Recently, I was wrapping up a Zoom call with a business owner when he asked me for some advice about a next-day sales team meeting. He said he was looking for a way to jazz things up a little at the top of the meeting, to get his team’s brains warmed up and moving. I… Continue Reading
The one thing that will set you apart from the crowd
Between social media, emails, texts, and Zoom meetings, we have never been more connected than we are today. By that same token, we have never been more distracted. In the battle for focus, many of us are losing – and it’s no wonder. The smartest minds in Silicon Valley are, in fact, being paid big… Continue Reading
We are the company we keep
In my previous life as a traveling keynote speaker and corporate trainer, I got to meet a lot of interesting people. Often, I would find myself going out to dinner with the people who hired me, along with their top sales teams. It always provided a nice opportunity to speak a little more candidly with… Continue Reading
Review the Game Film
I always said I never wanted to be the guy who said things like “back in the old days”, but bear with me here. Back in the old days, if your favourite hockey team didn’t play a very good first period, you knew the coaching staff would spend intermission reviewing plays from the last 20… Continue Reading
What’s the score?
Imagine you missed the beginning of the game. Your favourite team is playing, but you were out at dinner or otherwise tied up. You walk in the door, turn on the TV, and… what? What’s the very first thing you look at? The score. Of course. In the world of sports, this is a no-brainer…. Continue Reading
Playing to Your Strengths
I want to rewind the tape a little to my very first corporate gig. About 25 years ago, I was running a workshop in Toronto on how to improve your recruiting process. At the end of one of the sessions, I was approached by a business consultant who asked if I would be open to… Continue Reading
The Power of Being Radically Honest
Early on in the pandemic, one of my clients came to me with an opportunity to bring some of my material to a larger national group that he was involved in. He told me the group was made up of top industrial painting companies across the United States, and they met twice a month via… Continue Reading
Owning Your Calendar
A lot of people like the idea of focus time, but they can’t wrap their heads around where to find it in their already-crammed calendars. And I understand where their trepidation comes from, because the truth is that their current calendars probably are crammed. This is where a ‘Stop Doing At All Costs’ list comes… Continue Reading
Time spent vs time invested
How do you spend your average day? When I make the decision to take on a new client, finding out the answer to this question is one of my first priorities. I need to know if you’re spending all your time tackling the day-to-day, or if you’re actually setting aside time to focus on ‘Future… Continue Reading
Where are we going?: The first call
I moved to an invite- and referral-only business model a few years ago, and it was one of the hardest professional decisions I’ve ever had to make. It meant saying no to people that I might have known for a long time, but with whom I wasn’t a ‘perfect fit.’ Sure, it may have been… Continue Reading