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How Often Do You Compliment Others?

August 10, 2008 By Jesse Petersen

Pardon a minute of back-patting, but you will see that it is to make a point later on. I just can’t contain myself when I get a compliment like the one I just got. Sometimes, compliments are too few and lacking gusto. Then, there are days where you can be blown over with a feather because someone took time out of their busy day to send this to your boss:

I bought the Brochure template pack this morning and I just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you. Thanks not only for providing an excellent quality product but also for making it available at such an outstanding price. I’m absolutely delighted with every aspect of dealing with iThemes from start to finish. I got my site up and running very quickly and then wanted to make a change which I couldn’t figure out. I looked around the support forum and in spite of my best efforts I couldn’t spot the answer. I posted a request for help and expected a response in a day or so. Within 15 minutes Jesse had a reply up there which hit the spot directly! As we say here in Yorkshire I’m “chuffed to bits.” –Nigel G.

http://ithemes.com/testimonials/

Then, to make things even better, my boss sent it to me, along with his reply to the customer affirming my role and superb work for the company. Amazingly, he was “chuffed to bits” over a response as simple and polite as this: “See if this topic helps you: http://forum.ithemes.com/index.php?topic=444.0” That one little thread started the rest of the day’s happy notes of affirmation.

Okay, bragging done, time for some meat… this has truly changed the way I will go about my day when someone impresses me with their performance on the job. If someone beats my expectation, I will now, at the very least, tell them that I appreciate them.

You never know when someone is having a miserable day, and this sort of thing can keep someone going on one compliment for days or weeks if they don’t get daily affirmation elsewhere. Few things in life feel as good as a verbal hug from a complete stranger.

-Note: just in case a certain client is reading this, I really adored and cherished your personal note earlier in the day, as well. I am very happy to be on your project and honored to have your appreciation.

Filed Under: Relationships Tagged With: affirmation, Customer Service, expectation, Golden Rule, testimonial

Happy Birthday, Liz!

July 3, 2008 By Jesse Petersen

Today is Liz Strauss’ birthday. Birthdays are fantastic days of reflection and celebration in my family, and I hope you have a fabulous day yourself.

I just found out about this special day about 7pm while I was sitting in class and my eyes perked up a bit. My mind flashed to this post and it became a creation in an instant. I didn’t have time to put together anything elaborate, but I hope this has some meaning to all of us who know Liz. Cue story.

The day was December 2006, and I had just stumbled across Liz’s blog through a link from some of the big blogs I started delving into in order to learn how to write better content and reach more readers. I saw her hypothetical questions and a post by some guy called Chris Cree. Skimming some more, I found SOBs and B.A.D. bloggers, too.

Then I did it. I left a comment.

My blogging life changed. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Relationships Tagged With: Chicago, Liz, Liz Strauss, SOB, successful-blog

Ask It Like You Mean It

March 9, 2008 By Jesse Petersen

Have you noticed that the kind greeting “How are you?” has turned into a passing “HeyHowrya!” recently?

I’m not quite sure exactly when it happened, but I can remember the culture shock of moving from a small mid-west farming/industrial community when I was 16 into the big life of the Tampa suburbs. Sure, there were fields, cows, and crap-kicker boots on all the rednecks, but there were enough city kids around to throw me for a loop. The saying back then was, “What’s up?” or simply, “‘sup?”

I’d stop and say something along the lines of one of my classes or a cool movie I just saw, only to look around for the person who asked in the first place. In the words of Ray Stevens: “They was gone!”

Think about this:

How many people do you stop to listen for their answer when you ask how they are?

I’ll up the ante one more on all of us, because I only know two people in all of my hundreds of friends that do this:

Will you take, “Fine” for an answer and leave it at that?

I dare you try to make someone mad for caring that much about how they are doing.

Filed Under: Personal, Relationships Tagged With: how are you doing?

Sir Edmund Hillary Dead at 88

January 11, 2008 By Jesse Petersen

Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008)

Sir Edmund Hillary - http://www.flickr.com/photos/graeme_m/102307221/The first man to have climbed to the top of the world died yesterday of heart failure. He had been expected to make a recovery from his hospitalization, but he did not pull through. Let’s take a look at the life of this fascinating man.

Hillary was a small boy, thin and uncoordinated, so he took to books as a refuge. In his teens, he discovered that he had deceiving endurance and strength for boys his age, and when he was 20, he climbed to the summit of Mount Oliver in the Alps.

After successfully reaching the top of Mount Everest, he snapped a photo of his Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, but Norgay was unable to return the favor because he did not know how to operate a camera (with something that important, I would have been teaching him along the way, huh?), so the only photo from the top is of Norgay. They both left a small article and started back down after only 15 minutes. Talk about 15 minutes of fame… turned into a lifetime.

That climb gave him the noteriety and experience to also travel to both poles, with the final notch in his belt being a trip to the North Pole with none other than Neil Armstrong. That feat made him the first person to stand at both poles and Mt. Everest.

After being knighted, he is the first and only person to appear on a New Zealand bank note during their lifetime and is the first foreign national to be granted honorary citizenship of Nepal during the 50th anniversaty of his ascension. During that celebration, both is son, Peter, and Norgay’s son, Jamling, reached the summit of Mt. Everest to commemorate their fathers’ expedition.

He devoted most of his life after the climb to building schools and hospitals in Nepal to repay he debt to them for allowing him to bestowed with such priveleges and fame. He will long be remembered for his kindness and humilty and the world mourns Sir Edmund Hillary today.

Filed Under: Current Events, Relationships Tagged With: Mount Everest, New Zealand, Sherpa, Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay
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