Browsed by
Author: jmmcfad@gmail.com

Put God First by the Great Denzel Washington

Put God First by the Great Denzel Washington

Comments 0 Comment

Whenever I find myself wondering and lost and ready to give up on my dreams, I turn to people like this and suddenly life feels better and filled with possibilities. You can do the same.

#Denzel Washington Wise Words for YOU!
This man has accomplished so many good things during his life. Let him be one of your guides on your path to personal greatness.

I hope you enjoyed Denzels talk and that you take away and use his wise words.

Thanks for stopping by and please return, John

Authentic Mexican Ogden, Utah

Authentic Mexican Ogden, Utah

Comments 0 Comment

Hungry? It’s always nice to experience good food. Now, on the west side of Ogden, Utah on 1900 West and 3064 South Emilia’s Mexican Grill is open. I’m not an authority but it looked and tasted very authentic to me. Give it a try next time you’re in Ogden or heading to Smith and Edwards or Willard Bay State Park. (Also in the area is the Lost Texan BBQ in North Ogden.

Eat Well, life is too short to eat tasteless food.

Thanks for stopping by today. Come back again, John

5 Tips on In Room Hotel Security, Never Trust a Key Card

5 Tips on In Room Hotel Security, Never Trust a Key Card

Comments 0 Comment

You’re on a trip for that special occasion or you’re traveling on business. You return to your room and you find out your laptop or iPad have been stolen out of the room.  You have your entire itinerary on it, all your contact addresses and phone numbers, your kids birthdays and the only copy of the presentation you have only one chance to present to investors tomorrow morning!  What happens now?  Could this have been prevented?

Follow this security advice from a former CIA operative who travels the world.  It’s always better to be prepared before you leave and during your travels.  One of the most personal attacks could be in your hotel room.  Hotels work hard to keep their guests safe, however, sometimes no matter what they do, it’s not enough.

Here are the reasons not to totally trust the key cards and 5 ways to prevent an event.

Never Trust a Key Card

With summer right around the corner…

Many folks are planning vacations and making reservations at hotels around the country.

The problem is, you are more vulnerable to criminals when staying in a hotel because criminals love to target travelers.

And, millions of hotel rooms around the world are at risk of having their locks hacked, granting criminals entry or the ability to ransom access.

In short, hotel rooms fitted with electronic locks made by Assa Abloy, the world’s largest lock manufacturer, can easily be hacked.

]Many major hotel chains including Sheraton, Radisson and Hyatt use these locks To get into these hotel rooms, it’s far too easy…

Here’s how it works:

1. The hacker finds a key card for a hotel they want to target.
2. They use a cheap piece of hardware combined with custom-built software to read the card and search for the master key code.

3. Then they simply copy the master key information onto a new or existing card.

Of course, there are a few more details to this method. But, as you can see, it’s a very easy way for a criminal to get into your hotel room in under 60 seconds.

Now, a thief who is just looking to break in and burglarize a hotel room would probably use brute force to kick down the door.

But, I could see this type of hack being used by government agencies or competing businesses to gather information.

In the intelligence business, you don’t want someone to know you were in their hotel room, which is the advantage of this technique.

So, whether you travel for work or pleasure — or even use a key card to access your office — here are some tips to protect yourself from this type of hack.

• Get a doorstopper alarm. For as little as $6 on Amazon, you can buy a doorstopper alarm.

This device is easy to travel with or take to work. It’s a basic doorstop, but when you press on the top it emits a loud alarm.

Simply put it behind the door while you are in the room. If someone tries to enter, it will hopefully scare them away and give you a chance to grab a weapon to defend yourself.

• Make some noise. Most burglars don’t want anyone to be inside when they break in.

When you leave these places unattended, you should turn on a TV or radio so it sounds like someone is there.

Make sure to turn up the volume so it can be heard from the door where the key card slot is.

Most criminals will listen for noise at the door to determine if someone is inside. This is a good way to make them think twice.

• Tape the lock. Depending on the lock, when you slide the key card into the lock you can often see the card touch the bottom of the lock.

 

In cases like this, place a piece of tape inside the bottom part of the lock.

Now, this won’t necessarily prevent someone from unlocking the door, but it will at least let you know someone has entered your room or office.

 

• Don’t leave electronics behind. Cellphones, tablets, cameras and computers are hot-ticket items for criminals to get their hands on.

They contain a wealth of information about the owner. Never leave these items in your hotel room.

If you don’t want to take your computer everywhere, I suggest leaving it at home or bringing a bag to carry it comfortably.

In the intelligence world, it’s not uncommon for phones and computers to be targeted because the information can be copied and the devices left the way they were so the owner has no idea they’ve been compromised.

• Ask for a new key card. If you lose one of your key cards, go to the front desk and ask them for new key cards.

Make sure they don’t just duplicate the original key card but that they reprogram the lock in case the original card was stolen.

In other words, insist on a completely new key so if someone is trying to hack into your room, they will have to deal with a reprogrammed card.

Traveling should be a relaxing experience. But, you still need to be aware of what’s going on around you at all times.

Hacking a key card is an easy thing for criminals to do — it’s also easy to prevent yourself from becoming a victim if you follow these steps.

Stay safe,

Jason Hanson, Spy Escape and Evasion

(This article originally published at https://spyescapeandevasion.com/)

Thanks for stopping by for travel related articles.

Stop by again sometime, Thanks, John

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Key Questions for a Hotel Brand

5 Key Questions for a Hotel Brand

Comments 0 Comment

Just like Life, hotels have to keep evolving to keep up with customers newest preferences.  And just like People and Life, again, they must differentiate themselves from the herd if they expect to survive.  Here’s a good article about branding.  In many ways it could apple to us as individuals .

(this article was originally published at https://www.boutiquehotelnews.com/home/features/2018/5/11/what-guests-want-hotel-brand-and-experience-can-be-so-much-more/)

 

What guests want: hotel brand and experience can be so much more

Michelle Du-PratBy Michelle Du-Prat
Uploaded 3 days ago

What guests want: hotel brand and experience can be so much more

Michelle Du-Prat

Michelle Du-Prat of Household looks at what boutique hotel brands can learn from the retail space.

A bumper 2017 for hoteliers is being followed by creeping industry uncertainty and rising competition in 2018. This is, at least, the view held in PwC’s recent report, ‘As good as it gets?’ Underpinning its assessment is the thought that there are too many undistinguished hotel brands, limited in the scope of value they can add to their guests and therefore the custom they will see in return. But an over-saturated market need not be met by uncertainty and worry.

There are clear parallels with the retail world, in which brands increasingly commoditised their propositions and focussed too heavily on providing volume of transactions over quality experiences. But retailers are re-engaging customers by meeting rapidly changing behaviours and providing value beyond transaction alone. These brands have shifted from a sales-focussed retail model to explore a higher emotional connectivity, and what we are calling ‘retail culture’ – the moments, places, journeys and interactions where people and brands come together for mutually valuable and worthwhile experiences.

Breaking away from traditional models and learning from retail innovations that focus on people needs with responsive experiences will allow hoteliers to maximise their existing revenue streams, but also to identify new products and services for guests – standing them in good stead to weather inclement market conditions now and stand out in the long term.

Key to achieving this is thinking more laterally and imaginatively about the hospitality experience – beyond interior design materials and aesthetics, and help hoteliers reimagine their assets by looking through eyes of their guests.

The answer lies in understanding the fundamental shifts in behaviour and priorities for customers and guests – that are driving them to think of hospitality as much more than a bed for the night and in turn expect radically different experiences from brands in exchange for choosing them.

Our insight into these shifts can be applied to hotel brands by asking these five key questions of a brand.
1. How deeply does a brand resonate with my personal sense of myself, and deliver on what I care about?
2. How can a brand help me succeed in some aspect of my life? Give me extra?
3. Can I trust this brand – not just rationally to deliver a product or service, but more deeply in terms of its motivations and values?
4. If a brand is using technology, does that help me or does it just get in the way?
5. When time is so precious, does a brand help me either compress more into the time I have, help me to appreciate and savour my days or hours, give me complete flexibility

Armed with this understanding, brands can then view a hotel’s space as more than the sum of its features and rooms. Rather, the entire operation – from the building, its environment and its key services and the people within – can be thought of as flexible assets to be drawn on in order to meet the needs and lifestyle choices of the desired clientele.

These two realisations offer a world of possibility to brands. This thinking is redefining what retail looks like and can be drawn on to set the leading hospitality experiences apart in the same way.

So where should a hotelier start?

Know that your guest is your brand
Hoteliers have long been experts at serving the customer but have not been as consistent in defining themselves by the values of those they wish to attract.

A broad brand may seem intuitive as a means of mass appeal, but at a time when customers  expect to see their values reflected back to them, it’s up to brands to define themselves more sharply. Otherwise, guests will look elsewhere to find the place that seems to know them well because they think like them, act like them, look like them.

Eaton Workshop found a market of activists and change-makers and sought to curate experiences just for them. Playing on the uniquely politically-charged world surrounding its location in Washington DC, it serves as a location for cultural events and encourages activists, artists and entrepreneurs to meet and work together in its communal spaces.

The Graduate Hotels capitalise on a mindset of local knowledge and deep-rooted tradition which is felt in the major college towns of the US. By defining themselves against these places – all the way down to choosing library furniture, and ensuring the local knowledge of their hosts – Graduate hotels align themselves with collegiate values, a touch of nostalgia and the care of an exclusive alumni clubhouse.

Don’t offer a little to everybody, find your audience and go all in to meet their passions.

Design a timeless journey
It’s then important to translate rich customer personalities into environments, communication and services which all serve to foster a deeper relationship with the people who interact with them. Successfully pulling this off means starting a conversation with your guests before they arrive, which gains more significance through their stay and continues long after they’ve left your premises.

You’re out to design an experience, not just a place to visit.

Guests’ lives and lifestyle preferences are shifting by both choice and imposition due to the modern realities of our lives. The world of hospitality is in the best place to understand and act on major lifestyles shifts, like increasingly flexible schedules and 24/7 multitasking which are now the norm. Our time is so precious and demands so high, we see live-and-work spaces and always-on services offering many ways to re-engineer our days and nights around the things we want or need to do.

A fantastic example of hotel crafting an organic brand journey that flexes time to fit their guests’ lifestyles is the Ace Hotel – which transitions the same space seamlessly from daytime co-working to evening drinks, gently easing guests from a work mindset into leisure.

Hotels can also make use of platforms like As You Stay, which are providing flexible offers in recognition that working norms, and therefore rest or leisure requirements, don’t exist only around the 9-5 day. Instead, a fully flexible booking model allows less wastage of guest time and budget.

Make your space a new ‘local’
Hotel Irvine also has a 24/7 model to fit its guests’ round-the-clock lives, but it’s broader view of clientele is most interesting about this hotelier.

Irvine hosts farmer’s markets with a changing calendar of local vendors to continually draw in locals, not just travellers or those looking for a one-off novelty. A rich and evolving experience is hugely beneficial to ensure the same physical space can draw revenue from residents as well as visitors – guarding against seasonal variation and a reliance on keys alone.

Delving more deeply into the local community are brands such as The Good Hotel, which offers long-term unemployed locals a chance for a better future. Not only that, but the brand encourages employees to share their stories with guests, building intimacy and understanding between guests, the individuals, and the brand behind it all.

The immediate challenge for many hoteliers will be in how to build such a community. To our earlier point about defining a brand against its audience, this is in crafting a space defined by shared need, passions and values.

Premium gym brand Equinox is instilling this sense by bringing its premium wellness services into the hospitality space, to bring local and travelling fitness fanatics together in a like-minded lifestyle company. With a sharp sense of your brand’s reason for being, a clearer sense of your community values will follow.

After all, don’t we want to feel that our hotel of choice is aligned to our values – that it’s the place for us, wherever we might be and whatever we might need?

It may sound lofty, but realising this ideal through thoughtful branding, smart design and an evolving relationship with your customers is absolutely linked to the performance of hospitality brands and the industry in the near future.

The tools and knowledge to achieve this are at our fingertips – if we can combine them to meet our guests’ shifting lifestyles, 2018 might signal hospitality’s next evolution, and we’ll prove that ‘as good as it gets’ is really just the beginning.

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed this post.

Thanks, John

1 Man Alone Never Gives Up – Journey

1 Man Alone Never Gives Up – Journey

Comments 0 Comment

Don’t Stop Believing!!!

The band Journey has the inspirational song Don’t Stop Believing, and a tremendous story after their first twenty years.

Listen here to the awesome song and story about band member Arnel Campaner Pineda (born September 5, 1967)[1] a Filipino singer and songwriter on during Journey’s appearance on Oprah with Arnel on vocals.  You’ll see Arnel never gave up on his Passion and never stopped believing.

Now it’s your turn, take the Journey and Don’t Stop Believing!

As Winston Churchill said, “Never, Never, Never Give Up”!

 

 

 

1 Big Dream

1 Big Dream

Comments 0 Comment

What is your Big Dream?  Do you have more than one?

Are you working towards achieving that Dream?  What if you die today?  Will your dream die with you, never to be shared?

Dreams are important for everyone to have.  We all need something that lights up our souls.  Something that makes us passionate and give us energy.

Confucius said, “If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.”

Dreaming bigger takes us to new heights that we didn’t think we could reach.  We work harder, become more creative, we take action and feel better because we now have goals and passion.

 

Big Dreams
10 Mindful Attitudes

10 Mindful Attitudes

Comments 0 Comment

Our minds can be our worst enemy or our best friend and most powerful tool.  It’s up to you because you thoughts and words create your life.  Best advice for happiness and getting what you want, Mind Your Thoughts!

Here, HackSpirit.com gives us tips to deal with Anxiety.

10 mindful attitudes that rewire your brain to let go of anxiety

By

Lachlan Brown

–

Anxiety is more of a curse than anything else. You can’t cure it with the perfect medicine, and it doesn’t go away passively like a cold.

Anxiety demands your attention, while making you more fearful of giving it your attention the closer you look at it.

But deep down, defeating anxiety consists of taking part in a power struggle for your brain. Ridding yourself of anxiety is a mental exercise; keeping it away is a mental habit.

This is where adopting mindful attitudes can be hugely beneficial.

Here are the 10 best mindful attitudes to rewire your brain to let go of anxiety:

1) Find the Goodness In Every Moment, Even The Ones You Don’t Like

Some of us have issues with the lessons of mindfulness. This comes from the fear of living in the present, because the present isn’t always as great as we want it to be.

By living with mindfulness, they believe that they are withholding from themselves the ability to disengage or escape.

But that’s exactly what mindfulness tries to teach—not every moment can be positive or beautiful, and not every moment should be positive or beautiful.

We must learn to live with every moment, even the ones that we dislike, because those are the ones we learn from most.

2) You Can’t Do Everything

One of our greatest sources of anxiety is the fear that we can’t fix everything and we can’t make everything right.

Take a minute every day to stop and tell yourself, “That’s right—I can’t fix everything.” Accept the limitations of your being and you will be happier with what you have seen yourself accomplish.

Free up the energy and time that would rather have been spent worrying about things out of your control.

Don’t judge yourself and don’t push yourself too hard. Do as much as you can and find peace.

3) Always Be Present

The modern world makes it so hard to live in the present. We’re always dreaming of future wants and needs; we’re always looking at great pictures of past events; and we’re always distracting ourselves from the present moment with social media and technology.

There’s one thing you need to do, and only one: Stop. Engage with your present in the way you would want others to engage with you—with their full attention.

Feel the moment as it passes knowing that it will never return; do not hold anything against it simply because it isn’t an amazing moment. Engage with your senses and open your mind.

4) Let Yourself Be Surprised

These days, too many people think they know everything. We are always trying to predict, to foresee, to judge before we know the full story. But this ruins the way we experience events, because we are always ready to say “Ha! I told you so!”

Stop trying to prove yourself to the world. You don’t have to know everything, so why bother? Let life take you down a road without predicting every part of the path for once, and you will understand the true joy of what it’s like to be genuinely surprised.

5) Surrender to the World

Too often, we are taught to resist. To fight against change, to keep things the way we want them to stay, and to do everything in our power to make sure tomorrow is exactly like today.

But the world doesn’t operate according to your whims and fancies; the world changes, and this is a part of reality.

So the best way to deal with this? Accept it. Surrender. Let go, and flow with the waves that are pushing you a certain direction. Who knows—you may find something better on the other side.

6) Stop Trying to Understand

The modern world has turned all of us into a pile of neurotics. We obsess over knowledge and information and knowing, and any time we don’t know, we are just a few thumb presses away from Google.

Simply put, we are taught that we have to know everything, and that not knowing is something to be ashamed about.

But constantly labeling everything will make things less organic, less natural. Try to step back and let life unfold naturally, without you forcing it to happen faster than it can.

Breathe, exist, and interact, and if you don’t know something, then, well, you don’t know.

7) Trust in the Universe

How do you achieve your dreams? There are thousands of people who have earned everything they ever wanted, even if they came from nothing. The answer? They took a leap of faith. They put everything they had into their dreams and said, “F*ck it, let’s go.”

They trusted the Universe, or God, or something; something greater than them, to help lead them on their way to their hopes and dreams. You don’t have to be religious to believe that there’s something bigger than you looking out for you. Just the belief is enough to change your whole disposition.

8) Stop Analyzing

Let’s say you’re traveling somewhere, and you get lost. You might end up getting worried, getting upset.

You check your phone, check the GPS, check the maps, update your social media platforms, call your friends, freak out, and a thousand other things.

But all of these are the wrong answer. Just stop. Stop analyzing, stop overthinking. What has happened has already happened, and the best way to get out of the situation is not to think about every little thing that caused it, but to just keep going on.

9) One Thing At A Time

Multi-tasking is the bane of a mindful existence. Why do we always have to be busy, why always in a rush? Success, recognition, fame, money—are these really all the things that matter?

Focus. Concentration. Presence. Stability. These can contribute so much more to the current condition of your life than arbitrary goals of success and recognition.

You don’t have to be the best and you don’t have to beat everyone around you. Learn to be present, instead of a shadow moving from one state to another.

Learn to start living your life like someone who is alive.

10) Hold No Grudges

We can’t always live a peaceful existence. Emotions and reactions are normal, and disagreements happen all the time. Anger, grief, rage, pain—these are parts of life that can’t be avoided.

But grudges? Grudges are unhealthy. They are unnatural. They are no longer emotional reactions, but conscious decisions to continue holding a pain or anger against someone else for something that has already passed.

The one hard truth about grudges is that they hurt you much more than the person you are holding it against.

Why? Because the grudge is always on your mind, while it only affects them when you are around. Start letting go, and start accepting what has happened.

Looking to reduce stress and live a calmer, more focused life? Mindfulness is the easy way to gently let go of stress and be in the moment. It has fast become the slow way to manage the modern world – without chanting mantras or finding hours of special time to meditate.

In Hack Spirit’s new eBook, The Art of Mindfulness, we explain how you can use mindfulness practically to help you clear your mind, let go of your worries and live peacefully in the present moment.

By devoting full attention on what we are doing in the moment, we can alleviate suffering, fear and anxiety.

With the power of mindfulness at our fingertips and the beauty of looking deeply, we can find insights to transform and heal any situation.

Check it out here.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Stop by again.  Thanks, John

60’sh – Is Life Over?

60’sh – Is Life Over?

Comments 0 Comment

 

How are you going to spend your days?  Golf?  Fishing? Gardening?  Working on your hobbies. Now is the chance for a new beginning!

Those activities are going to fill your time only for so long.  What are you going to do after you’re bored with them?

Our friend Gary Vaynerchuk, known as GaryVee,  has some powerful and inspiring thoughts and advice for our Baby Boomer generation that might light a spark in your heart.  He’s fast talking, ADHD, and uses the “f” word so don’t be put off.  His thoughts are worth the listen.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  You can find more inspiring videos by GaryVee on his YouTube channel Come back again.

Thanks, John