Month: March 2018

Why did Paul switch?

DON’T SPRINT TO FOLLOW THIS GUY…


What Sprint Doesn’t Tell You

Sprint may not be giving you the whole story. Look before you leap!
Make sure you read the small print! It’s hard to read when it’s not on the screen for very long!

They say the “devil is in the details.”  If that’s true, Lucifer may have been let loose in the Sprint commercials.  Here are the details:

  1. The iPhone X 64GB is $20/month after a $21.67/mo. credit applied within 2 bills.  (So that means it’s $41.67/month until the credit is applied, correct?)
  2. It requires a new line.  (So does that mean that Sprint won’t let you keep your old number?)
  3. It requires an 18-month lease. (There’s a contract involved.  Also, are you buying the phone or leasing it?)
  4. It’s only for well-qualified customers.  (Not just “qualified” customers, but “well-qualified” customers.  So not everybody gets the offer from Sprint, correct?)
  5. Early termination results in remaining balance due.  (So apparently if you terminate early, you pay the remaining 18-month’s costs upon termination.)

Then comes the really small print: (It’s half the font size of the stuff above…)

  1. The offer/coverage is not available everywhere. (So just where is the Sprint offer available?)

    Sprint may not be giving you the full story here.
    Check the small print before jumping into this!
  2. There is a monthly lease payment. (In other words, are you renting the phone and not buying it?)
  3. The prices exclude taxes.  (So just how much are the taxes?)
  4. It requires a qualifying plan. (So, what does that mean?)
  5. The offer is subject to credit approval. (Therefore, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the offer?)
  6. There is a $30 activation fee (…so it’s not free), and of course…
  7. Restrictions apply.  (What restrictions?)

Then There is the Sprint Unlimited Plan

  1. It includes unlimited talk, text, and data. (That sounds good.)
  2. Speed maximums and use rules apply. (But that doesn’t sound good.  Does Sprint limit your speed and what are the use rules?)
  3. The prices are compared to surcharges and roaming. (Those are the highest charges you can pay elsewhere.  Is this an apples-to-apples comparison?)
  4. To check out the offer first-hand, follow this link: https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/plans/unlimited-cell-phone-plan.html

Finally, There is the Sprint $25/Line Plan

  1. The $25/month only lasts until 3/31/19.  After that it’s
    1. $60 a month for line 1 (it more than doubles)
    2. $40 a month for line 2, and finally,
    3. $30 a month for lines 3-5 with AutoPay.  (What is it without AutoPay?)  So, if you got 5 lines for $25/line, that’s $125/month initially.  In one year, the total cost for those five lines goes to $190.  That’s a 52% increase!
    4. It includes data, talk and text. (That’s good.)
    5. It excludes taxes, surcharges and roaming. (That’s not good, i.e. it’s not unlimited…)
    6. It’s subject to credit approval.
    7. There’s a $30 activation fee (…so is that per line or something else?)
    8. There are speed maximums, use rules, and restrictions. (Like driving a car below the speed limit, only in certain lanes, and only at certain times?)
    9. It’s compared to similar HD plans from national carriers, but the features differ (so the Sprint offer is not an apples-to-apples comparison?)
    10. Finally, the offer and coverage is not available in all areas.

 

A BIG IDEA NOW FOR FRONTIER AIRLINES…


Frontier Airlines Mastercard Ideas

I am an Elite Status member on Frontier Airlines.  This morning I flew from Denver to Washington, DC.  I asked one of the flight attendants as I walked off the plane, “About how many people signed up for the Frontier Airlines Mastercard on this flight?”

She was a little bit startled at my question.  So I continued, now wanting to put her on the spot, “…was it about half-a-dozen?”

“Oh no–” she responded quickly.  “…less than that.  About four or so…” she said.  I’m not surprised.  The truth is, it was probably less than four.  Because I’ve seen this situation on many Frontier flights, I wanted to put some ideas out there that could turn this into a more positive experience for everybody.

People Don’t Like To Be Put In A “Captivated Audience” Position.

Frontier Airlines Mastercard
More people could be signing up on these flights!

Have you ever walked into a bank to make a deposit and while you’re standing at the teller window the teller asks you, “So, where do you currently bank?”  What they’re trying to do is capitalize on the fact that you’re right there in front of them and you can’t get away.  The problem is it puts you, the customer, in an awkward position.

They then ask you, “Have you heard about our new Visa card promotion?”  No, ma’am, I haven’t.  I’ve been too busy checking my emails, Facebook, Instagram, doing my errands, etc. to even think about your new Visa card.

Sometimes I get to the point when someone starts to give me a sales pitch at a bank I just respond, “Do you need any junk removal?” (One of the businesses that I own.)  That tends to quiet the conversation quickly.  Why?  Because they don’t like being “sold to.”

Well, guess what?  Neither do I.  People don’t like being put in a “captivated” position at a bank teller counter, or 38,000 feet in the air.  If I’m on an airplane and I don’t want to be “sold to”, I can’t exactly step outside for a minute to miss it.  And you know that.  So, don’t put me in that position in the first place.

I Get No Immediate Benefit From Accepting Your Offer.

If you want me to apply for your Frontier Airlines Mastercard, give me a free t-shirt right then and there when I fill out the form, like some of these companies do at NASCAR pre-race events or NFL pre-game events.  I like the idea of getting 40,000 frequent flier miles, but I have to pay the $69 annual fee first, plus buy something with the card.  The 500 bonus miles for signing up then is nice too, but I can’t use any of these miles right away–it’s all in the future.  People’s minds are more on the here and now, so if you want to get my attention, give me a reason to respond right then.  That way, I’ll probably apply for the Frontier Airlines Mastercard.

I Don’t Need Another Credit Card.

That’s probably true.  Matthew Frankel of The Motley Fool recently reported that according to Gallup, the average American has 2.6 credit cards.  That includes the 29% of all Americans who have no credit cards.  Among credit card holders only, the average is 3.7.  There is an opportunity here. Almost 1/3 of Americans DON’T HAVE A CREDIT CARD.  Frankly, they probably should. The other 2/3rds have almost four cards.  So, about 1/3 of the people on your plane (approximately 50 people) have NO credit cards.  The other 2/3rds (about 100 people) are sitting on almost four of them.  If you do that math, there are almost 400 credit cards traveling on that plane and you want to make it 550!  So, you’ve got to give them a reason (and better still, reasons) to fill out that application.

Some Ideas for Frontier Airlines

  • Give an instant $5 free food credit if I complete an application and turn it in on the flight.  Most people think “short-term”, not “long-term”.  Now you’ve given me a BIG reason to fill out the form right away! I could instantly get free food which otherwise I have to pay for.  Isn’t it better to give up $5 worth of treats in exchange for a $69 annual fee?  The alternative is to probably get neither…
  • Half-price food if paid for with a Frontier Airlines Mastercard. Now I can save on all of my future Frontier flights, which will probably pay for the annual fee!  Pay for it with another bank’s credit card and it costs you the regular price.
  • Bonus gift for turning in the application, like the Frontier pen or a small “Thank You” Frontier Airlines chocolate.  When people see free gifts being given out to other passengers they’re going to want to get in on the action.  “Herd” mentality will take over! They’ll quickly find room for a fifth credit card!
  • Give away a $50 Frontier Travel Voucher by doing a drawing for those who signed up for the card and those who already have a Frontier Airlines Mastercard.  The odds of winning are terrific since most people on the flight don’t have your card.

Final Thoughts

Give them free food!
The only thing better than having to pay for this is getting it for half-price or for free!

So there are four ideas to help you get more applications filled out.  Perhaps the best benefit will be the excitement your flight attendants feel when they don’t have to make that five-minute announcement about filling out the application.  Now it becomes fun for everyone, including the attendants.  I think they would really appreciate that move.

Contact us if you would like to discuss this further.

For those who are not familiar with Frontier’s Mastercard offer, click this link to learn more:

http://www.frontiermastercard.com/frontier/?expd=true&referrerid=PTRBAScroll

 

 

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: 10 BIG IDEAS FOR YOU NOW…


President Trump, In the first place, I voted for you…(so this is not someone from the “left-wing” or “fake news” media that’s writing this.)

Some Big Ideas For You

Here are 10 things you need to do or stop doing right now.  It’s my effort to help you, Mr. President, and frankly, you need some help…

Stop Tweeting So Much!

Here’s why:

  • You seem to do more damage than good when you tweet. You weren’t elected to tweet–you were elected to work on the nation’s problems and move us forward.  So, back off the tweeting! The media will be stunned and you will stop putting out so much rope that others can use to hang you.

    Twitter information for the President.
    The top 20 Twitter accounts. There’s great information here!
  • Currently you have 48.6 million followers.  You rank 20th.  Of the 19 twitter accounts ahead of you, 14 of them (73%) are celebrities, 3 are media companies (15.7%), one is an athlete (5%) and one is a former president (5%).  Yet, of the top 20 twitter accounts,
    • You rank 20th in number of followers.
    • You rank 3rd in the number of tweets you’ve sent out.  (Only CNN and Ariana Grande tweet more than you.)
    • You rank 19th in the number of people you are following.  Only Taylor Swift follows fewer people, and she follows no one.  You only follow 45 people; Barack Obama follows over 624,000 (#1 among the top 20 and almost twice as much as the person who is #2…)  In other words, YOU LISTEN TO OTHERS INFORMATION THE LEAST YET YOU SPEAK OUT ALMOST MORE THAN ANYONE.  Barack Obama has more than double your twitter followers, yet he tweets out less than half of what you do.  Therefore, It seems to me you’d do better if you listened more and spoke less.
    • Note that of the 19 people ahead of you in followers, 11 are women, 3 are news organizations, and the other one is Jimmy Fallon.  Ellen DeGeneres, for example, has about 37 million more followers than you do, yet tweets out less than half as much.  You should also note that Taylor Swift has only tweeted out 86 times, yet she has almost 40 million more followers than you.  So apparently, it’s not about how much you tweet.  Here is the chart to show you where I got the information:
Befriend Hollywood, Mr. President

Celebrities hold an awful lot of influence and power.  Former President Ronald Reagan befriended Hollywood and it worked.  Remember, celebrities vote too and they can influence millions.  Specifically,

  • Don’t send out surveys during the Oscars. (Is that really the only time you could send it out?)
  • Invite Alec Baldwin to the White House to give him some one-on-one time to brush up on his impersonation of you.  That would stun him!  Then the pressure would be on him (would he come or not?)  He does a great impression of you.  Don’t attack it or him.  Just laugh along with everyone else.  If SNL invites you to host the show, that’s a good sign, Mr. President.  Have you done it yet?
Stop Focusing on the Media

President Trump, you weren’t elected to battle the media; you were elected to try and improve our country and it’s citizens.

  • So, ask yourself, where would The Apprentice have been without the media?  Dead, is the simple answer.  You owe a lot to the media for your own success.  Therefore, make them your friends, not your enemy.
  • Rise above them and take the high road if you disagree with what they do.
  • Don’t get into a mud-slinging situation with them, which is what you’ve got going on now.  In short, take the high road, Mr. President.
Hold Business Summits for Entrepreneurs

You have a great business background and you could use that to help others.  Hold business summits at the White House or at one of your resorts and invite entrepreneurs from around the country to join you for a day.  Hold a contest of some type to stir up excitement.  You have a lot to share with people and many business owners could learn from you.

Use Your Resorts for Rewards
McDonald's feedback process. The President should use the same type of choices.
A fair rating system, Mr. President. You should use one like this.

You are somewhat unique as a president–I don’t think anyone before you has come into office with so many properties that they own.  Yet, you tend to keep them all to yourself.  You should do the following to use your resorts to your advantage:

  • Hold a monthly contest with winners tweeting in their results to enter into a random drawing.  The winner gets a weekend stay at one of your resorts complimentary.  For example, have a weight-loss month.  70 percent of us in this country are overweight.  You’re one of them, Mr. President.  Set the example by publicly getting on a scale on April 1st and challenge all overweight Americans to join you in a 5-pound reduction effort for 30 days.  Then, have people tweet in their before and after photos and give their story of how they did it.  Get on the scales yourself on April 30th and show the nation (and the world) how much you lost.  Invite us all to join you.  Send the winner to one of your top resorts with an outstanding spa for the weekend.  You’ve got the properties; why not use them to your advantage?
  • Give some underprivileged people some jobs at your resorts.  Help knock down the unemployment rolls by holding a contest on why the Trump organization should hire you?  That’s something you could do.  Give them a job for 30 days and see how they do.
  • Go out on the streets of Washington DC one cold night and bring some of the homeless into your Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Then, give them a nice room and a free meal too.  In other words, show them you care about them and you love them.  That would STUN the press, President Trump.
Don’t Conduct Your Own Slanted Polls

I get emails from you asking me to rate your performance as a president, yet 3 of the 4 choices automatically rate you positively.  The fourth choice is labeled “Other.”  I’m writing this from the Denver International Airport.  I just ate at McDonald’s.  You should follow their lead.  This is the way I can give them feedback, and notice that two of the choices are positive and two are negative.  Therefore, that’s a fair selection.

Think Twice Before You Build the Wall

I recently met with a customer who worked as border patrol in Texas for a number of years.  As a result, here are his thoughts on building a wall to keep immigrants out:

  • They’ll just tunnel underneath it.
  • Or, they’ll figure out how to fly over it or get around it.
  • Focus on WHY they want to come here and address that; don’t just think that a wall will solve everything.  Because our country was built by immigrants, it would seem we shouldn’t have to put up a wall.  I just think there’s a better solution.  And wasn’t it Ronald Reagan who famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!”  Funny, isn’t it, that we’re now doing just the opposite on our own soil?
Make Your Email Campaigns Real

I get emails from you saying that you need a donation by a certain deadline so I can be on the list that gets delivered to the President personally.  Really?  Do you think we’re that stupid?

  • You don’t have the time or the interest to see who makes it onto a donation list, because you’re too busy playing golf at one of your resorts!  So, stop sending out those emails.  They don’t give you credibility!
  • Then there are the emails that say, “We’d like to have you come to dinner!”  Fine!  I’ll come.  But then I read the email and IF I make a donation, you’ll put me in a lottery and give me a chance (a very small one) to come to dinner with you and have my picture taken with you.  So why would I want a picture taken with you?  And why do you tell me that you want to have dinner with me when in fact you could care less?  The truth is, you want the donation; not me.
  • Further, I’ve given my input on numerous emails from your staff and never gotten a response.  The American people are pretty smart.  They can see through phoniness pretty quickly.  Be genuine and real.
  • You’ve got a few bucks, right?  Hold some dinners at your resorts and invite a bunch of people to come.  That would be terrific!
Start Apologizing

People like it when someone admits they were wrong.  For example, publicly apologize to:

  • Alec Baldwin.  Tell him you enjoy his impression of you and he’s welcome to come to the White House with some SNL staff anytime to make it even better.
  • Oprah Winfrey.  You once said she would be a great running mate.  Now you’re attacking her.  If she runs, you can kiss the female vote goodbye and you can kiss the minority vote goodbye.  One of the reasons you won is that the black vote died down because Obama wasn’t in the race.  If Oprah jumps in, you’re in big trouble.
  • The Guy You Stepped In Front of By Pushing Him Out of the Way at a Foreign Summit.  I don’t remember who that was, but you actually grabbed him and pushed him behind you so you could be in front.  Why?  Why can’t you be comfortable in the back?  You’re still the President of the greatest country in the world.  Also, you don’t need any attention.  Therefore, let someone else have it.  That would be refreshing.  Finally,
Explain the Hair

If I understand it correctly, you had an operation in the past where your scalp on the back of your head was surgically altered and it created a large bald spot where no hair can grow.  Consequently, you grow the hair on the sides of your head longer so you can sweep it back to cover that spot.  I thought you just couldn’t get out of the 70’s or something.  We all have something we’re trying to “cover.”  You’re no exception.  So just be straightforward about it and don’t be embarrassed.

  • You would gain a lot of credibility if you just came forward and explained why you do it the way you do.
  • As a result, people would respect that.
  • We’ve all got something we’re trying to cover up.  Consequently, I think a lot of people would respect you for being so forthcoming.

So there you have it; ten things I think you should consider.  These are some of my best ideas to help strengthen your position.  Remember, the American people voted you in and they can vote you out just as fast.  Don’t get cocky and think you hold all the cards.  Your job as a leader is to serve people; not be served.  Reach out and be open minded and stop attacking people or institutions.  I hope everything works out well.  Contact me if you would like to talk more.

BONUS IDEA:  Invite Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and their staffs to the White House to tape a show.  I don’t believe that’s ever been done.  You (and they) could have a lot of fun with it and it would be a great way to build some bridges.

The Royal Wedding…


It continued in college–the big idea stuff.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana were going to get married.  That sounded like a good reason to celebrate so my friend John and I put together an event.

“To Prince Charles and Lady Diana!” (That’s me doing the toast…)

The Royal Wedding would be broadcast live at 3 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, and we would be there watching it.  So would 100 of our closest friends.

We got a cake donated by Albertson’s grocery store locally and invited people to come in costume to celebrate.  We got local news coverage and had a blast.  Best wedding I’ve never attended in person.

Not a bad gig at 3 a.m.!

Do you have an event you need to create or find a theme for?  We can help you with that.  Contact us for a free consultation.  We look forward to celebrating your big event too.  And we may even dress up 🙂

It’s All About Your Bike…


It started when I was 12.

I wanted a bike.  Not just any bike, a Schwinn Orange Krate.

Cost:  $100 new

The Deal:  I would earn half the money by working around the house and yard for 25 cents an hour then my parents would pay the rest.

I worked after school and on weekends for two months, logging in every dime I earned.  After earning $49.75, while sweeping up the garage for the 12th time in two months, and at 9:30 p.m., my wonderful mom came out and told me if I would come in and take a shower she would give me a quarter.  That was it.  I was done.

The next day we got the bike.

I learned as a kid to think big.  I’ve never stopped.

Does your organization need some new bikes?  I can probably help you get them.  And sooner than you think.

I charge $10,000 to create a new campaign, strategy, sales idea, event, theme– whatever you want to call it–for your organization.  The initial consultation is free.

So let’s get riding.

You only go around once in life, so you might as well ride the best bike.