The Bada Bing Philosophy

Funny motivational speaker, Vinny Verelli is starting the anti-social networking movement.  This clip was recorded at the 2010 NSA Georgia year end gala on August 20. The full text is in the previous post.  

Humorous Motivational Speaker

Funny Motivational Speaker Vinny Verelli presents to the National Speakers Association Conference.

A Google search for “social networking” will get you 35,600,000 results. Everybody is hooked on social networking and social media! Everybody is wired.  Big deal. In my youth, I was wired all the time. But, now it seems it’s a good thing.

Growing up, I was always told to be sociable, and by sociable, my parents meant be nice around other people. The “or else” was implied.   Back then, social behavior was how you dealt with other people, interacted with them, face to face. Anything else was moving away from real social behavior.

I’m tired of people putting me on hold to answer a cell phone, receive a text or send a tweet. If there is a lull in the conversation, a person will send a tweet saying that there is a lull in the conversation, rather than actually saying something to break the lull in the conversation. And, I’m sorry, tweeting sounds like something I shouldn’t be doing.

Do you know what is the most frequent text message I get? “Call me.” What? You text me to tell me to call you when all you had to do was pick up the phone and call me.  No, you had already picked up the phone.  All you had to do was punch in a couple numbers, because if I’m not in your speed-dial or your favorites, you have no business calling me.

Do you see where I’m going with this? I didn’t think so. I can’t be the only one who sees the irony in this. Social networking is about as antisocial as you can get.

I never really got into this Web 2.0. I never got past Web 1.7.1.  I was happy when the internet was just porn.  Although, if you go to Google images and turn SafeSearch off, you can see some pretty amazing things.  But, now everything is 2.0.  It’s big business. “I can help you leverage your Web 2.0 strategy. I’m an expert on Web 2.0.” No, you’re a jerk 2.0.

Here’s the thing, if everyone is into this social networking, what does that tell you? It tells you it’s passé.  So I’m leading the Revolution into antisocial networking.  Not Facebook, but “In Your Facebook.” It’s not Linkedin, it’s “Tapped Out.” And, it’s not MySpace, it’s “MY SPACE.” Not your space; your space is over there.  “MySpace, capice?”

It’s time for a good old-fashioned sit-down, a little one-on-one time with no cell phones. No calls, no tweets, no e-mail, voicemail or texting. It’s you talking to me and me talking to you. Let’s see, what can we call this? Oh, I don’t know, conversation!

THE BADA BING: So, what is the message here? It’s time to really connect. Not through handheld devices, but face-to-face, and that takes some effort. But, remember the two steps to the Bada Bing, “get off your butt and do something.”  Social networking is the lazy way to keep in touch.  That’s why facebook and twitter are written in lower case on their websites; too frickin’ lazy to press the shift key.

Funny Motivational Speaker, Vinny Verelli is available for humorous keynotes and hilarious conference summaries.

Do you realize that Napoleon Hill spent 20 years researching and developing his book, Think and Grow Rich?   Twenty Years! Today people won’t wait 20 seconds for an elevator. People still want to be motivated but they say, “Motivate me know, I got tings to do.”

The paperback edition I have of, “The Power of Positive Thinking”  is 209 pages with tiny print. On the other hand, “Who Moved My Cheese,” is 94 pages with big print with lots of pictures.   Do you see where I’m going with this?  I didn’t think so.

What I’m trying to say is, we don’t have time anymore for 12 steps, 7 Habits takes way too long to master. We are, after all, living in an age where you can manage things, Bada Bing, in one minute. That’s right,  ”Two” is the New “12.”

Or, if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

The cornerstone of the Bada Bing Philosophy is the maxim; “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.”  There are some people who want to challenge my maxim and other people want to know, “What’s a maxim?”

A maxim is a universal truth, so by definition you can’t challenge a universal truth. But lets say you could. In the case of my maxim I would say, don’t take it literally.  Yes, laughter is the best medicine, but if you’re passing a kidney stone Demerol is the best medicine.  I’ve had four kidney stones and have yet to find a way to make it fun.

The maxim applies to those things over which we do have a choice on how we do something.  Your boss may tell you to get a report on her desk by 5:00.  Okay, how do you proceed? With fear, or fun? I say fun. A challenge can be fun, the adrenalin flows and you can get into a zone.

I worked at this burger and omelet place in the Village.  If was not fun to see a line of tickets on the board and a line of people out the door. So I went into the zone of super cook.  This was 30 years before, Iron Chef and Hells Kitchen.  I got into a zone and I didn’t cut myself, burn myself, or slip on the greasy floor. When the order tickets were gone I had a real sense of accomplishment and that was FUN.

And when you’re in that zone, your safe and productive.  And that in and of itself is fun.

Funny Motivational Speaker Vinny Verelli at famed Lombardi's pizzeria in New York City.

Here I am with a smiling cook at Lombardi’s, the oldest pizzeria in America. This guy looks like he’s having fun at his work. And the coal fired oven gets up to 850 degrees!

There comes a time if nothing you can do makes a job fun, it may be time to get out of the kitchen.

Posted by: Funny Motivational Speaker Vinny Verelli

Managers, if you have employees who aren’t having fun, it they’re don’t enjoy what they do, they may leave.  Or worse, they’ll stay.

One of the basic fundamentals of the Bada Bing Philosophy is to look for the humor in your day to day life. My wife and I are now living in the mountains of North Georgia.  Although I miss the city life, it’s beautiful up here and I’m adjusting well.  On a recent drive home from a trip into Atlanta I found some funny.

Video shot by Funny Motivational Speaker Vinny Verelli.

Managing the Negative is easier than you might think. Especially if you use the Bada Bing Philosophy. The Bada Bing encompasses; One Maxim, 2 Steps and 3 simple tools.

The Maxim? “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong. Now, I’m not saying, “If you’re not having fun, don’t do it.”  That’s quitting. I’m saying, find a way to make it fun. No matter how boring or distasteful a task may be, there is always a way to make it more Fun. The 7 Dwarfs knew that, they whistled while they worked. Even Grumpy.  Of course, he was medicated, but I’m not judging.

There are 2 steps in the Bada Bing Philosophy.
Step One:  Get off your butt
Step Two:  Do Something

Some people say, “Vinny, ain’t ‘Do Something’ a little  vague?” Do what?  Well, look at it like this way. “Something,” is like the “it” that Nike wants you to JUST DO.

And “It” is a metaphor.  It’s a representation of the thing that gets you charged up.  “It” like “something” can be anything. Cause the thing is, doing anything is better than doing nothing unless you’re doing something that has anything to do with something you shouldn’t be doing in the first place. BUT! Do enough things and over time you start to recognize when it is BEST to do, nothing.  But now it’s a conscience decision formulated by years of experience, you’re doing nothing, with a purpose.  Do you see where I’m going with this?  I didn’t think so.

the Bada Bing has 3 simple tools that make it easy to manage the negative. I call these tools the F- Factor.  Hey not that “F.” There are three tools and three  “Fs,” they are Fun, Focus and Fervor. Fervor is an “f” word that means passion. Some people want to know why I didn’t just use “Passion.”  Because it doesn’t begin with an “F.”

First and foremost, you have to have fun. And this ties right back into the Maxim. “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.” But fun without focus is frivolous. I’m not saying that frivolous fun is no forbidden but in order to be your best you have to focus.When you lose focus, you get distracted and that’s when things start to break down. And If you do a better job, you’ll have more fun.

The third “F” in the F-Factor stands for fervor. I can’t begin to tell you how to achieve your passion because your passions are YOUR passions.  And if your passionate about something, the last thing you need is advice from me.

Next time we’ll go deeper into the the F-Factor.  Ciao For Now.
Vinny Verelli
Humorous Motivational Speaker and Conference Host

You know, I often get asked the question, “Vinny, what motivated you to become a motivational speaker?” More often I’m asked the question, “Vinny, you’re a motivational speaker?”

I’d have to say it was watching a Tonny Robbins infomercial. Everybody has heard of Tony Robbins, the mega-guru of the motivational world.   Robbins’ first book Unlimited Power has been translated into 14 languages and over a million copies have been sold.  So you’d think that if Tony Robbins is so good, that if Unlimited Power was so great … Why would he have to write all these other books?”

And Robbins is just the tip of the iceberg. You go into a bookstore today, the shelf space devoted to self-help books continues to grow at an alarming pace.   And I believe it’s growing at an equal rate to the increase number of people on Prozac.  Let me explain –  you buy a motivational book, you get motivated, after a while you start to loose the motivation, you get depressed, you take Prozac, you buy another book.

So I decided I wanted to jump on this merry-go-round. My first book,  Motivate This is now in it’s 3^rd printing.  I called the publisher and ordered another 10 books.

And I got another book coming out.  This one is entitled, I Got Your Chicken Soup Right Here. It’s

an anthology, inspirational stories from people on the witness protection program, I think it’s gonna to be a big seller.

Do you realize, there is a whole series of books where Winnie the Pooh is used to teach different business stills? They’ve got The Tao of Pooh, Winnie the Pooh on Problem Solving, and Winnie the Pooh on Success volumes one and two! This is the cartoon bear that gets his nose stuck in a honey jar telling you about success?

I’m not highly educated, but I don’t need Winnie the Frickin Pooh to tell me how to solve my problems, okay!  I don’t need mice and little people runnin around in a maze to tell me how to adapt to change.  Cause first of all –  I don’t even like cheese.  But if I did, you don’t touch my cheese, let alone move it.  Capisch!

Funny Motivational Speaker
Vinny Verelli

Things are different today.  A friend of mine just had a baby and he and he and his wife, it’s like their brains have turned to mush. “Oh, this is too hot, this is too cold, Oh no, that’s the wrong car seat.  CAR SEAT?  We didn’t have no car seats, we didn’t have seat belts.  They gave us a pair of scissors and told us to run!

That’s because I was a product of the Post War Baby Boom the first wave of baby boomers.  War’s over, Bada Boom, everybody is having babies.  Pretty soon there were too many babies. What do you do? Start weeding them out. We had pajamas that would burst into flames if you looked at hard enough.  Toxic paints, on EVERYTHING. Toys had sharp points and projectiles that would fly off. There was always some kid with a patch over an eye. By the time I was in the 5^th grade we had 3 kids named lefty. When you went out to play. If you didn’t come back bloody, you weren’t playing hard enough.

But I believe those of us who survived the 50’s are better for it. We’re raising a generation of wimps.  How many 3 year old do know who could hold their own against a dry cleaning bag?

You see, in the 50’s and 60’s  when I was growing up, I don’t care where you went to school, discipline was part of the curriculum. Students feared their teachers because they knew there were consequences to their actions. Today, a kid acts up, all they do is adjust their medication.

And at home, we feared our PARENTS!  If you did something wrong there was no, “time out.”  There was no “quiet” time.   And there was no talking to the hand.  If you saw a hand you better duck and duck quick  Fear was the ritlin of the 50’s.

Funny Motivational Speaker
Vinny Verelli
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You familiar with the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” It’s a book about change and how change is inevitable and how we must learn to adapt to change if we are to survive. WHOA! See what I did there? I just gave you a universal truth and summed up this cheese book in one sentence. “Who Moved My Cheese,” uses mice and mice sized men running around in a maze, freaking out.

When I first heard about this book, I was thinking so what, it’s only cheese. Turns out that “cheese” is a metaphor for “whatever,” as is often the case with metaphors. A good metaphor works across the board. Little mice aside, you don’t want to touch my cheese let alone move it!

We ARE talking about my cheese, right? Because it’s right there in the title. Who moved MY cheese? I don’t care who moved YOUR cheese. That’s YOUR business. You never want to ask the question, Who moved my cheese? You should KNOW who’s moving your cheese. And they had better have gotten your permission. That’s just the polite thing to do. Anything short of that and there could be a mis-understanding. That’s all I’m saying.

Here’s one of them learning points so you can use it it you’re after continuing educational units.
Take an interest in your cheese.

Learn more about funny motivational speaker Vinny Verelli at
Funny Motivational Speaker