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…
Just One Of Those Days
Last month my son Zack’s car broke down on the way to work. This was the first of a small avalanche of problems: He rescheduled all of his shoots for the next day and dropped his car off at the mechanic. He drove 30 miles to my house to borrow my car. The next morning, he woke up to…
You Already Know What To Do
Over the last few years, I’ve put on a few extra pounds that I’d like to lose. Despite my best efforts at exercising like a lunatic, I’ve learned that I cannot “outrun a Twinkie”. So I spent the last several months reading about different diet & exercise plans. I’ve read about Paleo, Primal, Keto and Vegan….
How Sales Taught Me To Face My Fears
On my 2nd day of work as “Technical Sales Guy” at the advertising agency, my boss and I arrived at our client’s office and were escorted into a huge boardroom full of VP’s who had flown in from all over the country for this meeting. When all 30 people turned to stare at us, I wanted to…