Blessed to Be Enthusiastic, Designed to Share.

Benjamin Turpin began speaking at 11 when he stood in for his Dad one Sunday morning. His business experience began shortly after that 25 yrs ago in the family business. He is a specialist in Christian Living, Sales and Leadership earning experience in the telecom, automotive and direct sales industries.

Benjamin’s experiences have given him unusual access to key leaders in industry and charity. He is actively involved in his home community serving in leadership roles in the business world and Church world.

Benjamin has served as president in BNI (Business Network International) in Sarasota, Florida and as an Area Governor for Toastmasters International. He has launched successful networking groups for numerous chambers of commerce throughout the South East. He has also failed in business and moved through that to success.

Benjamin is a business networking specialist and has co-authored three books: 101 Networking Nuggets, Meet Me At Starbucks and Is Your Networking Working? He is a sought after speaker at chambers of commerce and conferences. He lives in Southwest Florida with his wife Katherine and their three children; Gabrielle, Nathanael and Abigail.

Your audience deserves excellence, inspiration and a connection that moves them forward. Ben delivers that and more. I look forward to talking with you about your program.

Remember that meetings will get your organization further faster, and so can I.

Contact me to see if I might be a fit for your meeting.
Have a great day!
Benjamin

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said ‘hi.’

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn’t look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter’s name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, ‘I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.’ He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying ‘your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.’

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it’s good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS —– Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the ’silent majority’. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many American, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Americans supports our troops…

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once ’silent’ majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is….We need your support and your prayers.

Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

In life you have to play all the games if you want to get to the SHOW! If you want the Super Bowl ring you have to play preseason and then must play all the regular season games too. If you do well you make the playoffs and then and only then you have a shot to play in the big game.

So my system that works great for a spectator doesn’t work well at all for those who play. I encourage you to be playing the game called life every day. Here are a couple of reasons.

The losses seam to be easier to take when we know that next week or tomorrow is another game. Sure we get torqued and mad when we loose and we should. It should drive us to perform better. But the game isn’t over til you meet your maker. I hope you have that settled but that’s a topic for another day.

The games of each day keep us engaged and moving the ball forward. You need to keep score. How are you doing? Are you using the TEAM approach (together everyone achieves more/miracles)? I hope so – if not here is a tool that might help (of course its mine) http://ow.ly/12lJB .

The wins push you to move to the next level and celebrate along the way. Its great to win and celebrate. Each day find a win and celebrate it. Be careful not to celebrate a daily win like you just won the Super Bowl. Make your celebrations correlate with your wins.

The practice of each day leads to better performance. In between each game is practice. Drills that make the whole thing seam like a carefully orchestrated symphony. I trust you have this part covered. Think about this…those who practice are paid EXTREMELY WELL….Doctors, Athletes, Lawyers, Musicians, Actors….they all practice. Please people please practice. Get better everyday – get paid more everyday. That isn’t the only reason though…you practice to become a master at your craft. So that the creator can say ahhh that one is well made and well played.

Enjoy the beauty that is yours today – go and grow. Go and give. May today be a day full of blessings for you.

Your Friend,
Benjamin

PS I encourage you to check out the following resource. I call it MIT Motivate Inspire Transform it comes in Silver and Gold We created it to Motivate Inspire and Transform in 2010 and beyond.

PPS Please forward this email along to those who might enjoy a subscription. I will also post it on my blog www.BenjaminTurpin.com so you can send them there.

Here are the details THE GOALS Workout – New Year New You Makeover – 9am -11am

Power Networking Lunch – 11:45-1pm – $12

Appreciation Marketing Seminar – 1:30-2:30pm

Come for the Goals, Come for Lunch, Come for the Seminar Come for one come for it all!

The GOALS Workout is normally $149 plus – but this year its FREE!

Why?  Well – 2009 was tough and we really want to make sure your 2010 is better.  Its my way of giving back. Lunch is $12 – The Appreciation Marketing Seminar its FREE! email me for the location -

Thanks – bturpin@benjaminturpin.com or register here http://thegoalsworkoutsrq.eventbrite.com/ http://appreciationmarketingsrq.eventbrite.com/

When we grow and learn and expand we sometimes look like a virus in a petri dish. Growing in every direction with out any control.

The question isn’t one of comfort or discomfort. Clearly pruning isn’t easy, its painful. But the finish product is a beautiful rose bush, or vine – not just a blob in a dish.

What are you letting control – who you are? What needs pruning in your life that will make you more fruitful. What needs to be removed so that the beauty can shine?

Questions to think about…