What I have found through this time of COVID-19 is that while things are more difficult than any time I can remember, in both my professional career and personal life, there is so much opportunity that keeps popping up, that you always have to be on the look-out for it.

Things that you don’t even consider are leading to opportunities everywhere because everyone is looking for answers. I think that’s why the ratings and viewership of the news programs and the talking heads on political commentary are so high – because people are looking for answers. They are looking for leadership during a time like this.

I think what sets real leaders apart from everybody else is that real leaders know to not put the blinders on and pretend like nothing’s happening, but to look for every piece of opportunity. Anything that can make anything better, they take it, execute it, and thrive off of it. That is what is going to help people either get bigger and stronger, or else in some way fall apart.

It takes kind of a weird mind to look for glimmers of positivity and true opportunity when things are so difficult. But I think that’s really what you have to do. I think you can never give up and that you have to always have enough self-confidence to you that you’re going to survive. And that you will find a way to survive, even if things are so difficult you can’t fathom them. That is what I think helps people find real opportunity in times of extreme difficulty.

As we close out April, this is the first month in 16 years that I look back on a calendar and find that I have had zero travel. It’s almost a little mind-boggling. And I don’t know which is more mind-boggling: the fact that this is the first month I haven’t traveled anywhere since starting this company, or the fact that every other month I’ve always been able to go places and find people to meet, sell, and present to while telling the story of the company.

While it is an unusual time, I find a lot of satisfaction in that this is the most leveling time I have ever found in my life. I’ve spent more time at home, I’ve spent more time with my wife and kids, and I have spent more time thinking about the future and the big picture than really I’ve ever done before. It’s a different kind of month coming to an end, but it also gives me a real sense of satisfaction, both in what I’ve been able to accomplish in the past, and what the outset is for the future.

It’s hard when you live your life with about half of it being on the road to not be on the road. It’s a different feeling. It’s a different pace. But it’s also a little refreshing in that you have time to really analyze and really think through the what and the why in your life.

As we end a month like no month has ever ended for me before, it is both a feeling of great relief and a feeling of being ready to get back out and get after it.

From the time of my last blog post on March 13, the world looked completely different. As we sit here today, the coronavirus has now killed more people than the Vietnam War. It has caused a worldwide crisis and hysteria like nothing in any of our lifetimes.

But what I have found out of this crisis is it has taken me back as a person. It has allowed me to redefine who I am and what I truly do. Without the ability to travel hundreds of miles every week, being in tons of different cities, it has made me really exam what I am – and more importantly, what I do.

The beauty of something like this is that when you can redefine yourself, it only makes you better. It makes you appreciate the people around you. It makes you see the difference you truly make in peoples lives, even though you’re not around them. But when you have time to stop and look, and understand all the decisions that you make, all the things that you can control, it can help you understand so much more of who you are and what your true purpose is.

I’ve never been a person who had much of a purpose statement other than I wanted to go out and do as much as I could, as fast as I could. But when that’s taken away from you, you have to sit down and reevaluate what you look at, what you focus on, and what you can do.

While the pandemic has affected the world, and more importantly our nation and many people in our nation, it has made a very positive impact on me to be better and appreciate more deeply everything that I can control.

The marketer in me has named the events of this week “Corona Mania” as the world seems to have gone crazy over the spreading of the novel coronavirus. Think what you want about the illness and hysteria, but the bottom line is it has rattled consumer confidence and shaken the stock market to its core much like someone holding you upside down and shaking all the change out of your pockets.

While every time my phone now rings now it is usually a situation of chaos either from a client or from the office, I am reminded of a couple of sayings that people have taught me over the years that are comforting in times like these.

“When the going gets tough – the weird turn pro”  (Dennis Johnson)

Dennis has been around me my entire career, and when recessions hit or tsunamis take away inventory for dealerships for months or gas climbs to $5 a gallon, there is Dennis always with a smile on his face saying this is the time “when the going gets tough – the weird turn pro.” Meaning that this is when really weird and creative people are able to turn on another gear that allows them to stay out ahead of everyone. It has been a guiding wisdom that I have used many times in the past on days when you just think things are too tough.

“You have to remain calm when everyone around you is acting crazy”  (Mike Strong)

Coming from a guy who went out on his own to start his own company only to learn a couple weeks later his wife was pregnant and then a few months later there was an oil embargo, Mike has weathered a lot of crisis in his career. In talking to him today, he reminded me that when everything is going wrong around you and people are panicking and acting crazy, you have to be calm. I remember when 9/11 happened and I was in college and called him to ask what to do, it was the calmest I ever remember him being. He gave me very simple instructions, told me what to expect and then said call back anytime I was afraid. One of the most intense people I know taught me how to be the calmest person in the room when things get crazy.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do”  (General Patton)

Possibly the greatest military commander of all time who survived 2 world wars and pretty much sealed the defeat of Nazi Germany in the winter of 1945, General Patton was one tough individual.  The stories about him being somewhat crazy are probably not too farfetched, but he definitely was one of the toughest men to ever fight for America and believed that tough times were only temporary and tough people would outlast them.

“A day doesn’t make a week, a week doesn’t make a month and a month doesn’t make a year”  (James Hodge)

I met Mr. Hodge back in 2009 when we were just coming out of the recession. He had a number of dealerships and hired me at one of them first and said if I did a good job I would have a great career with him and if I didn’t he was going to fire me. After working for him for a while and creating a lot of success, one of his stores had a very bad month. Everybody thought it was the advertising, but he sat us all down and said “a day doesn’t make a week, a week doesn’t make a month and a month doesn’t make a year.” I have used that phrase at least a couple hundred times since he told that to me, and we’ve had a great partnership ever since. And now that he has passed on, his grandsons and I have an even closer bond.

All this to say that in a week with as much turmoil as this week has brought, words of wisdom like these are good to have floating around in the back of your mind during times of crisis.

It can be a blessing and also a curse, but I spend an absolutely obscene amount of my time in an airplane and probably 2/3^rd of the time I am flying by myself. While it is a blessing to be able to be in so many different cities in a week because of air travel, it is also a lonely damn place to spend day in and day out.

Sure, the pilots are on the plane with me, but traveling solo can in many ways be a form of solitude. No matter whether you are having a good day or a bad day, once you pass through the clouds you always see blue skies and sunny days. Another thing I love about flying is the weather can be total garbage below you, but up in the air it is always great.

Flying alone gives me time to work, time to think, and also time that moments of my life are ticking away. But at the end of every day, there is always a beautiful sunset that makes you smile back out the window and think about life and how amazing it is to watch the sunset from 30 something thousand feet. With all the chaos, phones, texts, emails, problems that you have to deal with on a minute-by-minute basis in your day, there is nothing like ending your day with that great big fire ball in the sky as it sinks across the horizon and fades below the earth.

There is an old saying that reads “everything isn’t always sunshine and roses,” but at least for me most days, there is sunshine.

On my 18^th birthday, my dad gave me 2 books and said, keep these with you for the rest of your life.  Book #1 was “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, and book #2 was “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale. Over the summer after my 18^th birthday, I read these books as he instructed, but have to admit that was 21 years ago so the details are a little cloudy. Also at the time of originally reading these books, I was much more interested in getting ready for my first semester of college and all the other things that you do when you have just gotten out of high school.

So while I was picking out books to read this year, I put both of these back on my list, and last week I started rereading “The Power of Positive Thinking.” It is very unique how this book now gives me a totally different perspective on things and plays so much more of a role in my everyday thinking. What I had forgotten was how many references there were in this book to prayer as being the common ingredient in positive thinking and how you really set your mind to think positive when there is a proper balance of asking God for help in your daily routine of being positive.

Maybe the piece that is hitting the closest to home for me today is where it talks about how to deal with people who aren’t treating you right and aren’t being fair to you. To summarize the chapters, it says to be positive and appreciate them even though they are not doing the same to you. Why this hits home is I am watching my daughter go through 2^nd grade and see how some people choose to treat her and the nervous energy that it is causing. Just like every parent, I think my daughter is so unique in that she is incredibly smart, beautiful, and has a great sense of humor. As I watch her go through these steps of life and see some friends be mean just for the sake of doing what kids do, it creates a rage that I want to go find the parents and smack them around and show them who is tougher. In life and my career, I have gone toe to toe with some pretty rough individuals and – not that I have a fighting complex – but really have developed the confidence that I am not afraid of anyone or anything.

But as I read this book, it is teaching me to not think that way because it simply isn’t positive. Sure, I could crush these kids’ parents like a fly. But what I need to do is every time something bothers me about the way other kids are treating my daughter, I need to pray for her and pray for them. This week, while traveling all week away from home, I have thought many times about my little girl and prayed that she is having a day of peace and prayed for those who are not giving her peace. It is a different mindset for me, as many people who know me in work and in life know that there is usually more chaos than peace in my wake. I say all this to give myself a written reminder that the next time some kid is ugly to my little girl, my first thought cannot be to go grab the kid’s dad by the throat and scare the crap out of him. The next time this happens I hope that the feeling of peace will come over me again and keep my thinking positive.

After coming back from the hunting trip of a lifetime, I am now officially on a mission to grow the business in 2020.  You are probably thinking that it’s getting a little later of a start, but not really. My hunting will shift focus to a different kind of animal – that of an automotive dealership that has complex challenges and needs the help of an organization like mine that can provide a service that is above and beyond what other competitors offer.

The best time to focus on growing is when people are buying. January and February, which are traditionally slow car months, felt especially that way this year as there was a lot of interest from dealers but not really a lot of buyers of goods and services. Well, that is all about to change as we have rounded the corner of Presidents Day weekend and are heading into the end of February and beginning of March.  Just as we saw on Groundhogs Day, there are only a couple more weeks until spring, and that not only affects the weather but it affects the automotive market as well.

The best part about my mission is having gotten over whatever form of debilitating cold I had to start the year and gotten all of our plans set for our current clients with a great cadence. We are now in a position to go out and turn over new rocks and find more opportunities.

For the last 6 days, I found myself in Argentina on a hunting trip that was like nothing I have ever experienced. Having never been to South America before, I very much felt like a stranger in a strange land. Even while I had several friends on the hunt, it was a time and place where I felt very much alone. Seeing a country with a totally different look, different people and different cultures was truly an experience to make you realize just how big the world is and how much of it I have yet to see.

Having time to think about things and see new things gives you a whole new perspective on the world and the things around you. While a lot of the time was spent hunting. there were many differences in the everyday life that I am accustomed to seeing. To see a farmer ride a horse instead of a machine was truly unique. To get to watch people cook outside on an open flame that wasn’t from a fancy barbeque grill was also very interesting. To have no wifi, internet and cell service for 4 out of the 6 days may truly have been the neatest part because I was able to get out of touch with the world for a few minutes.

It was fun to focus on hunting and have that be the only focus of how good your next shot could be and how far to lead a bird with your shot to make the best hit possible. This was definitely a time like none I have ever experienced since being an adult. The last week was truly a settling experience as I was able to settle down for a couple of days and not have my universe revolve around clients, coworkers, family and friends. Don’t be mistaken, I missed all of them very much and am glad to be back. But being – for lack of better terms – alone in a faraway place did a lot of good for my soul and rest.

Being a stranger in a strange land was very unique and truly broadened my horizons on parts of the world that were completely foreign to me before.

While holidays, vacations and family time are some of the best days you will ever spend, they cause my mind to lose focus and it is a real adjustment trying to get back into the full speed of a traveling, working, selling routine. Some people like to tell me my mind never stops working, but that is far from the truth. There are times, especially around vacations and holidays, where I am able to unplug the wires and just let things be.

But this for me can be tough to get back in the swing of things because as things happen so fast, it is hard to jump back aboard a train that is moving at 90 miles per hour. Getting re-focused for me is a process and takes some time to maneuver so it doesn’t immediately lead me to a point of exhaustion.

1. Making a List – The #1 thing to get re-focused for me is making a list. It needs to have every detail or task that I need to complete and needs to be complex enough that I can have a visual snapshot of all that I need to do.

2. Not All At Once – Again, people who know me would think the opposite, but a big piece to getting refocused is not taking on everything at once. You need to spread out the items and do so in a way where you can achieve a lot of small victories along the way to tackling really big things. Especially as you get readjusted, you aren’t going to be at full speed on day 1. But work at a rate that you can steadily increase and feel yourself making progress.

3. Delegate – Even for people who are not good delegators, when you are coming off vacations, holidays, etc., this is a time when sometimes you are forced to delegate. There simply isn’t always time to do everything yourself, so picking out tasks that others can handle will free up your time to be better at what you are doing.

Without holidays, vacations and family time, life really wouldn’t be worth living. They are vital in so many ways that they are needed for you to continue dealing with everything that life throws at you. The ability to refocus and ramp back up after them is what takes an artform to manage.