Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

Hello, my name is Ron Kaufman. Whoever  you are and wherever you are on this magnificent earth I want to take a moment to say hello and thank you. I’m currently in Singapore. It’s been my home base for the past all over the planet with my magic markers and my ideas and my flip charts, my powerpoints, my slides to be able to bring uplifting service to you. You  are the people who uplifted me. You are the people who gave me the encouragement, the enablement, the empowerment to be able to keep creating and writing and teaching. You, you’re the ones who bought my books.

You’re the ones who applied what it is that you learn. You’re the people who led teams and organizations that I could then write about in a New York Times bestseller. Telling the stories of organizations that build truly uplifting service cultures. Thank you. It’s because of you that a guy like me could be so inspired and so encouraged to keep going and uplifting others. In 2018 an organization called global gurus ran a survey and asked people to vote, Who did you think was the number one customer service guru in the world? And you rated me number one. Now there are 29 other people on the list and I know who they are and I admire them tremendously. Other professional colleagues who’ve dedicated their lives to uplifting the spirit of service, the practice of customer experience, customer loyalty service culture. In 2019 you voted me number one again in 2020 you did it again. And I just recently learned that in 2021 well you did it again. And I wanted to take a moment and say thank you. I’m genuinely humbled and honoured and at the same time, I’m redoubled in my enthusiasm and commitment to serve you. Now I want you to know that there’s a whole global cascade of gurus around the world and not only in the space of customer service. But in leadership and sales negotiation coaching branding go to globalgurus.org and you’ll find all of us there and all of us exist to serve you.

Now how did a guy like me come to be a guy like me? And I’ll tell you a little the back story started with this woman right here. Her name is Rebecca but we called her Grandma B. And yes that is the colour of her hair and yes those were her glasses. She taught kindergarten for 40 years in New York. She only had one child, my dad Arthur. They had five kids and I want you to imagine it was like to be the number two son here with my older brother Ken and that my grandma just pouring love and encouragement and education through me so that I could spend my life pouring it through me to people like you. And it wasn’t just her. My grandfather Samuel ran a young men’s organization to help kids stay in school and stay out of jail, stay off the streets and get good jobs. And it wasn’t just on my dad’s side of the family that this whole spirit of service was there. On my mom’s as well. 

This is my mom when she was a child with her brothers and her dad Max and mother Irma. 1938 these two folks took their family out of Germany to the United States. Why? So that they could have a life so that their life could be giving value and uplifting other people’s lives. So these wonderful people raised their kids and here was my mom at 16 years old who met my dad and here they are at 90 and 92 still rocking it, still together, still serving the world. My mom taught high school for 20 years. My dad was an engineer solving problems to make people’s lives better. And what do they do today? She loves to bake desserts, so they can bring the sweetness of life to other people to enjoy. And what does he do? He  spends his days gardening around the house so he can snip the flowers and then the two of them take fresh bouquets of flowers to their friends who are living in elder care facilities or in residential environments that don’t have gardens and flowers of their own. Still serving all these years. 

And then I met the love of my life Jenny, who’s born to serve. And thank goodness she chose me to serve side by side with. And we’ve got this amazing daughter Brighton a bright spark of her own moving up in life to serve and care about others. Go get them Bri. Now in wrapping this up and to say thank you, I was thinking about the idea of actually being named number one guru, so many years in the world and what does that mean. I mean one interpretation of a guru is the long beard, no hair, maybe I’ll look like that one day sitting on top of a mountain. But right now this is what guru means to me G U R U. You are the people who are so amazing! You’re the ones who take what we have to teach and pour it through your life to other people. You’re the ones who reflect all of that great energy back to people like me. So thank you. May we together continue to serve. May we reach out to other people and care. May we bring the spirit of love into our lives flourishing our lives, encouraging the magnificence in the lives of others. Ron Kaufman in Singapore. Just taking a moment to tell you from my heart. Thank you.