BLArticle®
The personal touch of a blog; the informative touch of an article.
The Three Levels of Greed
Let’s begin by getting past the fifth word in the title of this BLArticle®, which, on some level, may have offended you. I’m referring to the word “greed.” Believe it or not, I happen to agree with the words of Gordon Gecko from Wall Street: “Greed is good.” Ask...
What Would You Attempt To Do…
The mind is an amazing mechanism, but it sure can fool you. Left unchecked, it can convince you of all sorts of things. When the body is injured, the mind can convince you you’re just fine. When you hear something that goes bump in the night, the...
The Biggest Question Never Asked
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a schoolteacher. Many people look at professional speakers and corporate trainers as teachers, but there is one critical difference between these two professions. That difference involves the students, and how to...
The Scourge of Productivity
“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar Let me set the scene for you… You’re sitting at your computer, and you’re focused and working hard. Perhaps it’s a proposal you’re working on, a blog you’re...
“This” Makes All The Difference
Some time ago, I was reminiscing about some of my favorite commercials, and a number of them came to mind. As a former Xerox employee, I was always a fan of many of the Xerox commercials. There was the Brother Dominic “Monks” commercial series, and a long series of...
Going To Your Off-Hand
I have always enjoyed the game of basketball. Not blessed with great height, I fell in love with the position of point guard. The position allowed me to relay plays being sent in by my coaches, and manage the flow of the game. It was the perfect...
Three Things
The Three Elements of a Successful Presentation When I worked for Xerox, I spent five days teaching trainers and speakers how to present information in a powerful manner. Those five days gave me time to work on many of the critical elements of speaking, including...
The Breakup
Part Two – Let It Go Part one of this BLArticle® series outlined the pain and anger that goes along with a bad breakup, whether it be from a friend, a spouse, a manager, or a company. Assigning full blame to someone else and telling story after story describing the...
The Breakup
Part One – The 90-10 Rule In business, as well as in life, there are certain cycles most of us go through. There is the thrill of being hired for a new job, and the joy of being wanted and appreciated. But part of the cycle is “breaking up” and moving from one job...
The Big Jinx… And Other Fallacies
I’m a superstitious guy. I won’t eat certain foods on certain days, I won’t hit a snooze bar, and I have a lucky tie I wear when delivering keynotes. If you hang around me long enough, you’ll hear me tell you why I do what I do. I’ll try to find logical reasons for...
You Snooze, You Lose
They say opposites attract, and each morning, it’s on display in my house when the alarm goes off. My wife, Ronni, loves the snooze bar. She seems to look forward to not just tapping it or hitting it; when she goes for the snooze bar, she smacks it! It’s almost a...
The Schmuck Running In The Rain
When I was younger, I used to love to run. I started by running 10-kilometer races, and then I graduated to 10-milers, moved on to half marathons, and before I knew it, I was running marathons. People would ask me: “What’s it like training for a marathon?” I’d...
Is It The Audience Or Is It Me?
Audiences come in all shapes, sizes… and moods. Some audiences are loud, some are pensive, and others are, well, dead. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of stepping in front of a room, opening with one of your best stories, analogies, or jokes, and watching it...
A Tale of Two Stories
Story #1… Last week, the travel Gods really stuck it to me good. I showed up at O’Hare airport at 6:00 pm, and I found out that my 7:00 pm flight back to National Airport was running thirty minutes late. This was due to thunderstorm activity. When I...
It’s All About The Effort
In 1986, along with four other trainers at Xerox, I was assigned to teach the new basic training program at Xerox called L87. I had no idea why it was given that name. After a dreadfully short period of time trying to learn it, I found myself up in front of a room...
Don’t Hit That Button!
Have you ever stopped and counted how many emails you get in a day? It’s hard to count because we are often checking when we wake up, checking while we’re drinking our coffee, checking when we get to our office, checking when we’re waiting around for others,...
I’ll Try vs. I Will
When you ask someone to do something, one of two answers are usually heard: “I’ll try” or “I will.” At first glance, these two responses sound a lot alike. After all, aren’t we taught to always try, or try real hard or try our best? Yes, it seems pretty easy to...
The Pig Farmer and the Intellectual
There once was a woman who grew up on a farm in South Dakota. Her family raised pigs. She worked hard, and the farm was successful, but she longed for something better in her life. So she left the farm, went off to pursue a higher education, graduated, and moved to...
Understanding Your Character
Part 2 - Who Are You? Who is your favorite actor? I’ve always been a fan of Daniel Day-Lewis. Watch him in a movie and I can assure you, he’ll make you believe in whatever character he is playing. Coincidently, he’s famous for the intensity in which he studies each...
Understanding Your Character
Part 1 - Making People Believe Although I’ve now spent over thirty years in front of audiences, it wasn’t until my junior year in high school when I first took to the stage. I was fortunate to have an amazing teacher and director, Rob Ramoy, who one day stopped me in...
“Rob is an expert not only in the art of influence,
but also in human nature.”
~Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Trust Works!