Congratulations to Roy Halladay!

Last night, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter in the playoffs.  How rare is this feat?  It has only happened one other time in the 100+ years of playoff baseball.  I was listening to an interview on ESPN Radio this morning where they discussed Halladay’s work ethic – he arrives at the stadium over  7 hours before each game to work out and continue to improve his game.  He is routinely the first player to show up each day and works harder than anyone else on his team, and possibly the entire league.  A former coach of his said that he was always the first guy at the ballpark, even once when he got hit in the face the night before by a line drive!

Whenever an elite athlete accomplishes something amazing like this, we all typically react with something like “Wow, he is good”.  And of course, that is absolutely true, he is very good.  What people tend to forget, though, is that he isn’t this good because he was born with the ability to pitch like this – he is this good because he works harder than most people would ever dare to do.  He arrives earlier, stays later and pushes himself harder day after day, season after season.  There are guys in the league that throw harder, are stronger, are faster and have more “natural talent”, but the one thing to learn from last nights performance is that hard work pays off.  Congratulations to Roy Halladay on a great game!

Thoughts on "The Social Network" Facebook Movie

I had the opportunity to see “The Social Network” over the weekend (along with 4 of my Facebook “friends”).  Overall, I really enjoyed learning about the story of how Facebook came to exist.  I continually questioned the facts of the movie, how much of it was true and how much of it was completely false.  From what I’ve read, it seems that the movie is fairly accurate; says screenwriter Aaron Sorkin – “If we know what brand of beer Mark was drinking on a Tuesday night in October seven years ago when there were only three people in the room, it should tell you something about how close our research sources were to the subject and to the events”.  Like anything else, I’m sure some of the facts were dead on and others were exaggerated, but everyone agrees that the general timeline of events is accurate.

I’m not a movie critic and will not pretend to be – rather than provide a detailed review, I want to briefly discuss the one thing that I’ve continued thinking about since I viewed the movie:

Is Mark Zuckerberg a highly-driven entrepreneur or back-stabbing jerk?

The beauty of this movie is that there is no good guy or bad guy.  This isn’t about Good vs Evil, it is about telling a story and letting the viewer determine how they feel.  Because we live in a black and white society where everyone wants to pick between “right and wrong” or “good or bad”, people will immediately point to Zuckerberg as either a genius or jerk.  No middle ground or gray area, just a “this guy is brilliant” or “he is such a jerk”.

What are my thoughts to the above question?  After giving it some thought, I would summarize my answer as “a little of both”.  He is absolutely a highly-driven and brilliant entrepreneur – most college students don’t have enough discipline to wake up for a 10am class.  He was writing code, drawing process maps and building a business at 3am while most students were slamming a Large pizza after a night of partying (yes, they party at Harvard).  So there is no question that he was willing to work harder than probably anyone else on that campus while also having a ton of knowledge about computer programming.

But didn’t he steal the idea from 3 other guys on campus?  Didn’t he stab his best (and only good) friend in the back?

Lets tackle that first one first – I believe there were undoubtedly certain concepts that Zuckerberg took from other people and utilized in building The Facebook.  Did he use their code?  Nope, but he liked aspects of their project and utilized them.  You might think those guys were vindicated by the $65 million settlement, however that represents a tiny fraction of a percent of the companies current valuation, so it probably falls significantly short of “fair”, dependent upon how you look at it.

The other main argument that can be made for him being a “jerk” is that he stabbed his best friend in the back.  I’m not going to watch a Hollywood movie and assume that it perfectly summarized their relationship, because it is obviously impossible to do that in a 2 hour movie.  My thoughts are that they both made some significant mistakes – after all, they were college kids with no business experience.  It seems like Zuckerberg could have been more loyal to his friend and his friend should have been more aware of what Facebook could become and have never signed documents that he didn’t have a lawyer review first.

My final thoughts are that Mark Zuckerberg deserves a great deal of credit for having the knowledge, perseverance, vision, discipline, ambition and creativity to build Facebook.  Are there certain things he would change if he could go back in time?  Only Mark knows the answer to that question, and I believe that answer would reveal a great deal about his character.  There is a lot to be said about loyalty and sticking with the people who were with you from the start – I’m sure there is a part of him that wishes he had his best friend to hug when they hit 1 million users.

What are your thoughts on the movie?  Any opinion about what I discussed above?

Learn How to Coach Yourself

I was driving to the gym a few weeks back and listening to ESPN Radio when I heard one of the more interesting things I’ve heard in awhile.  Leo Mazzone, who is a former Major League Baseball pitching coach, was being interviewed on a wide range of baseball topics.  As pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves, he coached some of the best pitching staffs ever assembled.  The Braves consistently had some of the top pitching throughout the 90′s and people universally credit Mazzone as one of the main reasons as to why they were so good.

So the question came up about the secrets to the Braves success and Mazzone said something I’ll never forget – he said that the Braves pitchers were excellent at “coaching themselves”.  As a baseball pitcher, you spend a lot of time isolated from the rest of your team and don’t have someone yelling in your ear before each play like a football quarterback.  Because of this isolation, it is essential that you learn how to coach yourself, realize what you need to do differently and then change it on the fly.  Business owners and leaders are no different – we spend a significant amount of time by ourselves and we must know how to coach ourselves, make changes, realize when we are making mistakes and readjust as necessary.

The lesson learned from Leo Mazzone is that in order to be successful, it is essential to coach ourselves.  We need to not only be a worker in our business, but also be our own manager in many cases.  We must have an awareness for what we are doing, how we can improve and then be able to make the changes necessary.  Learn how to coach yourself and you’ll be more successful when you are all alone on the pitchers mound and need to throw that perfect pitch.

10 Lessons Businesses Can Learn From Greek Recruitment

Anyone who has ever said that Greek Life doesn’t prepare you for the real world either isn’t Greek or never got involved inrecruitment for their chapter. The following are 10 things that the best Greek organizations across the country do to recruit high quality members to their chapter and are great lessons for any business to follow when selling to consumers, regardless of industry or what product/service is they sell.

1. Cold Calling Isn’t Effective - Your chances at closing a sale are significantly lower if you cold call someone, as opposed to if you were referred to them by someone that they know/like/trust. In addition to being ineffective, cold calling is also a huge waste of time because it takes so many calls to actually generate a sale. This is why effective Greek organizations recruit people they already know or were referred to by someone they know – it is more effective, takes much less time and there is a much better chance that it is a high quality individual.

2. Have Great Referral Sources – You will save yourself a lot of time in business by simply building up relationships with key people who can introduce you to the right people. Fraternities that have good relationships with sororities often get many of their best referrals from those women. If you are a business, you need to have relationships with people that can make your life easier and feed you referrals, and vice versa.

3. Utilize Cross Promotion – If a sorority wants to reach a new group of people on campus that aren’t away of their organization, they will form a partnership with a service organization, sports team, academic club or another group that is outside of Greek Life. Businesses should also find complementing organizations that they can do cross promotions with; examples could include a mini golf course and ice cream shop, or a gym and a healthy restaurant. Think about businesses that provide a complimentary service and partner with them… its a win-win!

4. Have a Specific Target Market - The very best Greek organizations have a specific target in mind and focus on recruiting those types of people. If you sell a product, you should never say that “everyone” is a good prospect or referral for you. That is too vague and makes it difficult for someone to refer business to you. A better answer could involve the age, profession, sex, interests and characteristics of your ideal client. Having a specific target market makes it much easier to refer business your way.

5. Don’t Accept Everyone – If you want to position your product/service as being something special, then you can’t allow anyone and everyone to have access to it. Strong Greek organizations have a screening process in place and won’t just let anyone join. You need to be selective as to who you allow to be a client of yours and purchase your product/service. You may think this will limit your sales, but it actually will increase them because it makes what you offer appear exclusive… we all want what we can’t easily have.

6. Market a Variety of Ways – The best fraternities and sororities will market themselves using banners, t-shirts, websites, social media, flyers, events, word of mouth, press releases, advertisements and many other ways. The more ways you can effectively market your business, the more people you can reach and more impressions you can have on them. We all like to be marketed to in different ways, so just focusing on one way will exclude a significant amount of people.

7. Have a Strong Brand – You must have a strong brand that is consistent across all methods you use to market yourself. The colors, font, logos, taglines and other ways you brand your product/service must have consistency and be the same everywhere. The best Greek organizations have the same branding on all of the different marketing materials they utilize and it makes it much more recognizable to the consumer.

8. Let Quality Drive Quantity – The Greek organizations that focus on recruiting only high-quality individuals are the ones that ultimately end up with a high-quantity of members as well. By surrounding yourself with the best of the best and building an elite organization, you will have an increasing number of people that want to be part of it. This benefits a business because they will have more of the right people who want to work for their organization, as well as more people who want to do business with their organization. Quality drives Quantity!

9. Everyone Has a Significant Role – To be successful at Greek recruitment, each chapter member needs to have a specific responsibility. If every one in an organization has a role and is working towards a common goal, they will be more likely to be successful than an organization that has a few people at the top trying to do all the heavy lifting while the rest of the organization sits around and does nothing. A successful business works towards a common goal and engages everyone in the organization with specific responsibilities that they must execute.

10. Bigger Pipeline = More Success – Greek chapters that are most successful at recruitment generally have a list of prospects that is at least 3-4 times the size of their chapter size. Would a business have a great chance at successful if they had a sales pipeline of 3-4 times the size of their client base? Absolutely they would! The more active leads you have and the bigger your sales pipeline, the more chances you have at being successful.

Is there anything missing on this list?

Lessons for Young Professionals from the NFL's Nnamdi Asomugha

I recently came across a great article that was written by Nnamdi Asomugha, a premier athlete in the National Football League.  He was reflecting back to his rookie year in 2003 and sharing hid advice to the incoming rookies this season.  I thought all of his lessons for NFL rookies were extremely applicable to young professionals after college.  Below is his advice for NFL rookies in BOLD, followed by my thoughts on each and how they apply to young professionals:

• SET YOUR ALARM FOR A REASONABLE TIME – Make sure to show up early every single day.  How difficult is it to show up 15-30 minutes before everyone else?  If you have trouble waking up in the morning, then go to sleep earlier.  Showing up early gives you a big advantage over your colleagues and will help you separate yourself from the others.
• BE CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY TO PLAY THE GAME – There is a fine line between arrogance and confidence….  You must be confident in your abilities and have a chip on your shoulder to be successful.
• BE SMARTER THAN YOU WERE THE DAY BEFORE – Imagine how much better off you will be in 5 years if you learn something new each day.  Knowledge is power and it will give you a tremendous edge as you work hard to quickly advance your career.
• DONT LIMIT YOUR EXPOSURE – Be as versatile as possible and volunteer to do anything and everything you possibly can.  Learning a variety of skills and areas of your occupation will only help you and potentially open up doors you never knew existed.
• STAY OUT OF THE TRAINING ROOM AS MUCH AS YOU CAN – When a football player is in the training room, he is unable to compete for a starting position and impress the coaching staff.  The same goes for your career – if you aren’t playing the game well every day, you won’t be visible to your employer and will miss out on great opportunities.
• DON’T COUNT HEADS – A significant number of rookies in the NFL don’t make the roster out of training camp.  In many businesses, younger employees come and go pretty frequently.  Don’t waste your time worrying about what other people are doing, just focus on your own success.  If you show up every day, work harder than those around you and constantly strive to get better, it won’t matter what others are doing because you will be way ahead of them.

The bottom line is that there isn’t much difference between professional athletes and any other young professionals, the same rules apply.  And the truth is, the same mistakes are being made and the same types of people are successful.  This isn’t overly complicated – if you work hard, give your best to your work, have a great attitude, learn every day and surround yourself with the right people, you will undoubtedly be successful in your career!

You can check out the full article HERE.  Hope you enjoyed!

Why CrossFit Scottsdale Has Been an Excellent Investment in my BUSINESS

When I signed up with CrossFit Scottsdale five months ago, I told myself that it wasn’t just something to look/feel better, but was ultimately a terrific investment in my business.  I figured that it would allow me to be more productive, which over time would make my business grow faster.  Five months later, I am 100% positive that I was correct and it has been an excellent investment from a business standpoint.  Here are 7 reasons why CrossFit has helped me grow my business:

1. I come home and get a heck of a lot more work done from 8-10pm after a CrossFit workout than I do after going to happy hour.
2. I sleep significantly better at night, which allows me to be well rested and ready to hit the ground running the following day….  Probably because I usually can’t feel my arms, legs, back, core or in most cases, any of them.
3. It is easier to build a professional network in a small group class than it is when everyone is lined up doing bicep curls in front of the mirror at GloboGym wearing iPods.
4. As someone who works from home, it oftentimes breaks up my day and allows me to talk face to face with people, which is helpful during some very long days.
5. As a speaker, I feel much better in front of an audience when I’m in shape, my clothes aren’t tight and I’m moving around easily.
6. When I have a great workout, I eat healthier, have more energy, get more done and ultimately grow my business faster.
7. Because it is a small facility, you can’t hide or disappear without getting called out for it by coaches and classmates.  Accountability is a great thing and we all need to have it in our lives and careers to be successful.

Is there anything I left off?  I’d love your feedback!

Money Magazine – 2010 Best Places to Live

Money Magazine recently published the latest installment of their yearly “Best Places to Live” rankings.  You can check out the entire article by clicking HERE.  When I was a junior at Ohio University, I used these rankings and others like it to help me decide where I was going to relocate to after college.  These rankings are certainly helpful, but they should only be a small part of your decision.

As a young professional, the potential living situation can take you to one of three places – the home you grew up in, living on your own in a city you are familiar with or relocating to a brand new city that you may or may not have any connection to whatsoever.  Before looking at each of these three, let’s talk for a minute about the decision making process.  You really need to evaluate what is truly important to you and there simply is no easy answer.

The main factors in a young professionals decision about where to live include one or more of the following, each with varying degrees of importance:

People – Do you want to be as close to your family as possible?  Did you make a pact with your high school friends that you would all move back home after college?  Are you and some college friends all moving to a certain city together?  Is your boyfriend/girlfriend already living somewhere?

Money – Are you at a point financially where you feel as though your only option is to move back home?  Do you want to move to a big city but can’t afford to even split a studio with your income?  Are you being offered twice as much money to start your career in a certain city?

Location – Do you need to be near a beach?  Or can you not live without the lights and sounds of a big city?  Do you need to be on the mountains and ski as much as possible?

Education – Does a school 1,500 miles away have the best program in the country?  Is your field of study only offered in certain parts of the country?

Industry – Is it easier to become an actor in Los Angeles than it is in Omaha?  How difficult is it to be a ski instructor in Miami?  Are you at an advantage to choose one location over another based on your industry?

What is important to you may not even be a factor in someone else’s decision and vice versa.  We all value different things in life and those things can often change significantly and quickly.  The bottom line is that no matter what you decide to do, put yourself in control of the decision making process.  Make sure to consider all of the above factors and not only one.

Happy Mother's Day to the Best Mom in the World!

With all due respect to every other Mom in the world, I have to be honest….  I have the absolute best Mom in the entire world!  I feel so fortunate to have the love, support and friendship of my Mom in my life and owe everything that I ever accomplish to her.

As I have found out over the past couple of years, the bigger risks you take in life and the more “differently” you do things than other people, the harder it is to find people that truly support you.  Whether it has been to study abroad, relocate to Arizona, start my own business or any of my other crazy ideas over the years, my Mom has always supported me 100%.  She has never doubted me, questioned my abilities or told me that I couldn’t accomplish something – she only ever asks one question and its always the same one…  How can I help you?  It is so rare to have people like this in your life and I’m so blessed that my Mom is one of those people.

Happy Mothers Day Mom…  I love you!

Looking for the Perfect College Graduation Gift for Graduating Seniors?

Grab them a copy of my book, The Course They Forgot to Offer – How to Make Big Money, Have Fun & Love Life as a Young Professional. For a special discount, signed copy and free shipping, purchase the book off of my Facebook Fan Page!

“Tom Healy has a life-changing message that makes a huge difference in the lives of students and young professionals!”
- Joe Theismann, NFL Network Analyst, former Super Bowl Champion and All-Pro Quarterback of the Washington Redskins

FIND OUT THE SECRETS TO SUCCESS AS A YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

Do you feel like you missed out on the college course that prepared you for the real world? Would you like to learn the easy way to make big money, have fun and love life? Let this book show you how to get the absolute most our of life as a young professional and beyond!

In this book you will discover:

- How to choose the perfect place to launch your life and career
- How to search for and earn a great professional opportunity
- How to manage your finances the easy way
- How to build positive and profitable relationships
- The personal and professional characteristics essential for your success
- Challenges, regrets and learning experiences from young professionals and established individuals
- Stories of success from those that achieved greatness as young professionals

For a special discount, signed copy and free shipping, purchase the book off of my Facebook Fan Page!

Tom Healy joins the CAMPUSPEAK staff; will head up RBC efforts

CAMPUSPEAK, Inc. is proud to announce the addition of Tom Healy to the staff as Recruitment Program Specialist. Tom will guide the expansion of the company’s Recruitment Boot Camp (RBC) workshops and consultations. In this new role, Tom will be taking RBC in an exciting new direction.

Tom Healy is a 2006 graduate of Ohio University, where he was an active leader of the fraternity and sorority community, serving in leadership roles for the Interfraternity Council and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. He remains actively involved with SAE in a number of volunteer roles. Tom has spoken at colleges across the country, published multiple books for students and young professionals and advised students on marketing/branding their student organizations through social media.

“Adding Tom to our CAMPUSPEAK staff is a big win! His creativity and energy will enliven the RBC program in so many ways. He is a great speaker and facilitator and will be able to communicate our proven techniques of values based recruiting in a most effective way,” said David Stollman, CAMPUSPEAK partner and creator of the RBC program.

“Tom’s ability to develop books, online resources and other educational products will add new dimensions to Recruitment Boot Camp offerings. We are especially excited for the upcoming rollout of our online skills training and our coaching program,” Stollman said.

Recruitment Boot Camp has helped hundreds of fraternity and sorority chapters across North America master proven strategies for dramatically boosting recruitment results. After attending RBC, some chapters have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled their memberships in just one semester. Some communities have increased their bid acceptance by 50-percent in just one year.

RBC provides recruitment education strategies for schools, chapters and national organizations. For more information about how RBC can help your organization, please visit http://www.recruitordie.com. To reach Tom Healy, please email him at healy@campuspeak.com.