Building rapport today is manipulative and it simply doesn’t work because you think it’s something to check off in the process of getting the sale, and your prospect or customer can smell the insincerity a mile away. Just to make sure you and I are on the same page, building rapport is finding something outside of the transaction that you, the salesman, have in common with your prospect. Building rapport is a squirrelly term that’s hard to grasp and can feel forced on your side because it’s something you’re supposed to do.

And just like the much overused and under delivered word “service”, building rapport has got to go. I can make this easier for you by recommending that you create a connection instead. This is how you really engage a person, not a prospect or a customer, but another human being doing their best to get through the day. I don’t care what business you’re in, that true purpose of your business is to create and...

Did I get your attention? Awesome, now let me explain what I mean. Setting goals are exciting. When you’re deciding on what you’re capable of and what you want in your life, it’s pretty easy to see why you’re so stoked. You’re thinking possibility. You’re thinking winner. You’re thinking jackpot. And you should.

Right on the other side of all that excitement though are boredom, monotony, and doubt. When it happens to you, don’t think it’s a bad thing because these feelings happen to everyone. Which is a great thing because if everyone goes through these feelings and some can still achieve amazing things, so can you. You’ll encounter these feelings because the decision to achieve a goal happens in an instant while the actual achieving of the goal can take years. You don’t achieve your goals with these giant breakthrough events; you achieve them with small, seemingly insignificant actions taken over time that multiply...

“YES! I made the sale!!!” can be heard all around the globe. The truth of the matter is you can never make a sale. It’s impossible. The fact is you can’t sell anything to anyone. I know this sounds harsh but keep an open mind, and I promise this will make sense.

The only one that completes the sale is the customer. They’re the one that decides to move forward or to walk away. The entire concept of selling is, with your words and actions, to create a buying atmosphere where the customer is more likely to say, “Yes.” 

The first secret to getting great at sales is to internalize the great truth that selling has nothing to do with the transaction and everything to do with the relationship. The primary purpose of any business is to create and keep a customer. You don’t achieve that goal by completing transactions; you do that by building relationships. People don’t do business with companies; they do business with...

Everybody dreams about having more in their lives, and most wait for it to happen to them while some plan for it but are waiting for the perfect time to do the work to see their dream come to pass. Fewer still actually achieve their goals by using one simple secret to getting everything they want.

I see it time and time again where a person decides on a goal, makes a plan, and then waits for the perfect time to do the big work they need to do to realize their dream. An example of this issue is a shop owner that has a pile of payables sitting on his or her desk just waiting to be entered into their accounting software. Every day they look at that growing pile and beat themselves up about when they can set aside the time to get the bills all entered. All the while this looming task silently steals their joy and causes them to doubt themselves and their abilities.

The simple secret to achieving anything you set your heart and mind to is called “The Rule of 5.”...

“Worry is a small thing that casts a big shadow” is an old Swedish proverb that’s so true. When you worry about something, it seems harmless enough until you think through what’s really going on and how it impacts your business. The truth is you’ll never achieve the success you desire in your business if you spend ANY part of your day worrying.

Let’s dissect worry and what it does to you. You start the cycle off by thinking about something that could go wrong. You’re staring at every possible problem you can think of. This leads to fear which leads to indecision, causing you to either freeze or run from the idea altogether. This keeps you stuck in your current situation and eventually falling behind as others pass you by. Before you know it, you’ve gone from generating a good living to not being able to pay your bills. And it all started with that little nagging thought in your head called worry.

The truth is worry...

You want more from your life and that is fantastic! You’ll never feel more alive and engaged in the moment than when you’re pushing yourself to grow. Lessons are a natural part of that growth and are there to help you BE more in order to HAVE more. The funny this is, no one is exempt from these lessons, especially those that are trying to just get by and fly under life’s radar. See, I believe that each and every one of us is put on this earth to travel a lifelong path of learning and enlightenment, helping those around us cope and grow along the way.

Life is awesome because it keeps teaching you the same lesson until you finally get it. When you learn that lesson and grow, there is another lesson on the other side of this one that helps you become more. I recently came across a wonderful concept on these lessons of life that I’d like to share and expound on a bit this morning. This concept is called, “The feather, the...

Blame is such an insidious word that has destroyed more dreams and relationships than I could possibly count.

Blame is all about finding fault. It’s placing responsibility externally for an event or situation in your life on someone or some circumstance.

Blame is destructive when it’s pointed inward because it beats you up, weakens your resolve, damages your confidence, and makes you feel bad.

Blame is avoiding responsibility, dooming you to repeat this savage cycle over and over again.

Blame is all about finding fault to protect your ego.

Blame is robbing you of the life you want to have.

Blame focuses on the problem and places the source of that problem externally. What this means is that for things to improve something over which you have NO control must change for things to get better.

Blame is a word and an action that you must remove from your life with surgical precision.

Blame is dead! Long live Blame! Take responsibility instead.

Responsibility...

If you’re starting your day feeling frustrated, nervous, or fearful, you’re not alone. Eighteen percent of the US population (40 million people) are affected by anxiety according to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. If you ignore these feelings, they will undermine your confidence and weaken you to the point of paralyzing any forward movement you’d like to see in your life ultimately requiring professional help to overcome them.  The good news is you can kick these feelings to the curb while they’re small with three simple steps.

1. Stop staring at the problem! When you’re feeling frustrated, anxious, or fearful, it’s because you’re staring at the problem you have in your life. The thing you need to understand is that problems feed on attention. The more attention you give it, the bigger your problem gets. The secret to success when dealing with a problem is that every one of them comes with an opportunity hidden somewhere...

I hate the word can’t. I didn’t like it when my parents used it, when my teachers used it, when my kids use it, and I don’t like it when you use it. Can’t is a limiting word, it makes your world smaller. It slams the door shut to opportunities right in front of you.

Just because you haven’t been able to achieve a goal or accomplish something doesn’t mean it can’t be done, it means you either aren’t fully committed to your goal or you don’t know how to do it. There’s an enormous difference between “can’t” and “I don’t know how”. One takes potential off the table while the other shows where you need to grow.

To go from “I can’t”  to “I did it!”, follow these four simple steps.

1. Go all in. Nelson Mandela said, “One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not...

Who ever told you life was supposed to be easy? Or fair? And yet easy and easier are the main focus of many a day like easy is an entitlement. Looking for the easy way out, wanting to live on easy street, and easy come; easy go. Here’s the thing though, life was never meant to be easy. 

Life is supposed to challenge, teach, and help us to become better. It’s only when we get better at something through growth that a task becomes easier. I guarantee you that anything you see someone doing that looks easy wasn’t when they started. People that look like they’re living on easy street busted their butt to improve themselves, help others, and become successful. But here’s the thing, no one ever truly makes it. There are stories all around us of people from the outside looking in that have it all; that they’ve arrived at success and truly made it. 

You can think of people that seemed to have the world by the scruff and yet fell apart after...