Sage Lewis

I have had way too much turkey. I also have to get up early tomorrow. Being that the clip show is at 9:00 and the new show is at 10:00, there will be no new blog post on this episode.
But you might check out the resources page below and check out what others said. I’ll be back next week.

“Mr. (or Madam) Toastmaster”; then face the audience and say, “Ladies and gentlemen…” or “Fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests…”

“I’m an atheist. (pause) But I do have at least one belief. I co-own, SageRock.com, with my wife, Rocky. We have something called The SageRock Experience. This is the roadmap for all of our actions. Within the SageRock Exerience we have:

THE SAGEROCK CORE VALUE – this is the one belief that we base all of our actions on. While other things my change and evolve, the SageRock Core Value never will.

The SageRock Core Value is:

The concern, respect and empathy for the individual people we come in contact with at SageRock is our single core value.

The world can be cold, unforgiving, unconcerned for the individual.

SageRock is an oasis for the individual.

I wanted to talk briefly about how we got to this point. There are three main points for arriving at this Core Value.

Point One:
I wanted to create a place where I would want to come to work. Our main focus is not money or even the customer… it is the team member.
We’ve all worked at terrible places.
I wanted to make a difference.

Point Two:
I have a vision of creating the largest service-based business on the planet through being the best place to work.

Point Three:
I can’t believe people don’t get this. People who aren’t appreciated or respected will never give you their all. By putting them first in the company they will take care of you.

“While I’m an atheist, Joan of Arc was anything but.
She was burned at the stake at the age of 19 in 1431 because she stood up for her beliefs, her country, and her God.

There is a quote from her where she discusses beliefs. She said…
I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes.
Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes
people believe in little or nothing, yet they give their lives to
that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as
we believe in living it. And then it is gone. But to sacrifice what
you are and live without belief, that’s more terrible than dying.

“Mr. [or Madam] Toastmaster”

My first toastmaster speech is coming up this week and I need to get ready. This is a four to six minute speech.

There are some points that they want to make sure I meet.
Begin by facing the Toastmaster and saying, “Mr. (or Madam) Toastmaster”; then face the audience and say, “Ladies and gentlemen…” or “Fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests…” Pause, then plunge in with your prepared opening sentences.

The speech should have a clear beginning, body, and ending.

Don’t end by saying “Thank you.” Instead, just close with your prepared ending, nod at the Toastmaster of the meeting, and say, “Mr. [or Madam] Toastmaster” – then enjoy the applause!

I want to focus on The SageRock Core Value.

I want to lead in with, “I’m an atheist. (pause) But I do have at least one belief. I co-own, SageRock.com, with my wife, Rocky. We have something called The SageRock Experience. This is the roadmap for all of our actions. Within the SageRock Exerience we have:

THE SAGEROCK CORE VALUE – this is the one belief that we base all of our actions on. While other things my change and evolve, the SageRock Core Value never will.

We define the SageRock Core Value as:

The concern, respect and empathy for the individual people we come in contact with at SageRock is our single core value.

The world can be cold, unforgiving, unconcerned for the individual.

SageRock is an oasis for the individual.

That is the beginning.

In the middle of my speech I want to focus on WHY this is our core value.

Point One:
I wanted to create a place where I would want to come to work. Our main focus is not money or even the customer… it is the team member.
We’ve all worked at terrible places.

Point Two:
I have a vision of creating the largest service-based business on the planet through being the best place to work.

Point Three:
I can’t believe people don’t get this. People who aren’t appreciated or respected will never give you their all. By putting them first in the company they will take care of you.

In the end I want to talk about encouraging people to have and live by a belief. I want to talk about Joan of Arc.

“While I’m an atheist, Joan of Arc was anything but.
She was burned at the stake at the age of 19 in 1431 because she stood up for her beliefs, her country, and her God.

There is a quote from her where she discusses beliefs. She said…
I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes.
Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes
people believe in little or nothing, yet they give their lives to
that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as
we believe in living it. And then it is gone. But to sacrifice what
you are and live without belief, that’s more terrible than dying.

“Mr. [or Madam] Toastmaster”

*****************
My introduction:
This is Sage Lewis’ Ice Breaker speech. For this speech Sage wants to discuss his beliefs and how he applies his beliefs to his business. SageRock.com is one of the top web marketing firms in the country. Sage spends a considerable amount of time researching the latest web marketing trends and is a guest speaker and teacher around the country as a leader in the web marketing industry. But his true business love is effective leadership and organizational growth. He wants to spend a few minutes talking about the SageRock Core Value from the SageRock Experience. I give you Sage Lewis.

Here we go again. If you are into Apprentice, are you checking out this blog:
The Apprentice Blog – Season 4
It’s lively and fun. Be sure to check it out. This week, Mia from Gucci Buddhist is hanging out watching The Apprentice with me and Rocky. I’ll be sure to fill you in on any comments either of them may have.

In the review we’re reminded that Clay really fell down even though they won. Clay is not exempt this week for Capitol Edge.

Marshawn and Brian were both fired. They both were weak and deserved firing.

Capital Edge is waiting for Excel to come back. Rebecca and Randal seem strong together.

Clay is continuing to cause a problem for Excel.

The teams are meeting at Trump Model Management with Jennifer Hawkins – Miss Universe

Clay tells Trump he is not happy with his team. Clay goes over to Excel.

Rocky thinks Brian has done some teeth whitening.

This week’s task is for XM Satellite Radio

The two teams of candidates were tasked to find, develop, and promote a brand-new music artist. XM evaluated the candidates’ work and chose the most deserving artist.

The team who’s song best fits the XM Cafe format will win the task.

Mia thinks Excel is going to lose because of the foreshadowing Clay gives of wanting to stick it to his old team.

This week’s lesson is “Creative Balance”… the difference between practicality and creativity. You must balance both of these. I think this is a weakness of mine. I have been told I think too much not a few times. I think I try to be too creative and should be more practical.

Rebecca is the PM for Excel.

Felisha is the PM for Capital Edge. Rocky says, “there’s something wrong with that girl’s face.”

Clay is being intense and rigid. He only likes his idea. Rebecca felt that he was going to be a good creative influence. But he seems to be a negative influence.

We find out that George used to own radio stations and he brought hard rock to the radio. Felisha, Brian and Alla are really working well together without Clay. That’s astounding and important. One person can completely kill an entire team. A negative influence is contagious and deadly.

During the commercials, Mia thinks that in the new Fear Factor they should have a Wiley Coyote event and slam people into a cliff and see who lives. I would definitely tune in for that.

Excel is talking about their artist. Mia and Rocky think he sounds just like Seal.

Capital Edge’s guy is getting too jazzy. Felisha is trying to get them to move in a more pop rock format. They seem to be able to do it. Clay is death, it appears.

Clay doesn’t think the presentation is exciting. Rebecca feels that he is detrimental to the team. Mia here points out that Rebecca picked him in the first place. That’s interesting in that Rebecca does seem to have a recurring problem with aligning with bad people. Rocky wonders if they think he’s creative because he’s gay and cooks at 6am. I wouldn’t put that past Rebecca. I really really like Rebecca but her personal alignments are tragic.

Capital Edge: They are at XM with Levi Kreis: www.LeviKreis.com. Levi gets some good feedback from listeners. Felisha really liked his song and it appears that the audience did too.

Excel’s presentation gets thrown off because Clay opens the door at the wrong point. Randal makes a poster but puts the wrong channel on the poster. The listeners aren’t overly excited about the song. The executives feel that the song picks up the beat too much.

Excel is going to lose. And Clay should go.

The executives say Capital Edge’s song fits XM Cafe. Excel took a risk and made a song that didn’t fit the format. They also put the wrong channel on the poster.

The prize is a helicopter trip around New York.

Rocky says they are taking an “ego maniac hover over New York.” “And they’ll be yelling over the chopper blades talking about how much he paid for buildings” Rocky says her favorite is when Trump takes them into an apartment that’s decorated right out of the baroque era and they have to act so impressed.

And Capital Edge is off in the Trump helicopter. Trump is yelling out demands of where to go. Sure enough he talks about all of the buildings he built. Rocky says he’s such a douche. Mia says that Alla is a walking advertisement of not to buy head bands. Trump somehow owned the land under the Empire State Building. Rocky wants to know how he’ll pee on the Statue of Liberty. Mia asks if he owns the water under it. Rocky says that this trip was probably just part of the aerial footage trip they have to do any way.

Rebecca thinks they would have done better not having Clay at all.

Mia says this is the Statler and Waldorf version of The Apprentice with them here: Statler & Waldorf (and cs.). She’s right. This is the most fun time I’ve had blogging the Apprentice.

Rocky thinks they should get rid of Rebecca because it’s no fun watching her bopping around on her crutches.

Clay was considered the creative person on this team. Clay brings up his “What about me” song that he wanted to do. This may save him. Rebecca thinks Clay is more creative than Randal. Trump says that Clay is difficult. Trump says that Randal and Rebecca have been stars up until now and now they have been “reduced to nothing.” That’s amazing and crucial. Randal takes full responsibility for the channel mistake. It was supposed to be channel 45. Rebecca is stabbing him in the back. George saves Randal by saying the channel typo was not was made them lose.

George says they committed suicide by “taking a risk” with the song they went with.

Trump says Rebecca was not thrilled with her performance or leadership. He is most disappointed with Randal. He doesn’t think anyone should be proud of this event. Trump says you also have to look at the past. He starts zeroing in on Clay and fires him. Rocky likes the new hand stamp before the “your fired”. Rocky says now Rebecca has got to work out her relationship with Randal. Rebecca hops off. Rocky thinks she looks like a Muppet.

The crutches and the hopping are not powerful. Rocky thinks the editors must hate that.

Clay thinks that Rebecca and Randal are not creative at all.

Rocky says that Clay has nothing but piss and vinegar for everybody.

Mia thinks Trump would gild plate all of New York if he could.

And now it’s time for something to fall out of the sky in ER. Rocky and Mia are unstoppable. I could blog all of TV with these two. Frickin’ hilarious.

And we’re back. In case you haven’t seen it check out this insane Markus story:
Apprentice Outraged At Seeming Dumb On Television – Defamer

Apparently Markus is convinced he has been shown in a poor light and incorrectly. Look, you go on a reality TV show, you get what you get. Move on Markus. You’re just making it worse for yourself.

As we left off last time, Clay and Adam come back to the apartment. Clay looks to be sidelined. Clay’s team feels he is vindictive. It’s astounding the level of childishness that comes up in this show. Why would you isolate yourself in a team-based reality show. Somebody should write a book on how to win a reality show.

The teams are to meet Trump in the boardroom. Bill has taken George’s place this week. The big sponsor is apparently Star Wars Episode III this week. That franchise has grossed over $13 billion in sales. Amazing!

They are going to create in-store 3-D interactive display and place it in Best Buy. A representative from Best Buy and Lucas Films will judge on the best display.

Clay picks himself as project manager for Capital Edge. Clay doesn’t respect or like his team. It’s tragic.

Randal on Excel knows all about Star Wars. But he is exempt. So Brian becomes PM but he doesn’t know a lot about Star Wars. Let me press pause here for a second. I don’t get why people don’t know anything about Star Wars or for that matter any nationally uniting event. I am a completely non-sports person. But at least when the Super Bowl or World Series comes around, I can have a mildly intelligent conversation about it. Why do you refuse to participate in things that your entire national community is participating in? You don’t have to love it or obsess about it. But shouldn’t you at least know what’s going on. It just strikes me as isolated self-absorption… a totally crappy characteristic for a CEO.

OK, Play.

Capital Edge meets with the judges… Jim Ward – President, LucasArts, Senior Vice President, Lucasfilm and
Gary Arnold, Merchandising Manager of Best Buy.

The executives really help out. The teams are marketing the DVD and the game.

Brian, PM for Excel, doesn’t leave enough time to get the meeting with the executives… even though he is from New York. So, he’s late. Dumb ass.

Today’s lesson is “Loyalty”. A disloyal person can totally destroy a corporation. There is nothing worse than disloyalty.

It’s now 10:30 and they still aren’t at the meeting. It’s painfully embarrassing.

The executives give them no time. “We’re screwed,” Brian says.

Capital Edge has a major advantage… they have a lot more information and Excel disrespected the judges. Clay doesn’t help during the photo shoot, however.

Excel is relying on Randal to get all of the information. Marshawn, who doesn’t know anything about the movie, suggests featuring unknown characters. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like that will pass.

At Capital Edge, Alla does most of the work. Clay doesn’t offer anything.

Clay and Alla set up the display. Bill feels that Clay is out of his element here.

Marshawn is doing the presentation. It looks like this is a strategy to set Marshawn up. It’s sneaky and pretty brutal. They’ve given her an “average” display as Carolyn says. The likelihood of them winning is pretty slim with missing the meeting and making a weak display. Marshawn tries to give the presentation back to Brian.

Wow, Capital Edge has a great display. But Clay takes all of the credit. Clay intentionally doesn’t want Alla to take all of the credit. He is snakey.

Excel is dressed in Best Buy shirts that don’t look nearly as appealing as the Capital Edge look. Jim Ward from LucasArts asks them if they thought about having Darth Vader be more prominent. It’s a total set up because Excel doesn’t know how strongly he feels about Darth Vader. Excel scrambles poorly here. There were a lot of people that dropped the ball on this team. The biggest mistake to me looks to be that they missed their initial meeting. That falls to Brian. He destroyed this project at the beginning and deserves to be let go. There were a lot of mistakes and ultimately anyone could go here (except Randal), but the fairest move is Brian.

The teams meet in the lobby of the boardroom. The executives are in the boardroom with Trump. They say there is a clear winner in this case. We’re left hanging as to who it is. The executive leave and the teams go in.

The executives totally preferred Capital Edge.

Capital Edge does not exempt Clay from firing next week.

Capital Edge goes up to White Plains with Bill to see Trump Power White Plains. Bill says that you need to be creative, passionate, be innovative, come up with fresh ideas, it’s about delivering the winds. Clay feels that this is not about the team anymore… it’s all about the individual. How can someone have so little common sense strategy? What possible negative could there be in being a team player? I can think of many negatives for being completely isolated.

Randal is exempt. Brian says that Randal could have been a good person to be fired because it was primarily his ideas. Brian is grasping here. Brian feels that Marshawn dropped the ball and therefore should be fired. Marshawn was weak. But she was also being strategic. It was risky, however.

Brian lives in Manhattan. Trump says the trip to the executives would take 45 minutes to an hour. Trump is really grilling Brian. Randal hammers Brian by saying that they would have had a better concept if they had the meeting with the executives.

Marshawn says that Brian’s heart may not be in the game anymore. That’s interesting. Looking at him now, he does look defeated. And a couple minutes ago he asked Randal if he should fight.

Brian is mentally beaten. He was fired before he walked in this room.

Trump asks Marshawn why she didn’t present. Rebecca was given a half hour to prepare the presentation. Rebecca took on the presentation. Rebecca also became PM the day after breaking her ankle. She is impressive. Rebecca is smooth and solid.

Bill says the Marshawn abandoned her team. Marshawn says she felt that Brian would have been a better presenter. Trump fires Marshawn and Brian. He hates how Marshawn let her team down. You might as well fire them both. Marshawn should have been more upfront about why she didn’t present. She knew that it was a setup.

Brian and Marshawn are in the same cab together. That’s funny. Marshawn is slamming Brian. And Brian just sits there.

“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”
Stay slow and smooth.

Violence of Action – Used to gain or regain surprise: You are the shit. Be aggressive.

The equipment, the training and the guy next to you will get you through.

Sorry everybody. I missed last week’s episode. Unfortunately, I was actually doing business instead of blogging about “reality business”. I was flying back from California to Ohio

Here’s The Apprentice 4 Episode 6 – Wikipedia update. It pretty much sums it up.

And here is a good review from PJ: No Deep Thoughts: The Apprentice 4 Episode 6

I’ve got the episode on Tivo. I had hoped to get to it. But I haven’t had any time this week. I’ll see if I can get to it.

But on to this week.

9 candidates are left after last weeks massacre and team reshuffle.

Excel lost these four people: Josh, Jennifer M., James, Mark. We didn’t really get to know anyone other than Jen M., really. Too bad for them.

As the others are waiting for people to return, they are wondering where everyone is. At midnight they realize that everyone must have been fired. That really is shocking… even if just from a programming standpoint.

Adam is coming to the forefront of the show… he may be the PM.

Trump tells Excel that their team was decimated. They are down to 3. Randal is taken back to Excel to make a team of 4.

The teams are creating a Learning Annex class.

Capital Edge is covered first. Adam is project manager. Alla wants people to brainstorm 5 topics for the class. Markus doesn’t want to do that. He has one topic. He’s not a “list maker”. It’s an unclear idea.

Adam pulls Markus aside.

They come up with a sex at work idea. Adam is very uncomfortable with this topic. He can’t even really say the word sex.

On to Excel. Randal is the PM. Their initial thoughts are pretty boring and not creative. The topic is “how to stand out”.

Capital Edge: they are talking about all of the topics that might be of interest. Markus is not making sense. Adam pulls Markus aside and says Markus has the least research. Markus is sounding insane. Adam says Markus hasn’t produced any results. Markus is looking quite bad and it looks pretty genuine. I feel, from an idea standpoint, Capital Edge has better angle. But we’ve all been surprised by seemingly bad ideas that turn out great. Randal is very smart and he might be just the guy to come up with a great surprise idea.

Today’s lesson is: “Get to the point”. Trump doesn’t waste time in meetings. There are only so many hours in the day. I feel that sentiment more than ever in my own life. Time is all of our most valuable asset.

Excel at The Learning Annex: Marshawn is banking on luck on this. Randal opens up the class. He is an excellent speaker. George thinks the topic in kind of weak. But Randal is presenting it really well. So much of anything is the presentation… is the marketing. The class broke into smaller groups to practice bold and assertive communication. Randal says that when people are passionate about something they standout. It’s a great idea. Randal says that he wanted to present something well that he was confident about rather than risking a topic he wasn’t familiar with.

Now see, Randal has done some amazing work here. I’m really impressed. The “Sex at Work” class is going to have a hard time competing. Randal is a natural speaker. My guess is that Capital Edge doesn’t have a person like that.

Capital Edge starts right out saying, “Sex at work.”

Carolyn says that she doesn’t know what they are teaching. She doesn’t know what they are teaching… whether this is pro or con. Then Clay starts getting off topic with some bizarre comments. He is so outwardly gay. “Clay is the king of awkward moments,” says Felisha.

Clay says Adam is the “shy tight Jewish boy.” Adam is really taken back by this comment. He feels Clay is calling him cheap. I think he misread Clay. Tight to Clay probably means something completely different than it does to Adam.

This was an unstructured class. Adam is worried that the ratings are going to be poor because of what Clay said. The ratings are going to be poor because the class was poor.

Sure enough, Markus comes off with a really solid class.

Clay says that he was just playing off of Adam’s conservative talk. I happen to agree with Clay here. Adam is very sensitive about a topic and seems to feel that Clay hit on that topic… I don’t really think he did.

On to the boardroom. Carolyn is all dressed up in an evening gown. She has a dinner to go to.

Markus says that Adam was a mediocre project manager. Clay said that he was impressed with Adam. Everyone says that Randal was a great PM.

The comments for Capital Edge’s “Sex in the workplace” are really bad. The average score is a 6.98.

Excel got a lot of really good comments with a 7.07 average score.

Those numbers aren’t very different. That probably says more about how people rank things and what you can really take from surveys. 6.98 came from people who didn’t really seem to like them. And 7.07 from people who were quite pleased. People don’t like to rank things too high or too low. Interesting.

Randal is exempt from next week.

Excel is going to be taught to dress for success.

Capital Edge is in the boardroom… that includes Markus who could be in real trouble.

Excel goes to get some cloths from Michael Kors.

Randal is a two time winning project manager. He looks really strong.

Capital Edge: They are getting ready for the boardroom. Alla and Adam are making a case against Clay. They feel that Clay ruined the presentation. I think the presentation was ruined from it’s core. Markus has isolated himself which is a major reality show blunder. I think he is going to get killed. Although, he might be kept around because he’s so weak.

Adam think the course was great but that Clay made for a poor presentation. Adam is obsessed. He feels that much of the audience was offended because Clay called him a tight ass Jew. Wrong, wrong wrong! He said “shy tight Jewish boy.” That’s a big difference. And Adam is overly obsessed by this. It makes me wonder if he really is a tight ass. Clay restates it more accurately. Clay says he did make a Jewish comment. But it seems to me that he probably doesn’t even know what Adam is upset about. Alla and Adam are grouped up on Clay.

Markus is asked why the team failed. He doesn’t seem to be able to do it right away.

Trump is surprised that Clay is gay. I think it might make him a bit uncomfortable. He says that’s why there are menus in restaurants. He likes stake and others like spaghetti.

Markus doesn’t feel that a cross section of New Yorkers would get something out of this class. Markus, I think smartly, is moving away from this class idea altogether. He really wasn’t for it. This is probably as good a move as he can do. I think he’s going to start to get grilled here in a second. Markus says he wanted to talk about time management. But the team agrees that his ideas were not clear.

Trump says that Markus is not speaking really well. He seems to be really scattered.

Adam brings back Clay and Markus. Those are good calls.

It’s a hard call as to who should go. Clay and Markus are really poor and Adam is lack-luster. They will all go eventually. Couldn’t we really get this show down to just a few episodes?

George is most unhappy with Clay. He says that a key to a good executive is sensitivity. That’s smart. Trump thinks Adam is solid. I agree. But he’s boring… and that’s a bad executive characteristic.

Trump gets them back in and he asks Adam if he has ever had sex before. Very interesting question. I don’t think Trump would normally ask such a question, but I think I know where he is going with this. Adam declines to answer. Trump asks him if it was a good idea to lead something that he wasn’t very familiar with. Trump asks him why he’s so uncomfortable with the topic of sex.

Trump asks Clay is Adam is weak. Clay says yes. Clay says Markus is weak too, when asked. Carolyn asks Markus what he did during this task. Carolyn says he believes in the Cover Your Ass Theory. She says that he’s very negative and when they lose he has a way out. Trump says that Markus didn’t do much. Adam really wants to get Clay out. Adam does not believe Clay is Anit-Semitic. That pretty much gives Clay an easy out.

Trump tells Adam that in 10 years he will be more comfortable with sex. Trump says that it has cost him a lot of money and gotten him into a lot of trouble. He says that Adam will probably be there and actually wishes that he will be there because there is nothing like it. Strong people have a tremendous amount of sexual energy. Trump is proof of that.

Trump starts to focus on Markus. He talks too much and talks in riddles. Markus thinks he did an outstanding job. Markus starts rambling and Trump says that he uses too many words. Trump is relieved that Adam doesn’t think Clay is Anti-Semitic. Trump knows that he has had his own discrimination. But he goes on to say that Clay did a horrible job. Then Trump says that Adam is soft, young and inexperienced. Markus ends up getting fired because he uses too many words. And he doesn’t stop talking.

Trump wishes Markus good luck. Markus says, “if you mean it. I don’t think you do.” He goes on to say that “this has been a railroad from the beginning.” Trump says he talks too long, too much and says the wrong things. This is an excellent case of that. Markus disagrees. He just does not shut up.

Trump says he doesn’t have enough time to listen to Markus.

Clay storms into the apartment. He is furious.

Markus is rambling in the cab. He still can’t make any sense. It’s almost like he’s on something.

The wealthiest 10%
“the wealthiest 10% of U.S. households (as defined by net worth) have an average annual income of $270,000, with an average net worth of nearly $3 million. ”

I have this theory that many people believe they are part of the top 10% and therefore think the tax cuts republicans give are for them.

$270,000 People!!