Last night, my wife and I went to see Garth Brooks in concert at the Bridgestone Arena here in Nashville, Tennessee. He sold out nine consecutive shows and has raised over $5,000,000 for Nashville flood relief. He is also donating all the proceeds from product sales.

I have been a fan of Garth since the beginning of his career but had never taken the time to actually see him live in concert. My only connection was through listening to his music and seeing his performances on TV.

Now I "get it". I know why people are so loyal and will travel hundreds of miles to see a performance by Garth Brooks. He makes a very powerful personal connection with every single person in the audience.

I have seen performers fake this but I have never seen anyone actually do it.

At one point in the concert he read signs with song requests and he performed those requests accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. He made it personal.

At the end of his show he recognized the person holding a lighted sign in the very top row. He said, "Don't think I haven't noticed you up there holding that sign". He turned to the right of the stage and pointed directly at a guy in the very top row to the side of the stage and said, "And I noticed you up there in the blue and white striped shirt jumping up and down all night and singing along to every song that I sang". He made it personal.

He walked around the stage and did this several times for different people. These were not people he knew. Just people he had connected with during his performance. He was trying to let them know personally how much he appreciated them being there.

He let people know he cared and sincerely appreciated every single person in that audience. I have never seen a performer do this on such a personal level.

He made it real. It was a "show". But it was something more than a show. It was Garth giving everything he had to the performance and making sure every single person in that almost 20,000 seat arena felt what he was feeling.

When you meet people, are you making it personal or are you faking it just to get something from them?

All businesses say they put the customer first and they care. But, unfortunately, most are faking it. Their actions do not reflect what they are saying.

People generally know when you are faking it. They may not know why they are hesitating making a decision to work with you, but they know something just doesn't feel right.

If you want to be more successful, increase your sales, and create long-lasting relationships, you have to keep it real. Drop the "professional" act and just communicate with people and let them know you care about them and their success ... and mean it. Make it personal.

To Your Success,