My trip back to Columbus Part II

This past weekend I had a chance to go back to Columbus, GA for a friend's wedding. (By the way, my friend is an AFLAC agent! So is his wife!) I flew out on Thursday night and arrived on Friday morning. I had to meet up with some friends in the morning but in the afternoon I got a chance to go to visit some friends who have helped Team Abstract with pended business.

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!

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The entire Red Hot Chili Peppers team was in the office today! Here's Matt and their fearless DSC leader Marie!

One more picture!

What's Eric doing?

More Halloween Party Pictures!

These are some pictures that Jason and his girlfriend took at our party!

Week 43

Jason and I spent at least an hour double checking our paper apps and filling out the transmittals. It was the first time we tried paper apps because of the luxury of having a SNG computer at our disposal. Such wasn't the case this week.

At this time, I don't think Jason or I can afford to purchase a SNG computer. I know for sure that I can't. I have a negative monthly balance, thanks to my large incentive item purchase two months ago.

In the world of ebay, here are some unusual ALFAC items up for sale. I didn't bid on either of them.

This is a baby's jumper with the AFLAC duck on the front. I forget how much this cost but I had to post it up because I thought it was funny that you can use your kid to advertise AFLAC!

This item interests me since it is a baseball but I didn't bid for that. AFLAC has an All-American High School Baseball Game where all of the great high school ball players come together and play. Well, they have special baseballs for that event. This is one of them. The person who is selling this said that he/she got this as a foul ball. The bid was $5 yesterday.

The Choice Is Yours

"You have been given a bag of cement and a bucket of water. You can either build a stepping stone or a stumbling block." From the Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer.

This was the quote at the end of the chapter Gitomer entitled, "Do you have a self-imposed mental handicap?" I liked this quote alot because it helps identify my perspective. I have the raw materials to build your business. Will I use my materials to step up to higher level or will use them to build an obstacle that impedes my path to success?

The following obstacles or what the book calls "mental handicaps" are very familiar to me:

"That business owner hung up on me."

"I've called 20 people and no one wants to talk to me."

"I've called 40 people and zero appointments."

"I can't make an appointment."

"My business pipeline has a big hole in it."

"The owner didn't say 'yes.'"

"The owner was a no show."

"The owner didn't give me the time to present the way I wanted."

"I can't get a PAA signed."

"I can't open a group."

"I didn't write any premium today."

"I didn't write any premium this week."

The choice is mine to either overcome or be overcomed. When I think about these statements, it's easy to become "phone-shy" or just sit at my desk and do nothing productive for my business. The negative feelings that come from the statements above can really play tricks with my mind, my confidence and my heart. It's up to me to learn how to overcome the objections and the negative feelings that come with it.

Here are 4 steps I do often everyday to overcome my difficulties:

I believe it starts with taking charge of your business. I have yet to meet a passive business owners. Usually they are calling all the shots and making the business work. For me to be successful, I need to make the all the tough calls and do all the hard work. No one will do it for me.

I also believe it means checking my attitude. I need to be optimistic because if I'm not, I'll be overwhelmed with my difficulties and I will be worthless to my business. Another good reason to have a good attitude is because my attitude affects my teammates and my office. If I have a bad attitude, I will unconsciously take others down with me. If I have a good attitude, I can encourage them and help them.

I believe that I need to find new and fresh ways to do business. I am always trying to think of ways to expand my scope of influence and grow my business. I find this the best part of my job because I love to create things. (My favorite thing is to create groups!) I love to create new networking and business relationships.

Finally I believe that I need to be a great time manager. There are so many things I want to do but only a limited time to get those things done. I find myself struggling at times with this but I do prevail. But when I'm on my game, I find that my organization, my scheduling, and paperwork are all up-to-date. That is a great feeling.

When I typed this down, I realized that I never mentioned anything about ER presentations, EE presentations, or signing people up. It just dawned on me that these things come naturally for me! I've gotten to the point of internalizing the scripts. That's a great feeling. I know that when I first started AFLAC, script recall was a big obstacle in me growing my business. But since I've gotten down the scripts, I've grown and moved on to other difficulties to overcome!

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." --Sir Winston Churchill

It's Easy!

Richard new motto is "It's Easy!" He's showing everyone that making appointments is easy today with 7! Great work!




The Red Hot Chili Peppers Team is making some noise! They made 18 appointments today. Their record for a week is 12! Congrats!

Here's the total appointments set by the Giants team today: Joseph has 4. Faye has 4. Francine has 3. Marie has 3. Jason has 2. Brent has 2.

Breaking news...

Richard has just hit 8 appointments! Whoa!

Appointment/Calls Totals

Here's the totals for the week so far:

Joseph 5 appts, 23 calls
Richard 3 appts, 85 calls
Ben 3 appts, 60 calls
Francine 2 appts, 25 calls
Jason 2 appts, 20 calls
Matt 1 appt, 58 calls
Brent 1 appt, 10 calls

In other news...the latest AFLAC item on sale on ebay is an AFLAC duffle bag. The description says that it is the 50th anniversary commemorative edition of this bag.

Welcome to our new associates!

It's a new week and we've got some new faces on Monday morning for our call day.
Welcome Faye and Joseph to the Giants team!

Joseph comes out with a strong Monday with 5 appointments! Great job!

Richard was the call leader with 3 appointments in 85 calls.

Week 41 highlights!

Congrats go out to Regina for hitting 112% of MPI!

Congrats go out to Josh for hitting 237% of MPI!

Congrats go out to Irene for $6,435.60 in premium! She gets her fireball award with this!

Congrats go out to Guillermo for $4,161.48 in premium!

Congrats go out to Jason for $3,407.16 in premium!

Congrats go out to Alan Chan for $2,734.80 in premium in his first week of writing!

Congrats go out to Aubrey for $1,758.88 in premium!

Congrats go out to Richard for $1,018.08 in premium!

In the South, they would say, "Y'all rock!"

In the world of ebay, I saw a Walmart duck going for $55.01! Crazy! There were 14 bids for this duck. I would like this duck, but not for $55.01!

Pictures From Our Halloween Awards Party

I'm sure there are better pictures out there. There were so many people with cameras last night. But here are mine from my camera phone. I couldn't take any pictures when the lights went out because I don't have a flash.

The best picture of the night had to been Guillermo and the wedding party next door to us. That's the last picture.

People from our office who dressed up: Guillermo (Scooby-Doo), Irene (Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz), Joseph (Vampire), Josh (Vampire), Richard (Pumpkin), Jason (Big Bad Wolf), Regina (Giants player), Francine (50's girls), Gil (Priest), and Brent (Giants player). Since Tamarah and Aman were from our office until their move, I'll include them as well. Aman was White Trash and Tamarah was Elvira. People from our office that attended but didn't dress up were Marie and Ellen.

There were many people from our office that won awards! Congratulations to everyone.

Raffle prizes: Josh won a portable DVD player. Aman won a huge computer monitor.

The after party was in the presidential suite on the 9th floor.

Friday!

One of my favorite things to do Friday afternoon is to get away from prospecting, filling the pipeline, following up with leads, and persuading people to get something they don't even know they need. This is a hard job, and when you work hard, you deserve to break hard. On that note, I'm Audi 5000 for a break in the action weekend that includes our Halloween party, Arizona vs. Stanford, maybe a matinee movie, and some exercise. It's time to recharge.

Thursday!

Here's Josh doing one of his favorite things at the end of a busy day...transmitting business! When Team Abstract transmits business, the red siren is always on. For some reason, this picture didn't capture the light glowing. But trust me, it was on. Josh and the team transmitted about $12K today.

After work, I went to get my mail and guess what? My Japanese duck arrived! I'll have it in the office so you can check it out. When you squeeze it, the duck "plays" the saxophone and then says AFLAC three times!

What's going on with the other teams in the office?

The latest unusual item I found on ebay is a 2002 Fame flask.

New Look For AFLAC Webpage!

I just went there and we have a new look!

www.aflac.com


Checkout this webpage. It has all the Japanese AFLAC ducks. I can't read any Japanese but if you click on the top left of the screen, you will go to a screen where you can listen to all the ducks play their instruments. Click on a duck and he plays the Japanese AFLAC song on his musical instrument.

http://orchestra.aflac-duck.jp/duck2/?banner_id=ohp

A Great Quote For Us

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Japanese Duck on Ebay

I like to buy stuff on ebay every now and then. So last week I decided to see if there were any AFLAC items on sale that I might be wanting to have. I purchased a Japanese AFLAC duck from a girl in Japan. She said that she bought these ducks from a store in Japan. Here's what it looks like:

Here's the description of the duck:

"This auction is for a 2006 promotion item ,orchestra duck, new face of Aflac Japan. His part is a sax, it's a beautiful tone.It can attach to your cellular phone.When you squeeze his belly, he plays a tune on the sax.♪～♪♪♪(a commercial song melody of AFLAC JAPAN）♪♪♪～♪And he says 'AFLAC, AFLAC, AAFFFLLAAAAAACC!!!' He can not talk Japanese."

I'll bring it to the office once it comes in. I paid $15 for it.

There are other ducks in this orchestra. There is a flute duck, piano duck, violin duck, and trumpet duck.

Other notable items that I've seen on ebay are: a license plate from Mississippi that says "AFLAC", a Fireball plaque, a Fireball pin, an AFLAC water flask, and many ducks that are no longer available.

What's New In The Giants Office

Here's Matt being initiated to a phone call contest. Richard and Matt were going head to head on phone calls. Richard made 4 appointments. Matt made 2 appointments. The rules are that if your challenger makes an appointment, you have to drop down a give 'em 10 pushups. However, if you make an appointment, your challenger has to drop down and give you 10 pushups! When we first started the contest, I think it started out with 15-20 pushups for every appointment. If I remember correctly, the most pushups I've had to do in one day is 50 pushups. That was when I challenged Richard and Aman.

In other office news...

Thanks Regina for providing breakfast and the groups to service this morning.

Congrats to Georgianna for achieving 129.57% of MPI in week 40!

Congrats to Ted for achieving 113.13% of MPI in week 40!

Congrats to Regina for achieving 112.88% of MPI in week 40!

Welcome to all our new associates: Francine, Joseph, Matt, Alan, and Yoko!

Alan wrote about $2700 in premium today! 5 directs! Great job! That's a great start for his fast-start/super fast-start award!

This is a picture of Richard getting some tips from our office veteran, Georgianna!

Your Costume?

I wanted to post something about our Halloween party this Saturday.
What are you planning to dress up as?

Power Month Leaders From Our Office

Associates:

Gil $28,147.20
Guillermo $12,404.16
Jason $11,946.60
Brent $10,031.28

Top 50 Associates YTD from our office

#6 Gil
#9 Marie
#10 Aubrey
#12 Jason
#17 Richard
#20 Guillermo
#28 Brent
#31 Aman
#35 Ben
#36 Irene
#44 Donna
#49 Cindy

It's Real

So is this an authentic Dwight Clark "The Catch" picture?



Regina's picture of Dwight Clark's "The Catch" is legit. He really did autograph it! Here's me and Dwight! As you see that I'm wearing my AFLAC hat!

What's New In The Giants Office

Irene, welcome to Team Abstract! Study the picture. Live the picture. Be the picture! Our ducks quack "ABSTRACT!" Team Abstract also welcomes Yoko and Alan too!

Congratulations to Marie for being our new DSC in the office! Welcome Matt to the team! Great work on your first few weeks in the office! Your appointments numbers are up and that is a great thing! Remember, shoot for at least 10 appointments and you are on your way to being successful.

Richard switched teams and is now with Marie and the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Team Abstract's Happy Hour Party

We met at Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco for drinks and to select the prizes for our 3rd quarter production. Josh created a board of prizes. For every $5K in production, you got one pick off the prize board. Brent was the first one to pick and he got 2 free AFLAC ducks! He also picked up $15 in cash. Gil had a monster 3rd quarter and he had the most picks of the day. He got the $55 in cash, the bag of AFLAC pens, an AFLAC coffee mug, and a nice AFLAC pen. Ben made the most of his pick by selecting the square with two extra picks twice! He got 2 ducks and cash! Guillermo got the AFLAC calculator and cash, and Jason won an AFLAC coffee mug and cash!

Josh makes working for AFLAC a lot of fun. A big congratulations to Josh for hitting his FAME award for this quarter!

It was great having Regina at our party! She was our lovely "Vanna White" who turned over the cards to see what we won.

A big thank you for Regina and Josh for making our working environment exciting and fun.

Another AFLAC commercial

Regina Needs A Team Song

I guess it is for the Awards/Halloween party?

My suggestions in no particular order:

Takin' Care of Business: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Let's Groove: Earth Wind & Fire
Rock and Roll Part 2: Gary Glitter
Born to be Wild: George Thorogood
Star Wars Theme: John Williams
Rollout: Ludacris
Chicago Bulls Theme: Alan Parsons Project
Boom: POD
We Will Rock You: Queen
Start Me Up: Rolling Stones
Yeah!: Usher
You Really Got Me Going: Van Halen
ESPN Gameday Theme: ESPN

Rick...what do you got?