I’m certain I’ve mentioned this in past writings, but it bears repeating…especially today. When I was a teenager, my dad was in a car accident. Fortunately, he escaped with minor injuries. But the impact did knock him unconscious. When he came home from the hospital that night, I’ll never forget the three words he said to me:

Never Fear Death.

Those three words made me look at life through different eyes. The inevitability of the end will come to us all one day and there’s nothing any of us can do to escape it. So it does no good to live in fear. It does no good to live with only the end in mind. You have to live for today. Live in the moment and take it all in…because it can all end, in seconds, with no warning.

The tragedy at the Boston Marathon yesterday is a prime example of those three very words. Certainly, none of the runners or spectators woke yesterday morning with thoughts of terrorism intruding upon their day. This day was to be a day of accomplishment. A day where a goal is met. A day that will forever be etched in their memory as the time they conquered 26 miles of terrain and crossed the finish line, overwhelmed with victory and accolades.

But because of yet another senseless act of violence, the etched memories have been laid out on a different canvas. The connections between the runners and spectators in Boston yesterday are those of pain, misery, anguish, and loss. An achievement that’s supposed to be celebrated for a lifetime is now forever linked with the actions of an asshole, or assholes, with an agenda to feed a self-fulfilling prophecy and capture their 15 minutes at the expense of the lives and well-being of others. 

Whenever this sort of thing takes place, we always watch the events unfold and say to ourselves, “What’s next?” I was a young man when the Oklahoma City bombing took place, but I remember watching the reports of the incident, not fully understanding the why or the how, but knowing something bad had happened. Something I thought reserved for movies, not real life. Columbine…same thing.

I was a junior in college when 9/11 went down. That event, as well as the two aforementioned and others before them, changed our world. Changed the way we live and operate. I cashed in a couple minutes of my 15 when a fellow classmate said we should cancel our upcoming trip to NYC three weeks after the 9/11 tragedy “out of respect.” I remember going off in that classroom just two days after the attacks, taking my own stand that said ‘to hell with terrorism and those bastards trying to instill fear and forcing us to change because of the threat of a potential unknown.’ My words saved the trip to NYC, and my Dad’s three words ran through me as Ground Zero humbled me.

Yesterday, as I watched the news coverage as the story unfolded, my heart sank. Not just for the lives affected, but because, once again, someone with a twisted agenda was getting famous. The aftermath, the stories, the eyewitness accounts, the search, the trial, and the inevitable justice that reigns down upon these parties will capture the airwaves until finality is reached. Unlike some, I don’t blame the media…it’s their job to report the tragedies just like it is to report the weather. It can get over-saturated at times, but let’s not point the finger at men and women in front of a camera. Let’s point the finger at the son-of-a-bitch who woke up one day and exercised the demons in his head with an explosive.

This past year has furthered the proof we are in a consistent, constant struggle with terror…whether foreign or domestic. And as much as we try, as a government, as states, as cities, as individuals, no amount of legislation is going to prevent acts like the Boston Marathon bombing from taking place. Sandy Hook resulted in new gun legislation. Angered many, solved nothing in regards to the big picture. Just months later, someone used a bomb instead.

What’s next?

The point is, the sick, soulless, and sadistic are going to find a way to exercise their agenda. It’s unfortunate, but it’s our world. We are here, and it’s up to us to make the absolute most of everything we have because that’s what we can control. How we face our days, work towards accomplishing our goals, and exercise OUR OWN agendas is what binds us together as a people. Events like the Boston Marathon and other tragedies always test the will of our collective existences, and we always, ALWAYS, rise to the occasion. We stand together as people, as one, and hope and pray for the best outcome from an awful situation.

Today, let’s do all that…plus a little more. Let’s take from these events the lesson of living for every day we have, letting those closest to us know how much we love them every single day, not letting a tragedy be the only reason we stand together as one, and to never take our existences for granted.

In the wake of tragedy, whether directly connected to it or not, it’s easy to say these things. Let’s be bigger than words and take action, for both ourselves and in honor of those directly affected by these senseless acts.

Social media is without a doubt quickly emerging as a popular channel for customer service, when previously it has only been viewed as a marketing tool. Whether companies realize it or not, customers that are obsessed with instant gratification have likely already been contacted for support via Twitter, Facebook and social other platforms. The real question is what do you risk by not responding?

This was the primary question that prompted a recent four-week research project Software Advice conducted called “The Great Social Customer Service Race.” We tested and analyzed 14 top brands for social customer service responsiveness on Twitter.  The goal was to evaluate which messages were prioritized and how consistently they responded. We sent the tweets every day from four different personal Twitter handles, for four consecutive weeks.

Here are some lessons we learned.

Listen for Brand Name With or Without the @: Less than eight percent of responses came during the weeks when an @ was not used. The failure of brands to respond to negative, positive or other important tweets leaves a bad impression on the customer and anyone who follows them. Listening for these conversations also presents unique opportunities to surprise and delight the customer.

Choose Prioritization Rules Thoughtfully: It’s impossible to expect brands respond to every tweet, so they need prioritization rules programmed into their listening software so the most important tweets are sent to the front of the response queue. These prioritization rules can include combinations of your brand name and other words with high purchase intent, or risk of switching brands. Some examples include “thank you,” “mad,” “upset,” “buying,” “switching,” or “help.”

Track Social Customer Service Requests Like a Help Ticket: Several times during the race, a tweet was responded to twice, or several days later. Companies should have a standard method for processing and tracking tickets that’s comparable to phone, email or other channels. One way your company can streamline social customer service is by integrating listening software with help desk ticketing programs. This enables users to automatically convert a tweet into a ticket, then mark it as open, resolved or waiting a response.

Record Interactions by Customer: One of my goals was to see if any of the brands would identify us as active socializers and improve their response time. None of the brands did. You should record interactions by customer so you can identify users who share often on Twitter. You can nurture those relationships and possibly turn a detractor into a promoter.

Capitalize on Customer Service for Marketing: Social should not be separated exclusively in marketing, or community management or customer service. You need to look at the bigger picture. In our credit card group, MasterCard earned special recognition by capitalizing on an opportunity to market a customer service interaction. When one of our participants asked whether the credit card is accepted globally, the MasterCard team responded and re-tweeted her message. In another instance, MasterCard used the customer service opportunity to pitch our Twitter participant a new product.

Here We Go…90-Day Challenge #2

Tomorrow is April 2nd and it marks the kickoff of my 2nd 90-Day Challenge! For those of you unfamiliar, the 90-Day Challenge is where you commit to a fitness goal and, over the course of 90 days, work like hell to achieve it…fueled by ViSalus!

My first Challenge goal was to drop 30 pounds over 90 days. A calf pull and a bout with the flu cost me the final six pounds and I finished with 24 pounds shed. Not bad…but disappointing I was *THIS* close to the goal and missed it.

Since wrapping up the first Challenge in early March, my focus has been maintaining the weight I hit. I’ve been between 215-220 pounds over the past few weeks, which I’m comfortable with. But my focus over the next 90 days is singular…GET RID OF THE REST OF THIS EFFING GUT.

The theme of my first Challenge was #ConsumeTheChallenge. This time around, with tone and definition the name of the game, the theme will be #SetTheTone. So, it’s going to be hardcore cardio and muscle-building over the next three months.

THE GOAL: Finishing this 90-Day Challenge with 10 pounds of muscle added, and some actual evidence that, underneath what’s left in my midsection, there are real-life, legit abs.

So…as I mentioned, I need your help. If you have any advice or tips of how I can accomplish my goal over the next 90 days, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’ll be crushing the ViSalus shakes as those have become a regular part of my diet. I’m mainly looking for workout advice.

Leave whatever you got in the comments below! *I always respond.

Five-Kay Training

Also wrapped up in this new 90-Day Challenge is the WORLD PREMIERE of me in a 5k on June 4th. I’ve got my sights set on this race not only because my Hair Club office is sponsoring it, but because it’s the ultimate testament of what a year and a half of work, sacrifice, and dedication can bring. As I’ve mentioned in early Thin Man posts, I never saw myself running any races…mainly because in my mind, I knew my physical state would never allow it.

Today, those thoughts are long gone. However, I’m not going to pretend I’m in Usain Bolt’s class either.

Last Friday night, the weather broke, the sun was out, and the temperature was over 50 degrees. You couldn’t ask for a better night to officially kick off 5k training. And damn, did I find out I’ve got some work to do.

I’ve been running consistently on the treadmill since January 2012, but it’s totally true when people say actual outdoor running compared to the ‘mill is apples and bowling balls. I realized the next two months of preparation are going to lead to some major adjustments to the outdoor terrain.

It wasn’t all bad. I did 2.5 miles and kept up a 10-minute per mile pace. Considering the best mile time I ever posted doing a mile run in high school was around 12 minutes, I accept this. But it’s the overall feel after all was said and done that felt different. Again, not bad…just different.

My goal for the 5k is to finish the race in 32 minutes or less. Meaning I need to shave about a minute per mile off my pace before June. Game on.

One of the major mental shifts that’s come with my weight loss has been that ability to take on new challenges and conquer them. That’s exactly what this 5k presents…another challenge.

If I may quote Wedding Crashers: Rule 76: No excuses. Play like a champion!

Again, your help is needed! Anyone who’s trained for a 5k, half-marathon, full marathon, or outran the cops who busted up your keg party, what are the best tips for getting yourself in the zone?

Again, leave your tips in the comments below!

Until next time…get on the ViSalus train yourself.

Today, we are taking things up a notch! April 1st is the official launch of Social Media at Hair Club Pittsburgh! Our new campaign is designed for current and potential clients to contact us via their favorite social networks, as well as build their education on hair restoration and discover a solution to their own hair loss problems. We are also looking to connect and build relationships with other businesses in the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.

Our warm, welcoming environment is now on Facebook and Twitter, as well as our new blog! Don’t hesitate…start following, liking, tweeting, retweeting, and getting to know us better today!

Check us out on Facebook! Hair Club Pittsburgh now has its own exclusive page on the world’s most popular Social Media network. Click Here and like us today!

Follow Us on Twitter! Tweets about hair loss, hair restoration, image, styles, confidence, and all things Pittsburgh. You won’t want to miss what we are tweeting about! Click Here and join us in the Twitterverse.

Bookmark Our Blog! Our Hair Club Pittsburgh Blog will be our hub where we share information that keeps you connected to happenings at Hair Club, our Pittsburgh location, innovations and advancements in the hair restoration industry, and more. Just visit pittsburghhairclub.com and bookmark us!

 This past week, I had the opportunity to get away and spend some time with a few of my closest friends. It was exactly what I needed. This past week also brought up a challenge that will be faced head-on. Now, after recharging my batteries, it’s time to tackle a new week and bring the house down.

Here are the five lessons I walked away from last week with:

This week, I wanted to focus on five of my favorite quotes. These quotes are short and sweet, but the message each carries packs extra punch. Words of wisdom are all around us and you never know when nouns and verbs are going to collide and affect you in a certain way. Always keep your ears open.

Here’s some photographs from today:

The First 90-Day Challenge Ends…

…but the 90-Day Lifestyle begins!

The timing could not have been any more impeccable. I was entering the final week of my first 90-Day Challenge and had a lot of hard work ahead of me to meet my goal. After a crazy hard workout at the gym, I was relaxing and chatting with my dad and talking about how my daughter had been sick the day before. I boastfully remarked that I hadn’t been sick in a long time and I should be good to go.

Then, BOOM. It was like karma played for the Flyers and scored the game-winning goal in triple overtime to beat the Penguins in Game 7, pissing me off to no end. That night, I started to feel it. And it only got worse throughout the week.

The flu sucks. And it floored me until the weekend.

So, needless to say, my first 90-Day Challenge with ViSalus ended with me just missing my goal.

Final weight: 215.

Goal weight: 209.

Six pounds left. 24 total pounds lost in 90 days. 74 since starting this venture a little over a year ago. There were plenty of health-related reasons why I took this weight loss so seriously, but I can’t lie…it’s nice to get inundated with compliments about my results. I’ve still got some work to do, and as I prepare for my next 90-Day Challenge, the theme will be tone and definition. I feel like I’ve got excess skin that needs to get the hell out of my life.

The quest for abs rolls on!

I’ve heard the term “fad diet” get thrown around, and there’s no question a few people directed those same words towards me when I told them about ViSalus. However, I think “fad diet” is the brevity version of “Meh, this will never work for me.” While there’s no question there’s some weight loss programs and systems out there that simply don’t work, it all starts in the mind. No matter what program or supplement you decide to move forward with, you have to be mentally prepared to get to work on yourself. It means sacrificing. Your mind can play awful tricks on you, and there will always be countless outside forces dramatizing fast food and glutton buffets. But you have to be strong enough to keep the focus on your goal.

Crushing Goals

While the overall weight goal may have been stopped short by the flu, it doesn’t mean other goals weren’t meant along the way. When I reflect on this whole journey, plenty has happened.

I suffered from sleep apnea for years…now that’s gone.

I had a goal of getting back to a size 38 jean size…and it happened. In fact, I’m on the cusp of a size 36, and I have no idea last time that happened.

The first day I hit the treadmill, I remember pushing like hell for two miles. I honestly don’t even remember how long it took to reach that. The biggest challenge I faced was getting my legs back. That took three weeks of consistent work. But one day through the Challenge, I made a goal to hit 5.50 miles in 60 minutes. And it happened! The picture at the right is the proof!

The biggest thing I took away from the progress was to make goals to reach every day. Not just from a fitness standpoint, but on a personal and professional level as well. It gives you a purpose and something to strive for.

Also health-related, and because of increased mental sharpness, I’ve now been 100% smoke-free for nearly a month now. #VICTORIES!!

My next step is to begin training for my first 5k, as well as get toned up. Details on my next 90-Day Challenge will be released soon!

Coming Soon…Evolution90!

We live in a world overwhelmed with laziness, obesity, and so many people content to live with the hand life has dealt them. Frankly, this is unacceptable.

There are so many things you can improve about yourself…your weight, your appearance, your health, your mental sharpness, your place in this world. You just have to be willing to do what’s necessary to stop making excuses and just do the damn thing!

One of the biggest reasons people don’t move forward with self-improvement is because the challenge looks too daunting, the hill to climb looks too steep. We look at the final result we want as this monumental undertaking and because it appears too damn hard on the surface, we settle into a disposition of complacency and nothing ever changes.

Evolution90 is going to change the way you approach everything. More to come.

Stay tuned…

No matter what you’ve locked in as your mission or set as a goal for yourself, it does no good to achieve those goals in half-assed fashion. Not striving to be the best at what you do will force you to look back and wonder what you left on the table. It makes you…basic. And you could poll the 10 people nearest to you this very second and not one of them would choose being basic over being the best.

Here are eight ways you can be the best.

1. Shift Your Mindset – It all starts here. With how you think. How you approach your day and the activities that make up your day. When complacency rules the roost, you can’t expect optimal results because it becomes too easy to fall back on the everyday routine. You have to raise your thinking to a new level that allows you to evaluate everything you need to accomplish and, before any action is taken, ask yourself, “How can I be the best at this?” or “How can I get the best results here?”

2. Set Goals For Yourself Every Day – You need a purpose. A reason for putting in the long hours and effort. A way to justify your sacrifice. Long-term goals are important and necessary. But don’t disqualify focus on short-term goals too. Setting at least one goal for yourself every day will give you a sense of accomplishment every day. Each daily goal can be a piece of the puzzle that builds the long-term goal, or simply something you want to accomplish inside those 24 hours. Start with the foundation before you build the skyscraper.

3. Focus On Solutions, Not Problems – We live in a world where we are inundated with negativity. Turn on the news and I can pretty much guarantee, everything before the first commercial break will be negative. “If it bleeds, it leads” runs rampant through our society and countless media outlets dramatize everything to death, so it’s only natural to fall into a rut where you get consumed by the problems you face. However, in order to get better, you have to train your mind to emphasize the solutions to those problems over the overwhelming weight the problem presents. Doing this will keep you more positive, as well as keep you mentally sharp as your brain will constantly be working. Since the start of 2013, I have implemented this game plan and its led to a clearer outlook, as well as better results.

4. Challenge Yourself and Your Results - Achievements and records are made to be broken. Always push yourself to raise the bar and go the extra distance. Those who are considered “the best” in their profession are viewed as such because they never settled on what happened today. They always pushed themselves to be better tomorrow.

5. Don’t Settle - Settling is the kryptonite to being the best. The second you settle, you’re telling yourself “It’s not getting any better than this.” No matter what you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come, there’s always opportunity to go further.

6. Stop Making Excuses, Just Do the Damn Thing – They’re the easiest thing to come up with, and it transfers ownership of problems and lack of results to others. Excuses suck, but we all make them. I’m as guilty as you. But it all goes back to the the mindset shift. You have to really want the results…to the point you’re willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to achieve them, in order to make them a reality. I was overweight for years, and despite always feeling bad about it, it wasn’t until the beginning of 2012 that I truly committed to dropping the excess. I stopped making excuses and just did the damn thing. As I type this, 73 pounds are gone! Because I wanted it, and I was willing to commit to making it happen.

7. Never Fear Failure - If you think the greatest success stories in the history of time weren’t written on a canvas consisting of failed attempts, you’re crazy. You’re going to fail. It’s inevitable. Think back to when you learned to ride a bike. You didn’t just hop on and go. You fell. A lot. But what defines you is how you respond to failure. Does it make you resilient and wiser, or do you tap out? When you fail, you gain experience. And that experience allows you to go at it again with a different approach.

8. Never Stop Learning – We live in a constantly-evolving world, and resisting change, new ideas, and enhancements to past practices will cripple you in your quest to be the best. The best at what they do are constantly learning and constantly evolving with the world around them. In order to join that club, you have to do the same. Read something insightful, informative, or inspirational every day. Converse with leaders on Social Media. You live in a world that’s overflowing with knowledge and outlets that make it easy to consume that knowledge. Make it a priority to learn from those who have forged the path for all of us.

#BeTheBest

Shook up the name of the title for this weekly post, but it still serves the same objective.

Whew…what a week! Wills were tested, and I put A LOT of mileage on my new philosophy of “focus on the solution, not the problem.”

There were certainly enough problems thrown in my path over the last seven days…to the point I thought I might fall back on the smoking habit to help maintain.

Thankfully, I’m happy to report I’m still smoke-free, and I’m learning more and more each day that life is just too damn short to let the negativity consume you.

Here’s what I took away from the week: