When In Cowtown...

In business we can always tell a newcomer to the area because they don’t recognize the culture. This last week a colleague of mine was telling me how they just got a job working for a company that has been doing business in Calgary for the last 25 years. This Oil and Gas Corporation has a longstanding reputation in the community and my friend was completely impressed that they gave every employee last Friday off with pay so they could take their families to the Stampede Parade downtown. This is a practice that is not uncommon with businesses in the area. Most will have employees break out the cowboy hats, decorate their establishments or even put on an annual free pancake breakfast. The entire city comes alive when the atmosphere of “The Greatest Show On Earth” spills over into the streets. This year especially with it being the 100 Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede just about everyone will get in on the action.

In contrast another company with over 20 years experience in their industry who recently arrived on the scene did not even acknowledge the festivities. They could not comprehend why people may not be willing to show up to leadership meetings hosted on the weekend. A corporate executive from yet a third company also new to Calgary was heard complaining about the decline in sales during the Stampede week.

Some people just don’t get it do they?

Calgary is Cowtown. If you just don’t understand why, may I recommend a little day trip out of town. In fact, take your kids, take your business partners, or just take yourself out to Bar U Ranch only 62 km south of Calgary and get in on the real picture of why Calgary is Cowtown. This was ranchland. It was wild and rugged and unfenced with some of the largest herds of cattle roaming free across the land for years and years. It was the stuff that legends were made of and heroes were born out of.

So when you see all of the cowboys (real, or playing dress up for a day) realize that this is the heritage of our city and whether your ancestors rode the west on the back of a horse or if they just arrived last year it is appropriate to put on a pair of boots and a hat and join in the fun.

In Calgary the Stampede is about as big as Christmas. So when in Cowtown – make like a cowboy, especially the week of the rodeo.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

ps. For all of my cowboy friends this is about the funniest video I have ever seen. For anyone who has ever tried to herd cattle, cats, or people you are going to absolutely love this!

Put Your Cowboy Hat On!

The Calgary Stampede means different things for different people. It is a time for Calgarians to show their heritage and get out their cowclothes complete with buckles, belts, boots and hats. Gentlemen are more likely to open a door and say “Mam” as they pass by and then there is the good ol’ hospitality of lots of free breakfasts, barbeques and beef on a bun.

Those of you in the tourist or retail industry are very likely pretty excited. After all this is a big time of year for you. If you are in the sales industry may be more or less excited depending on what you sell. In our industry of social media and online footprinting we are in a huge upturn. Every time of year is good right now. Everyone needs us.

Being part of the Calgary Business Network puts our team at Loyal2U around all kinds of business people within a variety of industries. I have had some professionals tell me that during the Stampede they send everyone on vacation because no sales can be made because everyone is stampeding this month.

Personally I am more of an optimist than that. I feel that every day is a good day for making a sale and that there are no bad times of the year, just bad attitudes that hold us back. 

So here are a few of my personal tips for making the most out of Stampede Week. I hope that you like them:

• Get out your cowboy hat and jeans and make contacts at the Stampede Tradeshow and book them all for the week after.
• Take potential clients with you to the rodeo.
• Take advantage of all the free pancake breakfasts by meeting clients there, taking sales staff there, making new contacts there. Use http://flapjackfinder.com/ to find out where they are.
• Get back on LinkedIn and see who you can do business with in another city where there is no Stampede going on.
• Take your camera along and get great shots of potential clients and put them on a Send Out Card with a note about getting together for coffee the week after the Stampede. (If you go to the link I have arranged a free one just for you.)

Got any other ideas? Send them to me at Loyal2Uinfo@gmail.com and I may post them for you.

What Is Courage?

According to online dictionaries: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty, or The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.

This morning I had posted a comment on LinkedIn about courage and a friend had commented on it which made me think more deeply about the subject.

Is a person who is courageous in general more likely to be courageous in most things? I think so.

I have known people who would not stand up to bullies and they typically are more easily pressured to lie and not stand for righteousness on the job either. I once knew a 50 year old man who lost his position at a large oil company for stealing an electrical cord by carrying it out in his backpack, but the truth was he was taking it for someone else who had pressured him to do it. Even when faced with losing his position he would not tell the truth about the matter to save his own hide and keep his $150 000 a year job. I have seen young boys bullied by overbearing mothers grow up and be abused by vicious manipulative wives.

On the other hand the kid that stood up to the school yard bully and bloodied their nose later became the one that dove into a freezing river in March to save the life of their best friend’s dog. That same person endured years of persecution to become fearless in business, an author and an authority in their realm.

Courage seems to me to be more of a choice and that choice is ongoing so that it becomes a lifestyle.

Do those who have shown a lifestyle of continual moral compromise suddenly change and become a person of solid convictions? Would they suddenly take a stand?

The day on the riverbank there were four people watching the dog die over a 45 minute drama. The young man who was 6 feet tall and strong as thunder tried first. The 15 feet of open water before the thin layer of ice that was 30 feet across to the quivering animal was deceptive. Although the water looked to be open jagged layers of ice cut into the man’s legs as he went deeper into the frozen liquid. He reached the ice layer and attempted to break through with his hands. After a few minutes he retreated bleeding and cursing stumbling up the bank.

Next was the dog’s owner who had been watching in horror. This was more than the family pet for the last 9 years, this was a trusted friend and family member. So this woman had formed a plan. She would pick up a rock to attempt to break through the ice to make a trail for the animal to escape the trap. She plunged into the river and made it through the first few feet of open water and began to smash through the ice with the rock. She had not been prepared however for the force of the river and the depth of the water. As she forged her path the ground beneath her began to disappear and suddenly she was up to her neck in a burning sensation. When she turned around a look of sheer terror was on her face as she fled the river.

Another man stood on the riverbank that day. His name was indecision. Indecision will never meet with courage. He was playing with the idea of using a rope that would not reach the animal and kicking at the ice on the side of the bank as though he was kicking around the idea of doing something while wishing that the whole situation would just go away.

The dog owner was now in a crumbled heap on the river bank sobbing her heart out as she could not reach her beloved pet and all seemed to be lost.

Yet there was one more person there that day. This was the least likely candidate. A woman who hated the cold, a person who was not that physically fit and someone who does not even care much for dogs. Yet this person loved the woman who was sobbing uncontrollably in the dirt. This was the best friend of the one who was in the most pain and although everything seemed to point to ultimate failure this person was one of strong convictions and the strength to never give up. Before the others even knew what was happening she had put on the already wet life jacket and lunged into the river. When the water burned her legs she pushed forward till the numbing overtook the burning. When it got up to her chest she fought past the panic and shut the switch off that screamed of her demise. When she reached the ledge of ice she did not attempt to break through but instead swam up to it and pulled herself onto it moving forward a foot at a time using the weight of her body to crush it beneath her chunk by chunk. As she got closer to the dog she locked eyes with it speaking calmly and then grasped it’s front paws in her hands and with one final push broke through the last few feet of ice taking both her and the animal into the drink. When they came up the path was clear and they pushed and pulled each other back to safety scrambling back to their cheering team on the riverbank.

Courage is a choice. Whether it is a child in a burning building or a dog in a river or facing a gunman we all have a choice to make. Whether the choice is to have the courage to do the right thing, say the right thing, or stand up for the one who can not stand up for themselves all of these take courage in that moment. Whether it turns out well like it did at the river that day or if it has the eternally damning consequences of failure the man of courage takes the stand and makes the decision. Come what may, the choice is made.

I believe it is the smaller choices that we meet head on every day that prepare us for the ultimate choices that we face in those larger moments.

What do you believe?

Do you believe it strong enough to face the frozen river?

Always Loyal2U

Kerry George

Website Tools For Building Families

One of the wonderful things about owning a marketing company is that we are often able to represent some fantastic new ideas and companies. When we find a really superb one we like to share it with others.

Me In A Tree presents one of those rare and amazing opportunities to help others and we would like to tell you a little more about them. They are totally focused on assisting parents in the parenting process with positive and upbeat methods that work for today's modern family. You can experience a whole new level of joy and unity in your home just by playing around with an online program with your kids while having fun!

I could talk about it all day, but even better, why not go and sign up for their FREE pilot project and try them out yourself.

Below I posted a link to another article of a friend of mine who is also raving about the benefits.



It's A Great Day To Be Alive: Website Tools For Building Families: MeInATree: My goal is to raise up balanced children who know how to love others even in the midst of conflicts. To me, life isn't so much about avo...

Focus {EAV:31f9adc2080cbf38}

It is easy to get wrapped up in the day to day struggles of putting food on the table isn’t it? In business I hear business owners always talking about how they have no time, and it is true that time is the one thing that limits us.

There are time stealers everywhere. Television, hobbies, church commitments, sports events and the work, work, work... Some of those things are even “good” things. It is important to spend time with the kids and the spouse. It is important to have some “me” time and some reflective time, but time gets away on us all too easy. We get busy working with our head down to the task and we forget to look up and around at the landscape. We forget to plan. If we do plan, we forget to look at the plan and to work on the plan.

Last week I was at an event with Doug Tibben and he encouraged us to find out the 20% of things that we do that creates 80% of our income, and then to double the time that we spend on that 20%. It immediately made me more profitable when I zoned in and focused on that 20%.

Focus is important.

When we play a game of darts we don’t just want to hit the board. There is a place on the board that we specifically want to target. We need to focus the same way in business.

There are certain activities that we do every day that we could train somebody else to do. So why do we waste our time there? Why don’t we hire someone to work for us for $10 an hour and get someone doing that for us so that we can focus on the things that make more money? There are other things that are highly specialized to our field and we are the only one in the company that can do those things. Those are the things that we should charge our premium time for. That is where we want to be. That is focus.

As the business owner we are the master of the ship and we are the one that steers the course for the entire crew. With compass and navigational charts in hand we need to keep going in the right direction. When a storm blows us off course we need to acknowledge it and redirect. When we have been making good time it may be good for moral for a quick stop at a sunny location to load up on supplies and have some R&R with the crew and then get back on course.

We need to let the team know the direction that we are taking. We need to engage them in the process and enlist their help in keeping us focused. It is great when one of them realizes their contribution and says, “I’ve got this, go and deal with that larger issue.” They can only do that though, if we first have taken the time to train them for it and then encouraged them by releasing them to do it. Having that person up in the lookout keeping an eye out for dangers ahead keeps us focused.

The owner of the business needs to know the plan and take ownership of the plan. If we don’t have a plan, then nobody has a plan. We can’t get bogged down slopping the deck. That is not our place if we want to get anywhere. Rest assured that the entire staff does not want the ship to be dead in the water. They want to be proud of where they work. They want to see benefits increase. They want to be part of something that is moving forward. They are happier when we are focused.

So how does one get focused?

Doug taught us that we should firstly write down 10 goals for the year. Then prioritize those 10 things. Then put a date on them. Next we should look at those goals every day for 7 days. I have been doing that and it helps. For myself I decided to go even a step farther and make a plan for the month based on those 10 things. What are the priorities? What activities do we need to do more of? What activities can I personally do less of? Who can I get to do some of the 80% activities so that I can be freed up to do the 20%? If we are going to grow this month what are the key areas where I need to focus as the owner to cause that growth to happen? Who can I enlist in the process to ensure success?

Focus, focus, focus...

This month we have hired sales people for Loyal2U and additional posting staff here in Calgary and in other cities. We are training others to do the 80%. We have also put specific people on specific tasks for the Calgary Business Network. We have goals for that company as well.

It is going to be an exciting month this month within our companies. How is it going to be at yours?


Always Loyal2U
Kerry George

Sacrifice - The Bittersweet Valentine

St. Valentine was a priest martyred during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius II. His crime was sneaking out to the woods to perform marriages for Christian couples when the empire would rather be feeding them to the lions in the Coliseum. Once thrown into jail he was visited daily by the Jailor’s daughter who he fell in love with. Although he was unable to declare his love for her, Valentine did manage to slip her a note of his affection with a single red rose. Thus the legend that we today know as Valentine’s Day was begun.

The theme that was recaptured during the renaissance was centered around the sacrifice of giving it all up for the one that you love. Then Shakespeare stimulated the masses with the stories of Romeo and Juliet and Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The tragedies of love lost has burned in the hearts of men and women motivating songs, poems and now movies in this last century.

Love is a big deal. It is an inherent need within the soul of every individual. A place or a person to feel completed in, and there is nothing so lonely than living without it and nothing so delightful as living within it. There is nothing so comforting as to be in the midst of it.

And at the end of the day when all is said and done... is there anything more important?

One of the best movies I ever seen was “The Notebook.” It is about an elderly man reading the romantic story of their lives to his aging wife with dementia every day so that she would have a glimpse of the memory of their love. It is a fabulous story of two people who had every reason to be apart and could not “fit” into each other’s lives and yet could not go one with any other. It is about time and circumstance trying to wedge between lovers and how nothing could in the end succeed against the spark and the resilience of true love. The thoughts would not go away, and their affection never waned. Even in their old age he would not let her go, but every day drew her back to her memory of him by reading to her from the story of their lives.

It is a wonderful story and like most wonderful love stories there were times when it did not look so good for the couple. There were times when they had to let that bird fly the nest to see if it would indeed come back.

This week having lost Whitney Houston I was reminded of her song that has always touched that deep part of my heart. There is nothing more Divine than self-sacrifice and putting the needs of another before your own. Like the love of Christ on the cross giving it all up for the ones that He loves, or in the case of the singer knowing that she wasn’t the best thing for the man that she cared for. For anyone who has ever lost anyone or given them up for a greater cause, this is a beautiful Valentine memory.

And a great memoire to Whitney whom we have just lost as well...

I Will Always Love You

If I should stay,
I would only be in your way.
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you ev'ry step of the way.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
You, my darling you. Hmm.

Bittersweet memories
that is all I'm taking with me.
So, goodbye. Please, don't cry.
We both know I'm not what you, you need.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of.
And I wish to you, joy and happiness.
But above all this, I wish you love.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I, I will always love you.

You, darling, I love you.
Ooh, I'll always, I'll always love you.


For all of you, I pray that you find real and true love that knows the value of it and remains even in your old age when you can remember it no more on your own.

Kerry Lynne
Always Loyal2U

The Importance Of A Solid Foundation

Last year a friend of mine invited me to go to a networking group with her. Although I had been to a few groups before I had never really been to one that was focused on business so I was pleasantly surprised to find a variety of people from several different backgrounds and vocations. I enjoyed it so much that I joined a couple of them over the next few months and became a regular attendee of a few of them.

I found that there are some major differences in how some of them are ran. Some are really interactive, others are more of a spectator sport. At least three of the most major organizations in Calgary are very structured. Typically a meeting has an address from their leader, everyone does a short introduction of themselves and their business, leads are exchanged, and in some cases even extracted out of the members by forcing them to pay a toll fee if they don’t have one for someone in the group. Fees are charged at most of these groups and they don’t include the price of your meal.

The foundation of each group was interesting to study, because as goes the leader, so goes the organization. Usually in the beginning of each group somebody had some passion for something good and it got started, but none seemed to be thought out with any long term plan in mind. Some had began out of a need for networking while others seemed to be more focused on the agenda of the upper management. I encountered one that was a non-profit and therefore it had no profit for the participants nor the organizers. Another one was very politically motivated but seemed to shift sides as circumstances changed bringing a question of doubt to those who had invested in it previously. If the leaders were excited sales types they could draw a good crowd but typically they lacked sustainability, and many systems had no sense of accountability for leadership or membership. Two that I encountered had no qualms about using spam techniques to reach potential new members, and even though members knew of these practices they continued to participate anyway.

At first I too was caught up in all of the excitement of it and wanting to play nice in the sandbox, I paid my fees and went to lunch every week. I was not even deterred by the fact that I wasn’t getting much business from the event, I was having fun and it was a business expense. However, as the year progressed and I became busier in my work I realized that I had to cut some corners and focus on where I was actually getting most of my business. That came down to two things.

1. At Loyal2U we had created a social media vortex by using our own methods on ourselves first. We were getting new clients from our own marketing.

2. There was one network that was bouncing off our social media activity bringing us new clients. That network was the Calgary and Cochrane Business Network.

So what was different about CBN?

The first difference was their founder Jim Messner. He had also gone to many different groups over the years and had determined that networking organizations should be about networking. They shouldn’t be about collecting money to fund our political whims or starting our own little empire with a flashy website. Business owners want to get together to share what they do with other business owners, so why not provide an environment where that could be done naturally? Jim is a man of integrity so he attracted men and women of integrity. He is a networker so he attracted networkers. His first group in Cochrane was strong for years weathering the ups and downs of the economy and providing a steady base for entrepreneurs and sales people to meet.

The second difference was that the people that came out seemed to sincerely care about one another and want to give each other the platform. The atmosphere was friendly and truly non competitive. Even though other groups tried to eliminate competitiveness by not having more than one person from one industry present there was always a sense of striving. I remember taking a guest to a meeting who did data entry but she mentioned briefly in her introduction that she also took basic photographs while scrapbooking. A professional photographer told her at the buffet that she was not allowed to mention that because “he was the only photographer” allowed in the meeting, even though he had declared during his own introduction that he was too busy for anymore new clients. It seemed so petty, and worse yet, my friend did not want to go back again. Jim Messner though had always felt that a person should be secure in their trade. As a real estate agent, he has never been threatened by other real estate agents in the meeting because he knows what his unique offering is, and he is confident in that offering.

Ok so the difference was really only one thing. Jim Messner...

Really Jim built a solid foundation for CBN on trust. He had been in the RCMP for 20 years and he was and still is a man of his word. He built a solid reputation and an honest business and people felt comfortable with him. He felt that the networking should happen naturally as people got to know each other through interaction and through actually doing business together and then recommending each other would be the natural course of events.

I am really honoured that Jim has allowed me to carry that on.

We are really excited about the future with the Calgary and Cochrane Business Network and have several awesome announcements that are about to be made, but we go forward knowing that it is because there was a solid foundation that was already laid before us. Without a foundation it would be impossible to go forward. Jim and his associates and colleagues poured their hearts into the effort for many years and created something special that we can now build on.

Thanks Jim for founding the CBN and thanks for being a man of integrity. You built a solid foundation for us to go forward with.

Forever In gratitude,
Kerry George
Always Loyal2U