9
2020How to Embrace Change
When a fellow speaker presents the audience with an “Aha” moment…my heart is smiling. And when I see another speaker in an embarrassing moment…I am blushing, too.Let me tell you about one of those blushing moments.
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2019Money and Happiness
We can only develop personal empathy for others when we personally identify with their pain. Whether from a sincere heart or not, one of Bill Clinton’s most appreciated comments was, “I feel your pain.” That short sentence resonated with millions of Americans. People hold their money back from others because they’ve forgotten what it felt like to be without. Generous giving is more about who…
21
2019Listening: The Successful Leader’s Magic Bullet
I still remember the night. It was in the early morning hours, probably around 3:00 a.m., in August 1974. I was involved in the Nashville record scene and had received word that Elvis was in town for one of his clandestine middle-of-the-night recording sessions. So I slipped by RCA Studio B and arranged to be there when Elvis ended the session. As he walked out,…
18
2019The Myth of the 40-Hour Work Week
In the 1930’s the United States government told us a lie. They told us that if we were working 40 hours per week…we were fully employed. Wow. That was interesting! Historically, a typical workweek included 12-hour days, six days a week. There are 168 hours in a week. I personally can tell you that you can work more than 40 of them. As a matter…
9
2019The 3 Stages of a Salesperson’s Career
An old sage once remarked, “A mind once stretched by a new idea will never return to its original dimension.” I don’t expect you to necessarily agree with every assumption, comment, or strategy I share. That’s okay. My simple hope is that you will find a few golden nuggets that will revolutionize your selling career. To begin, selling is about much more than getting appointments,…
13
2019People Buy Stuff from Likeable People
At its core, selling is communication and persuasion. To accomplish this, we must be likeable people. This means that you don’t have the luxury of bringing your problems to work with you. When you arrive at work, everything else goes away. You put on your game face. You focus on your customers and clients. Your only reason for existence is to serve…not to be served….
7
2019Mentor Characteristics Enhance Great Leadership
Which type of leader are you? As I discussed in my book, ReTooled & ReFueled, there are essentially two leadership models. The first is power-driven leadership. This is where a person with power leads through fear and intimidation. At its worst, this is a slave master who abuses a slave. More often today, it’s a boss who is more focused on his own career than…
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2019Counterintuitive…Become a Long-term Success
FACT: Successful Leadership is a most counterintuitive commodity. It was in late 1981, the country still in a deep economic recession, that I first noticed a forlorn-looking office building on Nashville’s world famous Music Row. Our business was still young, and so was I—just 29. Money was tight. But, at a glance, I saw what could be done with this property. So, I inquired and…
2
2018Long-Term Success in Leadership…It’s All So Counterintuitive
The earmark of contemporary Western culture is an unmitigated drive for instant gratification. That’s why we drive cars we can’t afford with money we don’t have to impress people at traffic lights we don’t know. We routinely see CEOs running up stock prices by doing things that will hurt their companies in the long-term. But there are, as there always have been, a relatively small…
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2018Counterintuitive…Go for the Long-term…Do What You Don’t Want to Do
FACT: Successful Leadership is a most counterintuitive commodity. I first noticed a forlorn-looking office building on Nashville’s world famous Music Row in late 1981 with our country still deep in an economic recession. Our business was still young, and so was I—just 29. Money was tight. But, at a glance, I saw what could be done with this property. So, I inquired and found that…