Josh Hamilton, Shannon Stone, and Hug Your Kids

If you’re a baseball fan, I’m sure you’ve heard the tragic story of Josh Hamilton, all-star outfielder for the Texas Rangers, who threw a ball up into the stands where father Shannon Stone tried to catch it for his 6-year old son, Cooper. Dad overstretched, fell over the wall, and died. Ouch!

Scott Miller, Senior CBS Sports writer, in a recent story, adds this:

Funeral’s today, Hamilton repeated, and this should not be a subject for an All-Star Game. A father takes his 6-year-old son to a baseball game and never comes home? It is just one more harsh reminder. Do not dwell on who’s not here, on what you don’t have. Appreciate what — and who — you do. Hug your kids, count your blessings, be kind to others.

Hug your kids – good advice all year around, for all kids and parents.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/15313613/allstar-hamilton-has-more-than-baseball-on-his-mind

PS Don’t forget – this Monday, July 18, is Global Hug Your Kids Day. If you want to get involved, take the 30 Day Hug Challenge at http://www.30dayhugchallenge.com/. It’s free, fun, and you get 10 free gifts AND a month of hugs from your kids. It doesn’t get any better than that! What Cooper Stone wouldn’t give for one more hug with his dad.

Hug Your Kids – Relaunch Work-Life Priorities Professional Speaker, Michelle Nichols

Kim Auer Nash, left, and Laura, right, say "Cheese" with Work-Life Priorities speaker Michelle Nichols in Nashville, TN

‘Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet here. I’m re-launching my corporate speaking biz, which pays the bills for Hug Your Kids. Overhauling the website has been a real bear but it’s already so much better than it was when I left it last Fall. Peek (but don’t laugh, it’s not all done yet,) at http://www.WorkLifePriorities.com . It has its own FB page, so we can keep the Hugs work separate from the corporate work.

Hug Your Kids – Dan Clark says Emotion Leads to Action

Pro speaker Dan Clark says "Emotion leads to Action."

I heard professional speaker Dan Clark speak in Reno last week and while he made several great points, there was one that stayed with me, that my mind kept turning over and over like a shiny rock for the next several days. He said something like logic increases knowledge but emotion creates action. Action – the goal of every speaker.

I think it’s this emotional connection around the words “Hug Your Kids” that makes it so powerful. “Hug” is an action word. “Kids” has a very strong emotional kick, because even if you don’t have kids, you once were a kid. “Your” brings home the bacon, that is, it is the link between the action and the heart.

“Hug Your Kids” came from the billboards our family had put up for just one day in Houston on the 5 year anniversary of our son Mark’s death, in 2003. They said “HUG YOUR KIDS TODAY. WE WISH WE COULD. IN MEMORY OF MARK NICHOLS 1989 – 1998.” Powerful stuff.

The Hug Your Kids project has turned those 2 billboards for one day into a global, year-around movement – because it causes action. Hug your kids, spouse/ partner and loved ones, today!

Hug Your Kids – Interview with Jeffrey Benjamin

 

Listen to Jeffrey Benjamin interview Hug Your Kids Founder, Michelle Nichols

You’ve read about Hug Your Kids. You might have even met Michelle Nichols, the founder. In this interview by Jeffrey Benjamin, founder of Breakthrough Training, you can learn why this message matters to every businessperson, regardless of whether they have kids or not. And if they do have kids, why they should forget “work-life balance,” and how they can be truly successful at work and life. This message impacts sales, business and life!

Listen and let me know if you agree, disagree or have someting to add!

Hug Your Kids – Even With a Pierced Belly Button

My daughter Amy shows off her new PIERCED belly button

Beware of children of sales trainers. Kids often pick up bits and pieces of their parents’ professions. Since I was in the sales biz for 25 years, my kids are really good persuaders.

Case in point: My daughter, Amy, turned 18 recently. See her Mexican tres leches cake (yum!), her cute boyfriend, and her new pierced belly button. I thought the tiara was a nice touch too.

How did she close her sale to me? “But Mom, my belly now has an amethyst – and that’s my birthstone!” 

Kids – gotta’ hug ‘em before they grow up and fly off to college and the rest of their lives. Too soon, she’ll be out of hug’s reach.

Work-Life Work on Hiatus until 2010

I wouldn’t trade the last 20 months that I’ve spent being solely focused on creating and evangelizing the Hug Your Kids project and Work-Life Priorities for any work in the world.

But what I’ve learned is that while my work-life work is Important, in these economic times, it isn’t Urgent. Fortune 500 companies may still be able to fund both Important and Urgent work, but for the rest of the business world, which is about 95% of all the businesses, they can only fund work these days that is Urgent. This is for both financial and political reasons. 

So I’m putting this work on hiatus until 2010, and heading back to my former company, Savvy Selling International, as a speaker and consultant on Sales. I’m specifically looking at how to increase your closing ratio, an especially Urgent topic in these times. Check out http://www.savvyselling.com – and stay tuned! Thanks.