Three years ago this week I was sitting in the home of world renowned branding genius, Gordon Bowen, founder and Global Chairman of McGarryBowen and Chief Creative Officer of Dentsu Aegis Network. The very next day I wrote the following article for Forbes.com: Lessons On Branding Shared By Advertising Expert Gordon Bowen of McGarryBowen Last […]
Tonight my kids showed me a social media post where someone shared their view on something and someone else disagreed with them by calling them a derogatory word, and sadly this exchange took place between two people who supposedly loved each other. I wrote a blog on this very subject five years ago because I […]
Last week was crazy for me – during the week I had dinner with Utah Governor Gary Herbert, the First Lady, Governor Scott Walker (Wisconsin), and a few other business leaders at the Governor’s mansion to discuss the importance the States need to play in driving Washington to balance the federal budget. After the dinner […]
Today was an amazing experience for me. I was in the Dominican Republic to speak at the Convergencias Business Ethics & Integrity conference which brought together leaders from Government, Business, Media and Academia sectors from multiple countries in the region. The opening talk of the day was given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson on his time serving as […]
Tonight I was reading through some of my Grandmother’s old papers and I came across a talk she had written long ago. In this talk she discusses how people (especially young people) commonly say “What I do with my life is my own business and concerns no one else.” She points out that those who […]
Last night I had the opportunity to go to the home of Gordon Bowen, Founder and Chairman of McGarryBowen, esteemed international Advertising Agency, representing such clients as Disney, American Express, Intel, Marriott, Verizon, Crayola, Chase, and many other iconic brands. As for Gordon, Time Magazine dubbed him the creator of “emotional blockbusters” for his creation […]
“Happiness is the ability to move forward, knowing the future will be better than the past. Today I choose to be happy!” I think our ability to feel happy is substantially stronger when one has the ability to evaluate oneself in an honest way so as to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses, doing so […]
I still remember watching the Wonder Woman series on television as a little girl. The series began when I was just four years old and the series ran until I was eight years old. I remember each week how excited I would be to watch the next episode. She was the most amazing superhero I […]
Every so often in life we all need to take a little break to be able to refill our tank, so to speak, to replenish our souls and to refocus on the things that are truly important. I often get so busy with everyday life that I forget to make time to do this, which […]
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles What a powerful reminder that quote is! When I read it I thought how it could be referring to trophies and worldly accomplishments we earn in this life like awards and titles […]
If you were to take a poll of what it takes to become a genuinely powerful person you would likely get answers such as: holding a high level position, or having a lot of money, or having a large social media following, etc. But all of those answers would be wrong… Sure, a person can […]
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’” ~William A. Ward There are many ways to say “thank you” to others. One of those ways is to give people compliments. Someone once told me that holding in a compliment that someone else deserves is like buying […]
“The great danger in any society is apathy and a failure to be alert to the issues of the day, when applied to principles or to the election of public officials. …Our civic responsibilities is to choose those to govern us as civil officers and magistrates who will enforce the laws and administer the law […]
Those of you who read yesterday’s blog post learned that my 20 year old daughter Ashley’s birthday present to me this week was to write a few blog posts that I could use in order to give me a few nights off on my birthday week to enjoy myself. This post she wrote below is […]
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” –Michelangelo Talk about a man who didn’t aim low in his life! Michelangelo was only 25 years old when he finished carving the statue known as […]
I was standing in the security line at an airport when a TSA worker came walking alongside the line yelling out in an animated way, “No liquids, no aerosols, no gels or creams on the airplane…You better check yourself before you wreck yourself!” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud. As the CEO of […]
Motivation. We all need it. Not just once or twice, but every single day of our lives. If we don’t refuel our motivation tanks on a regular basis we will burn through them and find ourselves discouraged, depressed, and empty. It would be nice if we had a low fuel indicator light on our personal […]
Today I was at the annual meeting for the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business Advisory Board I serve on. They invited renowned speaker, Jack Zenger to speak to us over dinner. Jack Zenger is the founder of Zenger Folkman, a professional services firm that provides leadership development programs and Jack is considered […]
Compassion. It is a word we often hear talked about when it comes to religion, but it is not a word used often enough when it comes to discussing what makes a business successful. Yet compassion can directly affect the bottom line. The Dalai Lama expressed it best when he said, “Compassion is not religious […]
I get that when people are passionate about their beliefs they want to share them with others and I think that is an awesome thing if it’s done in a positive way! In all my years of being a leader in the business world I have never once seen anyone be influenced by angry words […]
Today is Father’s Day and it is the day we pay tribute to our Father’s and Grandfather’s and the men who have impacted our lives for the better. I thought a great way to pay tribute to my own Father is to share some of the things my Father has taught me: *Integrity matters most. […]
“I am too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful, and too determined to be defeated.” I love that quote because it provides a stark comparison to two ways we can choose to live our lives. We can either be doubtful, fearful, and defeated….or we can be positive, optimistic, and determined….which sounds better […]
Every one of us is a leader in our own right. Whether we lead an entire company, or a team of people, or a group of friends, or our families, or just ourselves…we are all leaders in some form or fashion. Whatever size our circle of influence may be today, if we work to improve […]
“It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone.” Most everyone will have times in their life when they have to make a choice to stand alone. For most it comes during childhood when a group of kids is doing something you know you shouldn’t do and you have two choices…you […]
What impact do you want to have? How do you want to influence your world? In each of our lives, at some point we will find ourselves in a position of influence. It may be influence that comes as a result of a talent in filmmaking, or acting, or music, or writing, or speaking, or […]
Before I get into tonight’s blog topic I just wanted to share that last Friday night I was able to go to a huge Christmas concert which featured the star of the Disney animated feature film Frozen (one of my favorite Disney films), Santino Fontana who plays Hans in Frozen, singing with the world famous […]
Do our thoughts really have an influence on what we are able to accomplish in our life? The answer is simple – YES! If the thought in our head is that we can possibly do something then the chances are we will attempt it, and the attempt means that there is that possibility that we […]
Today was my son’s formal homecoming talk that return missionaries give at our church meeting once they return from their LDS Mission. We had loads of family members fly and drive into town on both my side of the family and Rollin’s side of the family so they could attend our church meeting today and […]
A research study at Harvard Medical found that, in fact, happiness is contagious. It suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you know, but by the people they know. The study showed that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of […]
So those of you up on the daily reading of my blog know I got hurt a few days ago when my face and a board met up at my new construction site. The sweetest person sent me a really cute email to cheer me up and the story she shared in the email had […]
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