Morning Cereal

Start your day with inspirational quotes, followed by a fun journey through nostalgic facts from this day in history. Then, we dive into the first chapter of Dale Carnegie’s iconic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
In Chapter 3, Part 2, we’ll explore Carnegie’s timeless advice on building authentic connections, the art of influence, and creating positive interactions in every area of life.
In This Episode:
  • Daily inspirational quotes to spark your motivation
  • Fun historical facts from this day in history
  • A deep dive into Chapter 3, Part 2 of How to Win Friends and Influence People
Whether you're a leader, communicator, or just someone looking to improve your relationships, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
Tune in now and let’s grow together!
Resources:
Carnegie, D. (1981). How to win friends and influence people (Rev. ed.). Simon & Schuster.
All photo’s utilized in this video are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported by Wikimedia Commons license and are free to copy, distribute and transmit.  No photos have been altered.

What is Morning Cereal?

Good morning, and welcome to Morning Cereal!
Pull up a stool, grab your favorite cereal, and let’s kick-start your day with a spoonful of inspiration, nostalgia and personal growth. Join your host, Shaen Inglis, as he highlights the music, movies, and moments that made the 80s, 90s, and 2000s unforgettable—kind of like digging for toy at the bottom of the cereal box. Each episode, Shaen also reviews a chapter or so from top wellness books, offering practical insights to help you set a positive tone for your day. Start your mornings right—no cartoons required!

Follow and subscribe to the Morning Cereal podcast and visit our Life Happens, Live Balanced channel and our website at shaeninglis.com to check out and follow our other podcasts. You can also follow Shaen @ShaenInglis on Instagram, YouTube, etc. Feel free to share the Morning Cereal with someone who could use a little fun and motivation to start their day right.

Good morning.

And welcome to morning cereal

Okay, good morning and

happy Tuesday to you.

You made it through the

first Monday of the new year.

Nice job.

Well, today is national.

I'm not going to take it any more day.

But you don't have to

be angry to participate.

You just have to be true to yourself and

know when you've had enough.

It's a day of taking control.

The day aims to inspire you to start the

year with a new attitude

that combines both being

strong and honest.

Well, that's much more positive than it

originally comes across.

Alright, let's go ahead and jump into

today's episode with today's quotes.

One fun nostalgia quote and then a second

quote to tease our

book review later in the

episode.

Hopefully, one of the quotes will speak

to you and kickstart your

day in a positive direction.

Alright, the first quote is from the

Queen of Pop, Madonna.

"A lot of people are

afraid to say what they want.

That's why they don't

get what they want."

Well, it probably depends on how you say

it, but generally, I agree.

We should be proactive.

I teach my kids it never hurts to ask.

All they can say is no.

Alright, let's move on to today's teaser

quote from the book review.

Here it is.

"If there is any one secret of success,

it lies in the ability to..."

Now there's a cliffhanger.

Normally, I don't do that, but we'll

finish that quote and

unpack that here in a minute

during the book review segment.

But first, let's jump into our usual dose

of fun and historic

facts from this day in

history.

Okay, today's news

facts are for January 7th.

In 1610, Galileo discovers the first

three moons of Jupiter.

In 1930, French physicist Marguerite

Perret discovers Frankium.

It's the last and rarest naturally

occurring element to be

found, as it's highly radioactive

and its isotopes decay very quickly.

Interestingly, we have no uses for this

element, primarily due to

its half-life of only 22

minutes, making it nearly impossible to

collect visible amounts.

In 1953, US President Harry Truman

announces the American

development of the hydrogen bomb.

On this date in 1991, Cheers was the

number one television show.

Cheers ran for 11

seasons from 1982 to 1993.

And finally, in 1999, President Bill

Clinton's impeachment trial

began in the US Senate after

the House voted to impeach him for lying

about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Little did we know what kind of political

craziness we are in store for.

Okay, moving on to birthdays.

Happy birthday if today is your birthday.

You share a birthday with Nicolas Cage.

He's 61.

And Jeremy Renner.

He's 53.

It was just over a year ago that Jeremy

Renner was almost killed

in that snowplow accident.

What an incredible recovery, and this

birthday probably

feels a little bit sweeter.

Alright, now on to the music

of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

The number one song on this date in 1991

was "Justify My Love" by Madonna.

And it was apparently born out of a

relationship Madonna had with Lenny

Kravitz at the time.

Kravitz was also a writer on this song.

This was considered one of Madonna's most

controversial songs,

not because of the lyrics,

but due to the explicit

nature of the music video.

In fact, MTV banned the music video on

its channel, and

Madonna ended up releasing it

on VHS, and it sold

over a million copies.

And as a side note, if you don't

understand what MTV or VHS

means, go ahead and ask your

rad parents.

And the number one movie on this date in

1995 was "Dumb and Dumber."

This was the classic Jim Carrey and Jeff

Daniels comedy, and it came

out soon after Jim Carrey's

Ace Ventura pet detective.

A ton of good lines in this movie too.

Our pets heads are falling off.

Then you go and do something like this,

and totally redeem yourself.

Yeah, he must work out.

No, it's a cardigan, but thank you.

There's so many good ones.

Good fun.

Okay, let's move on to some personal

growth in the book

review segment of the morning

serial.

This is where we take a few moments to

reflect on lessons learned

from the current book we're

reading.

And currently, we are reading through

Dale Carnegie's How to

Win Friends and Influence

People.

It's a timeless book that is consistently

on all the must read

lists, and it's packed

with rock solid advice and actions for

all of us to use and

build healthy foundational

concepts to live by.

Okay, yesterday we began chapter three,

which is entitled, "He

who can do this has the

whole world with him.

He who cannot walks a lonely way."

In the first part of chapter three, we

began to unpack the

importance of understanding

what other people want.

Carnegie says, "Everything we do in our

lives is because we want

something, so we need to

learn to talk in terms of what other

people want, if we

want to influence them.

How can we make someone want to do it?"

Carnegie gives an example here about how

he personally changed

the outcome of a situation

by thinking through what someone else

wanted, not what he wanted.

In Carnegie's example, the rent that he

paid to rent a ballroom

in New York City to hold

a series of lectures, which he did

annually, well, the rent

was increased three times the

normal rate.

And after, Carnegie had

printed brochures and sold tickets.

Carnegie didn't get upset, well, he may

have, but when he

approached the hotel management,

in fact, he said he understood why they

increased his rent as it's

their obligation to run a

profitable hotel.

But here, Carnegie pursued a course to

write out all the

positives and negatives for this

rate increase with the manager.

First, a positive for the hotel.

If they stuck to the 300% rate increase,

then the ballroom would

be free to rent out to

others, possibly even other higher paying

clients because Carnegie could not afford

the price.

But Carnegie then suggested one of the

negatives would be that no

matter what, they would lose

out on 100% of his

revenue for renting it out.

But not only that, the hotel would lose

out on the free

advertising, as Carnegie suggested

his lectures brought in crowds of

educated and cultured

people to the hotel, which surely

had an economic benefit to the hotel.

He left the manager asking him to weigh

the advantages and the

disadvantages of increasing

his rate 300% before giving Carnegie

their final decision.

And in the end, the hotel only increased

the rate 50% instead of 300%.

And Carnegie's point was that, quote, he

got this rate

reduction without saying a word

about what he wanted.

Now that's a long, nice story, but

Carnegie brings it back

home in the next paragraph

by asking the reader what do they think

the outcome would have

been if he had done the

more natural thing, the human thing, and

stormed into the

manager's office complaining about

the rate increase.

And after he already printed the tickets

and raving about the

300% saying, "I won't pay

it," what would have happened then?

There would have been a

back and forth argument.

And even if Carnegie convinced the

manager the rate hike was

too much, would the manager's

pride even have let him

back down and give in?

I know oftentimes our frustrations get

the better of us and

the second scenario plays

out, but more often

than it should most likely.

But Carnegie has taught us that we need

to practice discipline

in these crucial moments,

taking note of the other person's

perspective, being diligent

to figure out what they want

and how we can move forward with their

perspectives in mind.

This is the approach Carnegie

is teaching us layer by layer.

Here Carnegie turns to a quote by Henry

Ford that he actually

repeats twice in a row in

the book because he deems the advice

pertaining to the fine art

of human relationships as

so good.

Here's Ford's quote, and

it's the one I cut off earlier.

"If there is any one secret of success,

it lies in the ability

to get the other person's

point of view and see things from that

person's angle, as

well as from your own."

I'll read it again because

that was Carnegie's intent.

"If there is any one secret of success,

it lies in the ability

to get the other person's

point of view and see things from that

person's angle, as

well as from your own."

Seems simple, and Carnegie acknowledges

that, but he also

acknowledges the fact that 90%

of the people on this earth

ignore it 90% of the time.

It's just like the two

situations we just discussed.

One taking the high road and calmly

listing out advantages

and disadvantages getting to

what the other person wants, opposed to

the other option that

we likely take 90% of the

time where we just

vent out our frustrations.

This reminds me a bit of what we say to

our kids all the time in my household.

And it's simple, make good decisions.

What Carnegie is teaching us in these

first three chapters is

rock solid advice and action

for us to take, but it does require us to

make good decisions.

That means controlling the urge to be

selfish, controlling the urge to snap

back, and disciplining

ourselves to instill Carnegie's

principles and actions into

our everyday life and into

our every moment life.

And that's not always easy, but we're

constantly learning and

growing in this life, and that's

what this is all about.

Wowsers, that felt like a heavy one.

Nice job hanging in there with me.

We're making really good progress in the

book, so be sure to tune

back in tomorrow when Carnegie

absolutely rips apart

what is essentially an email.

You'll enjoy it.

Okay, get out there, have a great day.

Give out some free appreciation and begin

to develop the habit of thinking in terms

of other people's perspectives.

I'll see you back here.

Same bat channel and same bat time.

Have a fantastic day.

And don't forget to follow and subscribe

to the Morning Serial

Podcast and The Life Happens

Live Balance channel.

You can find more episodes and videos by

visiting our YouTube channel, At

Shawningless, or our

website at atshawningless.com, where you

can also follow our other

podcasts that are coming

in January.

That's when our first Mr. and Mrs. Engles

podcast and The Life Happens podcast will

air.

So join us on those

other podcasts as well.

Thanks again for

listening, and have a fantastic day.

We'll see you tomorrow.