"THE MOST BASIC AND POWERFUL WAY TO CONNECT TO ANOTHER PERSON IS TO LISTEN. JUST LISTEN. PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE EVER GIVE EACH OTHER IS OUR ATTENTION." - Rachel Naomi Remen |Clinical Professor at UCSF

In a world of endless distractions, it becomes easy to spread ourselves too thin.  We resort to things like “multi-tasking” to help us cope with the many demands that are placed on us.  While multi-tasking can be an effective tool in certain circumstances, it becomes a destructive one when it comes to interpersonal communication. Ask yourself, “how does it feel when someone is emailing while talking to you?”  Most would say disrespectful.  Here is a tougher question, “how would your customers feel?”  

The bottom line is, multi-tasking while communicating sends a message of disrespect.  In a study done and doctors and bedside manners, it was found that doctors who give...

Last year, after giving a keynote to a group of mortgage professionals in Las Vegas, I was approached by a gentlemen asking if I would be on his podcast. That gentleman was Phil Treadwell, the creator of the Mortgage Marketing Expert Podcast (www.MortgageMarketingExpert.com). It took me almost a year, but I finally was home long enough to record one with him. 

I am beyond impressed with Phil's professionalism and deep understanding of modern digital content marketing. In less than one year, he has launched 33 episodes and garnered over 50,000 downloads! I highly recommend following all of his work as he has gathered the best of the best to share massive value that is immediately implementable.

In our conversation, I was able to cover a lot of topics that I am passionate about. We talked about the challenges with a lot of sales managers and what they can do to be more effective. We dove into my recent TEDx Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5mUoqKFf60) and the...

in·flu·ence (inflo oəәns)

N: The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

“The true measure of leadership is influence…nothing more, nothing less.”

– John Maxwell

Imagine a leader giving a great speech that earned a standing ovation or a leader running an amazing meeting with rave reviews. Now imagine that after the speech and meeting no one changed their behavior, no one did anything different and everything went back to exactly how it was before. Would you say that the speech or meeting resulted in success? The bottom line is that leadership is about influencing behavior change therefore; there can be no leadership without influence. Influence is the how of leadership, which requires leaders to have high-level skills in the art and science of influence.

Managers also use influence, of course, because only a fraction of managerial work can actually be...

If Justin Timberlake can “bring sexy back,” then I’m “BRINGING SALES BACK!”

It’s time that we return to the roots of what we really are – salespeople. That’s right, I said it, salespeople. Not Loan Officers, Real Estate Consultants, Account Supervisors, or Business Development Specialists. No matter what we call ourselves, no matter what our title says, at the end of the day, we are salespeople. And it’s time that we bring the pride and professionalism back to the lost and ever so beautiful art of selling.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk about the first challenge in getting

back to “Sales Professionalism.” If I asked you for the first words that come to mind when I say “Car Salesperson,” what would you say? If you are like several thousand other people I have asked, you probably thought of words like, “sleazy, pushy, dishonest,” and you might have even said “con...

The path to greatness is paved one learning at a time

“Acorns were good until bread was found”
~ Francis Bacon

I don’t know you personally, but I bet we’d get along great.  I say that because if you are reading this article, we must be kindred spirits.    At some point in our conversation, we’d realize that we’re both sales professionals on the same journey of continual improvement which has become a way of life for us.

As sale professionals we have been asked to believe in something.  To wholeheartedly buy into a product or a service that was created to add value to people’s lives and businesses.  We are then asked to share that belief and passion with everyone we know, and more often, with people we don’t know.  We are asked to put our beliefs on the line for critique, for judgment as to whether THEY (the prospect) feel it is valuable.  Thus, we are also kindred spirits because day in and...

A man yelled frantically into the phone, “My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!”

“Is this her first child?” the doctor asked.

“No!” the man shouted, “This is her husband!”

I can’t hold it in anymore, I just need to say it straight out: most of us suck at communicating! But yet many of us (me included) think that we are great at it. You’re going to have to forgive my bluntness, but I needed a way to catch your attention amongst all the articles and information written about this abused subject.

Communication is a part of almost every human interaction, which is why we keep hearing that we need to be better communicators. But let me ask you a question, “How well do you communicate?” Most people respond with some sort of positive assessment of their communication while being somewhat open for more learning. Here is another question for you, “What would your significant other,...