Get all the inside secrets and tools you need to help you develop your intuitive and leadership skills so you are on the path to the highest level of success with ease.  Listen in as Peter shares his amazing journey through several careers and an international move and the key habits that helped him accomplish so much!

In this episode you will learn:

• What are the 3 Things
• D E L E G A T E
• Trust yourself and the process

More about Peter:

Key habits and decisions that directly fueled my success Why these worked and how others can apply them in their own journey Actionable marketing and business tips that entrepreneurs can implement immediately Lessons learned from mistakes that taught me more than my wins ever did

Peter is a seasoned digital and performance marketing expert with over 20 years of experience helping retailers, brands, wholesalers, and service providers elevate their branding, strategy, and marketing programs. His extensive background spans multiple industries, working with businesses of all sizes—from startups to large enterprises.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-kalanda/

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Are you ready to tiptoe into your intuition and tap into your soul’s message? Let’s talk 

Listen in as Jennifer Takagi, founder of Takagi Consulting, Certified High Performance Coach, 5X time Amazon.Com Best Selling-Author, Certified Soul Care Coach, Certified Jack Canfield Success Principle Trainer, Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst and Facilitator of the DISC Behavioral Profiles, Certified Change Style Indicator Facilitator, Law of Attraction Practitioner, and Certified Coaching Specialist - leadership entrepreneur, speaker and trainer, shares the lessons she’s learned along the way.  Each episode is designed to give you the tools, ideas, and inspiration to lead with integrity. Humor is a big part of Jennifer’s life, so expect a few puns and possibly some sarcasm.  Tune in for a motivational guest, a story or tips to take you even closer to that success you’ve been coveting.  Please share the episodes that inspired you the most and be sure to leave a comment.  

Official Website: http://www.jennifertakagi.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifertakagi/

Facebook: facebook.com/takagiconsulting

I look forward to connecting with you soon,

Jennifer Takagi

Speaker, Trainer, Author, Energy Healer

PS: We would love to hear from you! For questions, coaching, or to book interviews, please email my team at Jennifer@takagiconsulting.com

Other. Welcome to Destin for success. I'm your

host, Jennifer Takagi, and today we're going to have a very

interesting fun conversation with Peter kalanda, and Peter is

going to talk about key habits and decisions that directly

fueled his success. Peter, welcome to the show,

Jennifer, thank you so much for having me

looking forward to the conversation

Well, and I love it. You just, I'll just let

you go. Yeah, you got here, like, how does this all come

together? What do you do?

Yeah, sure. So. How do I get here? I am. You

know, I actually immigrated here in 1983 from the former

Czechoslovakia with my parents and my brother two suitcases,

you know, seeking political or political refugees from the

former Eastern Bloc. You know, kind of the rags to riches

story. My dad had a his first job was a chief engineer out in

out on Long Island. That's where we settled. Lived in New York

City. Lived in New York City my whole life. Now I live in LA

manage. I got into the hospitality industry. I went to

school for that, managed a hotel in New York City for a while.

Then, you know, I wanted to change. And I was thinking to

myself, you know, what can I do in the future? What were my

passions? And the digital marketing, kind of SEO and

websites and design was kind of starting out at that time. It

was in the in the early 2000s that I that I work with this

gentleman who managed a hotel, one of the hotels that I worked

at, and he created one of the first booking engines for hotels

I was very early on. I was still working at the hotel at that

time, and I kept in contact with him. So, you know, forward a

couple years, and 2008 comes along, you know, big crash. And

I worked at Ernst and Young of all places, doing hospitality,

real estate. I mean, some of these things where I got to and

where I am now, it's kind of crazy and wild when you think

about it. So I started working. I started contact. I got in

contact with him, and he brought me on as kind of a financial

person, and it was all hands on deck. I had to do everything. We

were doing projections. And then we started getting clients for a

digital marketing hotel agency. So I started learning SEO on my

own, trial and error practice and working with clients. And,

you know, making mistakes. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. It's

what's when everyone learns everything. I mean, this is a

philosophy that I talk about and practice. I get in there and get

in the weeds and do the work and there's you'll get rewarded. And

that was a startup. Sometimes startups just don't work out.

But I learned a lot. I then I moved on to a textile company.

Took them from about 500,000 a year to 3 million when I left.

And then I figured, you know, I can do this on my own, starting

my own agency, three horizons, interactive, and that's where I

am. Now work a variety of clients. And you know, a lot of

the things that I learned that hospitality is completely

transferable to what I'm what I'm doing now, so and now I'm

here with you.

Now you're here with me. So I think it's really

fun when you like that, your skills can transfer. Yeah, as an

entrepreneur, it can be very daunting to think, Oh, but I was

an expert in this, and now, like, Am I an expert? I had a

conversation, a podcast interview, actually, recently,

with a woman, and she goes, I decided to be an interior

decorator because I love beautiful things. I hung my

shingle, and then I signed up to go to school so I'd have all the

letters after my name, right? I already had clients before I

started, because I love beautiful things, and I know how

to make things beautiful, so I love that like you, you transfer

your skills, but we often don't consider that like I came from

corporate and federal in the housing industry and all kinds

of things come out that I learned there and are

transferable skills. But let me tell you, it took a long time

for me to embrace that,

right. Yeah, yeah. You never Yeah. Same thing

when you know coming from hospitality, there's certain

things that are just completely transferable, like just working

with people knowing and different kinds of people and

tests anticipate issues and needs, and you curate kind of

member memorable interactions when people come to a hotel, and

that's kind of the same thing. You translate to mark marketing.

You know you're you're looking at customer journeys, your user

experiences, building campaigns. And it all works. It All. It's

all completely transferable. I.

Problem. So we, we mentioned Glendale,

California. I went to Glendale, I don't know, well, 14 times for

Brenda burchard's Ultra event, and I stayed every time at the

Residence Inn. And I'm a Marriott bomb boy member. And I

don't know that I really get that many perks out of it, but I

am like, I stay at Marriott's a lot. And I walked in first time,

and there was a, like, a picture frame, and it said, welcome our

Platinum members enlisted, and welcome our Gold members,

whatever. And I had a friend who was staying there also, and his

name was on there, and he was a higher status, whatever the

statuses were, and I was like, well, I need that status. How

many nights do I need? Oh, okay, it was nothing. They they spent

two minutes and printed out on a piece of paper and stuck it in a

frame. And I was like, wait, I need status. Where am I? Those

are the kind of things that, as entrepreneurs, our clients want

right, like they want to feel special.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, 100% agree, like we would

do. When I managed a hotel in New York City, we were one of

the first hotels to offer a wine and cheese hour for free that

was included in the rate. And it was amazing, such a little

thing, and

it cost minimal, like you had time of

the employees, and minimal amount for the food. It

was. The reviews were amazing, just kind of

mentioning that, you know, you're paying this rate, and you

get this free, you know, wine and cheese and food and drinks

and stuff, and it's, it's huge that what you described at the

is with the Sheraton, Yes, Maria, Maria, it was such a

little thing for them to do, but it's massive. And a lot of

hotels, every time I'd be like, where's my

name, right?

And then there's, it's these little things. Anyone

can do it, any hotel manager, owner can do it, but some and

still don't. And it's simple,

yeah, it's a simple thing, and it's and so

it's the same with our client journey. Yes, exactly email that

you get, that follow up, that you get for your time on our

call, like, those are the kind of things that,

yeah, I mean, exactly that's kind of like my

kind of, what comes back comes from transitioning, and that

transferable skill is kind of just being able to be thankful

and appreciative for the phone call. And, you know, there's

multiple times where I'm part of a proposal or trying to get a

new client, and we're talking, and people have maybe three or

four proposals that they're looking at. And why I stand out,

I think. And what people have told me is that, you know, I

took the time to talk on the phone, maybe more than once, and

got to know the business and the team members, and kind of that

translated into them wanting to work with me. Where that I

asked, you know, who else are you? You know, what other kind

of proposals you're getting? Like, Oh, you know, we're

getting one or two, but it's, you can tell, it's just a form

that they fill out, put the company name, and there it is.

Send it over, and that's it. And I, you know, that's why I think

we do well, is that we take the time and kind of become part of

your team, which, again, is one of those transferable skills,

being able to do that for clients well.

And it's that, that whole customer service type

thing,

yeah,

is is kind of gone at work one day when I was

still in the government, I just got call after call after call

transferred to me, and none of them were my department. None of

them were my job. I knew the answers. I knew where to send

the calls because I had been there for a long time, but none

of it was my job. And when I left for lunch, I stopped at the

reception desk, and I was like, I'm getting an ordinate number

of calls today. Is there something going on, like a whole

division out today? So I'm getting more calls. It wasn't

even my division, right? Not Yeah. And he goes, but you're

nice, and I know that you'll get him the answer. And I was like,

Okay, I have a busy afternoon when I get back from lunch,

would you not do this anymore? Like, I like that. I'm helpful,

but, like, I have work to do. I'm not Yeah. Would you please

quit? Yeah, I recently had my knee replaced, and I had some

extra little, stupid, little complications at the beginning,

nothing from the surgery, all you know, probably self induced,

but I went back into the doctor's office. I don't know

how many times I went back in, and I was never nice, right?

Like I shouldn't be there. The first replacement, six weeks

later, I flew to LA and this one is been a struggle bus. Let me

just tell you. Mm hmm. And I was in the other day and they said,

Well, you have a copay. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I've come

in so many times since my surgery that I have a co pay.

And one of the women that I know for a fact I was not really nice

and friendly to was usually at that desk, and she was at a

different desk, and she circled around and looked at me, and she

goes, Oh, Jennifer is sad when they all know your name, right?

Jennifer had a really rough start, and I was like, Oh,

that's so nice. She could have said, You're a hateful little

witch. And we just,

yeah, yeah. It's just like, I mean, it goes to

that phrase I always kind of go back to, is just kind of kill

him with kindness. It's so true, like a smile at a front desk or

just a nice conversation with a prospective or current client

and just trying to solve a problem, whether that be, hey, I

need you know, how do I get more visitors to my website? They're

not converting things like that, which, which I can help with. My

company does on all the time. Yeah, you just want to, just

want to be nice. It's not hard to be nice, well.

And sometimes I was, I was at a conference in

San Diego years ago. And the person, it was her conference,

her business, yeah. And somebody asked her a very technical,

specific question, and she said, there are 80 people in this

room, and I can stand here and tell you every single thing I

do, step by step, and I really don't have a problem doing that,

because only, like, 1% will possibly even attempt to do it.

And I was like, what? So when somebody asks you a question and

you can easily give them one or two strategic tips to increase

their traffic, increase their SEO, it's really not taking

anything off of you, guess what? They're not going to do it.

Yeah, and these things are easily doable, like

I, you know, you can, you can do them yourself. It's just you

have to have someone look at it and tell you what the issues

are, which, again, you know, I can help.

Yeah, I can help. Okay, so you have key

habits and decisions, and I'm sure we have danced around and

talked about them a little bit here, but do you have some very

specific key habits that you incorporate?

Yeah? I mean, the number one thing that I do, and

I've learned through kind of just managing my day to day is,

you know, everyone has a to do list, right? And my to do list,

you in, before I did this was 10 things long, you know, and then

trying to cross them out. But it never, it never got to the end.

So I literally have a post it note with three things that I

need to do today, every day, and I have the I do those three

things and I cross them out, and it's so fulfilling. You wouldn't

even know just to see those cross outs. There's certain

things that you know I have in a notebook that I'll go this can,

I can do this tomorrow, the next day, or in a week or so, but

just having a little just a little post it note, I would

highly recommend and write three or four things and do them and

just cross it off. It's huge. That has been very, very helpful

for me.

I have heard that in similar ways. And there

was a year that I had a notebook, but I would only put

three things per day on it and mark it off, and then at the end

of the week, I could see them all, but same type concept, but

that's really big. I I worked with a lady one time, and

something was said about a to do list or something. And she goes,

Well, I never get through it. And there's got to be some

scientific study out there that the brain gets overwhelmed when

you've got those List of 10 things.

And it is overwhelming. When you look at

the notebook, yeah, when you look at down at it and you see

1015, things, it's, it's, it's very, it's overwhelming. So just

a little post it, it's huge. That's something anyone can do

right away.

I heard a guy, he said that when he got through

his three things, and I don't know if it was a post it or what

he wrote it on, he said, I like, crunch it up and throw it away.

Like, it's just, like a very dramatic,

yeah, yeah. It's funny to say that. And the

corner of my desk, I have some post it notes at the end of the

day, I literally do crunch them up and just throw them out and

never have to see them again. You know, in the notebook, you

can kind of go through and kind of see it's still there. But I

also I do. Have a notebook for work notes. I have a notebook

for just personal things, which has been huge, just separate

that, because sometimes before I used to tend to write, I have

to, you know, doctor's office and this client needs to

increase their budget, and it was all lumped together, and it

was, it just was out of control, so post it note, two notebooks,

major things that anyone could do, and you can implement that

today, tomorrow.

Oh, I love that. That's really great. And I

need to get back to that, because it is like, I'll lay in

bed in the morning think, what do I have to do today? Yeah,

already had my three notes for today last night when I went to

bed. Do you do that? Do you put your three things for the next

day? If you already know what they are fresh in the morning.

Like how

I like, I like in the morning. I like to do it in

the morning, because I just, for me, that's that's helpful, but I

can, I can totally see why the night before would be great. And

even, you know, Sunday night, Sunday scaries rolling around,

I've done it where I put a little little note on a Sunday

night and just be okay. This is what I need to do. And I feel a

little better about little

about it. I love that. All right. So our to

do list three things on it. I think it was Jack Canfield said,

If you cannot, absolutely cannot do only three, no more than

five. Five is the absolute.

Yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.

Anything more than that, yeah, you're not gonna know. The life

gets in the way and there's, you know, it's hard to we got so

distracted now with all these different messages, Slack and

teams and texts and all these things are popping up all over

the place, like even, you know, for our conversation, I not

deleted, but just quit out of all these things. So I'm just

fully focused. And sometimes, you know, there's been times

when I'm calls and I just don't do that, and it just affects

your day so much. You can't be present, and it's tough. I mean,

I understand I do it. It's just more of like a habit. It's

almost just training yourself. Well,

my husband and I have a conversation a lot.

He's like, Well, you didn't tell me that. And I'm like, Well, I

told you that, but you were playing on your iPad and so you

weren't focused enough. A friend said, Oh, y'all are going on

this vacation with all of us, like a whole group of people.

And my husband goes, Oh no, Jen never told me about that. And I

was like, yeah, yeah, I did

want to go. It's kind of, I've had these

conversations too, just kind of where technology is and where

it's going and what it's doing, and, you know, just the phone

and just having, you know, you can't focus on things at the

same time. And it's becoming more and more like this was

supposed to help, but I feel like it's just getting just,

it's getting harder. Well,

you've got to take control of it yourself,

right? Because it will take control of you. Yeah, all right.

So you've got a great to do list. I love that. Do you have

another habit for me?

Um, you know the one, the other thing is just

kind of not taking off, not doing too much, not taking on

too much that you can't handle. I've been better about

delegating. And this goes back to kind of just, just my

personality. I tend to have, I tend to want to control, kind of

everything. And it's been, this has been throughout my whole

life, when I worked the front desk and just delegating, and

now just working with designers and developers and trusting that

they can do the work. And I'm there. I've gotten there and and

it takes a long time, you know, certain people are better than

it than others, but it was hard for me to just just let someone,

you know, do the smaller tasks and just taking on too much

I've, you know, sometimes I'm in the weeds of an SEO audit, I get

involved. Sometimes I do the keyword research and things like

that that I don't necessarily have to do, and just have

someone else on my team do it, but it's just hard for me to

give it up, because I love to do it, but I've gotten so much more

better. So just delegating and just trusting that, you know,

people on my team will, will, will do the work, and I don't

have to worry about it. It's hard.

Well, it's a lot. And I, after I left the

federal government, I was fortunate enough to teach

classes for the great state of Oklahoma, and they provided all

the material, and I just had to go in and deliver it. And it was

super fun. And the people were really engaging and fun, but one

of them was on becoming a new supervisor and and step. Into

that new supervisory role. And there was a quote, and I you

know, maybe it was Eisenhower, I don't know it was somebody super

famous from the 50s, 60s, but he said, give your team a task and

tell them you trust they will get it done. Yeah, sit back and

just wait to see what great things they come up with. And

that word trust is so big because it goes both ways, like

if somebody goes I trust you're going to do what you said.

Jennifer, I'm like, wow, now I'm elevated to a higher level of

getting it done. But then when I transfer that trust to somebody

else, I trust you'll get that done. You know, I'm not going to

worry about it. I trust you'll do it. It elevates them. So that

whole passing it off with that level of trust is just Yeah,

it's hard. It's so hard, don't get me wrong, but it's very

important,

yeah, and then, and then, with that, the other

kind of key habit leads into is kind of just patience, that

patience that someone will get it done. And I've, I've been

really good about just having the patience and being able to

kind of, you know, whether it be at a front desk, kind of

teaching an agent or bringing on a junior or marketing person,

just being patient with them, and just kind of bringing them

on and showing them what I do, and just kind of learning from

doing, learning from doing. And is, I know everyone kind of

talks about this, but it's so it's so huge. All these things

are kind of related patience with giving up, of giving up

that kind of control.

And it's that's a big one. And it's, you know,

when I was in school, like everybody had to learn the same

way. You had to do the same thing, you had to excel the same

way, and now they're being much more diverse about that, so more

people have a whole lot better chance of higher levels of

success in that it appears. But one of the things is that that

learn by doing, when you've just got to let him do it and

practice it and hands on.

And, yeah, make mistakes. Mistakes are okay.

Yeah, yeah, mistakes are okay. It's totally fine, right?

I used to tell myself, there was only one thing

that we can't undo. And it was so stupid, because it could

totally be undone, but it, you know, people made a federal case

out of it. Ha, ha. That was a joke, but it really was. But it

wasn't that big a deal, but it'd be like any mistake we make, it

can be undone and fixed. That just was the bottom line. And if

something is life or death, you need to call 911, because we

should not be involved in that. We can't do life or death. We're

not exactly, exactly. We're not the people to handle that. Yeah,

yeah. We're not, we're not doing brain surgery.

My job is in brain surgery, yeah? So, you know, I'll bring

you leads and conversions and visitors to your site, but I

won't, yeah, life or death.

No, I don't do life or death at all. All right,

you got a super fun gift for the audience. Why don't you tell us

a little bit about that? Because that's yeah. So quite the offer,

yeah.

So every you know, all your listeners, I will

go look at your website. You know, we'll take 1520 minutes on

a call. I'll have everything ready before and we'll go

through four or five things that you yourself can implement. You

know, we'll look at what keywords you're getting, and

some of those keywords are in that 10th to 20 position. And

I'll tell you how you can get to number one. With that, we'll

also look at AI, how, how can you appear in chat? GPT, all

these LLM search. So my the offer is on Site Audit now.com

and yeah, message me there, and we'll get your site up and

running and more conversions and some things, they're more

technical, you might have to have someone help you with

whether that me or someone else, but there's so there's four or

five things that everyone can do themselves right away that will

just help your website and your business. So Site Audit now.com,

now.com and I will have that in the show

notes, so that if, if by chance, you know you need to grab the

link, the link will be there. Peter, this has been really

enlightening. I really look forward to having my

conversation with you in the near future, and as we wrap this

up, do you have any closing thoughts for the audience on

success?

You know, just trust yourself. Trust the

process. Will, you know, do make those mistakes? Takes work with

good people, have the patience, and you'll get there. It's

something it takes a long time. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes

it's daunting, and I'm there. I had many sleepless nights, but

it's it's worth it.

I love that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

This is Jennifer Takagi with destin for success, and I look

forward to connecting with you soon. Bye.