The other night I was watching TV and my wife, unfortunately, had the remote. Therefore I was forced to watch commercials. When I am in control, we only watch recored shows where I can fast forward past the commercials. A commercial came on for Crest White Teeth Strips*. There were two young pretty models who…
Why Sales Automation Isn’t Helping You Sell More
Several times a week, I receive mail from Comcast urging me to switch to Xfinity. Sometimes it’s a “special offer”. Some times it’s a postcard saying “60 Mbps” speed. Other times, it’s a “fake” personal letter from Comcast Business pitching more expensive Internet and phone service. Since I’ve lived here during the past 2 years,…
Why I Do Yoga
About 12 years ago, my good friend Craig was going though a world of shit. He was in a long-distance relationship with an ex-girlfriend who was insane. His estranged mother, who lived hundreds of miles away, would call him up while drunk to rip him apart over the phone. He was trying to land a…
Save Money By Driving An Old Car
Growing up, we had old cars because we didn’t have much money. I would jealously eyeball my neighbor’s shiny Buicks and Chevys thinking “Someday I’ll be rich and will have a new car like those!” I bought my first car when I was 25 years old. It was a Datsun hatchback. It had no radio,…
Presentations That Won’t Put Everyone to Sleep
Death by PowerPoint was one of the funniest phrases I’d ever heard – until I started experiencing it after taking a sales management job in a large corporation. Up until then, I had worked for startups and small businesses where we didn’t spend time in meetings listening as presenters droned on reading their terrible slides. We were too busy…
Why I Hire Weirdos
This post is not sugar-coated for political correctness or HR appropriateness. I work in the real world where prejudice, biases and unfair employment practices abound. Instead of pretending they don’t exist, let’s deal with them head on. I’ve built outstanding teams by following a few simple hiring principles: Hire weirdos. Hire people for their strengths. Build teams with diverse skills sets….
3 Big Rocks for Time Management
My approach to time management is to ruthlessly prioritize what’s important and do it first. I call this the 3 Big Rocks method. Being busy was my problem. It all started when I was running a multi-state team of 3 managers and about 15 reps for a startup ISP during the dotcom boom. The internet was taking off, everyone was starting…
Try Not To Lie
In high school I had a good friend, Seth. He was a character. He was wickedly funny but also extremely intelligent. He was artistic, thoughtful and ingenious. And he never lied. I learned this one day after Seth had played some prank behind our teacher’s back. When the teacher turned around he asked, “Seth, did you just do…
How (and Why) I Got My Monthly Expenses Really Low
For me to be able to afford to not work fulltime, having low monthly expenses was critical. For me to have peace of mind, it was critical. For me to save more, it was critical To improve my marriage, it was critical. To reduce stress, it was critical. I think you get the picture.
How To Never Be Surprised When Someone Quits
“I hate you and never want to talk to you again!” she yelled and then hung up on me. That, my friends, was how my first girlfriend blindsided me and broke my heart in high school (way back during the dark ages). I had no clue it was coming. We had spent time together that very…