Building Success Through Process, Positivity, and the Little Things with Neil Rogers

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. I am talking to a veteran of working from home for 40 years. Super excited for this episode. Uh, he is the owner of Rogers Marketing, LLC, but also he’s got a new program called, uh, positive Activity. Very excited to be talking about that.

And what he helps people with is promotional activities, mindset, lots of other things. So we’re gonna get right into it. Thanks for rocking out with me today, Neil, what’s going on?

Neil Rogers: Tim Rock and Roll Hoochie coup. Who’s that?

Tim Melanson: Rock and roll. Gucci Goo. Oh man, that’s classic rock. Who sings that?

Neil Rogers: Rick Dinger

Tim Melanson: Rick Daner. Right on. Well, we’re gonna talk a little bit more about your favorite rock star later, but first, Neil Rogers, are you ready to rock?

Neil Rogers: always ready to rock my man.

Tim Melanson: Brilliant. So we always start off here on a good note. Tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by.

Neil Rogers: Well, it, it, it’s kind of a combo, uh, um, [00:01:00] because it has to do with, uh. Business slash personal life. Right. So we have a, when my, and uh, let’s see, almost now, 32 years ago, my son was diagnosed, uh, with, um, with autism. And so, you know, when we are going through all, all that you go through with that, which is, you know, anger and doubt and fear and all that stuff, you know, we, we, we also realized we gotta get going, you know.

We, we gotta, we gotta do, we gotta make some things happen. And that was kind of my area of expertise in terms of being a, being a, a rep. At the time I was a sales rep and I still am, I’m always a rep. I’m either a bartender or a rep. There we go. Those are the two. I got nothing else for you. I was never gonna be a chemical engineer like YouTube.

So anyways, um, so we implied some of the principles that we, that, that made me successful on the road to things that we could do to make. Craig’s life better, um, and be, be a [00:02:00] collaborative source. So one of the things you’ll find in if any of your listeners are out there in, um, you know, have this, have this, have this issue that, you know, when you, when you’re talking about school, and I’m not so certain how it is in Canada, but here in the States, they always tell you to fight for everything. Well, okay, well, okay. That sounds like we’re not gonna be friends. Right. And we’re not gonna be making, you know, you know, it’s, it, it’s not gonna, we chose a different path. We chose to be part of the solution and much like we do what, you know, so what we did is we circled wagons. We, we, we created a, we created an organization that helped support the schools.

So it was just a parent, it was a parent organization, I would say akin to a PTO or, or, or, or, or the, like, up in your area. And, um, and then we just built things around it. We created conferences. We had, we had, um, we had, um. Events two, at least two fundraising events a year. [00:03:00] But we, and, and, and people could dial in and look for funds if they, if they, um.

If it was, the whole goal was it had to, it had to be educationally based and had to be for the greater good. So it, we couldn’t, we weren’t gonna fund Johnny’s, you know, uh, laptop so we could take it home, you know, so had to stay in the class. But the point of all that is, it’s the same principles that we’ll talk, I’m sure we, we’ll touch base on like, in positive activity or, and, and, uh, any and any of the success that we had is, is built on a process and we just put together a process in each thing and it worked.

So, uh, when I, uh, the book I wrote is called Bar Tips. Everything I Needed to Know in Sales, I Learned Behind the Bar and the Greatest Compliment I got on it, and I got a lot of ’em. I mean, it was, the reviews are very high and the is because it’s simple. I mean, this is, we’re not splitting the atom here, right?

Again, once again, no chemical engineering for Neil. Um, but, um, but it was just this, this [00:04:00] roadmap of little things that we did that just. Help the whole situation. So we collaborated and we cooperated. So the guy who, the guy friend of mine came back from, he’s, he, he stays with us on the cape, uh, every, every year.

Oh, just off the cape in Plymouth, America’s hometown. He says, you know what? I read your book. Now the book has to do with sales selling stuff and all that. He goes, is that how you did the other stuff too? I said, yep. So what we learn, all the things that we learn, and this is again, you know, another, another book I’m in The process of finalizing, which is akin to bar tips is, you know, you’re the sum total of your experiences, right?

So I mean, you know, and, and those things that you’re, A lot of times when I mentor a young person, I’m telling them the same things their father, mother, and grandparents told them. They just weren’t listening to [00:05:00] them. You know, so, um, so that was that. So I think, you know, it’s a little mosh up there. I understand that, but I just felt it was important.

’cause you know, when I, I saw the, the, the query, I said, you know, that’s really it. You know, when you can take what you, what you learn in your business or your life experience and, and do something of value for. Your family and, and by the way, those like him, you know, we’ve been doing that now we’ve, we’ve uncovered many.

That’s just the one, one of the, one of the laundry list of things that we did to help better the situation. We never looked for accolades. We never, it was just like, just something that we could do because we’re used to doing it. I mean, simple dot connecting, connecting people, relationship development, which is what we do in business every day.

So I would say that was, you know, it was, it was, it was an interesting one. I was like, you know, yeah. I could tell you about some home run I hit. You know, because I stumbled over a big [00:06:00] deal or whatnot. But I don’t know, you can mix that, that, uh, you know, when you’ve got a situation like us or whatever anybody else’s situation is, as they say, everybody’s going through something.

Right. You know, use the, and, and I will tell you the things I would suggest right now in this, you know, lifetime, uh, of, you know, uh, life experience, uh, getting your mindset right is number one.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Yeah. One, one of the hardest things about parenting is, uh, is making sure that you don’t say, I told you so when they, when they come to the point of something that you’ve been telling them forever and they finally figure that it’s their idea, and you’re like, yeah, that’s a great idea, you. Yes. Do that. That’s good.

Neil Rogers: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, uh, and you know, it doesn’t end.

Tim Melanson: No. Nope. Well,

Neil Rogers: I mean, I literally, I literally have mentored other guys, boys. And I know this guy was thinking the same stuff I

Tim Melanson: Yep. Yeah. Yep.

Neil Rogers: This came from a different audience. That’s all

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and you need to hear things [00:07:00] more than once. I mean, hey, don’t you hear that in sales all the time that they, you need multiple connections before you actually are ready to buy something. So there you go.

Neil Rogers: significant ones.

Tim Melanson: So, uh, so I mean, if, if that’s the case, then it would be the same with your, with your kids.

They hear it from you first, and it takes six more people for them to hear it before it, before it, it sinks in, right? Mm-hmm.

Neil Rogers: Yeah, and I think, uh, well, well, I know we’ll probably get into it later. I think that, and as we were discussing prior, I think that’s where getting, giving this tool, in this book that I’m writing, that it, it’s a conversation tool by the way. A lot of white space, it will not be offered on kind.

Tim Melanson: Huh.

Neil Rogers: You have to buy it, you have to write on it.

Tim Melanson: Okay.

Neil Rogers: have to express yourself, put the phone down and have a conversation.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Old school. So now along with

Neil Rogers: That’s all I got. I’m, I’m certainly not new school, that’s for sure.

Tim Melanson: Well, along with good notes, sometimes things don’t go as [00:08:00] planned. And I really do like to talk about the bad notes as well because I mean, as we know, many people are afraid to even start something because of they might fail. And so I’m wondering, can you share with us something that didn’t go as planned and something that, that we can learn from?

Neil Rogers: Oh, sure. Um, so I was, I had a very successful run in the sporting goods business selling athletic footwear and apparel to every sporting goods store and shoe store and bookstore here in the New England area. And, um, and when that kind of, kind of ran its course, uh, which I, which I would love to have done that forever.

Um. I decided because I was very successful at that, I could start a computer software training company. Seems to make sense. Right.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Neil Rogers: You know, and of course at the time I, you know, it was, it was a couple years after Craig had, Craig had been diagnosed. So I was a little, still a little reeling for it. And I, and there was this, there was this, uh, neighbor of mine at the [00:09:00] time that was, uh, kind of a big brother.

Situation. He’s probably at least a dozen years older than me or so I would suggest. And, um, he had, he was that, he was that guy that just lulled you in. And so I wound up going into business with him. I was starting this thing. Oh, I could be helpful in that. Okay. All right. Sure. All right. Let’s have everybody right.

So this mistake, everyone, everyone, everybody, uh, remember this partners are for dancing. Right. So let’s remember that. And then, um, so that kind of went, so what happened was I never got to do what I do,

Tim Melanson: Okay.

Neil Rogers: and that was take a product, see who can buy it, and go market it to them and, and all that sell it. You know, get the appointments, go out and make the presentations, do the follow up.

All the things I had been doing that I was successful at. [00:10:00] So we never really got a product. The product came later in some form of some, a form or fashion of a a, of a CD product. It was crazy. But yeah, that one, um, I didn’t know if I was gonna recover from that one, honestly. I was like, I was really. You know, what did I just do to my life ish type conversations, you know, where you’re just like, oh my God, well, you know, and then, you know, just, we got back on the horse and, uh, and been doing this for 30 years.

So it was a, a couple years, which was, which weren’t fun. But, you know, we, um, we, we made it through because guess what? We went back to our own process and started doing things the same way we’d always been doing ’em, the way we were successful at ’em. So, um. So, yeah, it’s, uh, so that was, uh, it was a few hundred thousand dollars mistake.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. Well, so how long did the, uh, I guess depression, I don’t know what, what better word to use did that last for when you realized that it was failed versus get back on the horse?

Neil Rogers: It was, uh, yeah. [00:11:00] It never, it never, it never reached that level. It was just, you know. Bummed out, you know, just like, oh, you know, and, uh, and embarrassed and things like that. It wasn’t really, yeah. Uh, there was no, no, no contemplation of anything bad, I promise you. But the, uh, and, and God rest, I, I, because I’ve had friends go that route.

Uh, matter of fact, I, I, I rode a, um, diversion path here real quick. I, I rode for. I wrote for a friend of mine who did it last year. It was a cycle against suicide we did this year. But anyway, but no, it was, um, so, uh, I would suggest that we will back whole again within 18 months,

Tim Melanson: 18 months. Okay.

Neil Rogers: Yeah. You know, because, because if I’m doing what I’m, what I’m, what, what I do, I’m taking other people’s, I’m not creating the product, you know, developing the product, doing the market research.

When I’m saying, oh, there’s the product. [00:12:00] Hmm, who can buy this? And we go sell it. Now in the car, our current business, pretty much everybody’s our, everybody’s a, everybody’s a potential customer. It’s just whether or not who you wanna do business with. So, um, so we just, you know, we choose, we choose to, you, you know, work with, um, fortune, fortune 500 companies, you know?

’cause once you’re in there, you’ve got, you can spider web through and you, you might have 300 contacts from one company.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Yep, for sure.

Neil Rogers: but,

Tim Melanson: so 18 months, I mean, that feels like a lifetime for probably you, you as well. I’m wondering like what, what kept you moving forward from day to day so that you didn’t end up in a, in a worse situation?

Neil Rogers: The kids, the family, you know, just the drive to, you know, we, we had to, you know, we had to provide for, you know, you know, all of them. But, you know, we had the, the situation with Craig and, you know, so it was, uh, yeah, we just soldiered on, as they say. You know, just keep rolling and, uh, so, and as, as long as you get back into the groove.[00:13:00]

And then, you know, prior to that, Lori had not been working and she jumped in at this point, the first two kids, she didn’t, she didn’t work. And what she did, she’s just a rock star. And so she, she was one of the, I mean, so, oh, well, oh, so let me amend my answer. It’s because of Lori.

Tim Melanson: She kept you, kept you

Neil Rogers: Well, I mean, yeah. It’s like, well, she, no, she, she actually literally started the swag business.

Tim Melanson: Okay.

Neil Rogers: Oh yeah. And you know, she, she, ’cause ’cause the interesting story, interesting, kind of convoluted, we were married up with two other companies, like they were gonna take our company and, you know, put these companies together and, and we had this financial guy who was a little crazy and we’re gonna make it a public offering one of these low level public offerings.

So I think, oh, this is gonna be great. We’re gonna, you know, all that. And then of course we were all, so the only one that had business. At real. We had business, but we, the only one that had real business was this promotional company that we wound up being, becoming a part of. So essentially we, they were [00:14:00] franchising their concept and we wound up, I was award, you know, basically awarded one, you know, because, you know, in the end, on the way out the door.

So, uh, yeah. And then we, so, and yeah, and, and Lori started it and she, she did all the initial cold calling and all that. So it’s, uh, and, and it remains, the, remains to this day. The straw straw that stirs the drink. In all honesty.

Tim Melanson: super important. Who you pick as your spouse, eh?

Neil Rogers: Well, yeah, it’s, uh, and it was an unlikely pairing. I guarantee you. I’m not gonna lie. Not, not gonna lie. There we met, we met in a, a restaurant, uh, when I was a bartender and she was a food server, but she was, it was a little different. She was getting her, her master’s in math in five years. I was trying to get my, my bachelor’s in just under a decade. So.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, okay, so let’s talk a little bit about the practice phase. So, I mean, I, I say this quite often is that, you know, every, every great guitarist, every great [00:15:00] musician was at some point very bad at what they did. You know, it, it just is, is what it is. And so you gotta, you gotta work at your craft. And I’m wondering, what do you have, like, uh, you know, how do you approach practicing and getting good at what you do?

Neil Rogers: Well, it’s, it’s all about process, right? So it’s like when we’re, you know, now that we’re trying to ramp up the positive activity side of it, now it’s like, it’s a whole new market. I really don’t know who the, who’s,

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Neil Rogers: don’t know all the what’s, and I don’t know all the where’s right. So it’s almost, it’s starting from, from uh, from, from Jump.

I just turned 67. It’s like, you know, but I’m a, you know, I’m a kid. I have no desire to stop. I, you know, like I, I’m in, in incre, I’m in, I’m in phenomenal shape for a 67-year-old for, for a 47-year-old. I am. So it’s, uh, and so I stay at that. And, um, and so when we, when we go through the process of our little process that we’ve [00:16:00] been using in some form or fashion for all the years I’ve been selling, which is really just based in hospitality.

It’s, it’s the seven touches that we talked about earlier, and they have to be significant. How are you gonna get somebody’s attention? And I believe that the algorithms changed a little bit too, because it seems like it, it might have jumped up

Tim Melanson: Oh, it’s more than seven now. Yeah.

Neil Rogers: Yeah, it’s like, and you know, and, and, and, you know, and I think Seven significance, you know, you get all the social media and all the emails you want, but I, I, I, I’m, I’m still dumbfounding when people tell me that they’re.

They’re growing their, they’re telling me I can grow my business via email. I said, I don’t look at anything. I don’t know I, from anybody. I don’t know. There’s nothing I look at, I go, oh, this looks interesting. Nothing. It all goes into the other category. I mean, that’s the other thing. Microsoft, you is, is even helping you in Outlook.

’cause it just goes other and then there’s junk. It’s other than junk, it’s like, anyways, so, um, yeah. So, you know, I, I, I, so it’s, um. So we’ll see how, you know, but [00:17:00] we’re just, we’re get, but, but with positive activity, it’s a lot more visual. It’s a lot more video, it’s a lot more, you know, we, we can send out messages and all those types of things.

So my son who found you, you know, he’ll be doing a lot more of that stuff for us and, and, and, and the like. So that’ll change a little bit how we do things. But we’re gonna, we’re gonna still send direct mail and we’re still gonna send boxes and we’re still gonna get, ’cause guess what, you know what the open radar on a lumpy piece of mail is?

Tim Melanson: Oh, it’s probably super high now. People don’t get mail anymore.

Neil Rogers: 100%.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Oh,

Neil Rogers: You put a little dimension in, in something and it’s like, boom. Right? So we teach, that’s part of one of the things that we teach at, teach ’em positive activity. In terms of like getting new business, do you wanna stand out? Do you wanna be different? You think banging phones and leaving voicemails and, and, and texting?

Oh, I mean, who thinks texting’s a good, that’s like an invasion of my space. I look down and I go, who are you?

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I get annoyed by text messages too.

Neil Rogers: Yeah,

Tim Melanson: Like

Neil Rogers: you, you get, you can get, [00:18:00] yeah. I mean, ’cause you’re gonna ignore it anyways, but you, this is, it’s like, oh, who’s texting me? It’s like, you know, it’s like right in my, you know, it’s just right in my, uh, right in my palm.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about the band then. So who else do you have around you in that are, that’s making the magic happen?

Neil Rogers: So we, so it’s Lori and I. And then we have, we just picked up, um, started working with a consultant in the, in the speaking business. So get to get to find out who the, what, wheres and whys are. And then, um, we have. With our affiliation with, um, what is called, it’s called the a i a corporation. Um, we have access to countless number of vendors in our promotional business.

Uh, always a preferred offerings, preferred pricing, preferred, you know, service, service levels and all that. So that’s, that’s great. So that’s, that’s an affiliation that we have. The, um, all of our local [00:19:00] folks are people that we’ve, we’ve built like, that are going to do. The printing and all that stuff.

We’ve got that, that those, that, that, that, uh, that, uh, base. And then in our organization, we’ve got someone that does all of our mailings.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Neil Rogers: So she does, so she, you know, if someone, if I get a lead in, I send over, Hey, Carol, send a, uh, send a promo kit to X, Y, Z, et cetera. And so it’s a cool little kit we send and, you know, it’s, you know.

It’s a $50 bill to get it out the door, you know, maybe even more 70. And uh, so we don’t wanna be a little discerning on who those go to. So she manages all that, does all of our social media stuff and whatnot. And I’m, we do, as much as I’m. We do market email wise, ’cause we’re sending it to people, sending the emails to people that know who we are.

And then we’ve got Kathleen who manages accounts for us. And all these people are, you know, so, so they, man, she manages the manage accounts account manager with us. And then we’ve [00:20:00] got cj, who’s our admin, who’s just a rock star. And he’s in the Philippines

Tim Melanson: Wow. So this sounds like a pretty big operation for a work at home thing, isn’t it?

Neil Rogers: Yeah. But they all work from home.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Neil Rogers: CJ’s in a, in a, in, in his parents’ basement in the Philippines. And yet this kid is a rock star. I you talk about a rock star, but you know,

Tim Melanson: I love to hear these. Yeah. This, this is so cool because I mean, I think that, uh, yeah, especially now, I mean, you know, things, the world has changed, but you can run a, a normal, you know, business from home nowadays. Whereas, you know, I, I think a lot of people think that if you’re working from home, you’re alone and that’s it.

And that, that’s not the case. Now, you can run some decent sized businesses from home, right.

Neil Rogers: Yeah. We’re we’re, I mean, in our world, in our lane we’re, we’re decent size.

Tim Melanson: Yep.

Neil Rogers: You know, it’s like, yeah. I mean, it all depends on who you, you know, who, who the clients, you know? And, and the sad fact, one, one thing I’m not [00:21:00] liking as much as I, I mean, I miss the personal contact.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, me too.

Neil Rogers: I really miss going to see people and bringing samples and all those things.

You do get to know them better. You get to know their business better. Just gotta find that. And I have, that’s, that’s another, another, you know, hopefully get that hacked down that, uh, you know, where’s the local coffee shop or, or whatever, and what can you, you know, how do you present at a Starbucks or, you know, that type of thing.

Um, because I, I mean, I, I leave here, I go and have lunch. I’ll talk to anybody that’ll listen. You know, just to, just to have that, that, uh, so, um, and that’s kind of what I hope to, you know, as we, as we build out the speaking part of our world, you know, encourage people to do, you know, put the phones down. I, I saw a great one this morning.

It was a commencement speech of Bates, Bates College in, up by, well, not too far from you and, uh, Lewiston, Maine. And, um, the woman who started it said, okay. [00:22:00] President Jenkins. Yep. Here’s my phone. You give me yours. Okay. Everybody in the audience hand your phone to your neighbor.

Tim Melanson: Well,

Neil Rogers: Right. Nobody’s on their phones because it’s not gonna be on somebody else’s phone.

Right.

Tim Melanson: no. Yeah.

Neil Rogers: Right. And so it was just like, boom. And I’m also hearing that this is, uh, just anecdotal right now from teachers that. When they’re not, I know what’s going on up there, but down here a lot of schools are saying no phones.

Tim Melanson: Yep. There.

Neil Rogers: And some of them, I think there’s like a little, there’s a system where you can, there’s a, some sort of readout that shuts your phone off or, or I feel, oh, it shows your attendance in that type of thing.

And I, from what I understand though, the kids are loving it. They’re loving it, you know, they’re not.

Tim Melanson: day.

Neil Rogers: They’re not cons. Yeah, yeah. They’re probably moaning and groaning and it’s like, oh. It’s like, it’s like I, I always tell the [00:23:00] story, so this is now a while ago, probably 20 years ago or so, now, maybe even more, my son was downstairs in our basement playing a video game with a kid who lived around the corner.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Neil Rogers: I said, no, no, no. Go over there. You know, did it work? I don’t know if it did. I can’t remember if he did it or not, but I mean, it’s like, you know, he was a bit of a pain in the butt at the time. He’s actually here right now. Um, but it’s, uh, 31 years old not living with cc He’s up in bcs you for, for the holidays.

But, uh, but yeah, so I mean, those are the types of things I think are, you know, are, you know, are, are going to, I mean, you gotta be able to have a conversation. You know, ai, AI’s not gonna do everything for you and you’re gonna be happier.

Tim Melanson: I agree. So now you’ve, uh, you do some teaching obviously, and I’m wondering though, like, did you ever hire a coach in your, in your career?

Neil Rogers: No, I’ve been [00:24:00] to, um. I’ve been to, yeah, no, I guess we’ve, we’ve had counsel right on, on certain things, you know, uh, when we first started up positive activity, we worked with a guy for a bit and yeah, we’ve got, well, I’m forgetting my rock stars, Theresa. She’s, she helps on every, helps me on all my books, all my, all our website stuff, all the positive activity side, all the all and and whatnot helps us, Laurie too.

And, um, and, um. She’s just another one that’s just a, a godsend. And we have a vibe going. Her and I, she prompts me on stuff on, on what to do here, here, here’s what you should be asking yourself for writing this chapter. Okay, you’re right. And then I can, and I can fly through it. ’cause I, ’cause what it does, it gives my mind, you know?

So, um, but, uh, but yeah, so no, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some though. So like [00:25:00] people, I mean, I was mentioning the guys in the sporting goods business now. We were friends before then, you know, and then, ’cause we all grew up in the same area. Then I worked with them for I think eight or 10 years, forget what the number was.

And, um, and it, it was just, it was the lo the logical approach to things, right? It wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t, um, Phil, uh, philosophical, you know, or, or abstract. If that’s a better term. Probably it was blocking and tackling, right? It’s the fundamentals. You know, Jim Rohn, who is the, uh, motivational speaker and an entrepreneur, he actually, he actually mentored Tony Robbins. Now Tony’s only sold Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Neil Rogers: yeah, he, he didn’t go in and out of every kitchen in Boston, in and in and out of every sporting store or write code or whatever, you know, which he’s marvelous at what he does, but, but, uh, but [00:26:00] R’S thing was, success is neither magical nor mysterious.

Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals. And in my world, when I give a speech on that, I call it the little things. It’s the little things.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Neil Rogers: know, it’s, it’s the, you know, the tying of the bow, you know, a little french pastry you do for things. The little extra things you throw in, you know, that, that, uh, are just goodwill.

So those are the types of things I would learn from them. And then just, you know, I remember one, I mean, I quote, I mean, I, I think I quote Bill almost every day. And Bill and Brian are, you know, they’re just like, they’re brothers and they’re, they think the same, or, and I, and I did, I thought very, very similarly, but, um, as an example.

You know, so some something you can pick up off the ground. Folks, when you’re out there listening, when somebody says something, they go, oh, I remember when, when I first started in New York, um, bill would call me up. I wasn’t working for him. He was just calling me up to help me. And one of the things he said to me was, [00:27:00] if you tell somebody, you’re, give him a poster.

Get ’em a poster. You know what you do, you get ’em the poster. Not talk about it, you get it, right? So I wrote a, um, so I’ve kind of taken that and put a little, little, little, little bit extra on that. And I call it no beer plans. No beer plans are

Tim Melanson: I,

Neil Rogers: Beer plans are the ones you make with old friends after a few beers and you go, you know what? We need to get together more often.

Tim Melanson: yeah.

Neil Rogers: It never happens.

Tim Melanson: No. Yeah.

Neil Rogers: So, so like little gems like that. Now I, you know, I expound on that. I’ve got a whole, I got a whole story that goes around it where I was mentoring, you know, giving mentor advice to a young sales guy at a sales meeting I was at in our promotional world. And he, um, it was, you know, it was four, four or five day long.

We had speakers, we had this, that, and the other thing. A lot of breakout sessions, yada, yada, [00:28:00] yada. So in, in, in the last night, uh, is the, the, um, the, um, the awards banquet is at the, uh, Harley Harley Davidson musician, uh, museum in, uh, Milwaukee. So we go and you’re supposed to wear something ish. Well, I haven’t got a bike.

I got a black t-shirt on. Right. I got a black t-shirt with me, but I, I’m leaving the trade show. ’cause all of our shows, all of our meetings have trade shows. There’s a guy with a, with a die sublimated jacket. Now Die Sub is where they take your Beatles logo and they actually. They, they, they dye it into the fabric.

Tim Melanson: Okay. Yeah.

Neil Rogers: So it’s never peeling off. I mean, that’s, you, you, some point in time that’s gonna wear and it’s gonna whatever, it’s gonna happen, right? And, uh, so it’s killer. It’s got all these logos all over it. So I go to the event and I’m standing in this guy, this guy Taylor, who I met earlier, young guy, you know, wants to meet the, the guys that have been doing it the longest and have been successful, want to pick their branch just like I did.

You know, so you, you have to pay it [00:29:00] forward in this case. So he says, uh, hey, deal. That jacket, that jacket’s unbelievable. I said, Taylor, I will never wear this thing again. He looks at me, he goes, can I have it? So you sure? So you sure can. So the night goes on. Now I gotta keep it on for the night, right? And, uh, he goes off into his 28-year-old world and I’m in my 60 plus year old world and I’m in bed at nine 30 and he’s probably out there who knows what I don’t know.

But the next day he’s at breakfast. I bring the jacket. Right? So I see him sitting over the table by himself. I walked over, had the jacket behind my back. Hey de, how you doing man? Hey Neil. What’s up? How’s you? Good night Lesson. Yeah, it was great. Awards Banker was great. Yeah. Yeah. He says I said a lot of good stuff this week.

Huh? Learned a lot. Did you? He goes, yeah. He says, uh, good speakers, a lot of good contact. I said, I’m gonna give you the best lesson you’ve had all week. I took the jacket, I threw it on the table. I said, always do what you say you’re gonna do.

Tim Melanson: Nice.[00:30:00]

Neil Rogers: So, so, yeah, so that those guys, you know, and other guys like Jimmy Gallahue from the, uh, from, from the food business taught me to always take ownership, be humble. In other words, if something goes wrong, don’t go blaming people. Right? You know, don’t go looking for scapegoats. How could you have done better?

Nobody looks good when you do that. Uh, least of all you. And if you, oh, you know, the customer service girl, she’s high on bow and then the guy in the, the guy in the warehouse, you know, what they doing there? And then the guy on the, you know, no, no, no, no. Solve the problem. Hopefully, and hopefully it, if, you know, the, the client doesn’t even know what happened.

So

Tim Melanson: Right on.

Neil Rogers: that’s the type of mentorship, you know, did I go to some sales, you know, sales conference? Yeah. I never really found a lot out of those things. You know, you get a little jazzed up. You know, p but that’s what, so that’s when we built positive activity. I wanted people to walk away with something at the end.

So when I, I spoke to a class, uh, a, uh, [00:31:00] songwriting class at Berkeley, and, um, I made sure to introduce myself as they walk through the door. Hey, Neil Rogers, I’m here to speak with you today. Notice I didn’t say it to you.

Tim Melanson: Speak to you. Yeah. Yeah.

Neil Rogers: I said, I’m gonna speak with you today, and then we’re gonna go. Then they, I said, would you mind putting your.

Putting your name tag. Yeah. You had name tags. Just write your first name, your major, and uh, where you from. Right. They put that on. And then I have, because I am in the swag business, I have these bracelets positive says positive activity on it. There was right there. And then also pen and whatnot. And I gave that and I just said, I want to tell you what I just demonstrated to you, the importance of a proper greeting.

We got off on the right foot. You know what I’m here for. I’m gonna be able to say your name and Dale Carnegie says It’s the greatest sound you’ll ever hear. I’m gonna know a little bit about you and in the end, I never had a look at the name tags. [00:32:00] And the third thing I gave you a little surprise and delight that I think you’re gonna remember as part of this day.

So I want them to walk away with the gems. So I teach, we we are mentors. I’m not a coach.

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

Neil Rogers: Coaches tell you what to do. Mentors suggest this is, this is just stuff for you to hear. I think I, it’s worked for me. I feel better when I do this than when I don’t. You, I suggest you might want to give it a try and, oh, by the way, here’s my email if you have any questions.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I love that. So let’s move right into your guest solo then. So what’s exciting your business then?

Neil Rogers: Well, the, this, this, this positive activity thing has just got, it really jazzes me up and I think, I think people don’t, you know, I was, I was with like I said, 20 or so, 20-year-old songwriter. [00:33:00] How many people, how many of you guys meditate? One kid, anybody? Journaling? I do a little. What was the thing I gave them that they, it was just like, I couldn’t believe they didn’t know it.

It’ll come to me. And so there’s so many of these little things that you think everybody knows ’cause everybody’s talking about it. I mean, you can’t go a day without hearing about a gratitude practice. Right. You people aren’t doing gratitude practices. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s five minutes in the morning.

You can meditate me. We, so we did all of them. We, we did. I, I got, I got ’em. Journaling, I got ’em, we meditated, gave ’em a minute, stretch, stop with a minute, go to five. You wanna be TM trained like me, you can do 20, right? So, um, twice a day.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Neil Rogers: And so, um, so we try, so all those things and then, ’cause we know from research that, well we didn’t do the research, we did the research on the research.

Uh, happiness Advantage is a book by Sean aco. [00:34:00] And, uh, for your listeners out there, if you, if you just go to the YouTube video, the 12 minute Ted Talk, he does, you’ll, you’ll, you’ll want to get the book because what it said, essentially he did research at Harvard for 12 years on happiness. And I don’t know about Harvard’s, but I remember hearing about, I’m sure I could find out ’cause we probably do it in 37 seconds, but I know they put a happiness class at Yale.

You can’t get in it.

Tim Melanson: Really?

Neil Rogers: You can’t get in it, right? If you, the happier you sells 37% more, the happier you is 31% more productive, you’re healthier, you get better relationships, boom, boom, all the way down the line, and you can control most of your happiness. And oh, by the way, it’s, you don’t get happy. Once you get somewhere you’re happy along the way.

Or positive. We, we, we like to, you know, use the positive, positive portion of it. ’cause it just, [00:35:00] so, um, yeah. So that’s the, uh. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s what, that’s what jazzes me. And then if we can get somebody to do, I’ll give you my little music metaphor, because I about, I’ve been hacking around on the piano and vocal for my whole life.

Right. My mother was a world class musician, piano, piano and organist. And, um, but you, you know, I, I, I, I got a piano when I was 33. Yeah. I, I dabbled in it now, and I took some lessons here and there, but I never got into it. Until three years ago, you know, 64, 63, 63 years old. ’cause my, because I wanted to do vocal, so I, so I, I was doing vocal and my teacher said, I understand you play the piano, you gotta play and sing.

Okay, how do I do that? So now I’m playing the chords in my right hand and the bass on the left, yada, yada, yada. And you know, I put together a 90 day plan. My own thing that I tell people in positive. So this is the productivity part. So I had my [00:36:00] positive, got into creative mode now in productive mode, and I had the, the, my practice plan every day, which would be, include all the things that I’m sure you’re very familiar with.

It would be scales because I do jazz, the two five ones because, and then there’d be, um, circle of fifths and then there’s two vocal exercise there, another vocal. And then I’d play and sing the songs. Every day. Right. And there I was 90 days later in front of 200 people playing and singing. Burt Backrack, the House is not a home.

And Tim, you’re gonna appreciate this. I got lost in my solo when I found my way home.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Right on.

Neil Rogers: I said, I just kept on going. I was like sweating it out. And I’m going, just get back. Def Major F Major. You’re good F Major. Okay, there we are. Oma Home.

Tim Melanson: Nice. Well done. Well done. Good job. So then how do we find out more about your, your, uh, your program, your business? How do we find out more?

Neil Rogers: Best is to go to positive activity.net. Uh, everything is [00:37:00] there. Our whole, um, you know, contact information, et cetera. Um, there is a direct link to the book. You know, I think it’s, it’s an easy read. It’s, it’d be, I hope, I mean, I’ve seen a couple of times on people’s desks that they keep it near ’em because it’s just.

Like why, the reason why I wrote it, to remind myself to do those things, right. It’s like, it’s why we do, why we created positive activity. Now we just wanna share it.

Tim Melanson: Right on. Right on. So the, maybe the hardest question of the day is, who is your favorite rock star?

Neil Rogers: Ben Morrison,

Tim Melanson: Ben Morrison. Great choice. Awesome choice. And not for brown eyed girl,

Neil Rogers: know.

Tim Melanson: I imagine.

Neil Rogers: Not even close. Please

Tim Melanson: that is a surprisingly good song.

Neil Rogers: It’s a great song that just gets played way, you know, here’s the thing though, every time you play it, they get dance, they get up dancing, don’t they?

Tim Melanson: They do, they [00:38:00] do. It works every time. And, uh, what, what I thought

Neil Rogers: Just cleanse yourself with Jackie Wilson. Said Afterwards or, or into the Mystic or, although, even if the mystics getting a little overplayed too.

Tim Melanson: Mystic gets overplayed. Yeah. Moon Dance is a great song too. But, uh, but I, I remember with Brown-Eyed Girl, I, I once, uh, so just chugging around the chords. Easy, easy song, right? But when you actually listen to the, to the lead lines through that song, it is different every single time. The musicianship on that song is actually incredible, and I’m like, wow.

For such a simple song, this is, uh, you know why he’s so good. Right?

Neil Rogers: Well, he insists, so he had, there’s a, a, a great series. Was, oh gosh. Oh my goodness. It, it, it’s, it’s, it, it’s a compilation of live albums. He did over, I think a year. Um, it’s called Gimme two seconds. Um, [00:39:00] well we can do it, we can do it two, two seconds. So it’s uh, and, and Morrison’s. Too late to stop now. I don’t have to look it up. Too late to stop now. And so, so the funny thing about it is it’s, it’s unreal. I mean, it’s all, it’s got everything in everything on it, and it’s all, but it’s cut and pasted from different places and whatnot. Fired the whole band afterwards. new,

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Neil Rogers: the boy’s a little temperamental.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well that’s musicians for you, isn’t it?

Neil Rogers: But especially, you know, he is just like, have you ever seen him?

Tim Melanson: I’ve never seen him. Nope.

Neil Rogers: Don’t,

Tim Melanson: Okay.

Neil Rogers: at this stage of the game, number one, it’s gonna cost you way too much money. ’cause, ’cause everybody’s a Van Morrison fan now. I’ve been a Van Morrison fan for 40 years,

Tim Melanson: He probably won’t play Brown and I, girl, I.

Neil Rogers: Oh no. Occasionally he’ll do some he’ll, but he’ll but it, you won’t recognize

Tim Melanson: different. Yeah. Yeah.[00:40:00]

Neil Rogers: Yeah. But that’s part of, well.

Tim Melanson: I once saw Bob Dylan once too, and, and, uh, and he actually played, I, it was like by the end of the song, you’re like, oh, I think that was like, he played all of his songs totally different. So you didn’t recognize any of them? It was the weirdest concert I’ve ever been to.

Like, I’m like, I know all these songs, but it take, it takes me the whole song to figure out what he’s doing. Right,

Neil Rogers: I know it’s, yeah, well, you know, that’s what they, you know, well, when you’re, when you’re a guru like that, I guess. You gotta exp when I would tell people, like, even even here, um, here in our local town, buzz Gags was coming down to a new local place down here and everybody’s just like, oh my goodness is gonna be great.

Soak degrees. And I’m like thinking, these people don’t know he’s a blues guy. He could do all blues and no, no High Harbor Lights or Georgia or whatnot. I was fine with it ’cause I’ll go listen to anything, but it’s like, but uh, I mean, Todd Runger was here last year. He just did at the end. He just did a little mashup of, you [00:41:00] know, why can’t we be friends and, hello, it’s me and whatnot.

That might’ve been five minutes. The show was 90 and uh, but it was a great show. But you have to, I’ve been just so open to, to the whole experience now that, um, with getting into getting deeper into music and understanding it more, but also I just appreciate it. I appreciate anybody that can, you know.

It’s, you know, it’s just, you know, and he was great. He, we, we actually saw him with, uh, Darrell Hall. Darrell’s Darrel’s.

Tim Melanson: Darryl’s amazing.

Neil Rogers: Yeah. It’s over though. It’s over.

Tim Melanson: Yep.

Neil Rogers: Yeah. He’s, yeah, he, uh, he, Todd, Todd bloom away.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Wow. Right on.

Neil Rogers: anyway,

Tim Melanson: this has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Neil.

Neil Rogers: I enjoyed it, Tim. It was great.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe and we’ll see you next time on the Work At Home Rockstar Podcast. As always, you can go to workathomerockstar.com for more [00:42:00] information. Thanks again, Neil.

This has been a lot of fun.