“The reason most people don’t recognize an opportunity when they meet it is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like Hard Work.” Carlos had a small training and consulting firm that was doing all right. He had 6 consultants on staff and another 4–5 that were part-timers, but he hadn’t seen growth…
“A man must shape himself to a new mark directly [once] the old one goes into the ground.” ~Ernest Shackleton I love the story of Ernest Shackleton. An Antarctic explorer who never made it to the South Pole. He returned from a failed quest only to see someone else make it to the pole 3…
As the US is waiting to get our shots and the accompanying immunity, we might also be thinking about what the future holds for our life and business. While I don’t have a clear picture of what’s coming, I do know that we’re not going back; we’re going forward. If you reopen your office, you’re…
How many times a day is your work interrupted by questions or problems brought to you by your employees or clients? Take a minute to think about it, how many people walk into your office, or call you, or send you a text, email, or Slack message that interrupts your flow, that you take time to…
Leading your business is going to be hard. You spend half your vacation on the computer or phone and still return to a huge pile of work. People turn in lousy work; some even steal from you, others refuse to pay you. You earn client’s trust, and then they get disappointed by your team. You…
So, we’ve been through some things the last year or so, right? I had a boss once who told us, “Never let a good crisis go to waste!” He knew that there are always opportunities in a crisis. We’ve been navigating a priceless crisis the last year or so! Do we have some room to…
Here’s a list of things that I’m moving off my plate focus on making progress on my biggest goals: I’m checking the news only once a day, for 30 minutes. I’m saying no to networking requests. I love meeting people, but I need the calendar space. I’m saying no to “coffee,” even with “business friends.”…
As our economy starts to emerge from its pandemic slumber, I’ve been encouraging my clients to get more systematic and take more action to build their business development pipeline. I worked with a cohort to get started with outreach, and they saw success; that’s why I built the Online Lead Generation and Engagement course. But…
Now I know I’m not usually in your inbox on a Wednesday! But yesterday, I talked about the importance of daily action and I had to come back today, so you knew that I was practicing what I preach! You see, it’s a huge mistake to make business development this “thing” that you do. Like…
On Saturday, I told you the story about going to 27 new business meetings in a row without closing a single client. That was a painful process, it was a lot of rejection, and the reason those appointments didn’t close was primarily that I wasn’t executing well. It sucked. But during that same time, other…