How's Your Oxygen?

Have you heard stories about passengers getting stranded on planes on a tarmac? You know the ones where they cannot disembark because of a back up of planes at the gate?  People get very testy in those situations; almost in a panic mode. Do you think any of it has to do with stale air?  Right now some of you are sitting on a plane (inside your dealership) and are determined to keep sucking up that bad air. Did you ever notice when you’re on a flight how good it feels to get off and get back in the real world? You know it’s that ahhh feeling, fresh air.

At this point you’re thinking…Tommy, what the heck are you talking about?  Being in your dealership is like sitting on a plane for hours and hours breathing stale air. You need to get your butt off that plane. Business is tough. You keep sucking up stale air and it’s causing your brain to function less and less. Are you thinking the little oxygen mask is going to drop down from the ceiling? Well it isn’t. You need fresh air and fresh ideas.

There are many things you can do to improve your oxygen intake.

1. Try calling a successful friend in another business. Take them to lunch. Pick their brain. Ask them what they do to get some fresh air. 
2. Join a Twenty Group.  Please, I beg you to join a group. If you’re in a group, try going to a meeting. If you don’t like your group, quit and join another one. Nobody pays me to promote Twenty Groups, but I hear success story after success story in these groups; domestic dealers making $250,000 month and more. Recently a dealer told me he didn’t want to join a Twenty Group until his numbers got better. What?  Would someone please hit me in the head with a two by four?  
3. Go to your state convention or make plans right now to attend the NADA convention. I had a dealer tell me last year he wasn’t going because business was tough and he couldn’t afford to go. What? I wanted to reach up and smack myself when I heard that.  That’s when you need to go. You need inspiration.  You need to see the possibilities.
4. Go to a Dave Anderson workshop. He doesn’t pay me to say that. Dave is a friend. I just think he has good stuff that will help repair some of your damaged brain cells and possibly grow some new ones.  

I’m not a scientist, and sure don’t know much about the human brain, but I have to believe that if you breathe enough bad air that your brain cells eventually erode. The air is not going to get any better until you get off that darn plane or out of that box you operate in everyday. It’s all a little stinky right now, but now is the time to get some fresh air so that when the tailwind comes along you are in a position to really zoom ahead. If you don’t do something different you may indeed find oxygen masks falling from the ceiling, but there ain’t nuttin’ in ‘em but more stale air.

Ten Tips for Change:

1. EMBRACE ANXIETY- It is motivation to take action.

2. GET AFTER IT-Focus your energy on making positive change. Crank up the intensity and aggravate the competition!

3. PUT FEAR IN PERSPECTIVE-What’s the worst that can happen?

4. BE READY-Preparation breeds Confidence.

5. DON’T DWELL-Forget minor setbacks; learn and move on. (Don’t let the setback become the standard!)

6. HEALTHY DISCONTENT- for people or things blocking your progress. (Continue to surround yourself with losers and you will continue to lose.)

7. INSPIRATIONALLY DISSATISFIED- with yourself…YOU have to step it up! (YOU must set the example!)

8. DAILY DOSE- of paranoia…fix yourself… (We’re back to you again. You must set the example!)

9. CONTINUE to look for answers. (Continuous Improvement-You never get it right!)

10. NEVER- ever give up. Other people want to see you fail! Don’t let others control your thinking!