Whenever I am in Manhattan with a few extra hours, I love to visit The Strand (it's the East Coast version of Powell's for me). It's one of those bookstores that seems to embody what a bookstore should be, especially in the basement: overcrowded, a touch chaotic, and full of perfectly pleasant employees who are happy to help...but you know they'd prefer that everybody left so they could get back to reading. On a recent visit I picked up Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist. I recognized his name from a quote that I found (see below). It's a great example of a bathroom book: perfect for 5-minute reads or as a companion for a bathtub soak. … [Read more...]
3 Unexpected Abilities that Will Separate the Top Sales Performers
Salespeople tend to be an infinitely practical lot. Over two decades of coaching and training has made me realize that usually sales professional want to know the fastest ways to be successful, and what they should do to learn those skills. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!" is a common refrain. If you're always looking for ways to improve your game, there's no reason to change the habit. What does have to change is what you are learning. In the past, salespeople would look for the "magic bullet". They wanted to learn that one sales close, objection-handling statement, or discovery question that would create instant results. … [Read more...]
Make Something
Just before the new year I got to revisit my past. My friend Rob and I went to a ska show, something that I spent a lot of time doing, oh, about 20 years ago. Mustard Plug, a stalwart Michigan band from back in the day, was on their 25th-Anniversay tour and stopped in Chicago. I spent a Wednesday night staying out too late, jumping around, and pretending to be a lot younger than I really am. On the way there we were talking about how much technology is available today for kids to record music. I remember renting an 8-track deck and microphones to record demos in the basement of my apartment. These days you can just plug a mic into … [Read more...]
Coming Up with Something New
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Done is the New Perfect
What does it take for you to get a project out the door? At what point are you ready to let it out into the world? I think we often hold onto projects for too long. It's a form of fear. We think that what we're making isn't good enough and that if we just give it a little more attention then it will be really good. The Goldilocks Amount of Time: Just Right So it's a balancing act. You don't want to put garbage into the world. And you don't want to hold on forever. You have to find the middle ground. I had a powerful experience with this when I wrote my second book. The first one, of course, took me a long time and I labored … [Read more...]
Monday Morning Mash-Up – Creating Doesn’t Have to be Fancy
Last week I finished post-production on the audiobook version of Networking in the 21st Century. I recorded and edited it on my own with a laptop, a microphone, and a corner of the living room turned into a mini sound booth. It will be released in a few weeks, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. It doesn't have all of the polish of a recording done in an expensive studio, but it comes pretty close. The process took me back to recording DIY demos with my old band. We'd take whomever's basement we could find that had absent (or relaxed) neighbors, throw in some mics and a 4-track recorder, and go to town. If only we had the … [Read more...]