“Our standard is giving more than what is expected.”
Greetings, everyone, and thank you for reading my last email in October 2022! As we enter into November, the rest of the year usually goes by quickly. It will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas before you know it, and we will be talking about New Year’s resolutions soon! Not so fast, though! We still have two full months left, so don’t give up on this year just yet!
Last week I received more than I expected, so this week I get to write about that instead of writing about this core value the way I usually do. To explain, I have to go back to May 27, 2022. I attended an all-day virtual event to celebrate a book launch for one of my online mentors, Mr. Ed Mylett.
During this amazing event, I got to hear from eight phenomenal speakers. I learned so much from them, and I was grateful, especially because the event itself was free. Eric Thomas, Mel Robbins, Dean Graziosi, and Andy Frisella were just a few of them. These are all headliners, for sure, so being able to hear them for free was definitely more than I expected. But there is more.
During the event, it was announced that all book sales would benefit charity, specifically for the families of the Uvalde school shooting that had happened that week. This was all decided at the last minute, and it seemed right. It inspired me to buy four books, and it felt good knowing where the money was going.
A few hours into the event, an additional announcement was made. It had been decided that anyone who was willing to purchase 250 books (with all proceeds still going to charity) would be eligible to spend an evening at Mr. Ed Mylett’s home one day in the future. It was also announced that this offer was limited to the first 100 people to make the purchase.
I won’t lie. I thought about it for a while before I actually did it. I did the math first and realized that it would be a little expensive, so that made me hesitate. What really made me hesitate, though, was a temporary feeling that maybe I wasn’t good enough to actually be there.
I mean, I respected this man so much. He has accomplished some great things in life and done so much good for the world. I guess I sort of started to feel like I didn’t belong there. This made me hesitate and second-guess myself. Ultimately though, I pulled the trigger because I understand how important proximity and influence is. I knew how important it was to be in that room with him, so I did it.
After I did it, I was so happy. I viewed it as a gift to myself, and it felt good knowing the money was going to a great cause. A few weeks later, I received an email confirming that the date had been set for the evening with Ed. The date would be October 19, 2022, from 5-8 p.m. at his home in La Quinta, California. I was pretty excited, and honestly I kept wondering if it was real, whether he would actually have 100 strangers in his home.
I remained excited for the next several months and made travel arrangements. Then, a few weeks ago, I received a surprise email from Ed and his staff. The email stated that Ed had decided to add to our itinerary for the day. Ed was going to bring in seven speakers from around the world, including himself, to speak to us and teach us all day.
I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was so cool. I mean, I’m totally into learning from others, especially thought leaders, so I was ecstatic, even though I still wondered why they would do this. Would they trying to sell us something once we were there? Even though I was sort of skeptical, I was still excited, and last week I made the trip and attended.
That morning, I took my seat, and I made sure I was there early. The first speaker was Mr. Ed Mylett. One of the first things he said blew me away and is the reason why I am writing this. Ed said that he hoped we would enjoy the day and the speakers we would hear from. He went on to say that something didn’t feel right about having us over for only a few hours at his home. He mentioned that after thinking about it, he decided… he wanted to “give us more than what we expected!”
Those were his exact words, and it blew me away. I was like, “Wait a minute… that’s one of our core values!” As he continued to speak, I was so grateful for this gift he was giving us. We learned for the next seven hours, and then Ed came back at the end to close out the day.
Once again, he stated that he really hoped that we received more than what we had expected because that was important to him. At that moment, I felt so grateful, and we hadn’t even gotten to his house yet! It helped me understand why having a standard of giving more than what people expect is so important.
I will never forget that day, and I will never forget how I felt knowing that what I was receiving was done with such great intentions and from the heart. I mean, this guy didn’t know me, and he didn’t know 95% of the people in that room, but he did it anyway. I met a lot of people that day, and what I can tell you for sure is that all of us were blown away. We were already fans of his, but this inspired something even deeper: loyalty.
He made me feel good that day, and he made me decide that I would always support him and his initiatives in the future. That’s the reminder I wanted to give all of you today. Whether it’s in your business, your relationships, or your service to others, if you can give more than what people expect, you can make a lasting impression, and you can make a difference in people’s lives!
What about you? Have you developed a standard of giving others more than what they expect? If you are looking for better relationships or better business results, or you just want to make a great impact in the world, then I suggest you start delivering more than what people expect. The best advice I can give you on top of that is to make sure you do it consistently.
If you deliver more than what people expect once in a while, that’s pretty cool, but when it becomes part of your life, that’s what we call a standard. Some people do excellent things, and some people have a standard of excellence. There’s a difference. I have been inspired to do the latter, and I hope you have, too!
Every week I sit down to write this message, and I don’t really expect everyone to read it. Over the years, I’ve been surprised by how many people read it, respond to me, or stop me in passing and mention that they read it or that it impacted them. I want to personally thank you because you have given me more than what I expected!
God bless you and your family, and please have an amazing week!
