Story Teller or Story Seller?
I have a very good friend of mine who has a unique title on his business card. He is the Founder of his company. He is the CEO of his company. Neither of those titles appears on his business card. All he has is this: “Chief Story Teller” He leads a very successful creative agency. He is a marketing aficionado …
Read MoreMaintenance is Required
It is definitely that time of year – time for spring cleaning. Spring has sprung and everybody seems to be out in their yards busy as bees to get it looking good. Have you been out in your yard working hard to get it in shape after the dormancy of winter? There’s always a lot to do: lawns, shrubs, gardens, …
Read MoreGet Your Wow and Wonder Back
He was definitely afraid. There was no denying it. He seemed to have lost it and was loudly declaring how this was not what he wanted. It was all going to go bad very quickly and he wanted out. I couldn’t help but overhear everything he was saying. The whole front of the airplane knew of his plight. We couldn’t …
Read MoreThe Most Magical of Words
Do you remember the “magic words”? Think back to when you were a child, and if your parents were similar to mine, you were introduced to the “magic words”. These are the words that have a special power to them. They open locked doors and they transform hearts. There are only three of them, but the power they wield is …
Read MoreThe DEFs of Selling
Are you familiar with the ABCs of selling? OK class, repeat after me, “Always Be Closing”. Some of you just had a massive shiver go up your spine. Flashbacks to a bygone era of ‘salesmanship’, most iconically demonstrated in a certain scene involving Alec Baldwin in the movie Glengarry Glenross. The scene, which is painful to watch, has Baldwin attempting …
Read MoreBBQ Some Sacred Cow
Tis the season to barbeque. Throwing your favourite meat onto the grill with your favourite sauce or marinade is one of summer’s delicious traditions. Close your eyes and picture a perfectly marbled steak sizzling away to just the right temperature, smothered with a marvelously matched sauce and seasoning, savory smoke billowing lightly into the air, now breath in through your …
Read MoreTo Become We Must Overcome
From the get-go we are riveted to the action. It is fast-paced. It is intense. It is almost unbelievable – we have not seen anything like this before. It is terrifying to watch. One man chases another man through a high-rise construction site: the front-runner intent on getting away with his life, the pursuer intent on taking the life of …
Read MoreLove Works
He had personally spent the last minutes of life with over 300 people. He was with them as life left their bodies. If fact, he had spent weeks with many of them as they battled their maladies in hospice care relentlessly declining toward death. And now he sat across from Oprah talking about life and death. “Is there a common …
Read MoreLearn to Question Your Questions
“We spend an entire course to come up with one question.”, my student guide matter-of-factly stated. What? Did I just hear him correctly? You have got to be kidding me. You mean to tell me that you spend an entire university course to come up with one question?! Please help me understand. He began to explain to me the thinking …
Read MoreThe Spectrum of Change
“I don’t want to be nit-picky…”, he replied I had just asked him to tell me the areas for improvement he saw in his boss. I was in the midst of a 360 degree review of sorts with one of the CEOs I work with. I was interviewing each one of his executive team with 3 simple questions: What are …
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