Trip and Fall incidents in parking lots are particularly difficult for Personal Injury attorneys like myself to prove because we have to establish that not only was the defect in the pavement great enough to make the property owner legally liable but that it was not so great that the victim should have seen and avoided it.  We also have to establish that the property owner or their agents caused the condition or knew or should have known about it in time to have corrected it before the client fell.  In one case I visited the premises, measured the defect where the asphalt met the concrete edge of the lot, took pictures and talked to the shop owners.  My investigation demonstrated that the defect met the legal criteria and I learned that the parking lot had recently been re-paved, meaning that the property owner's contractor negligently created the discrepancy between the new asphalt and the concrete, making them responsible for my client's injuries.

I had a patient that came to me for laser and nutrition for depression.  He had been to multiple providers and was on multiple medications.  After asking a detailed health history, I asked him why he thought he was depressed. He said because he was fat.  I asked if the other providers addressed his weight.... they did not.  I asked how long he's had weight trouble... said about 9 months.  I asked why he thought he gained weight... he said that he doesn't ride his bike any more.  So I asked ..... ready.... why don't you bike any more?  He said his arm goes numb leaning forward on his bike. I recommended taking x-rays and beginning treatment for cervical radiculitis (compression of the disc in the neck causing pain or numbness down the arm).   I called his other providers to ask them to review his meds in 6 weeks when we have him out of condition and back on his bike.  He was off all meds in just a few months, was riding his bike regularly, and dropped 30 lbs. 

My client needed end-of year appreciation gifts for his preferred clients and professional colleagues and some personal gifts for friends and family. 

I shared features of my Mary Kay Gift Service: I identified which products were most appropriate for gift-giving to make the gifts personal... but not TOO personal! I told him I offer free giftwrapping and free shipping or delivery. Plus, each gift includes my 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and a certificate for a free Mary Kay facial. In the gifts for men the certificate and guarantee note mentioned our MKMen products.

We determined who he needed gifts for, what his budget was, and how quickly he needed the gifts to be delivered. When we actually met I brought along several examples of different gift ideas within his price range so he could see the products and various gift wrapping options. Once he placed his order, I gathered the products and supplies and put them all together in the gift wrapping selelctions he had chosen.  I delivered most of them directly to him in the timeframe he specified and there were four gifts that I mailed on his behalf using either UPS or the postal service.  He appreciated having me take the hassle out of his holiday shopping that year: I provided 11 gifts and he spent less than $300. 

My clients were preparing to leave for their daughters' first trip to Disney World, when a giant oak tree fell on their garage an crushed the garage and their mini van.

They were considering cancelling their trip to stay back to meet the adjuster. I suggested we get them a rental car and that I meet the adjuster on their behalf so they could go on their trip. They agreed.

I spent about 3 hours on a Sunday to meet with the adjuster to ensure all damages were noted and paid for by Allstate. 

They returned from their wonderful trip and had a payment ready to cover their damages. No issues and stress was diffused.

(young couple in the film industry said we are expecting)

Have you considered to buy a house? They said It is so hard because of our industry and we can have 20 W2 and they consider us not to be stable. So many of our colleagues have been denied.

I can help you with that. Let us find someone in the mortgage industry that we know and talk to them on what the best way is.  You look for someone you know and I will do the same.

They came back and reported that they needed much more income than they have and said that it is impossible and we have to wait 5 years to get to where they want us to be.

I talked to my PowerCore member at the time and he proposed that they go to their manager or coordinator and ask them to write something.  I proposed to take the project they were working on and to go and talk to them and have them write an explanation on how the film industry work and give to me.

I gave them the idea and they did,  they were the first young couple that got approved for a loan and buy a house.

They are still there today almost 10 years later

As part of renovating their home, my clients asked me to repair their main living room floor.  The floor angles down 6" across the width of the room!  Unfortunately, the house had been originally framed this way (the windows and exterior brick facade also angled down the same amount!).  I explained to them that we could demolish and reframe this portion of his 100-year-old house, but it would require taking the walls down, brick facade off and major expense.  I analyzed the situation and recommended that we stabilize the existing floor system from below, leaving the exterior walls and facade in place.  Then we could add a new layer of structure to the floor from above to level it out as much as possible.  And finally,  we could add new hardwood flooring to finish it out.  This way, the house would be stable, the walls would remain in place, and he would save about $50-$75K in expense.  This was the most pragmatic solution to his framing dilemma.  They greatly appreciated that I walked through the options with them and explained the tradeoffs and recommended a good solution.

When John came to see me, it was because his wife had surprised him with a vacation that involved taking a long flight to start and finish. Unknown to her, he'd been dealing with claustrophobic fears for a some time and it now flaired at the thought of being enclosed on an airplane. I asked him when he first began noticing this fear and he recalled being on a flight many years ago where he was seated at the back of the aircraft and during the flight, he said he felt like the "walls were closing in on him". This traumatic memory was powerful enough that the thought of going on another flight caused extreme anxiety. I talked with him about the traumatic feelings and why he was feeling them. I asked him if he would like to reprocess that memory so it would not bother him in the future and he said yes. I used a relaxed procedure I'm trained with and he was able to reprocess the memory calmly. After the procedure was complete, I asked him to test that old memory by thinking about the flight and he said his fear and anxiety were gone. He later further tested this theory on his vacation and he said actually enjoyed the flights as well as the vacation. 

I took on a new client that had recently changed its brand name. They had been previously advised to maintain their old domain name and content while building a new site with the same rebranded content. When I took over their account, I explained that we would first eliminate their old domain and redirect all their old URLs to the new domain. The reason: they were competing with themselves by bifurcating their content. To make matters worse, their content was seen as duplication on the new brand website because no canonical link was provided showing which content was original. Each site had a domain authority below 15 and showed up randomly (one or the other) for their search terms far below competitors. This single change pushed their new domain authority to 22, and they started to land on the first page for search results. That was a 45% improvement for about two hours of work.

When my client Eric came to me needing help with his website I asked him a few questions.  First, knowing that the reason he came to me was that his website was broken. He was not able to review all of his pages and his web forms were not working. The first question I asked was who developed the website? Then I asked where is your website hosted? And lastly do you have the administrator login for this website? Once I had this information I was able to log into his website and assess all of the problems he was experiencing. I was able to fix everything to make the website fully functional again as well as add new features to the site for him. They are now very pleased with the result and also the website views properly on mobile devices which now accounts for 60% of all web traffic. I also ensured that his web forms were properly submitting information and emailing to him. This is extremely important on websites because if the web form does not work a business will lose potential leads.

My clients are often overwhelmed by external pressures and internal doubts. I started by asking, 'What do you really want?' This opens a dialogue about their deepest aspirations, beyond the daily grind. Next, I asked, 'What seems to be in the way?' They uncover blind spots and self-imposed limitations. I then posed a critical question: 'Are you your thoughts and emotions, or can you observe them?' This leads to a profound realization—they could step into the role of an observer.

This shift in perspective empowers them to create compelling intentions not just for their business, but for their life. By detaching from their internal noise, they were able to focus on actions that aligned with their created intentions. The result? A newfound clarity in leadership, improved team alignment, and the confidence to tackle systemic barriers with a sense of purpose rather than resistance.

My action aligns with more care and concern for the customer. Two weeks ago I had a client opening a new coffee shop in Roswell. They signed up with Comcast. It was later uncovered the installation could not meet their desired date and would delay their opening. One of the competitors in the area was able to make that date as there would be no construction invloved. I cancelled my agreement with him to go to the other and meet their deadline. They are now open, up, and running. 

My clients Seth and Kelly came to me with $80,000 in debt.  They were underwater  $1000 monthly with their budget, and they felt defeated and didn't see a way out.  The first step we took was to take a hard look at their budget, what their spending showed, and analyze how much was going to servicing their debt.

I told them to focus on the "four walls":  food, shelter (including utilities), transportation, and basic clothing.  They looked at where they could trim expenses and adjust payments to better align bills with their paychecks. Next, they prioritized their focus on the debt using the Debt Snowball.  Also, I encouraged them to maintain open and honest communication with their creditors.  

I met with the client and reviewed her existing retirement accounts as she requested.  I asked her a number of questions regarding other assets she may have, her goal for retirement income, and if she would like to start receiving social security before her full retirement age.  She wanted to move her current investment accounts to me for management, so we discussed the process for that and my recommendations for the investments based on her goals and needs.  We discussed moving some of the money she had sitting in checking and savings accounts that were not earning anything into an investment account to give her some growth and income. Based on the client’s goals, we were able to set up a strategy for her to be able to retire now and be able to achieve her income goals.

My client was a concrete polisher who had been in business for 25+ years avg. $400,000 a year with a small crew of 3 people. He had been taking any job he could East of the Mississippi without a vacation the entire time. I asked him if he was able to spend $3,000 for 90 days and earn that back to start would he be open to a test. After our initial tests, he was able to break even but with those tests and given a good amount of time we knew the changes to make. The next 90 days we were able to AB test, and get a 30% return on profit. Each week we asked new questions like targeting? Does he need to target the entire east coast? What if we focus on just New England? Instead of spreading that money thin, just throw it all just in New England. These sorts of changes and tests increased in brigning him from $400,000 the year before to a few million a year after. Slow testing, while isn't as much fun as it is slow results, in the long run means higher return.

Brooksie is a nervous dog. She is constantly barking and has bitten a Fed Ex driver. I spent my first hour conducting an assessment using the L.E.G.S. model. What has she learned? Her environment, genetics, and health.  We are working with her vet to change her medication and have conducted systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning with her. We also tested to see if the behavior only happened at home, so we took her to Home Depot and Walmart, where she saw a FedEx truck and did not react like at home.  

When Ms. Ethel became our client, she had just been discharged from a rehabilitation center and was in considerable pain. At that time, her only movement was rolling from side to side on the bed. After speaking with her daughter about their goals, I learned that the long-term vision was for Ms. Ethel to wake up in the morning, dress with minimal assistance, and walk to the living room to enjoy her favorite TV shows instead of being confined to bed. The short-term goal, however, was to get her sitting up on the bed.

To achieve these goals, I recommended a combination of home care and home health services, including physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT). With these services in place, our dedicated team from Gaddiel supported Ms. Ethel through her therapy routines during our daily visits, ensuring she followed the recommended exercises and care plans.

Had a investor that reached out to me for a fix and flip loan but discovered he did not have a LLC to obtain funding. The loan was for an investment and not a personal residence, although some lenders are ok with an investment being funded in the investors personal name. Once I submitted property and investor details,  my current lenders were having an issue with the credit being 646. I then had a lender that was ok and provided terms for my client but stated a LLC was needed to move forward, no problem. Once sending the terms over for review, I was made aware by my client, that the down payment/closing cost would be paid for through gap funding. This particualr lender does not allow gap funding to be added to their loan programs, but he was willing to get an LLC created. The next lender was not comfortable with the amount requested and the credit being just below 650, so no terms were provided. They then asked if the client was willing to get a credit partner on the loan. Meaning my client would leverage another persons good credit score to qualify for the loan. Unfortunately we did not have anyone. 

I later found another lender, who then was willing to work with the clients score and LLC that would be created later. Needless to say I will not and was not willing to give up on trying to get term options for my client just because my current lenders could not help.  

The problem from last week: a client based in Atlanta traveled four hours every week to check in on her mother, and the travel was exhausting her.

The action I took: I explained to her that Senior Care Authority is a National network of senior care advisors and that I had a colleague who could assist her locally in South Carolina.  I asked her questions about her mother.  Why did she need to be seen once every week?  What were her care requirements?  What was her personality like?  What are her social and recreational preferences?  After fully understanding her mother's profile, and what she would be open to, I suggested that she speak to my colleague who offers a Peace of Mind Visits program.  My colleague could serve as a surrogate daughter, checking in on my client's mother regularly and reporting back on her well-being.  This service was a great relief to the daughter, because it reduced the amount of time she needed to spend on the road, and it enabled the daughter to have a better sense of how her mother was doing in between visits.

I was assisting a Seller with the sell of their investment property.  We went under contract quickly with a Buyer who was using a SBA loan to fund the deal.  All was going well until the Sellers and I received the bombshell…the appraisal came back fine, but the lender determined that the property wasn’t the best fit for a SBA Loan.  So just like that the deal was dead.

I asked the Seller if they wanted to wait on another Buyer or if they’d be open to doing owner financing if the numbers made sense.   Since their primary goal was to liquidate the asset, they agreed to the latter.   

I then reached out to the other agent, shared the Seller’s response, along with contact info for a new lender.  The loan was approved with the Seller holding a small note and we were able to close.

In this I was able to test the Seller’s true motivation.

My clients John and Alice reached out needing to sell after 1 year of owning their current home. I wasn't involved in the purchase of the property, but a few minutes of research quickly showed they paid more than market value. After a year, their equity hadn't risen much and after fees associated with selling, they would actually pay to sell their house.

Question asked: Do you absolutely need to sell in order to buy your next property?

Change made: I explained that in this case, it may be best to consider keeping their property and renting it out instead of selling and paying to move.

Idea Tested:  We ultimately decided to list their house for sell and rent. I also am marketing it as an investment property to investors in my network.

Stay tuned for outcome :) 

Finding out damage from wind and hail on roofs and getting insurance companies to pay for it is the key to my company's business. I had a client who told me that when it rains and the wind blows in a particular way, the roof leaks. I had an inspection done on the roof and the inspection concluded that there leak was not caused by wind or hail damage but poor construction. I then offered to my client our new financing option, a change to the normal way we do business. They are also thinking of upgrading from an asphalt roof to a metal roof.

A recent client, Megan, was referred to me by a client that I had helped a little over a year ago. She was unhappy with her previous health coverage and wanted to change. I asked her what she had previously, why she was disappointed with it, and what she wanted to do differently. She told me that her previous coverage was through the ACA Marketplace and she didn't qualify for any income-based savings, so it was costly with a high deductible and limited HMO coverage. Her friend referred her to me because I had previously helped her get a plan off of the Marketplace that can offer better coverage at lower rates because of an underwriting process. I was able to help Megan do the same and now she has a plan at a rate she is satisfied with that also has great benefits as well.

Problem: My client is a former doctor and now consults in healthcare. She came to me for help getting paid speaking/teaching opportunities in her specialty.

My actions: I developed a focused marketing plan based on actions she wanted to take with both her network and cold leads. I met with her weekly to review the responses she got, work on her mindset to challenge the ideas she considered facts, and tweak her messaging to overcome objections ahead of time. In less than 12 weeks she secured 2 speaking opportunities that were a direct response to her offer and 2 others that are tangentally related (I call that Accidental Excellence). Even more importantly, I have data to use to continue improving results for the next quarter.

I recently worked with Pat to place Larry in a different assisted living community than where he was currently living. Pat felt Larry wasn't getting the best care he needed to manage his dementia.  To make matters worse, the monthly rent increased by 30% at the beginning of the year, which would make a big difference in how long Pat could keep Larry in an assisted living community if he remained physically healthy.  Instead of starting from scratch and understanding Larry's story from the beginning, I had to begin by asking an entirely different set of questions than those I would ask of a family that was just beginning a search.  There were some very specific care requirements Pat had for Larry, and we also had to be very clear about the financial requirements in order to make Larry's monthly pension and cash reserves last as long as Larry might.  This presented a different set of challenges and required gathering a little more hard data on how the communities we were looking at would manage Larry's dementia. it also took Pat to understand that there would be a trade-off in geography to obtain her financial objectives and keep the monthly rent within Larry's means.  While we achieved both of her objectives, we were able to leverage her dissatisfaction with Larry's current community to improve his dementia support and return the pricing to the level it was before the rate increase. This saved Pat thousands of dollars in moving expenses and hassles with moving Larry.  

I had a client stating they do their bookeeping in house meaning they do it themselves, they stated they would get on a discovery call to see if needing us would even be a fit for them, after they discovered that we can do their books month to month and they wouldn't be set on a year contract they were relieved. They put some thought into it so I asked them "why don't you give it a month then see if this is for you." Sure enough they didn't actually realize a huge part of their stress was coming from their books! Now, this is one less thing they need to think about. 

I asked the client what their budget was for the project and made sure we were able to hit below that by reducing the amount of pages of the program. Some of the sponsor logos were able to be a smaller font therefore combining some on one page. I also reduced the amount of pages by making sure the non-profit wasn't duplicating a message, plus using a QR code to provide additional information other than having it printed in the program. 

For a client who runs an online store, I asked if their accounting software was fully integrating with their e-commerce platform to capture all of their sales data. When they admitted it wasn’t, I took action by transitioning them to Xero, which is designed for online businesses with strong third-party integrations. This change allowed us to automatically pull in real-time sales data from their e-commerce platform, streamlining their revenue tracking. The idea I tested was automating the sales data entry process. The result? We eliminated manual entry, reduced errors, and gave them instant access to accurate sales insights, saving them valuable time and ensuring they could focus on scaling their business.

When FTS approached us, their client reviews and ratings were sinking fast. The first step we took was to "Conduct a thorough assessment of their internal processes" to understand where the disorganization and communication breakdowns were occurring.

To implement change, we streamlined their workflow by introducing a centralized communication platform. This helped ensure that everyone was on the same page and that no essential emails or client requests were slipping through the cracks. We also provided training to staff on best practices for using this new system effectively.

We tested the idea of conducting weekly cross-functional meetings to share updates and address bottlenecks quickly.

My ideal referrals are companies experiencing challenges with disorganization, communication breakdowns, or workflow bottlenecks. These companies are committed to overcoming these hindrances to drive operational excellence and client satisfaction.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson came to me through a Realtor friend of mine after they had a very bad experience with another Mortgage company where they lost the home they were buying the DAY BEFORE CLOSING! The other lender took the app, took their docs, and seemingly forgot all about them after that. When closing day came close and many texts, emails, and phone calls with no answers, they found out the lender never turned the file over to underwriting. When the sellers found out, they terminated the contract and the Johnson's lost the opportunity to live in that beautiful home.
Disheartened, they had all but given up when their new Realtor referred them to me, they were skeptical, but I texted, emailed, and called at least once a day just to say what I was doing for them. This set them at ease knowing their file was moving forward.

At closing, they were both so happy they both hugged me and with tears in their eyes they both thanked me and my team profusely.  Within a week of closing, each of them had sent me a friend and family member to help get into their own homes.

When you have someone who may be anxious about the home buying process, let me walk with them and get them into the home of their dreams.

I was responding to the needs of a particular client couple who was needing to weigh their options for coming off of COBRA.

Lindsay and Archie had come to me with the problem of getting themselves through to Medicare. They had retired nearly a year ago, and had been utilizing COBRA, the continuation of their work insurance, the entire time.

Being as COBRA is temporary, they knew they had to do something, and that is where I helped them assess their situation. Archie had several major health concerns, which we knew the COBRA was covering well. Lindsay was as healthy as they come for being in her early 60s. The question I posed: would they consider a split policy?

By assessing the costs, time remaining until Archie could get to 65, and both of their health needs, we settled on the best course of action being a strategic use of *half* their current COBRA, and acquiring a separate policy to save them thousands of dollars, with the ideal benefits.

John was tired of changing out the carpet every time he had new tenants move into his rental property.  While he had original hardwood floors in the house that was built in the 50s, they also came with the added feature of a 3 by 6 foot plywood patch where the old floor heater had been removed.  He knew he couldn't rent the house with that big patch, so he kept replacing the carpet over and over.  When he contact Floor Coverings International for his latest carpet replacement, our Design Associate asked him if he had considered sanding & refinishing the hardwood.  He pointed to the plywood patch as his insumountable issue which we promptly solved by removing the plywood, lacing in new 3 1/4 inch hardwood and sanding and staining the entire floor so the new wood was barely noticable.  Now, John doesn't need to recarpet for each new tenant and his latest appraisal shows his property value increased with his refinished hardwoods.