I’m sure as hard as we all work and aspire to certain things each day and week, once in a great while, we have ‘The Day from Heaven’. Well I’m pleased to say, I had one of mine today, here’s why:
- At 10 AM, I have the privilege of meeting with Manchester’s Fire Chief Dan Goonan and Assistant Fire Chief Brendan Burns. Dan was courteous enough to take my meeting after a very simple e-mail, so to inform them of my mission, I go off on a 10-minute spiel on Value of Sport. If I remember correctly, it was all in one breath and when I paused for air, Dan said something to the effect of ‘OK, I love what you’re doing, so what do you want from us?’ After 30 years of sales training, I knew my answer before he asked, I looked Dan and Brendan in the eye and said, ‘Dan, I want your Leadership on my Board of Directors and Brendan, I want your membership (i.e. all of the Manchester firefighters) to become our Life Coaches’. To my great pleasure, Dan immediately said ‘yes’, and Brendan explained that to effectively solicit the membership it was much better to provide a ‘bottoms up approach’ to gaining their inclusion. What he meant was, not trying to force anyone to team with us but bring the opportunity to the leadership of the Firefighters to seek support is the best strategy. Much more on this to come.
- At 1 PM, I have a similar privilege of meeting with Manchester’s Chief of Police, Carlo Capano and Captain, Brian O’Keefe. As you might remember from back on September 7th, Carlo offered that the “Manchester Police Department will always take part in any programs that help the kids”. Well here I was 13 short weeks later taking him up on his offer. He was extremely gracious in hosting me and brought along the perfect person to hear about Value of Sport, Brian O’Keefe. Brian’s a decorated Officer who for many years ran Manchester Police Athletic League and also sat on PAL’s National Board. Brian gave me terrific feedback on how to ensure our success in Manchester and I will be forever grateful. Earlier in the day when Dan Goonan asked me ‘OK, so what do you want from me’, I was equally ready for Carlo’s question. I succinctly answered, ‘your Leadership on our Board and seek the commitment of your membership to become Life Coaches for our Student-Athletes’. I was thriller to hear Carlo’s response, ‘I’m in and Brian can seek the support of our memberships’. Well, I’m crazy happy being 2 for 2 on the day and heading for my 3rd ‘yes’ of the day.
- At 3 PM, I meet with the Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Amy Allen. Amy was very gracious and like every busy Executive, well prepared, on point and we got down to business very quickly. Ken DiBenedetto had already prepped her on the purpose of my visit. She was already ‘sold’ on supporting Value of Sport and our entire session was devoted to aligning on how we could collectively go in front of the School Board to approve Value of Sport’s direct engagement in the School System. Not only did Amy agree to sponsor me at the next School Board session on January 13th, she agreed to co-present with me and take a Leadership position on our newly formed Board of Directors. Well, after only 30 minutes, we agreed on how to be successful together in the School System and I was on my way.
To use a baseball analogy, I went 3 for 3 today, truly my ‘Day from Heaven’.
More Value of Sport to come.