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Both our boys are at camp. My schedule is allowing me to do something I haven’t done for a long time: sit in the backyard.

I’m in the backyard all the time: picking up toys, pulling weeds, playing catch, etc. But just sitting? It has been too long.

I’m also doing a good bit of thinking and noticing. And I’m enjoying part of my property that is always there but not always fully utilized.

The bulletin is obvious: what haven’t you made time to do that you ought? What area or space in your life have you ignored for too long?

Today do it. Go there. Enjoy.

This morning I saw a house painter at Starbucks. He wore the typcical paint splattered pants and white tee shirt. He looked like most house painters except for the snappy fedora. Combined with a pony tail and sun glasses, what set him apart was his style.

You might not think that is significant, but consider: I wouldn’t be blogging about him if he looked like everyone else. And I wouldn’t have made it a point to notice his truck and signage.

Style is important; not more important than substance, but still important. Done right it gets you noticed in the right way, differentiates you from your competitors and enhances your brand. (Do it wrong and you come across as strange.

In The Art of Living, Epectitus says, “Wherever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance.” That is an underlying theme in my books The Fred Factor and The Encore Effect. Performance isn’t, however, just about what you do, but how you look while you’re doing it. Style differentiates.

Whatever you do, do it with style.

My trees are out of control. Some are growing into the deck, one is lop-sided and several need trimming.

I called four tree trimmers found online. One never called back. Three returned my call. Two got my address, came by and left a quote.

But one guy wouldn’t do that. “Don’t you want to know who’ll be doing the work on your trees? he  asked.

Ah, well…didn’t seem critically important to me, but he made me pause so consider. I agreed to meet with him.

Mark Mortenson showed up exactly on time (good start). We walked around the property. He explained things to me. He made notes. Great…now all I needed was a quote.

Not so fast.

“Is there a place we can sit and talk?” We located on the patio and he pulled out a three ring binder. He explained that he was an arborist (were the other tree trimmers?) He explained how one got that certification and flipped to the pages in his binder that contained his scores and certification.

Next he showed me the proper licenses needed to operate in my county.

Then it was on to the copious photos of work he’d done (before and after). He also had a bunch of current thank you and testimonial letters.

In the process I got a crash course in trees. It was quite interesting, actually.

At the end he gave me his bid. It tied with another guy for the highest of the three.

He got the business. It is one thing to be good, another to claim to be better than the competition and yet a third to be able to prove you’re better. Mark did just that.

Did I try to negotiate? No. Instead I shared my philosophy: “I could ask you for a better price, but you strike me as an honest person. You might take less but when you come to do the work, I want you to do the best job possible. You’ll know I didn’t nickel and dime you and my hope is that will be an incentive to do an even better job.”

By the way, Mark is a Gypsy Jazz musician. I wasn’t familiar with that type of music until I went online and listened to his band. Its good stuff.

Some of you who are friends on Facebook or follow me on Twitter know that on my return from Israel Air Canada lost my bag. After a prolonged period on the phone I became concerned that my bag might be permanently missing and didn’t have any reason to think the Air Canada personnel I was speaking with were going to be much help. I posted an SOS of sorts on Facebook and Twitter hoping someone knew somebody at Air Canada who could help. I wasn’t looking for “who to complain to”; I was looking for someone competent to help me find my bag (it was recovered eventually).

I had one person with a direct connection to executives at Air Canada respond immediately (I did not need to make use of those connections). I had a friend in Canada weigh in with his experiences with Air Canada. And I got a phone call from a speaker buddy who was working in Canada and willing to use her connections there to help. In sort, I got great assistance very quickly.

Social media has many benefits, but the ability to get the right information from the right people quickly is key. Sincerely and prudently asking for help (but yes, it can be overdone) is a powerful tool in the new age of connectivity.

Connectivity. I just used the word because it is part of our vocabulary. But sometimes is sounds a bit sterile. We have an older word for the same thing. It applied before there was an internet and it applies today. Only the technology has changed. The word is community.

Community is about personal connection and people who care helping when they can. And that’s what makes social media great.

It’s been a couple weeks since I last posted a blog. That’s because my wife Darla and I were in Israel visiting the Holy Lands. I did post regularly on Facebook and Twitter using my PDA but blogging would have been far more laborious from the little keyboard.

I was reminded of something I learned long ago: travel is good for the soul. It is also good for the brain, too. I’d read about different stories and locations in the bible since I was a child, but visiting those actual places provided a rich context I could never have achieved otherwise. From the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River to the Kidron Valley to the City of David, I was continually impressed and awed with how little we really know until we get out into the world.

Of course it isn’t just about geography. You can have an opinion about Israel, but until you’ve met and talked with the people who live there, you are missing important pieces of the intellectual puzzle. Someone once observed that we don’t see things are they are, but as we are. It is advisable to re-examine perceptual filters when traveling lest you filter out information and insights that don’t fit your pre-existing ideas.

I’ve traveled in a manner highly organized (as this trip was) and also made up an itinerary as I went along. I’ve found that for return on investment of time, an organized agenda enables you to see and learn more. The big benefit of going with the flow is the unexpected gem that you can find as a result. I’ve had a bit of a readjustment creating my own agenda now that I’m back (although “catching up” has provided me plenty to do…)

I hope you get a chance to travel this summer, locally or internationally and by whatever means possible. Think of it as soul enrichment.