solely on the merits of the product.  As successful sales professionals, we are constantly aware that it is our ability to communicate and build rapport with a potential buyer that greatly enhances our ability to close a sale.

There are several psychological definitions and categories of personality traits. Consider the following as a guide to help us start on our path to awareness.

QUESTIONER:
They are always looking for detailed facts and will ask many questions. Keep focused and be systematic with your conversation by avoiding jumping from one topic to the next. Be objective and back up everything with proof.

RUNNER:
Their minds are on multiple tasks and have the attention span that will last a few seconds.  They speak fast and move fast.  They are always looking for the conclusion and results. Therefore get directly to the point and than you can expand into the details. They always talk about results.

HELPER:
They are always looking after everyone’s needs and concerns.  They are more concerned about who you are as a person.  Once they understand you than they will want to talk about your product or service.

Be friendly and build rapport; talk emotionally; don’t pressure them; take your time; allow them to include others in decisions; give them one positive choice; help them justify their decision.

SEEKER:
They get excited about new things and adventures. They will not focus on details but more so the bigger picture.  Recognize them as being important; once you have built excitement and visualization than put details in writing and explain carefully.

Personalities have a major impact on your leadership style and success.  For those of you that find your interaction with others getting difficult or strained, it will be useful to Understand personalities and dealing with the differences.  This will prove to be one of the most critical tools to help you become a successful leader and connect at a deeper level with your relationships within your professional and personal lives.