L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

ThWayToGetStartedIsToStopTalkingAndBeginDoing-WaltDisneyPostageStamp-InspirationBlog-MHProNews-(c)2016-AllRightsReserved

Doing

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”

– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Some think love can be measured by the amount of butterflies in their tummy. Others think love can be measured in bunches of flowers, or by using the words ‘for ever.’ But love can only truly be measured by actions. It can be a small thing, such as peeling an orange for a person you love because you know they don’t like doing it.”

– Marian Keyes

ThWayToGetStartedIsToStopTalkingAndBeginDoing-WaltDisneyPostageStamp-InspirationBlog-MHProNews-(c)2016-AllRightsReserved
Image credit, U.S. Postal Service, from WikiCommons.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

– Walt Disney
Post submitted bylatonykovach-com-brushed-cutting-edge-marketing-sales-blog-mhpronews-com
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

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Protecting Freedom

FreedomNeverMoreThanGenerationAwayExtinctionFoughtProtected-RonaldReaganQuote-postedInspirationBlog-MHProNews-
Photo credit, official presidential photo.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

– – Ronald Reagan

 

latonykovach-com-brushed-cutting-edge-marketing-sales-blog-mhpronews-comPost submitted by
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

Support or Oppose a President?

In the light of recent feedback about MHI’s president and the related discussions, it is timely to consider some words of President Teddy Roosevelt.

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Image credits – Pinterest, Google Images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Image credit – QuoteGram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Image credit – Notable Quotes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One must be willing to speak the truth, as charitably as possible, but also with the clarity and vigor needed to accomplish the mission of a family,

a firm,

faith

or the flag of a nation.

LATonyKovach-LouisvilleShow-2015-mhpronews-com-275x156-11
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach is one of the most popular speaker-presenters in MH. He routinely has standing -room-only crowds. He will be presenting at the Tunica Manufactured Housing Show in March, details, click here.

Submitted by L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach.

Career Captain and Deadlines

Every man is captain of his career and there must be cooperation all around if he is to get what he wants out of life.”  – Walt Disney

Everyone needs deadlines. If we didn’t have deadlines, we’d stagnate.”  – Walt Disney

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What can we add to the immortal words of creative legend and entrepreneur, Walt Disney? 

Learn, Earn, Return.” – Jim Clayton.

FeedingTheHungerForMHKnowledgeInfoAdvancement-(c)2015LifestyleFactoryHomesLLC1-MHProNews-

There is a hunger in MH for knowledge, understanding and growth.

The top image on the photos at the left is a stock photo, but the one below it, an actual SRO (Standing Room Only) photo from one of those educational events we’ve been privileged to be a part of in MH.

For the hundred or so people packed in that room, there are some 40 to 50+ times that number daily who comes to MHProNews.com.

They come looking for MH Industry News, Tips and Views Pros Can Use ©. Nothing else in MH trade news comes close.

 We All Need Inspiration!

people often say that motivation doesnt last well neither does bathing, which is why we recommend it daily - zig ziglar-posted-cuttingedgeblog-mhpronews-com

At the fine recent FL MHA meeting, they had an inspirational speaker to start their day. That’s part of a fine professional educational plan!  

Zig Ziglar is right, we need motivation daily, and that’s one reason why we have inspirational articles, this INspiration blog, the Words of Wisdom blog, etc..

As our friend, colleague and supporter, John Bostick at Sunshine Homes says, “Easy doesn’t pay well.” It isn’t the McDonald’s ‘easy’ that pays. Most of those who wanted ‘easy’ left MH years ago. The forward thinkers and doers, they are the fuel our industry needs to progress.  MH may not be as ‘easy’ today as in the go-go 90s, but there are some who are more profitable today than they were then.  They are routinely those who invest in their careers and businesses, including training and motivation.

Many thanks to each of you for your respective role in the growing world of MH. Together, we advance. Tally-ho!

Tony

MarkSimon-PhotoCredits-PostedMHProNews-com-
Photos by Mark Simon, from recent NY Housing Association meeting.  Tony will be presenting again at the 2016 Tunica Manufactured Housing Show, among other upcoming events.

By L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach.

ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com MHProNews.com |

Business and Public Marketing & Ads: B2B B2C

Websites, Contract Marketing & Sales Training, Consulting, Speaking:

MHC-MD.com LATonyKovach.com | Office 863-213-4090 |

Connect on LinkedIN:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach 

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right. – Henry Ford

Sam Gerrans – Is America on the brink of a meltdown?

Writer Sam Gerrans argues that America is like a truck being loaded up with Semtex, a highly stable plastic explosive that will explode only if you have the right detonator. 

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Sam Gerrans, photo credit, Twitter.

1) Gerrans points to the very small part of the population that is involved in agriculture; so if the food chain is disrupted, the store shelves go bare in just a few days.

2) Not unlike MHC leader Sam Zell (see Our Way of Life is Very Much Threatened), Gerrans sees fiat paper money (vs. a gold and silver backed standard) and potential loss of being the world reserve currency as a threat to the U.S.. Gerrans thinks many of our American wars in recent decades are about oil. The world and the people of the U.S., he says, are tired of it.  

While that view could be disputed or modified, what is certain is that a loss of imported oil to the U.S. Economy would indeed trigger a series of ‘economic explosions’ in our nation and abroad. Not Gerrans, but others believe that such might be Vladimir Putin’s end goal in Russia filling the vacuum of the U.S. withdraw from the Middle East.  What if Russia and Iran controlled the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East? What if Russia choked that oil off from the U.S. and other western nations?

3) A growing use of mind-altering drugs also creates social risk, Gerrans states. Withdrawal from drugs which have lead to lone wolf attacks on unarmed citizens are cited.  What if a disruption in the drug supply chain hit the U.S.?  Would we see rapidly escalating violence as a result?

4) A loss of traditional more values.  The poverty of the Great Depression in the 1930s did not lead to a huge surge in crime, Gerrans says: “People were brought up with a conception of morals and right and wrong. Frugality and prudence were prized virtues. Communities were generally fairly cohesive.”  Not so today, he says, when: “Relative to then, society today is undisciplined, unrealistic and selfish.”  

Gerrans points to violence and death in stores on Black Friday to get a discounted item as just one sign of that moral breakdown in America.  

Not Gerrans…

Gerrans doesn’t say it, but others do. While the U.S. and North America could be energy independent, we are still not there.  We are dependent on OPEC’s oil today, and this is but one of many reasons why true energy independence ought to be a U.S. and North American priority.

Gerrans doesn’t say it, but others do: “Know God, Know Peace.  No God? No Peace.”  Others point to the fact that when God and traditional moral values are marginalized in society, that historically the ‘god of big government‘ begins to loom ever larger.

Make no mistake, I’m not arguing for all that Gerrans says or believes. But his topic and those 4 points cited above are worthy of serious discussion.

It isn’t religion, as some claim, that causes most wars. It is often the lack of faith-based behavior that fuels the Hitlers, Stalins, Pol Pots and Mao Tse Tungs of modern history.  “Democide,” or Death By Government, says University of Hawaii professor emeritus R.J. Rummel, documents wars and mass murder of a population’s own people caused by the godless – those acts dwarfs the deaths caused by religious disputes.

The MH Industry’s members ought to hold themselves to high ethical standards, and must be engaged in the deeply problematic challenges of our time.  Indeed, many in MH are.  

I-am-only-one-but-I-am-one-I-cannot-do-everything-but-I-can-do-something-do-interfere-with-what-I-can-do-EdwardEverettHale-image-wikicommons-poster(c)2015-mhpronews

We can’t fix the world solo, but that is no excuse not to fix that which we are able to be engaged in.  

The optimist doesn’t curse the down pour, or look at the rain and deny it exists.  The wise optimist looks at the rain, grabs the umbrella and is thankful for the harvest that a tended crop yields following the rains.

America can get through this time, but we must be willing to go below mere surface issues, PC talk and bumper sticker slogans to arrive at solutions that will benefit our society and thus we as professionals. ## 

MarkSimon-PhotoCredits-PostedMHProNews-com-
Photos by Mark Simon, from recent NY Housing Association meeting.

L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach
www.MHLivingNews.com |www.MHProNews.com |

Websites, Contract Marketing & Sales Training, Consulting, Speaking:
www.MHC-MD.com |www.LATonyKovach.com | Office 863-213-4090 |

Connect on LinkedIN:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

 

Turning dirt into Pearls

Whether you are a pauper, a President or the people in between, we all have irritants in our lives. Those irritations may be circumstances, difficulties with a person(s), or some pain. It can be almost anything that bothers us.

Pearl2_wikimedia_commons
Pearls in an oyster half-shell

My friend and Industry colleague, Dennis Hill, reminded me a couple of weeks ago how oysters form a pearl around a speck of dust or dirt. The oyster’s body ‘coats’ the dirt-speck with a chemical as a protectant against the irritation that the dirt causes the oyster. This process of protection against irritation over time is what yields the pearl.

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Rare Black Pearl. Photo credits Wikimedia Commons

 

What or who irritates you?

What keeps you up at night?

How can you take a negative piece of dirt and turn it into a magnificent pearl? ##

post submitted by
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Lessons of Hate and Love applied for Manufactured Housing Growth

Have you ever known a former smoker? Ever notice that the one who once ‘loved’ smoking, may now hate it passionately?

A similar dynamic can happen in relationships, business, religion and politics. The one who was once strongly in favor of this or that belief, if they ‘leave’ or separate from that fold, may now become its most bitter opponent. The one who loved someone strongly, may suddenly hate that person with a passion, if the relationship comes to an unhappy end.

NoSmoking It causes extiction - jurassic forest courtsey of brit Flickr CreativeCommons osted on MHMSM.com and MHProNews.com
No Smoking it causes extiction - courtsey of brit Flickr CreativeCommons

At this point, we are merely observing. The above is not praise or blame, merely the recognition of a fact we have all seen, or experienced ourselves.

Now let’s apply this to manufactured housing growth.

There are those out there in the public who vilify what they do not know, or do not understand. Our job is to get them ‘to see the light.’ Because those who once ‘opposed’ manufactured housing, if we win them over, can become our greatest ally!

No one person will accomplish this, we all must take a part in one way or another.

To learn more about a practical process that we can use to change those who are indifferent to our industry or those who oppose us into our strongest allies, please see the latest Cutting Edge in Marketing and Sales Blog.

Hate_can_Yield_to_Love__and_blue_skies_carlpuentes_Flickr_yield_sign_posted_on_MHProNews.com_and_MHMSM
Hate can Yield to Love. Photo courtesy of Carl Puentes, Flickr Creative Commons

We can make misunderstanding, old myths and even hate yield to love.

We have a great product, in manufactured and modular homes! Community living can be a very fine way of life for millions. One person at a time, we can win millions over. Let’s just take the daily steps to do it. # #

 

Blog post submitted

by L. A.  Tony Kovach
Connect with me on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Pride and the Rose Less Traveled

To oversimplify, one can speak of two types of pride.  Healthy pride and unhealthy pride.

An example of healthy pride is to feel good about one’s work and accomplishments.  An example of unhealthy pride may seem similar at first: to feel good about one’s work, accomplishments and self, but to do so to the point that one looks down upon others.

The antidote to the second sort of pride is humility.

Roses and fountain - Chicago Botanic Gardens
Roses and fountain - Chicago Botanic Gardens

Humility comes from the word humus, of the earth.  When one realizes that we are ‘of the earth,’ made of the same chemicals found in the natural world around us, this can bring us back to reality.

One may realize that none of us is an island.   None of us is a truly “self made” man or woman, we all have had – and still have – need of others.  From parents and family, to friends and colleagues, we need others to become our best.

Rich soil – dirt – humus – this is where nature properly cultivated can flower.
Humility is not to think of oneself as dirt. True humility is nothing more or less than a recognition of the objective truth.

So there is a healthy balance needed between self respect and respect for others.

In younger days (not that I’m old, mind you! ; -) it is easy to recall how one once thought that one ‘knew it all.’

Then slowly, over time, the reality of the importance of others comes into play.

 

In strolling through the glory of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s this evening with my wife and son, it was easy to get carried away in the beauty of the place.  To see the wonder of nature.  To realize that nature’s wonder has been cultivated by people in a fashion that makes the natural, super natural!

Team work is a little like cultivating nature.

Establishing team work is to take what is already good in others.  To be open to and receptive oneself, to be willing to share in a fashion that allows another to flower.  This type of process makes the good ever more beautiful.

Such a process makes what is good even better.

Team work can be misunderstood, just as pride and humility can be misunderstood.  Not everyone ‘gets it.’  But once a team comes together, works and stays together, the results can be amazing, truly humbling, and beautiful to behold.

The Rose Less Traveled
The Rose Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

# #

Post written by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

 

 

 

 

Making choices, right judgment and manufactured housing news

We have all picked up a movie, publication or book that we thought would be good, and turned out disappointed by its contents.

We have all worked with people that we later regretted working with, but hind sight is 20-20.  Looking back, at the time, we may not have known better.

A plumber called out to do a job may have totally different politics than the home owner whose house he is repairing.  Should the plumber be condemned for repairing a problem, even if other problems exist?

Should the auto mechanic who is paid to change the tires refuse the job, because the engine needs a tune up and the interior of the vehicle needs cleaning?

The worker at McDonald’s is not responsible for serving hamburgers that could – if repeated and combined with numerous other food choices – result years later with someone ending up with clogged arteries.

If that McDonald’s employee can get a new job with a quality health food store, terrific!  The health food store manager may shudder at the thought of fast foods.  But if they look past the word McDonald’s on the resume, they might learn that this person did fine work.  Can the experience at McDonald’s be a useful one?

Absolutely.

The closed mind by definition can’t learn.

We are all at times branded by a perceived association that may not exist.

If a media outlet is liberal, does it benefit their readers by having a conservative columnist?

I’ve often picked up sound ideas from professionals I disagreed with.

In fact, when I come in to do a turn-around for a client, one of the first things I have to do is observe what is currently being done.  It may be dead wrong!  But by observing (or reading 😉 from others, even if they are wrong about many things, the right approach may come to light.

You may also find some things that were good, even in the midst of chaos and confusion.  Keep what is good, toss out what isn’t.

The mechanic whose job is to change the tires of the car may notice that the engine needs a tune up.  He may offer to do that work, or to clean up and detail the dirty interior of the vehicle.   But if the customer says, ‘No thanks, all I want are those new tires,’ that is what the mechanic does.  We shouldn’t blame the mechanic for doing the job he was hired to do, if that part of the job was well done.

In the manufactured housing news, tips and views business, you shouldn’t check common sense at the door.

There are times when the most interesting commentary on American news comes from a source like the BBC.

Ask questions.

Probe for facts.

Sift past appearances and seek the truth of an issue or idea.

You may or may not like the source of an idea personally.  While understandable, let’s not let the source of a good idea alone blind us.

I do not ask a mechanic about their politics or religious practices or the lack thereof.  What I want to know is, can this person do the job well?

If someone is given the resources and authority needed to do a job and consistently can’t produce results, that is what they should be judged upon.

But the opposite is also true.  When you find someone who manages to advance a cause or effort in spite of a lack of resources or sufficient support, bring that person on!

A look at the person, not some label hung upon a person.

All raw diamonds need cutting and polishing.

An open mind to ideas, even if we question the source.

First impressions may be right or wrong.  The flashy cover on that DVD may conceal a dull video.  The subtle or obscure cover may be hiding a gem. # #

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, MHM – Publisher, Marketing Director and Industry Consultant
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com aka MHMSM.com aka MHProNews.com
tony@mhmsm.com
847-730-3692

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