How about giving away an AFLAC purse made out of AFLAC license plates?! That's making a big statement if you asked me. 
How about a Moss baseball hat? This is new because I thought I had the latest baseball hat but I was wrong. 
I bought this brand new AFLAC polo shirt on ebay for$18.75! There were 2 bidders but I strategically waited until the last 3 minutes to make my bid. It was $13.25 for the shirt and $5 for shipping. I love ebay. There was a gray polo shirt that was for less, but I like this color better.
There is an AFLAC laynard going for $26.07! That's not including the $7.60 for shipping. That's crazy! Evidently, it's a rare find because 16 people have bidded for this. It's just a piece of material that you can wear around your neck! Big deal to me.
This Founder's week clock looks very familiar. I want to say that Josh has one. Well, some DSC is selling his/her's. No one has bid for this yet. It's going for $15.00 right now.
Someone is selling their fireball pin along with two regular AFLAC pins.
...this rare Hawaiian surfer AFLAC duck is on sale right now for $71 + $9 shipping! This is by far the most expensive duck I've seen on ebay. Crazy huh?
I have to once again post my experimenting with packaging AFLAC plans together. It works better than I expected. Ben & I are working with a group right now and offered two packages. The first one is a package consisting of a level 1 cancer, level 1 accident, level 2 prp, and intensive care. The second one is what I called the bundle. It consisted of a level 2 accident and a level 1 sickness. I highly recommend this technique in presenting AFLAC. Ben & I 14 plans Monday between 4 people!
I don't know about you, but I've been working in 5th gear for the past month. I have 7 days to hit my super fireball award! Yikes!
Up for bid is a Long Sleeve T-Shirt given to employees only during the 2001 Employee Appreciation Week. This is probably one of the oldest items I've seen for AFLAC. This is the first 2001 shirt I've seen on ebay. The current bid is $1.99 plus $7.55 for shipping.
Today I went to watch Ben coach his son's soccer team in a big playoff game.
This picture was taken through the chain link fence at Golden Gate Park's Polo Grounds. Ben is in the back in the red hat. His wife is the team mom and is helping the boys with their gatorade. Ben's son, Adam is on the far left in the foreground.
Their team lost 2-1 to a team that was comprised of boys one year older than all of them. It was a battle to the end. This was a picture of the team listening to Ben as he celebrates a great season and great teamwork.
I found this article on the internet that ties in sports management with business management. It is based on a book called "Management: What Professional Baseball Can TEach Professional Managers."
"Part 3 - THE RECOMMENDATIONS
My recommendations to the senior management (manager and coaches) of the baseball team on how to improve the efficiency, quality, and profitability of their operation.
1. Act decisively.It is imperative that the president and vice-presidents (manager and coaches) immediately take action to demonstrate to the employees, customers, and stock holders that they recognize that there is a problem and that they will take necessary action to correct it.
2. Publish performance standards and hold all employees accountable.You cannot expect employees to perform to the required level without knowing what that level is. Nor can you discharge an employee for failure to perform adequately if you have not specified what minimum performance level is required.
3. Train, develop, and coach employees. After you have established minimum performance standards, give employees the help they need to meet or exceed those standards. If a salesperson is unable to meet quotas, you might send that person to a course in lead generation. Accordingly, if a hitter is batting .097 he may need more time in the batting cage or to review film of his swing with the hitting coach.
4. Be patient - to a point. Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. A shipping clerk might send a package by UPS to the Federal Express headquarters (yes he really did). A batter might have an 0 for 22 slump. However, it is not fair to the team, or to the non-performing employee themselves, to allow it to go on forever.
“He’ll come around in time” is not an appropriate answer when you know it has dragged on too long already. As a manager, you get paid to make the tough decisions. Being “mister nice guy” has to give way, at some point, to doing what is right.
A customer service representative who only handles 80 percent of the average number of calls, but has been in the job for six years, is never going to reach the norm. A relief pitcher with ten years of experience who has an 0-4 record and an earned run average (ERA) of 24.31 isn’t going to be a closer.
5. Don’t put employees who are struggling into critical situations.You wouldn’t ask a sales manager who has failed to close his last six opportunities to handle the biggest potential sale in company history. Nor would you use a relief pitcher who has blown his last 5 save opportunities, and has given up more home runs than the rest of your pitchers combined, as your closer. Use them in non-critical situations for awhile. If they handle those, they can work back into the closer’s spot.
"Management is nothing more than motivating other people. " Lee Iacocca
"I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism." Charles Schwab
"The way you see them is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is the way they often become." Zig Ziglar
Have a great week! And eat a lot of turkey on Thursday!
Check out Richard's creative way to grow his business and to market himself!
An AFLAC agent has relocated and from the looks of it, has gotten out of the business. This person is selling all of their incentive items. You can have it all for a bid of $90 + tax. Here is what is in the bunch of goodies:
15 balloons, retired logo
1 pen holder, desk, retired logo
8 rubber coasters with duck, retired logo
92 duck magnets, retired logo
23 magnets, new logo
5 chapsticks, retired logo
2 staple removers, retired logo
2 glass lens cleaners, new logo
2 yellow keychain flashlights, new logo
5 mirrored sewing kits, new logo
40 balck mini note pads, retired logo
1 bundle nail files, mixed neon colors, retired logo
8 duck shaped pens, retired logo
1 orange travel alarm clock, new logo
27 magnetic bandage holders, retired logo
11 blue stadium cups, retired logo
14 white stadium cups, new logo
22 pencils, retired logo
15 pens, retired logo
1 ice scraper, new logo
2 keychain nail clippers, retired logo
2 blue keychain flashlights, retired logo
1 auto pouch, new logo
4 blue mini note pads, new logo
10 retractable keyboard brushes, retired logo
The Santa ducks are showing up on ebay too. I've seen them go for $30! Crazy!
You rock team! Let's finish up the year strong!
They've put words on our office building!
Here's comes Santa Duck! I've been out of the office for most of the week but I was fortunate to be around on Friday afternoon to catch the UPS delivery! 24 Santa ducks came for me! I have 19 left. 
I'm on a mission...last week I was enrolling Tuesday-Friday. I think I know the San Jose area very well with all of the driving I did.
Week 45 premium leaders...
Top 25 Associates
Irene with 1942.08!
Aubrey with 1373.52!
Jason with 1047.60!
Guillermo with 837.00!
In the world of ebay...
We made the bid of $11 with about 4 hours left in the auction. I thought it was a strong bid considering the duck didn't get much action. Well, the next day, Josh and I found out that we were outbid by $9. Someone won the duck with a $20 bid. Yesterday, Josh told me that one of his clients was bidding on the same duck at the same time we did and she was the one that won the duck for $20. Weird huh? Out of the millions of people on ebay, we found the one that won the duck!
Unusual AFLAC on ebay...
This week there is a 50th Anniversary paper weight going for $8. I would put a picture of the paper weight here but it's such a boring and plain object, I saved all of you the trouble.
My flight home from GA was a good one. One of my favorite movies was showing...Rudy. I don't know about you, but I really like this movie because it deals with overcoming adversity in life. Some of the quotes in this movie really fire me up...
I had to check in with the security in the lobby. While I was there I took a picture of a painting of Paul Amos.
Here are the two awesome people at AFLAC HQ that have helped Team Abstract so much! I brought them some sourdough french bread and See's candy as thank you gifts. I figured those would be good gifts that represent the San Francisco area. I can guarantee you that you won't find either of those gifts anywhere in GA.
My two new friends gave me a quick tour of the facility. It was really spacious. They said that many people exercise by walking down the hallways. I am not exactly sure, but I want to say that from end to end, it was about 1/2 mile. This is a picture of the large room with cubicles galore. This is where many of the people we call for pended business and new business work!
If you want to know what the other direction looks like in the room, well, here it is! As I said there were many, many, many cubicles in this room.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I was waiting in the lobby and a girl recognized me! It was a trip. I knew her from church. I haven't seen her in at least 3-4 years. When I knew her, she was in college. Now she is a in-house trainer. I gave her my card and I told her to keep in touch. I also found out that there is another guy I know pretty good that works in claims! His name is Brent too! It's pretty cool to know so many people who work for AFLAC. I never thought that these friends would be helpful contacts in my career! My friend who got married is a great contact. One of his groomsmen is also an agent. His mom is a DSC. His uncle used to be a RSC.
This is a picture of the wedding at Sweet Home Plantation. It's near Callaway Gardens. It was beautiful. They couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to have a wedding. Now the weather got cold when the sun went down, but that didn't ruin their special day. That weekend they were having their annual Steeplechase race there.
If you ever get a chance to go to Columbus, you must do the following:
Go take a walk on the Columbus Riverwalk! It's quite nice there. The river that borders Columbus in the Chattahoochee River. There's a song by Alan Jackson called "Chattahoochee" and the beginning of the song goes like, "Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee, it gets hotter than a hoochee coochee..."
You have to get some barbecue. There are some great places in the Columbus area. My favorites include Country's, Mike & Ed's, Smokey Pig, and 13th Street Barbecue (even though it's on Veterans Parkway now!)
The picture above is a plate I got at Country's. From left to right: cornbread, pulled pork, cabbages, pickled onions and pickles... in the bowl is Brunswich Stew. You wash it all down with some sweet tea. The barbecue sauce is mustard-based so it's like nothing you have tasted here in Cali. Maybe one day I'll make the office some Southern food. I can't make the barbecue, but I can make some great sweet tea, naner puddin', boiled peanuts, and fried turkey.
There are no sissy cars in the South. You better trade in your Prius or Civcs for trucks. That way you can go off road and do some muddin'. This is my friend's truck earlier this year.
You should also take advantage of the beautiful outdoors. I love to bass fish. Here's my whopper of a fish earlier this year! Believe it or not, this lake was in someone's backyard! His backyard was about 5-6 acres!
Finally, you probably should go to one of the sporting events. NASCAR is very big in the South. SEC and ACC football is like a religion for some. When you live in Columbus, GA, you are most likely going to cheer for Auburn (War Eagle!), Alabama (Roll Tide), or Georgia (Go Dawgs!). However, for baseball, the Atlanta Braves are the only team to cheer for. I had a big problem with that because I am a big Giants fan. This is a picture I took of a Braves vs. Giants game last summer. Giants won that night! Turner Field is a really nice park though.
Now you know what to expect when you go to the South for Triple Crown!
