cool radio

Create your own radio station.
http://www.pandora.com

clarity

Okay, So I have had time to vent.... The thing about the electric bill is that here at my new warehouse I am charged a "demand" charge. I have two meters one on each warehouse and for some reason (related to $$$) the electric company chose to put a "demand" meter on my new warehouse last year. I have spent hours and hours on hold and talking to nobody's trying to get the meter changed. So I have switched to an electric company that "doesn't charge for demand hours" What a lie. I ran 4 heaters one day last week that made the "demand" sky rocket One day = $732. 1 hour stewing and being put on hold $75. the truth- Priceless! I would have never turned the heat on if I would have known the truth. Can you imagine if I had to run them every day. They really think companies can afford that. It just like Holding someone at gun point and demanding all there money. Really, what's the difference. There is not a thing I can do about it. I have called the BBB and the electric commission. I guess I will have to lobby my Senator.

Furious!

I just got back into the office after a nice day. Signed one contract and a verbal on another one, went to a friends birthday lunch. Open the mail and find a electric bill over $1,000. (last month it was $255)I can actually feel my pulse in my feet as I write this. I am angry because I have switched electric providers thrice and each time they make promises and then break em. I could go on and on. I am trying calm down before I go home, so as not to scare the children. The 20 minute drive should help. I won't let my joy be stolen this time!

Gettin' it done

Okay, so I am sitting here at my desk munching on a salad from United, thinking about the rest of my day and figuring out what I got done this week.
Monday: Seems like nothing, but we answered 15 phone calls, 16 emails, 4 faxes, 3 appointments, 36 letters to leads. Played football with Payton & Evan, fixed 2 bike flats.

Tuesday: 14 phones calls, 8 emails, 3 appointments in sweetwater, 2 letters. Played football with Payton and Evan. Ate dinner with Cole and Cherith. Watched W. speech.

Wednesday: Almost had a wreck. 11 phone calls, 11 emails, 1 appointment in brownwood, picked up boxes from customer in brownwood, drove to baird for appointment. Sams club for supplies. Played football with Payton, basketball, XBox, and got ready for LG and had an amazing LG.

Thursday: 15 phone calls, 20 emails. 2 letters. no appointments, Wrote 5 page proposal. played football with Payton, basketball, xbox. Drove with Cole part way to seymor, Started and finished a book (36 Pages), Went on walk.

Friday: paid bills, went to 1 meeting. Answered a tech support call from customer. Answered 10 phone calls before lunch and pulled a bunch of records.

Seems like I did a lot when I write it all down. I checked our monthly rev. and it is the most we have ever had, and 3.5 days left in month. So. We (BRM. aka. Jesse and Aaron) are gettin it done.
Phone just rang gotta go....

Terrorists coming to Christ

A Report from World Compassion a ministry of Terry Law. Law is a missionary to Iraq and Afgahnastan and other countries. His report says that 90% of terrorists coming to Christ see a vision of Jesus. He reports of a woman in Northern Iraq, a christian woman whose house was attempted to be blown up by an al qaeda terrorist. She called the police and the terrorist ran. They later found him and found that he left 12 pounds of dinamite on her front porch. The detinator was disconected. In court she testified against the man. They asked the terrorist why the detonator was not connected. He said that he couldn't connect it because he heard a voice that told him that he couldn't blow up her house because she belonged to me. The terrorist asked the voice who he was and he said that He was Jesus. In court the man asked if anyone knows who Jesus is he wants to know more about him. The lady on the stand gave him a tract about Jesus and the terrorist accepted Christ as his savior. Mr. Law states that this is one of many hundreds of testimonies that are going on in Iraq and Afghanastan. He has a church of over 800 in Kabul. These are things that we never hear on our drive by media outlets. We will win the war in Iraq and Afghanastan. People's lives are changed forever because of what our country has done there.

Little did you know

I wanted to share this story because it has been something that I have been embarrassed and even ashamed about at times in my life and have no problem with at all anymore, but am waiting for my miracle. When I was a new born in 1977 I acquired a staff infection in the hospital that should have killed me. It got in my blood and "for some reason" stopped in my shoulder and didn't get to my heart. If it would have it would have eatin away my heart. Instead it ate my shoulder and as it grew back it was deformed. The ball and socket were actually reversed. So my socket is on my arm and the ball is on the shoulder. This limits movement in my right arm and was an obstacle in my younger days playing sports. At about the age of 9 my arm stopped growing and is today about 3 inches shorter than my left and has the strenght of a 9 year old. I worked hard in high school to make up for the difference. With limited motion in the shoulder it was very difficult to strengthen my bicep. In spite of this set back I was a runner up my sophomore year at the state tennis tournament and was also (don't laugh) the runner up in push-up competition at regional. One thing I was state champ at that didn't require my arm was checkers. I was also a pretty good basketballer. In Jr. High my nick name was Long Arm. Don't ever call me this. In High school I went to every prayer line I could find and finally someone gave me a prophetic word that said to quit trying to find the right person to pray. God has already healed your shoulder and one morning you will wake up and not immediately even notice that a miracle has taken place. When I was 11 Doctors were going to perform some sort of operation to try and fix it, but the day we went to the hospital the lead dr. had skipped the country and never came back. There are only about 3 dr. in the U.S. that have dealt with this type of situation and we chose not to pursue any others. Today, my shoulder gives me great deals of pain from time to time. When I lift heavy boxes all day or any type of physical activity with the arm. I refuse to let the pain show on my emotions and tend to withdraw when it hits. I refuse to let the enemy relish in the fact that it causes me pain. The Truth is that I am made whole. The pain is much like a knife being driven into it and turned. The purpose of writing this is not to get sympothy or for you to feel sorry for me. I tend to keep it a secret and there is no reason to do so. My friend Becky(new ear)and I both need creative mircacles and we will see them someday soon. Believe with us!

Thankful for breath

Today on I-20 taking Payton to school a semi truck came right up to my bumber and just rode it for quarter mile or so. There was no reason for him to do this. There was no cars in the next lane and he could have easily moved around me. Finally he did and his cab and my car were neck and neck for a 1/2 mile or so and then I saw his blinker out of the corner of my eye and then suddenly he began moving over into my lane. Quickly he moved over and pushed me into the grass. (our vehicles never touched) He came all the way over into the shoulder lane and I had one tire on the grass and on barely on the pavement, all this time I am breaking very hard. I see the guard rail coming quickly and option 1 wasn't available, go to the right of the rail. It was a drop off and.... option two, hope I stop in time and get back over. The end of the truck finally went past and I whipped over just in time to miss the rail. Angels were with us! no doubt about it. This all happened within a matter of 5 seconds. Payton didn't realize what was going on. I was on the horn and yelling for help from Jesus. God bless that man. I don't know why he chose to do that to us, but he did. He had to have known I was there. Perhaps he was sleepy or on drugs. This all happened after I had determined to lookforward to my sales calls today and actually woke up stoked about the day of selling. (see PAIN blog)

customer satisfaction

A rep from one of my clients came by today to go over a list of items in storage. Jesse had his usual hillsong stuff playing on his computer. This client is all business. She sat down at Jesse's desk to go over the list and normally I would turn down the music, but not this time. Hillsong was jamin out to Jesus and the customer had to listen. I don't know if she is a person of faith or not, but she got to hear about 15 minutes of hillsong. I was proud of myself for not apologizing or turning the music down. I have always been afraid of offending customers. Not today. I was really proud of myself. Maybe her life was changed because of it.

I have another post I am working on but I am scared to post it becuase it will be a bit embarrasing to admit to some spiritual stuff I am realizing and processing.

PAIN

The one thing that I was scared of before I started this business was Sales. I am highly S C and have no I in me whatsoever. God knew this when I started and put me in a relationship with the #1 sales trainer literally in the World. This guy has trained the prince of Saudi Arabia. He also wrote the article about me in previous blog. I still don't like to sell. I am not fearful at all anymore, but my struggle is every morning when the alarm goes off. "Jesus, I don't want to get up and sell today." This is what I say in my head every morning. I drag my feet all morning until I get to the office and check email, appointments yada yada yada. I get pretty juiced up by now and am ready to take on the day. I know all the scriptures about who I am in Christ. I confess them every morning. I am trying figure out why the struggle every morning to do something I wasn't wired to do. Why has God put me here to do this when he didn't necessarily wire me to want to be a "salesperson" My consultant tells me that a good salesmen isn't born or bred he is educated and experienced. I have dreamed of owning my own business since I was about 12 years old. Something I didn't think about was Sales. Mornings are so stinkin hard for me. I can remember being a kid and feeling the same way about school, but once I got there I enjoyed it. This may be a theophostic moment I am not sure. I don't like not liking mornings or sales. I used to think it was because I got told "no" so much, but as I grow I don't really care about "no" so much any more. I really feel bad for people that don't do business with me because they don't know what they are missing. I can make their business life so much easier and painfree. (save post 8:15 AM)

Return to blog (3:09 PM) I hesitated to post this because it wasn't complete in my head. I read a sales article this afternoon about finding the PAIN of the customer. Suddenly it hit me that sales is my PAIN. It's not my Niche. I do it because it has to be done and there is no one else to do it. It is tedious and monotonous and takes too long. Researching companies, and finding the decision maker, setting an appointment, writing letter confirming appointment, going to the appointment, sales pitch, reading the person, finding interest, write thank you, follow up. No wonder sales people get paid so much.

Time = Love... that is for another Blog

LIFE GROUP

After many weeks of prayer and processing. We have jointly decided as a family that we are going to host a life group. We are going to make it fun and allow the Holy Spirit to change lives every week. We are going to worship with our children and learn from them. Jesus loved children when he was on the earth so should we. I don't want to miss an opportunity for my kids to experience the Holy Spirit.

Wondering

I have a potential client that when I land this one it will double my business almost overnight. I have had talks with them on and off for about 3 years. Today, My teleprospecting company sent me an appointment notification for this company again. The last communication I had with them they told me that weren't interested in my proposal and they were going to stay where they were at for the time being. I really feel inadiquate to talk with such a large company. I am confident in my ability to do the best job for them. I just wonder if they think I am too small of a company to do business with. This is a fortune 500 company with over 10,000 boxes. The appointment is 2 weeks away. I need wisdom and freedom from fear of them cancelling our appointment again like they did 9 months ago. Getting this account will not define me or make me successful. It's just a desire of my heart to serve the big boys. I see my business as serving others and that is what I do every day so that is what makes me successful. Not the size of my bank account or customer base. This maybe a timing thing too. 9 months ago I wouldn't have been able to handle it personnell wise. Makes me wonder what's up. 9 months? hmmmm.

It's fun being Saved!

I was triple blessed today. I came home from work nad rushed out with my two boys to pick up some fire wood from a friend who cut some trees down. I was telling him about my heat not working at my office and it is 48F in there. He said that he had just the thing and brought out a propane heater brand new for me to borrow. Then on the way home with the load of wood a log fell out as I turned the corner so I went back to pick it up... pause...Now let me go back and tell you I had my eye on a pile of wood on an empty lot near our house but didn't know how to properly go about getting it. I drove past on the way to get the wood from the friend and said, Lord, I sure would like to have that pile of wood.... Unpause... so the log falls out and I go back to pick it up and a lady in a pickup pulls up next to me and says "hey, see all that wood over there on that lot?, it's mine and you can have all you want". Nuff said, God Rocks!

God, Do it my way! (further thought)

One thing I thought of on the drive home today was the dude in the Bible that the prophet told to dip in the Jordan river 7 times. Seems mysterious. I believe it was to humble the man the Jordan River was not a nice clean river and this man had lots of authority. Now, I wouldn't have done it that way, but that was God's way. Or the march around the wall of Jericho. I wouldn't have done it that way. His ways are Higher than my ways. God, do it your way.

God, do it my way!

I have been thinking about prayers that I have prayed lately and have found myself opossesing the way God chooses to answer prayer. Because I don't see an answer by the time the prayer is over doesn't mean that nothing happened. Who am I to tell God how to carry out his Word either his written word or spoken word. God is God and he has a very good System in place. He is a man of order and processes. One time I prayed for God to give me a pickup cause I had no money and no transportation. Several weeks went by and someone gave me a pickup. What He provided for me was a hunk of junk little s-10 pickup that had hit a deer and the front was caved in and the driver side door didn't open. Now, at the time I didn't really consider that an answer to prayer, because that isn't what I had in mind. I never asked God for a New pickup just a pickup. God did it his way and I was actually mad at God for it, because I had to put about 20 hours of work into it before I could drive it. But then He told me that I wasn't specific with my prayer. To change a quote that I hate to hear, "God works in mysterious ways." There is nothing mysterious about my God. Marvelous, yes! I marvel at what God has done in my life and in all of creation. God's work is not mysterious. What is mysterious is how we think God should do things.

So much information

For those that accuse me of not doing anything. I thought I would write down the things that go through my head on a given day. I learned at this conference that things are more likely to get done when you write them down instead of just letting them pass through and randomly picking one to complete.

Hire a sales person - Yes...No
Purchase ACT 2007 leads management software yes....no
Read RIM Marketing Manifesto yes...no
Read 29 articles from Fileman. yes...no....maybe....huh
I don't like reading...IPOD is answer to prayer.
Read Article about Farming current customers. yes...no
Making Farming current customers Priority.
Balance Farming and Hunting new customers
Contact 4 hot prospects by Friday yes....no
Review Activity stats from December
Get Payroll in order by Friday.
Look into purchasing security cameras for warehouse. yes....no
order another shipment of boxes for resale yes...no
Fix problem with Recall Software yes...no
return emails...yes
return phone calls...yes
do proposal for prospect scanning job...no
Decide where to put 70 new boxes that came in Hi or Low..yes low
Scan customer contracts for backup..nno
Write confirmation letters to 7 appointments for next week...no
Find time to read over this list and check things off...no
Print report for 2 different customers..yes
Make report of destruction items for all customers ...no
Mail letters to customers reminding them of items to destroy...no
Go through snail mail..yes
Catch up on bookwork...yes
Go to bank..yes
Pay bills...yes
Go see a customer about an issue....yes
Input 8new appointments into ACT...no
Put 8 new appointments into appointment book..no
Research 8 new appointments...no
Process setting up advisory board...yes
find tool that a friend wants to borrow...yes
Call dad to talk about some of these issues...yes
Send a customer efiles..no
Train another customer on how to utilize our web ordering system. yes
look at 3 books that are on my desk that people want me to read. no
REview sales leads from December yes
Call past due accounts. yes...no
order a audio book on organization. yes.

if you had time to read this...hmmmm

Thank you

In rememberance of one of my new years resolutions. Thank you to all readers of this blog. I like to think and had no idea that people would actually read what I write.

God, give me a Sign!

He already has. Your Faith. If you ask God to give you a sign to confirm something, do you have faith? I argue that to seek a sign from God is faithless. Because you are saying. "Lord I know that you have said such and such, but I want to see something with my eyes or ears so that I can believe and know it's you, because I really don't know how to hear your voice". FAITHLESS. I recently had this conversation with a person which none of you know. Their position on the matter was one of nothing more than "I walk by site not by faith" God Has given many signs to me, but it wasn't because I was waiting on Him to do it. Lets see.... He gave us the most important "sign" The holy spirit as our guide. Oh... and the Written Word of God there are some good signs in there. God did give Abraham a Sign, a Ram in the bush, but Abraham wasn't waiting on God for a sign he was moving in Faith ready to kill his son that he stood in faith for many years to receive, yet he trusted God so much that he was obedient. Noah received a sign after his step of faith. The Rainbow is a sign to all men of God's goodness and promise to never flood the world again. Angels appeared to many with messages from God. There was the burning bush, writing on the wall I could go on and on. So, my point is that God gives us confirmation with signs and even speaks through them but we should never seek a sign. It is simply faithless. I wonder how many times christians have gotten into trouble because they didn't move in faith, but instead waited on a sign from God. Then wondered why God didn't do something.
This bloggin thing is fun even if no one did ever read it, I have always journaled on and off my whole life, but never consistently.

Faith in______?

I have been at a fantastic sales training event for the last 2 days. I have met some great business people. I can tell you that none of them proclaim faith in Jesus. In talking with them and discussing different sales techniques, one of them said, "you gotta have faith in yourself, No one else is going to take care of your business like you do". Now, I have been pondering this statement and I have come to the conclusion that I do have to have confidence in myself to some degree. I don't think that her definition of faith is the same as mine. Faith is a spiritual word that brings things from the spiritual to the natural. But I get what she is saying. I think that her definition would be more like a self confidence or a I can do anything attitude. Most of these people are a "pull yourself up by your boot straps and get things done" type of people. I think to some degree you have to have that mentality to be a business owner, but I am just thinking about how much pressure that they have put on themselves. They go to a bar every evening, they are stressed to the point that they have different illnesses like arthitis. Their whole purpose for living is their business and to make it succeed because after all no one else will. If it fails they have nothing else in life to live for. I haven't had the opportunity to share my faith yet, but the instructor of the class preficed the class on day one with telling the entire class that I am a good christian man from west texas. I think that was stratigic by the Holy Spirit to let these people watch me. I'll be honest I went to a bar with them the first night to watch the national title game. It was fun, we talked business and yada yada. My point is that many christians who love Jesus have the same mentality that these lost people have. "If I don't do it it won't get done." I can tell you that I have a very successful business and it is all because I have faith in God. He has made it easy when it is stressful and life consuming for others. I don't have any "faith" in my self other than what God has given me the ability to do. I do have confidence in my self cause i get that from Jesus.

New Orleans

Right now I am in New Orleans about 4 blocks from Burben st. I am here for world class training in my industry. The training has been fabulous. I have met a lot of great other business owners and shared lots of ideas and traded stories. Very encouraging! Just what I need to start the new year! For those of you who don't know I own a record management company. www.brmabilene.com. This city needs Jesus desperately. The news stories you here don't do it justice. People are hurting. There is sickness and disease and depression and a sky high murder rate already 12 this year. People are begging on street corners like I have never seen. Burben st. is filled with people trying to fill voids. The city is a mess. there are very few workers, you know like the single mom that works 2 jobs just to make ends meet. There are very few of those, because there neighborhoods are completely wiped out. there is not a single living thing in some areas of town. Just piles of debret where houses used to be. So this has a ripple effect. No workers so business owners can't open for business. the hotel I am staying at has 1 house cleaner for 85 rooms. There are boarded up buildings all over downtown. REally a very sad situation. I encourage you to join me in praying for this city. The cabbie told me that Katrina means "cleansing" and he said that it indeed did that. The only bright spot a lot of these people have is the Saints football team. I rode an elevator with an attorney that was wearing a 3 piece suite. He said that he was living in a FEMA trailer on his front lawn of his 1/2 million dollar home. This storm didn't just wreck the poor but the wealthy too.

2007 new years resolution!

Mine are: Be more thankful
be more greatful
be considerate of the needs of others more in 2007.

remembering 2006

The year started off very challenging. We lost 2 very close friends within 10 days of each other both tragically killed. After reflecting on the lives of these two friends. I began to realize that multiple relationships should be cherished and there is no room whatsoever for strife and discord among brethren. I was encouraged almost everyday from my church family here in Clyde, Tx as I tried to accept what had happened. My initial reaction to the pain of just missing these people was to retreat from relationships so that I don't have to feel this pain ever again.

2006 was a year for me to grow in relationship building. I went from being a loner and enjoying that to being the social hub for the weekly XBoX matches. It is more fun to have lots of friends than to only have 1 or 2 that you see or talk to once a week.

We started the year in business with some lofty goals. We reached them 11 months into the year. Our business grew by 34% in 11 months and 17% growth was existing customers. I have never chased wealth and don't want to. I know that prosperty will come when I do all the other things with excellence. I have no idea what I am doing in this business, I am just a country boy from Wheeler, Tx and I am entrusted with over 22,000 boxes of records. It is funny how God puts us in places we never dreamed we would be. I generally don’t like talking to strangers. I get nervous and mess up words a lot. I know exactly how president Bush feels. When I first started making sales calls I went into a small business and asked for Joe Blow. The man that I was speaking to was standing at a desk with the name Bill Shmoe on it so I assumed that he was Bill Shmoe and asked him. “May I speak with Joe Blow”, He said, “I am Joe Blow”. I said, “I will just come back when he is in then.” And turned and walked out. Realizing what I had just done I began to laugh out loud. I have come a long ways since that day and now meet with Dr’s and lawyers and CPA’s frequently with confidence and ease. If God would have allowed me to meet with the large companies, and professionals first, It would have been a disaster. I started this storage business in 2001 and Our first year we had a revenue of $21,000. This year our revenue was over $127,000. God always works in processes, and having patience will always bring a good experience.

God told my wife and I to sell our house and move to Clyde in 2006 and we did it by faith. We sold our house for asking price and where then homeless, but again friends in our church family opened there home to us for 2 whole weeks. We finally got the house we had believed for and moved in.
July 5th. My grandfather died this year on my 29th birthday. This was a unique experience. Rachel had planned a party for me but we had come home from a short trip and discovered that our water heater had leaked all over the floor. We postponed the party and planned on having it the next night. I was up late on the 5th putting in the new water heater and got a call that my grandpa was not going to make it through the night an hour later he passed away. Another funeral, this one was not as tragic but was good to reflect on his life and learn things about him that I had never knew. Needless to say I never did get the birhtday party because we left the next day to travel to Colorado for the funeral.

August 2006, Payton starts kindergarten. WOW! how time flies.
I can only imagine what 2007 will bring.
I almost forgot...I Did shoot a really nice 8 point buck December 22, 2006.

Quantity of prayers are not basis for answers!

As christians we often pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray hard and long. And nothing happens, and we wonder why.
Matthew 6:6,7. Pagans pray and pray becuase they think they will be heard becuase of their many words.
Why do we pray for someone to be healed and we see nothing? Might it be that Faith brings healing, and if we pray and want immidiate results do we have faith? Faith in a sense is a title deed to whatever it is we are praying for or believing for. So you may have a deed to a car but you don't have the car in your posession, do you still own the car? Sure you do becuase you have the title to prove it. In the same way when we pray and BELIEVE we have the title at that point in time. Mark 11:24 "When you pray believe that you have received it and it will be yours". Often we do not pray and believe that we have it, we believe that we have it when we physically have it and we will never get prayers answered this way. All you have to do is pray one time and believe one time and the thing or answer SHALL come. What do you do when you receive something from someone as a gift, we say "thank you" in the same manner we should pray and believe and begin to thank God for the answer, and any time we refer to this prayer we should say things like, "God thank you for my healing" I believe that I receive my healing. Thank you Lord that I am healed." Even when you are still coughing and just feeling horrible.
When jesus comanded the tree to wither up it didn't immidiately wither up, it was several hours later.