DANNY CZEKALINSKI

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I’m a big fan of interviewing.  I love to see how various people conduct a job interview and it’s a great way of keeping your skills sharp. Through networking with others and my personal experience I’ve found three things you should do on EVERY job interview.

1)  RESEARCH:  Find out about the company.  Find out about the management team.  How long have THEY been there?  Where were they previously?  Is the company on an upswing or facing hard times?  Prepare to know more about them than they know about you.  This will put you at ease in the interview and put YOU in a position of strength.

2)  ASK QUESTIONS:  This doesn’t mean DOMINATE the interview.  There will come a time when they will ask you if you have any questions.  If not you’ll be able to sense your opening.  Why is the position open?  What are the short-term and long-term goals of the company?  What opportunities are there for advancement within the company?

3)  THE SECRET WEAPON:  There are many that will disagree with what I’m about to tell ya because many think it’s too bold but I always use the “secret weapon” for a reason.  It will define the character of the person you will be working for.  Ready?  Ask him/her “What is YOUR biggest weakness.?”  Anyone that is a great leader will be able to answer right away.  A very big part of being strong is to recognize where you are weak.  No one is perfect.  We are all works in progress.  Just be willing and able to answer the same question of yourself!!!

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No matter what your line of work may be, chances are it involves some sort of sales technique.  Even the pimply faced kid at Best Buy will try to sell ya that extended warranty for that DVD player ya got on sale for twenty-nine bucks.

Not everyone is successful at sales.  I believe you can INCREASE your sales success by following three simple bullet points:

1)  RESEARCH:  What’s the history of the company or person?  What is their passion?  Where did they come from and what are their goals?  What are their strengths?  What are they lacking?

2)  LISTEN:  Your presentation is VERY important but don’t overdo it.  Brevity.  Make your pitch but don’t “talk to just talk.”  If you don’t LISTEN to what your potential client has to say, how are you going to know what they need?

3)  OFFER A SOLUTION:  If you did your research and listened to your potential client it should be simple to offer a solution.  You want to reinforce their strengths and address their needs (that sounds so much better than “weaknesses”).

Apply these three bullet points to “selling situations” in your life and I guarantee your success rate will increase.  Unless you’re from Omaha Steaks, calling me at home for a third time in one day, I don’t care if I get a free ham with a shipment of ninety-nine dollars or more, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!  🙂

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I was reading an article the other day about why Mr. Rogers was such a great neighbor.  READ ARTICLE HERE.  Mr. Rogers was very special to me as an only child and it amazes me that some people are creeped out by him.  His purpose was to stimulate the imagination of a child; not to be analyzed in a literal sense by adults. 

Allow me to be silly and offer a cynical look at Mr. Rogers.  Let’s start with that traffic light.  How hammered do ya have to be to climb a pole and zip line down some guy wire to cut that thing down?  The fish?  You’re talking to fish?  Talking to a cat or a dog I get, they may respond, but you’re trying to carry on a conversation with a submerged piece of sushi.  Next thing ya know you’ll be talking to a freaking TROLLEY CAR!  Wait……you do?  And ya think the trolley car is talking back to you???  This same trolley car, which is about the size of a loaf of bread, is able to transport an adult male to “The Land of Make Believe?”  Would someone please get the Department of Human Services on the phone???

WAIT!!!  Someone is at the door.  It’s some Colonel Sanders wanna-be called “Mr. McFeely.”  McFeely???  Really???  If I’m a parent I don’t want my kid anywhere near someone named McFeely.  Shouldn’t he be registered somewhere with the state? 

Sadly, some people actually feel this way about the show and for those that do I offer you this:  In our occupations, how many times have we been encouraged to “think outside the box?”  Show me a CREATIVE person and I’ll show ya a SUCCESSFUL  person.  Thinking outside the box is the “adult version” of “The Land of Make Believe.” 

So thank YOU Mr. Rogers for everything you taught me, however, I’ll never purchase a pair of those goofy tennis shoes ya wore.  🙂

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$75 MILLION DOLLARS!!!  That’s what CBS paid Katie Couric to anchor the CBS Evening News for five years.  Her contract is up in June and the rumor is they won’t offer her the anchor chair again.  This is no surprise to me in fact I was shocked she was offered the position in the first place.  Don’t get me wrong I think Katie Couric is a HUGE talent but she was destined to fail because that is not how she made her brand or what she does best.

Katie is a PERSONALITY.  Network News has never embraced a “personality” in the anchor chair.  The news is “delivered” as opposed to “presented.”  Jon Stewart makes a PRESENTATION of the news and does it very well but he has the right platform at Comedy Central.  The lesson here is simple:  NEVER DENY THE CHARACTER!  I’ve seen this mistake made in radio time and time again.  You can’t be someone you aren’t and be successful.  Listeners aren’t stupid.  They can sense when someone is not being “real.”  The best compliment an air-personality can receive is when someone says to them in public, “Wow…you’re just like you are on the radio.” 

Katie will bounce back and return to success because she will return to her brand and accept a position that EMBRACES her character.  I just wish I was paid $75 million to fail.  🙂

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I read a story over the weekend where Myspace lost 10 MILLION USERS IN ONE MONTH! CLICK HERE FOR STORY. 

No one would have imagined that being possible in June of 2006 when Myspace was at the peak of its popularity.  By April 2008 Myspace was overtaken by facebook.  Forty-seven percent of the staff was laid off this past January.  So what went wrong?  They got comfortable.  They believed their own hype.  They played it safe.  All of these factors played into their continued demise.

Let this be a lesson for ALL of us.  The mind is much like the body.  You need to keep it in shape to be productive and healthy.  Listen to new ideas.  Look for ways to make YOUR product better.  Keep on top of technology.  Once you get to the top of your game concentrate on how you can widen your lead from your competition.  

Look at facebook; they have been number one since April of 2008 but they continue to reinvent themselves.  They have created a nearly insurmountable lead.  Myspace will eventually be a thing of the past and to me nothing is more satisfying than CRUSHING the competition!

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People that know me know that I am a HUGE fan of Bret Michaels.  This morning I was watching an interesting video on what he described as his “defining moment.”  CLICK HERE TO SEE STORY.

Life is a learning process.  We can only learn by taking risks and making mistakes.  For quite some time I stayed in a job that was making me miserable.  Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE what I do…I love to win…but I was in a situation where people who THOUGHT they knew what they were doing…truly didn’t.  I then did something I will never do again.  I kept my mouth shut.  I figured it wasn’t worth the effort.  It has become my defining moment.

If you believe in it…do it.  If you think someone is not right…be respectful…but tell them WHY they are wrong.  Life is short.  Don’t play it “safe.”  “Safe” only means you are NOT moving forward.  You are a ship that will eventually be sunk.  If life knocks ya down, pick yourself up, and come back swinging twice as hard.  Just don’t forget who sucker punched you.  Your vindication will be YOUR success!

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I’m an addict.  I’ll admit it.  I am addicted to my iPhone.  It truly is the one thing I can’t live without because it does everything that I enjoy.  I can watch TV.  I can surf the web.  I can listen to music.  I can e-mail.  I can place a bet.  I can pay my bills. I can tweet.  I can check my facebook.  I can check in on Four Square.  The one thing I wish it didn’t do is accept calls  :).

Last week I was with my girlfriend in St. Augustine.  We were sitting outside by the pool and I noticed a tall building with some people on the roof.  She said “I wish I had some binoculars so I can see what is going on up there.”  Immediately I felt my addiction.  “There has to be an app for that,” I said.  Sure enough there was and I downloaded it.  Don’t believe me?  CLICK HERE

So what can you learn from the ramblings of this lunatic?  If you have a product….ANY PRODUCT…. make sure it is accessible through a smart phone.  Fingers choose and if your business/product is inside the phone the consumer holds then you are one step closer to being chosen.

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No doubt the biggest story today will be the passing of Elizabeth Taylor.  I purposefully waited a couple of hours to post my thoughts so I could see how various news agencies would report her passing.  They all had one word in common:  “Legendary.”

She won just as many Academy Awards as Jodie Foster and Hillary Swank but no one will refer to those ladies as “legendary.”  Elizabeth Taylor took risks.  She became a highly visible AIDS activist when no one would even speak of the disease.  She embraced her faults.  She broke her back FIVE times and had both of her hips replaced.  She stood by Michael Jackson when he went through his child molestation trial in 2005.  She even married LARRY FORTENSKY!!

So what’s the point?  I think we all can learn something from her life.  What are WE doing TODAY to make ourselves legendary?  I’m not saying we all can reach her celebrity status, that would be unrealistic.  We can take a risk, work on our weaknesses and try a little harder.  We may not succeed with every attempt but remember you must experience defeat in order to celebrate the victory.

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So I’m reading this morning about the huge temper tantrum Chris Brown had at Good Morning America.  If ya don’t know the story CLICK HERE  I never understood that response from men.  My father used to tell me “It takes a bigger man to walk away from a fight.”  He never added “and make sure you rip your shirt off.”

I think we all have seen a tense situation at a bar where two guys exchange words and then one of them rips his shirt off and says something like “Ya wanna piece of me?”  The irony to me is that if you take away the decibel level and leave the shirt ripping and verbal inquiry; I believe that would qualify as a homosexual pass.

I apologize on behalf of my gender for this moronic display of testosterone, however, being an individual that supports equal rights; the next time you ladies have an altercation with another of your gender…..rip that shirt off and yell:  YA WANNA PIECE OF ME????