Phil Gerbyshak » Current Affairs

Scared of Santa: Sunday Off-Topic

Phil Gerbyshak — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 11:36:05 +0000

My local paper has a great online only section called Scared of Santa, full of pictures of kids who are obviously afraid of Santa. Some even bring Mrs. Claus into the action.

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry about this, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Scared of Santa. Coming to a child near you!

Positive Thinking Day 2008

Phil Gerbyshak — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:36:36 +0000

Positive Thinking Day (PTD) 08 is September 13th! We are planning for a bigger and better event this year! The 3 main purposes of PTD are to make the world more positive, find the most positive person, and to raise money for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. We hope that you will join us to change the world… one thought at a time!

COME CELEBRATE WITH US AND HELP US RAISE MONEY TO CURE SPINAL CORD INJURY:

Positive Thinking Day – September 13th – is a day to celebrate the benefits of positive thinking. We believe that by helping people change their thoughts we can make a lasting and positive difference in this world. We hope you will join us in this effort (see list below for ways to participate).

We are also raising money for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation as part of the celebrations. According to Positive Thinking Day organizer, Dr. Harrell, “Christopher Reeve represented the best of positive thinking. It is because of his unwavering positive attitude that we are proud to be raising money to benefit this foundation. He showed me that we really can choose a positive mindset no matter what the circumstances are. For that I will always be grateful.”

30% of the ipopin.com proceeds from Positive Thinking Day events will go to the Reeve Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.

WAYS YOU CAN GET INVOLVED WITH POSITIVE THINKING DAY:

**Affirmation – You can help us change the world by focusing on the following affirmation on Positive Thinking Day – I choose to create a great day! (Click here to download this ipopin one minute affirmation for free!)

**Raise $ – When you make a purchase at www.ipopin.com between September 6-13, 2008, 30% your purchase price will be donated to the Reeve Foundation! That’s right, ipopin.com will donate 30% of proceeds to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation!

**Pariticipate – Share a tip for staying positive by emailing me between now and 9/1/08 and you will be entered in a drawing to win 3 ipopin CD’s. Your tip may be selected to appear in a post on this site.

**Spread the word - Help us spread the word by adding the PTD logo link on your website or blog AND mention PTD in a post between Sept 1-6, 2008. Email me once you do so that I can add a link to you in our PTD Supporter section. You will be entered in a drawing to win 3 ipopin CD’s.

**Nominate - You can nominate someone for our Most Positive Person Contest.

Waiting is the Hardest Part (of traveling)

Phil Gerbyshak — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:17:25 +0000

I’m currently waiting for my aircraft to get serviced so I can get to where I need to be for days of outstanding training. I was supposed to leave at 7:30 AM this morning, but due to fog/rain/weather, my flight was canceled as of 12 midnight. Thankfully I was awake to call and get rebooked, and they told me nothing was available today. Of course, that wasn’t true, they just didn’t have today’s schedule figured out yet. So I called back at 8:30 AM and got on the 1:35 flight. And now I wait. 2 PM and I get an update. Let’s hope so!

Tom Petty’s video of The Waiting is keeping me company (embedding is disabled, so click The Waiting to watch/listen for yourself), so I thought of all the things I’m going to work on while I’m in the airport.

Write at least 2 blog posts (this is one, the other needs to be written for my management and productivity site)
Catch up on all my emails
Read blog feeds I haven’t read in a while
Read the new version of Jeffrey Gitomer‘s Sales Bible
Sleep

What do you do when you’re stuck in the airport? Do you agree that The Waiting is the hardest part or is there something else that’s tough about traveling?

Flickr photo credit to Today is a Good Day

Hanging at SOBCon

Phil Gerbyshak — Sat, 03 May 2008 11:10:15 +0000

Stephen Hopson, Susan Quandt, Stephen Smith and I started SOBCon yesterday with a trip to the Levenger store in downtown Chicago. Good conferences start by being and thinking productively.

Now that it’s Saturday morning, I’ve listened to Anita Bruzzese and Brian Clark thus far.

The biggest thing I’ve learned from the presenters and my fellow participants is one big thing:

Honesty and integrity are critical to successful business ventures.

Glad to know I’m headed in the right direction!

Gone to SOBCon

Phil Gerbyshak — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:31:00 +0000

I am super excited! I am off to Chicago to SOBCon! Yay! I get to meet a bunch of new friends, learn a bunch of new stuff about blogging, and fill my head full of stuff I can share with you here on Make It Great!

Who am I going to meet? Hopefully everyone on the below list, that’s who And I’m bringing a regular camera AND a Flip video camera.

If you’re going to SOBCon, feel free to call me at 414-640-7445 (text works too) and let’s connect! Even if you’re not going to SOBCon, feel free to call me sometime anyway. I’d love to connect with you!

Bear hugs for EVERYONE!

Vitamin B Happy

Phil Gerbyshak — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Karen Hanrahan shared all about her favorite Attitude Vitamin, Vitamin B (happy). It’s interesting how real vitamins can affect our attitude, in ways I never thought of.

Karen had a ton of things Vitamin B does for the body, and I’ll share 3 of my favorites.

B Vitamins convert food to energy.
B Vitamins redistribute fat and convert fat to energy.
B Vitamins help produce protective antibodies.

Go read more about all the great stuff Vitamin B (happy) can do for you!

Super exciting for me is I get to meet Karen this week at SOBCon in Chicago. Are you going to SOBCon? If so, let’s make time to connect in Chicago. Call my cell at 414-640-7445 and let’s make time to get together. I think I’ll be in late Thursday night, and leaving sometime Sunday to make it back to Milwaukee before bedtime Sunday night. So call me and let’s make it great in person!

Age of Conversations Gift of Life

Phil Gerbyshak — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:55:48 +0000

A few months ago, I contributed to a book called Age of Conversation, along with 102 other authors. All the profits from the book went to Variety, the Children’s Charity. We’ve donated over $10,000 to this fine organization, and I felt like I made a small contribution to someone I’d never know much about.

I was wrong!

Please read this post from Drew McLellan, about the amazing impact the Age of Conversation project had on some very real children’s lives. The money was given to directly to Variety’s program called Lifeline, whose sole mission is to provide medical assistance for children with treatable and survivable heart conditions in countries where the appropriate medical facilities, expertise and resources don’t yet exist.

Then buy a few copies of Age of Conversation for someone you love, and know that you are making a huge difference in the lives of at least 2, probably many more, children!

Merry Christmas! Share the love in your heart with those you care most about by getting them a copy of Age of Conversation, and let them know you care about them AND these kids.

40 Minutes to Play Time: Please come join me!

Phil Gerbyshak — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:21:39 +0000

Lisa Gates and I will be hosting Open Comment Night at Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog, in what’s sure to be a fun time.

The conversation will be around the topic “Liz is Away, time to play!” and it is going to be GREAT fun! Stop by and talk with us about:

Misbehaving and being rowdy
Eating ice cream instead of broccoli
Dancing, singing and playing other reindeer games
and anything else you want to talk about!

How can you play?

Navigate to http://www.successful-blog.com at 7 PM central time or later today November 6th, 2007.
Look for the post saying “Open Comment Night”
Click into the comments
Leave a comment
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Read a comment
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Smile
Go to bed

It’s that simple!

Now if you’ll forgive me, I have to get warmed up

Join me at the Personal Branding Summit on November 8th

Phil Gerbyshak — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:46:36 +0000

This year marks the 10th year of Tom Peters breakthrough discussion around YOU, the brand. Tom talked about the shift from you, being a faceless company worker, to YOU, the brand, the important person who has special and unique gifts to share with the world.

You have an opportunity to stand out and stand up and be counted.

Great idea Phil, but you’re probably wondering, "How will, how can, I do that?"

You could start by reading the article that started it all, by Tom Peters, in Fast Company, circa 1997. Click here to read the article.

Another way would be to join me, and a bunch of other great experts like Guy Kawasaki (author of the fantastic book Art of the Start to name 1 of his works, and one of the all-time greatest brand evangelists), Dick Bolles (author of the hugely popular What Color is Your Parachute?) and fellow SOBCon speaker Andy Sernovitz, author of the awesome book Word of Mouth Marketing, all day on November 8th for a complimentary teleseminar called the Brand You World. It won’t cost you a thing, except the investment of your time, and it’ll definitely be worth it.

My session is at 6 PM ET, 5 PM Central, and I’ll be sharing Identity You: Creating a 5 x 5 Personal Branding Strategy, to really get into the meat of how you can create a great brand strategy for your life and your work.

I hope you can join me at the personal branding summit. If you can’t join me live, (it’s a dial-in show, just sign up at the Personal Branding Summit website and you’ll get the information), then later, you can listen to the recorded calls.

I also just found out that the amazing Jason "Jibber Jobber" Alba will be interviewing me for the summit! It’s going to be AMAZING! Tell all your friends and family, share this on your blog, in your newsletter, and however you can. After all, if we don’t make the most of our personal brand, who will?

Blog Action Day: You CAN Make a Difference!

Phil Gerbyshak — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:13:30 +0000

Today is the day! Blog Action Day is upon us. So what can you do to change the world, 1 action at a time?

I’d recommend you take a shorter shower today, and save a little water for the next guy (or gal), in the next generation. You don’t really need to spend an hour scrubbing up. Shave 5 minutes off your shower, and you can help change the world.

One other thing you can do is donate to a worthy environmental charity. Conservation Fund is one such charity that has global reach. Locally for me, the Urban Ecology Center is helping the environment, one person at a time. Look inside your community and see what’s there, and then get involved, financially or with your time.

You CAN make a difference! The only question is WILL you?