Every Wednesday:  Join us at Friendship Baptist Church, 111 Perry Street, Trenton, NJ for networking, community economical development discussions and refreshments. Time: 7:00pm-8:30pm.

September 24-25, 2010:  Power Punch Conference/Expo and Award Reception. Location:  The National Conference Center, Holiday Inn of East Windsor, 399 Monmouth Street, East Windsor, NJ 08520.  Friday: 6:00pm-8:30pm. Saturday: 8:00am-5:00pm. For ticket information follow link:                                                                    or call (609) 638-1698 or (732) 325-2593.

Friday-Saturday, September 24-25 2010.

From the Desk of the President…

Part I: 

If you could not speak is to be silent and when we are silent, we should be listening.  Whether its listening to that inner spirit, or listening to another person.  “Show” is to Demonstrate…and “Action” is to Move or to pass from one place to another.  So, we have listen, demonstrate, and move or pass from one place to another.

When FBBA speak or share our thoughts, we are not excluded from what we say.  We all are a work in progress. 

We all are aware of “The Bible” consisting of how God used ordinary people to demonstrate the fulfillment, calling, assignment, purpose and destiny of their lives.  These individuals were no different than all of us.  We can find our life journey and “The Answer” to any situation in this one book.

Matthew 7:15-20 speaks about the false Prophets, which come to us in sheep’s clothing.  The world is filled with false people and some are extremely good at painting that illusion.  We say that to say this…We shall know them by their fruit.  Every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bears bad fruit.  The questions are: Are we bearing ood fruit? Are we building a legacy to help others NOW and for generations to come? or Are we just naming, claiming, wishing and hoping without action?  Death and Life is in the power of our tongue…we must speak Life and Act upon it!

From the Desk of The President…

In order to be successful and maintain that level of confidence in business, we must go back to basics. Here are eight techniques that will keep our clients coming back again and again. 

1.  Provide personalized service: Technology has replaced and automated many of the things we do. Assistants and virtual assistants do extra tasks for us. It is awful easy to lose the personal interaction with our clients – we must not allow it to happen. Personal service always has been and always will be the heart and soul of our business.

2.  We get by giving: How much demand are we placing on our clients? We must not expect a client to be loyal to us and our brand if we are always demanding from them and giving nothing. We must give to them first and set the stage for a great relationship. When we give enough, we ensure we get back what we need in our business and life.  

3.  We must make our client’s number one goal our number one goal: Ask them, What’s your number one goal in closing the deal? I ask because I want to make that my most important goal. Our show of concern for what our clients want will knock out the competition who are often focused on what they believe to be most important and don’t care enough to ask.

 4.  We must deliver more than we promise: Go beyond the call of duty. Today most people and businesses deliver less than they promise and we often accept that as standard practice. We must choose to be different. At the minimum, do everything we promise to do — then think of one thing more and do that as well. In doing so, we will stand head and shoulders above our competition.

 5.  We must prepare our clients for the worst, not the best: When we prepare them for the best our reputation has no where to go but down. At best, they see us just delivering on our promise — at worst they view us as incompetent. When things take less time or less money than they were prepared for, our clients will be pleasantly surprised and our reputation will grow positively. 

6.  Call often: Ring, ring. “Hello, Mr. Client? This is _____. I was just calling to thank you for being such a great client. Any new activity or changes in your lifestyle that I don’t know about? Any questions I can answer for you? No? Well okay, let’s stay in touch and thanks once again.” Two minutes out of our day and our clients will remember us as an agent who cares. 

7.  Listen often: When God created us, he gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Clients have complaints and they want to be heard. Who? What? When? Where? How? (you fill in the blank as it relates to your business) AND “What are you doing to help?” Answer: I know how you feel….. Quite often the ones complaining just want to be heard. If it stays bottled up inside them one day they will explode and we end up losing a client. We must let them vent and don’t defend what we do. Just ensure them that we are on their side.
 
8.  After the sale, never lose touch: Statistically 89% of clients would use their same Agency for repeat business but only 11% actually do. Why? Because clients have short memories and lose touch with their agent. We must make it easy for them to call us by mailing a post card once a month, calling them twice a year, and seeing them once a year. This is where an automated system can save us time AND show our clients that we care enough to stay in touch.

If we implement each of these eight techniques, we’ll find success at our door every time.

Submitted by: “The Call” Panelist

The prefix “re” means to go back, return, revisit or renew. As we look back on 2009, let us position ourselves to reflect, resolve, renew and rejoice into 2010. It is time for us to reflect on the past decisions that we made and resolve whatever issues or consequences of those decisions. But, the other side to that is to make a commitment to renewing our strength, stimulism and dedication to all levels of prosperity and then rejoicing on the fact that we can move forward.

Nothing in life can be accomplished without a certain level of passion…without a certain level of excitement…without a certain level of rejoicing. Yes, we should reflect and resolve. But, also renew our commitment to prosperity on every level in our lives. Mainly, our spiritual, prosperity, health and wellness, family, relationship and of course our business.  We must rejoice and be passionate, be full of hope and optimism and have the desire to bring the prosperity about.

Let’s make a point to reflect and resolve on a daily basis. As we write in our journal at night, let us reflect on our daily activities and behaviors throughout the day to see if we are on track meeting our goals. We must not begin the year in a state of procrastination. But, begin our year in a state of reflection, resolution, renewal and rejoicing.

We have the opportunity and choice to move forward. Philippians 3:13-14 states:  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling. Yes, “we must press towards the mark”. Whatever that positive mark is in our life…continue to reach, strive and grab hold to it. One would say “Go In”.  Remember! to be passionate about our desires and goals.

In closing…TODAY! we begin a new life…TODAY! we will form good habits, take a bath in them and become their slave. ..TODAY! we will drown in bad habits and as they shed, we will put on the armor of being renewed, committed, reflecting and resolving.

Submitted by: “The Call” Panelist

Weary not thyself to become rich –  Proverbs 23:4a. Thank you Linda Robinson of Faith Based Business Alliance for that verse. We must not exhaust our intangibles for tangibles. Never must we become the fake we hope to one day make. We do not fake it until we make it. We learn, earn and we keep. Our world is symbolic of us. We are not symbolic of our world. So today, let us reflect and resolve that we are indeed wealthy. We are wealthy beyond measures and means. We are wealthy in our mind, body & spirit. Our destiny is controlled by what’s in us, for us and by us. We please God, we serve others. We see more clearly the choices before us and we claim our power to choose what is best. We do life, life no longer does us.

Our success is in serving others. Many sacrifices are made during the process but the reward and true value in serving is beyond measure.  When you do good for others, you are doing good for yourself. The topic “reflect and resolve” is not self centered but a collective one.  True greatness and growth never occur in isolation.  As the songwriter sings “as I look back over my life and think things over, I can truly say that I been blessed, I got a testimony”.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.  Don’t be afraid to speak the word.

Every person who has ever become wealthy and successful has become so as a result of holding the ideal of wealth and success in their mind long and hard enough until they draw into their lives the resources they needed to accomplish it.  Your outer world reflects what is going on in your inner world. Your outer world is like a television of what is going on.  It “tells a vision”. It is what’s going on in your inner world. You will always see your attitude reflected back to you in the faces and behaviors of the people around you. If you have a positive, optimistic up beat attitude, people will respond to you immediately even before you open your mouth in a positive and cheerful way. It is a reflection of you.

In closing, let us reflect, resolve, learn, earn and keep. We are destined to win in all aspects of  life because of the choices we make.

We can no longer expect to achieve anything in life just because we expect to achieve it. We look and act like successful people. But, are we truly our own success? Shakespeare said “we know what we are. But, we know not what we be”. Everyone wants to be a Winner. Deep down inside, we truly know how. We must first kill our negative thoughts. We must change our mental images.

All success is self-centered and it must be brought about from within. If we change our thoughts, we change our world. The quality of thinking guides our intelligence when it comes to our acting and produces excellent results. We see more clearly the choices before us, if we claim our power to do what is best. We do life…life no longer does us.

.  Desire burns inside of Winners.

.  Winners have to form good habits.

.  We must surround ourselves with positive people and good leaders. This is thinking like a Winner.

. Winners take action.

. Winners are groomed overtime.

.  Winners know what works for them and what doesn’t work.

The questions are…Do we know what works for us? Do we know what we like and dislike.

Sometimes in order to get our breakthrough, we have to become much stronger and turn the things we don’t like into strength. Maybe, that is addressing a bad habit which will open us up to success.  If we fall off track, we must get back on track.

In closing, let’s put in motion one thing we want to accomplish before the end of 2009 that will produce a jump start 2010 and stick to it.

The Call” Mon-Fri: 8:45am-9:00am 712-432-1001/AccessCode-416091093# OR 24/7 Playback 712-432-1011/Access Code:416091093.

We like to thank William Johnson of Trenton, NJ for his comment this week on the topic “Do I consider myself a success”. His reply was “success is running your race like it is your last“. That is an outstanding reply. As we all know, success is a personal gain. Success is based on the power within each one of us and our own personal experience. Where we are and what we want to become in life and what we consider successful is within us. People, thoughts or things that we allow to affect our lifestyle can be a positive or a negative force. Also, we like to thank you, L Denise Jackson of Washington, DC for your comments which was on point this week. We all must take inventory of ourselves. As the year 2009 closes out, we must ask ourselves “what or who will we allow to be part of our personal success in 2010″. Clearly, we will take only those habits and things that add value to our achievements and people who are “like minded successful individuals”. So, collectively we can build healthy and positive relationships, exchange and learn from each other which will give us the power to ”keep running forward” and  spread this good life of success to generations that follows. We appreciate your comments…keep them coming. Don’t forget to tune in for more wisdom and understanding on “The Call” Mon-Fri: 8:45am-9:00am 712-432-1001/AccessCode-416091093# OR 24/7 Playback 712-432-1011/Access Code:416091093.

Submitted by: L. Denise Jackson

So as the silent answers to this question are swirling in your head are you letting the honest ones come through? Are you filtering them telling yourself “no that is really not me” or “I am not going to claim that” or “I plan/want/wish/desire/hope to change that so I am not going to count it” and continuing to be in denial? Oh my gosh even more questions from this one. Darn and you thought this was going to give you the answer or “simple formula” or “model” to set you free.

Be very mindful during this holiday season and don’t over extend yourself.