Brent Worley Blog

I’ll never forget that day…or the major events of the weeks that followed in my life and our country.

I was working from home that day, had no TV or radio on, when I got an email from my mom to my work account telling what had happened.

I stepped into the living room, sat on the floor, and watched in enough time to see the second tower  collapse.

I was still a full-time student as well at the time.  Class that day was not officially dismissed, although my  first professor admitted that there was no point in having  class with everything that was going on…so he dismissed.

Some of my other classes still met that day.  I was one of two drum majors for our marching band.  We met that day not knowing if we would have a game that Saturday or not.

Lines to get gas were backed up, fearing more attacks.  On my way home from marching, word that an explosion in Afghanistan made me question whether we had already launched an attack.

That Friday, they told us we would not have a ballgame on Saturday, so band dismissed.  Early Saturday morning, we were told the game would go on.  I had the chance to step down from my duties for that Saturday and rejoin my section in the band while the Director of Bands conducted for the day.

I’ll never forget that the actions of one day caused our Director to change his mind on the next set of songs, moving from a theme centered around Queen to a theme centered around our patriotism.  I remember my fellow drum major and the percussion marching instructor writing an amazing version of the Star Spangled Banner for our band.

And I’ll never forget conducting “America The Beautiful” in front of thousands, being thankful that I had that opportunity.

I remember listening to the morning radio shows all that week and the next.  People hurt, stressed, angry…and a radio show geared more towards humor (crass at times) turned into a venue for people to air their minds, similar to most talk radio shows.

No, I’ll never forget that day.

I’ll never forget that two weeks later my father-in-law was informed that his National Guard unit was being activated for deployment overseas…and my finance trying to inform me of this while I traveled with the band out-of-state.

I’ll never forget the decision to get married early, in fear that my bride’s father would not be home for the wedding just a couple of months later.

I’ll never forget the angst and fear in my wife’s eyes and voice, worried that her father may never be coming home; a reality of the task at hand.

I won’t forget flying the American flag outside of my house at the time…the first time in my lifetime I can remember U.S. flags being sold out at most of the major stores.

No, I’ll never forget…and I hope that proud Americans everywhere will never forget.

I wrote here that DirecTV seemed to have a major glitch in their billing system with how my bill was generated.

Well, they handled it right.

After spending around 30 minutes discussing what all caused the issue, they came to the conclusion that they needed some time to get it resolved (understandably, as there were major issues that would take some time to clean up).  They got it right.

By the way, I love my DirecTV.  Being a college football junkie, I took a lot of pleasure watching multiple games in High-Def this weekend on ESPN and ESPN2.  If you are not watching football in HD, you don’t know what you are missing….so get DirecTV and catch at least 4-6 games each Saturday this fall in HD.

(Now, if I can just find a great affiliate program for them…..)

I just finished posting about Vista Print trying to rip off my wife, but feel one more is needed to add to the watch list: DirecTV.

Now, I will say that I LOVE my DirecTV service.  I don’t feel anything they have done is intentional, but their billing software lacks something to be desired.

Some history:

We moved last November to our new house.  When I scheduled the move, I was given the offer for 3 free months of their premium service and the rest of the NFL Sunday Ticket at no cost and could cancel at the end of the term.  I accepted, mainly to watch HBO and Starz over the holidays.

The nightmare begins

After cancelling the premium package without issue, I notice I have an extra $65 (roughly) on my bill.  I look it up and it is for the NFL Sunday Ticket.  I call, have a long round of discussions with the customer service, and they agree to remove it (after all, it was their boiler room that misrepresented the deal to me…had I known they would charge me for it, I would have canceled as I do not watch that much NFL football).

In May/June timeframe, I notice they have charged me again.  I get back on the phone with them, go through the same process, and they remove again and credit me what they had charged me.  They are being responsive (although it took an hour on the phone with them to get the problem fixed).

And here is where it gets really, really bizarre….

I look at my recent bills.  Not only am I getting charged for the NFL Sunday Ticket, but I am getting charged for two services:  the HD DVR and the HD DVR with no locals.

They started billing me this way in June.

The HD DVR with No Locals (I have locals, so not the one I use) is $69.99/month they were overcharging me, including a partial billing cycle.  The billing system had things so screwed up that the customer service rep said it would take them about an hour to get it straightened out.

Now, I do not think DirecTV is trying to scam me with their dual billing.  I believe that is a fault of the billing system and not something done intentional.  The NFL Sunday Ticket deal has been a pain and I believe that I personally was misrepresented on that offer.

But this entire ordeal has me thinking…How many people are paying their bills by autopay that might not immediately notice this issue?  I know I would not have noticed for a few weeks unless I was monitoring my bank account.  I don’t think DirecTV does this purposely, but I know that some other places might.

So buyer beware - monitor your bills to make sure something screwy doesn’t happen.

And DirecTV, if you are reading, please make sure I am not billed again for the NFL Sunday Ticket.  Thanks.

My wife had recently ordered business cards from Vista Print.  She paid for shipping only with their free offer.  All was fine and dandy until last week:

She had a $48 charge from them.

She threw up the red flag and called her bank.  The bank froze her account and began a fraud investigation.  They called Vista Print inquiring about the reason for the charge.

Here’s the scam, folks:

They try to secretly sign you up for other services (i.e. they cross sell you and your information and make it extremely difficult to know what happened).  My wife made sure to not accept any of the offers, and yet was still charged.

Many users on the Internet have reported similar problems (Rip-off Reports has several people complaining about it as well as many blogs detailing the issue).

Luckily for them, they willing gave back the money actually withdrawn….$19.95.

But wait…where did $48 come from?

When my wife talked with them they did not see any charges, much less $48.  Why did it show up as this and not $19.95?

The bank fears that someone at Vista Print might be scamming on top of the scam.  They could be (not confirmed, and just pure speculation) overcharging customers on top of the never-approved cross sold services and pocketing the rest.  Is this happening?  No one knows for sure, but the bank found it extremely odd that this was occurring.

Buyer, beware!  If you are using Vista Print, you may be getting charged more than shipping on your order.

As for us, we’ll pass on Vista for any future needs.

When passion meets opportunity, you have a recipe for success.

So many people trade off one or the other.  They see a job as an opportunity to provide for their family or their needs, but it is simply not what they are passionate about.

Others find passion about something but there is not a market for it.

However, when the two collide, it creates something very exciting and often something very big.

I’ve learned that I really have very few passions in life, but there is one that I have routinely found the most gratifying:  Being a leader.

Now…being a leader, from my perspective, has nothing to do with power, authority, control, recognition, or any of the typical thoughts that come up with the word.  Instead, I believe the most important things that a leader does are empowerment and encouragement.

I have seen a lot of people want to be a “leader” for all of the wrong reasons.  When I was younger, I was the same way.  In fact, I remember in high school wanting to be the section leader in my band just so others would look up to me.  I see others want to be a leader so that they will be viewed better than others.

But as I have worked on leadership development, I have learned that the recognition is nice (in fact, I have dreams and goals about one aspect of recognition, probably my only selfish thought in this regard) and being respected is nice, but what makes me excited is the ability to see others grow, transform, and become something that they might not have been had someone not taken the time to pour into their lives.

For me personally, my business is exactly what I want to develop a leadership role in.

Why?

Again, I won’t deny the fact that I want one form of recognition from this company.  It has been a dream of mine for some time, but not for the “look at me” reason.

But I do want to be an inspiration to someone.

I want to be an inspiration not so others will talk highly of me, and not so that others will want to put me on a pedastal, but so that maybe my story would lift someone else up to become something more, to work harder, to achieve more, and to be on that stage with a similar goal.

My passion is to lead others.  It is to help others fulfill what they are capable of, to achieve a life-changing success in their own lives, and to have a positive impact in their lives.

I’m fortunate that my passion has found the opportunity to attach itself to.

This opportunity presents not only a chance for people to become financially independent, but also for them to develop themselves, their abilities, their personalities, and more.

To me, that makes my recipe for success that much stronger.

I must admit….

I am a little bit bored tonight so I thought I would find fun or useful apps for my iPhone that I could use while I attend Energize ‘08.

That’s when I found the Wordpress app.

So this is the first of many post coming from my phone as I cover the conference and some interviews with some top online and offline network marketers.

I love my iPhone.

I mean, I really love my my iPhone.

It allows me to keep up with my business at all times, surf the web for people or places (if I’m on the road), play some basic games, keep my calendar up to date and with me, and take the snapshots of my girls being, well, girls.

But as much as I love my iPhone, the two biggest wants I really would like to see on the iPhone are just not there, and still noticeably absent in the new iPhone due out later this week.

1. Multimedia messages.

We catch my girls doing funny stuff all the time and don’t always have our point-and-shoot with us, but we 99.9% of the time have our iPhone with us (wife has one too, so between the two of us, we’re covered). The problem is, I cannot send that candid moment to my parents without having to email it to them.

Most people keep a phone with them but are not always near a computer. It would make sense to be able to simply send a picture from phone-to-phone, but for some reason Apple doesn’t see this.

2. Video

Granted cell phone video is sub-par for anything other than those spur-of-the-moment events, it would be nice to be able to capture some of it. For instance, we’re out and about and my daughter (take your pick on which one) starts doing something funny, cute, whatever…without my video camera, all I’ll have is my memory. With a video phone I’d at least get to relive it, even if the quality is limited.

Of course, other features will be nice with the addition of 3G, such as streaming video (something else not included), streaming audio, etc…but hopefully Apple will eventually come through on these things.

Until then, I’ll stick with my first gen iPhone.

I’ve been thinking on this for some time now, and there is no nice way to say it:

Just because you have a title does not make you a leader.

Brent, what in the world does this mean?

All too often we confuse people in a position or with a certain “badge” on their name with being a leader. A lot of times this could not be further from the truth. Just having a title or a function does not entitle you to being leader. Rather, your attitude and actions are what make you a leader.

I’ve had the privilege and honor to be in leadership on a variety of leaders and over a variety of people and groups. The one thing I always knew was that if I was going to be given a leader’s title, I had to have a leader’s actions. I could not simply take on the designation without taking on the responsibility that comes with it.

A group I used to associate with regularly all have leadership titles or functions within a common organization. To the common person, they are in leadership and therefore are “leaders.” Yet when I look at how these individuals treat others and the attitudes they carry with themselves, I realize they are nothing more than someone with the title. I would not consider any of these leaders in the sense that this article is referring to.

A leader has to accomplish two things to be a leader, and these two things must be in their daily lives and not just in the function they perform.

First, a leader must be willing to serve those who follow them. I knew when I was elected president of my fraternity in college that I had more responsibility than just leading meetings and making decisions. I had to be the one that helped the most, that served the most, and the one who set the example of what it meant to be in the frat. The same goes for various other positions of leadership I have been in. I had to work harder to serve those around me than I had to make decisions or pat myself on the back. What I see from a lot of people is a self serving attitude in leadership instead of a serving others attitude. If you are not willing to serve, you are not ready to lead. The best leaders I have served under motivated me to do my best by watching them do their best.

A leader must also possess an attitude. This term often comes across negatively, but in this case it is meant to be positive. The attitude the leader must have is one of caring, one of compassion, one of servant hood (as discussed above), and then one of authority. People do not respect leaders who show authority before compassion. People might obey, but respect is often missing. This is not always an easy task to accomplish but must be done to be a fully effective leader.

If you are sitting here doing some soul searching, as I often did in my development of my leadership thoughts, than there are probably some points in there that apply to you. How do you treat others? How do you serve? Do you set the example or do you tell others about the example?

Remember that even after you are gone, your character and integrity stick with people. As a leader, make sure what sticks is an example of what leadership should be and not what the title affords you.

I can honestly say one thing about my 10 year reunion:

I am glad I went.

At first, I was very skeptical about going. Most of my close friends in high school I had kept up with (although not as much as I probably could have or should have), and the rest of my close friends in high school were either from the class above or the class below.

But I was glad I went.

I got to see both of my non-frat college roomates (Garth Johnson, who was our class valedictorian, and Drew Keller, a musician friend of mine and my roommate from our freshman year at the University of Central Arkansas). Several other good friends were there too.

Friday night was a family night at the park. Essentially, that means that if you have kids you are chasing them down instead of getting to socialize. It was not that great of a time, other than seeing who all was likely to show up for the weekend. I talked to a few people I had not seen in a while, some that I see around, and, just like in high school, did not speak with many that I never spoke with.

A highlight was getting to spend time with our good friends from Mississippi (not the Memphis area, in case you are reading this), Buster and Amanda Harris. Buster was one of three people I was extremely close to in high school. We still get to hang out several times each year. They crashed at our house Friday night. We stayed up too late talking (around 2am we finally decided it was time to crash, since had had to direct a band at a Junior High Band camp the next morning). Its always a great time getting to spend time with them.

Saturday night, though, was the best part. No kids, marginal food (well, not that bad of food at least), and a chance to chill and get caught up with many people I talked to in high school that I barely recognize now. In fact, it took me half the night to recognize someone that was in band with us in high school. Others I remember quite well.

After eating, we decided to hang out on the deck at Eagle View and enjoy a very nice summer evening (which is rare here in Arkansas). Buster, Amanda, my wife April, and April Tarno (a very close and dear friend from high school and beyond), and I had a lot of catching up and reminiscing to do. We talked about the good times, the people that were there, and more about the people who were not there that we expected to be there. In fact, there were a ton of people that we were expecting to see that live near that did not show.

And of course, some that we are glad that did not show.

I owe showing up to Buster and April (Tarno, not my wife). If she had not called me Tuesday and Buster not talked to me about going Wednesday, I probably would have missed out on a good time.

So class of 1998, we’ll see most of you again in another 10 years. Hopefully, this time I’ll get a chance to talk to a few more of you.

This past weekend was a nice two-day holiday for April and me. We decided to dash out-of-town last minute and get down to Tunica for two nights.

We stayed at Sam’s Town, which is not our normal place (usually stay at Gold Strike). The rooms were okay, the gaming floor was so-so, but the poker was hopping!

We got there Sunday around 4, took forever to check-in, got settled in, and then we both decided to play a poker tournament. This is April’s 2nd live tournament ever, but she wanted to play for the pure fun of playing and have a good time.

She bubbled the final table (finished 11th, top 10 get seated at the final table), I finished 3rd for $300. Good start to the trip.

We had a medium win on a slot machine and were way up for the trip.

The next afternoon, we play the same buy-in tournament. This time I almost made the final table again (12th, took two horrendous beats, both times with getting my chips in with a big lead), but April ended up making the final table and chopping (dividing the remaining prize pool) for $400 with three other guys.

The trip was short, profitable, and fun…but mainly just short.

Energy

Zurvita, a marketing company I work with, is going to be offering energy services in the near future. Two other companies in direct marketing have done this and done it successfully, but they have been on a smaller scale within the United States.

I put the press release up on my Zurvita Blog. You can read it at http://www.brentworley.com/zurvita-blog/.

I’m big on making money (it might not buy happiness, but it does buy time freedom). Having the ability to earn on a necessity that people have, a service that they have to have.

Its an exciting time in Zurvita and things only seems to be getting better!

Reunions

This weekend is my high school 10 year reunion. At first I was a little hesitant to go (most of the people that I was close with in high school I still keep in touch with). But a couple a friends got me thinking and now we are going to one event tomorrow night for it. I’m probably going to take pictures and post them of the old group.

I’ll be surprised to see who shows up and who doesn’t. I believe we graduated 215, so if we hit 33% of that I think we’ll be doing good. I am excited about meeting back up with a few people, most of which I have been in contact with over the last few years.

So thats it for now. I’ll be back with a post reunion report and some updates on some Internet Marketing things I am experimenting with.