What to Order at a Business Lunch
Eat Right: It's the Fuel You Run On!
I really don’t eat HALF of what I’d like to! I could eat molten lava chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream after EVERY meal…even breakfast. On those rare occasions when I’m out and the ice cream is real, I can’t believe how delicious and creamy it is. Maybe that’s because the only ice cream I keep in my house is either low-fat or sugar free; no wonder “real” ice cream tastes amazing!
When I’m speaking about how I have hosted more than 3,000 client lunches, I often hear, “How come you don’t weigh 300 pounds?!” As you can see in my interview with MSNBC-TV, I told Chris Jansen that while I was taking clients out to eat several times a week, I had FOUR gym memberships all over town and I worked out A LOT! But what I didn’t get to mention was that I also ordered smart food and I ate my biggest meals during my BUSINESS LUNCHES.
There are so many reasons for ordering a more healthy lunchtime meal – to watch your weight and eat healthy, to have food that is easy to eat (it’s a LOT easier to get small bites of a piece of fish in your mouth than it is to down ribs or an over-sized burger!), and to focus more on the meeting that the eating. But there is another reason why you might want to order salads, fish, or lean meat – especially when out with clients.
Eating smart makes you sharp. Sure, you’ll look successful….but you’ll also be able to THINK like a winner. I spoke with one of my coaching clients today. She sounded tired, worn out, beaten up, frustrated, and down. She was angry at certain things going on in her life and was having trouble remaining optimistic.
About an hour into our session, I realized she had not been eating right. She’s had a kidney transplant and is on more meds than the average person. If she doesn’t eat, the meds mess up her stomach. If there isn’t healthy food prepared, easy to prepare, or ready to eat, she’ll eat what she can. Sound familiar? Of course it does…we ALL do that!
My client has an extra challenge, though. She is blind. She can’t just jump in her car and run to the store or Whole Foods to pick up a healthy meal or snack! A few bus transfers and an hour later, she MAY find something decent to eat.
It’s funny…she came to me to help her with her speaking and writing career. She is getting her Masters in Interactive Design so she can help other people by developing user-friendly software or by designing buildings for optimal accessibility. I am not a nutritionist. But if this woman is not able to think clearly or function, then before I can help her to write or speak professionally, we have to put some of the best fuel in her tank….(her THINK TANK!)
Failing to eat healthy food is a lot like trying to run a car on corn syrup instead of gasoline. Sure, it might get down the road a bit before it conks out, but it will eventually kill the engine. Cars need fresh oil, gasoline, spark plugs (ENERGY) and healthy tires. Why can’t we view our bodies the same way? Let’s put the right fuel in so we can perform at our best! A business lunch is no exception – eat smart to stay sharp!
The "REAL" Reason a Marketing Plan Fails
Casinos Work to Attract Players
I had a business lunch this past week with my friend, Phil Robertson (Phil@PJRobertson.com), who is an incredible marketing consultant. I always learn SO MUCH at a business lunch – especially when I’m talking to an expert in their field!
Phil and I were talking about a recent casino promotion. As a marketing expert, Phil could easily see why this particular promotion was a failure. As a former advertising sales executive I, too, could see the obvious flaw. Had I sold this casino their advertising to promote this event, I would have been mortified – as I’m sure the “Monday Morning Reconciliation” would have indicted the promotion was a failure. So, what caused the failure of what SHOULD HAVE BEEN an incredible promotion? My guess is it all came down to one employee with bad judgment.
Phil joined a slot club at a casino near his home. If you’ve ever joined a slot club, you know that the casinos in Nevada offer gifts as incentives to get you into their casino in the hopes that you will play. If a gift costs them a dollar or two – or even twenty dollars, and the average player drops $10, $20, or $200 on their way to pick up their “Free” gift, then guess who the REAL winner is! The casino – of COURSE!
It wasn’t long before Phil discovered that this particular casino’s slot club offered some incredible, upscale gifts to their members. And, while those of us who live in Las Vegas are less enamored with casino-logo’d casual wear, t-shirts, six-pack coolers and such, our friends and family from across the country are MUCH LESS jaded about such items. As it turns out, my friends and family, as well as Phil’s, absolutely ADORE watches that say “Boyd Gaming,” T-shirts from Stations Casinos, golf shirts from local courses, and baseball caps that feature casino logos.
Phil got a notice this past week that this slot club was giving away CROCK POTS on Friday night at 6PM. Smart – as they were looking to create some traffic and excitement in their casino on a Friday evening. He didn’t have a crock pot so he thought it would be worth it to swing by on Friday night to pick up his free gift.
Since Phil knows a lot about marketing, it was easy for him to see the situation (and what was wrong with it!) clearly. Rather than have the customers walk through the casino to claim their gifts – and hopefully gamble a bit while they were there – the casino had the big boxes of crock pots set up in a room right at the Valet entrance.
Phil said people were coming in, getting their crock pots, and promptly leaving – with their gifts. The valet is not even on the same floor as the casino! NO ONE WAS STOPPING TO GAMBLE! Why would they – when it would take extra effort to even visit the casino? Apparently, the casino employees in charge of this promotion were offering to hold your crock pot while you went to the casino; they could give you a claim check to assure you your crock pot would still be there when you were ready to leave…but none of the “players” were interested. This casino made it SO EASY for the players to pick up their gift and be home in time to watch Jeopardy! 
They should have had the crock pot giveaway on the casino floor. People would then be more likely to gamble, thereby making the casino’s cost for the crock pots justified. The gambling wins would outweigh the expense of the promotion. So – where did this promotion break down?
My guess is that ONE executive at the resort probably balked at the thought of schlepping all those heavy crock pots down to the casino, and thought how easy it would be to hand them out from the valet location. The whole purpose of the giveaway was to drive traffic to the casino – and it failed miserably!
Look at your business closely and make sure that whatever you decide to do to promote it will be executed perfectly. Don’t waste your precious resources by allowing one bad decision to ruin your well-laid plans. Where was the management? Where was the marketing genius who thought up this promotion? Poor executive – he or she will have to defend the expense and might never know WHY the promotion failed to generate casino revenue.
The POWER of the Platform: Speakers Help Through Motivation
Motivational Speakers and experts in Personal Development have come together once again in The Power of the Platform, an anthology from the Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau that features messages of motivation and inspiration from some of the world’s most outstanding speakers. I’m delighted to be a part of this book.
The first book, subtitled Speakers on Success, was a tremendous hit. I wrote the introduction for that edition. The book features chapters from such notable experts in the field of personal development as Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown.
The latest book in the series, Speakers on Purpose, features returning self-help gurus Canfield, Brown, and Tracy, along with relationship expert Keith Ferrazzi and The Secret’s Marci Shimoff as well as many other speakers with important messages that offer hope during these challenging times.
Being a part of these anthologies has taken much of my time this past year. I have begun work on the next edition, Speakers on Life. This book will bring answers and inspiration to all who are fortunate enough to read it. The books are also available in e-book format and the audio books are currently in production.
As “The Queen of the Business Lunch,” my area of expertise lies in building significant, productive business relationships. Speakers on Purpose offered me my first opportunity to share my newest keynote message, “B Face 2 Face 4 Success.” The chapter in the anthology touches on the importance of the business lunch (OF COURSE!) but it takes relationship building a few steps further.
How can you build a relationship when lunch is not an option, as when your client lives on the other side of the country? And what about all this social media? Are you TWEETING your lunch hour away, eating solo?
I wanted to use my chapter in Speakers on Purpose to help business professionals get a grip on their client relationships. It’s a fabulous book that offers insights, tips, techniques, and inspirational stories from speakers as far away as Bangkok and Singapore! If you want a copy, just let me know. I’ll throw in FOR FREE an e-book edition for every paperback sold now through Christmas. I want you to have your best year EVER!