The NFL draft just started, but for 254 young men, it happened long ago because it was what they did without, recovered from, and pushed through that got them to the position of where they are today. While the masses played, a select few practiced and perfected their craft- paying today’s admission of sacrifice for a ride on tomorrow’s abundance. Some needed a ticket…

 After watching back-to-back, lopsided losses, it’s safe to say that my 9-year-old son’s basketball team has plenty of room for improvement. From the opening tip off, the track race from one end of the court to the other began as my son’s team helplessly tried to keep up with their competitor. As I watched the game, I began to smirk-not because my son’s team was…

This day didn’t seem much different than the other 196 school days. I mindlessly walked my 5 year old daughter to class, stooped down to kiss her goodbye and turned to walk away until one of her classmates called out to me, “Look what I drew!” Toothlessly grinning from ear to ear, she proudly showed me her drawing- a drawing that only the artist could interpret its rendition. Giggling as I marveled at her masterpiece, with Ooo’s and Ah’s, Lacy proceeded to grab a clean…

It’s generally a pretty good indication, that if you’re read your Miranda Rights, your legal troubles may be just beginning. Your rights advise you that you have the choice to either remain silent or if you choose to speak, anything you say can and will be used against you. A confession inevitably leads to a prosecution-the question is what are you confessing…

Pancakes must have a low heat in order to cook evenly. If the fire is too hot, the outside may look golden, but the inside is still raw.

Learning the art of selling takes time-create your sales career evenly by learning everything about your product-as well as your competitors’ and be interested in others in order to be interesting to them.

When…

When’s the last time you got into a fight? If you work in the automotive industry, chances are you’re reading this in between rounds. In sales, every day we are enveloped in a triple-threat cage match-mentally beaten, battered, and bruised, only the strong survive to fight another day. Not only are we faced with the negative stigmas of our industry, but we also have…

Have you ever noticed when you only have 7 days left in the month, everything seems to matter? As the sands of the hourglass mark the passing of the remaining 168 hours, it is at that point that you miraculously can account for every one of your Ups, Demos, Write-ups, Sales, and Deliveries. First in, last to leave; fewer lunches; no more huddles-nothing…

Depending on your perspective of the month,  you either have 6 more or 6 days left. It is your choice to either take action and focus on the making the most of your opportunities or instead you can choose to stand around, in the ring of mediocrity, and explain to others what did, should, or could've happened the previous 20 days.…

Mary Kay Ash said, “There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.” Today, you are standing in the hallway of Life; one hand is pulling the door of yesteryear,…

You did it-and you know you did it. You not only let yourself down-you let your family and friends down. Just think of how much you’ve let down all of the people who love you, trust you, and rely on you. You denied any wrongdoing to anyone who would listen until the cries of innocence became silenced. It took only seconds to be singled out in the lineup-the…

There are many people in this world who would rather do time than to update the Apps on their tablet or smartphone. The conspiracy theorist in many of us feel if we elect to hit the Update All button, life as we know it will all come crashing down…and they couldn’t be more right. We may be dogmatic in working to protect our…

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Zig Ziglar passed away today after a short bout of pneumonia. Physically he may have departed, yet his spirit will endure for generations to come.  No matter where we were spiritually, personally, or professionally, we could always be assured that Zig had an encouraging word for us-the appropriate quotes coming just when we needed them most. Steve…

Threatened by boll weevils and parched land, George Washington Carver set out to discover another crop that could be planted in the place of cotton; the lowly peanut was all he could come up with. Heeding his advice, peanuts were planted, yet no one knew what to do with the peanuts once they were harvested. Faced with the quandary, Carver smashed, cracked, and peeled…

Author James Allen wrote, “Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him;” although the essay was written in 1902, it remains a timeless proverb 110 years later. If circumstances could be grown in a garden, it would be harvested on the blacktop. In sales, we are inundated with circumstances-both personally and…

Some people seem to have all of the luck, don’t they?  We read and hear stories of those lucky people who caught their big break because they happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seemingly overnight, “mis” no longer preceded their…

Corporations as well as high profile individuals live and die by the messages they are sending. From a shocking scandal to a new fragrance, it is the job of a Pr (Public Relations) firm to spray the right message to its intended audience. In short, a great Pr firm monitors the heartbeat of its targeted audience. Sadly, salespeople’s careers are cut short every day…

1. You have no sense of urgency.

Hint: If tomorrows always come, what use is today? There are no tomorrows in the car business. Once your customers leave, you must believe they will never come back. You have one shot to earn their business; your customers may have seen other shows, but they haven’t seen yours. Give them…

Are you in good hands? Sounds so cliche, but it stands to question, whose hands are you in anyway? Is your month cradled in the hands of Lady Luck-gambling on a good month; or are you fixated on grabbing the reigns and taking control of your career?  Your mom was right, there is safety in numbers. Safeguard your month by insuring it with more than enough…

If you put 50 salespeople in a room, we could go on for hours sharing stories of the worst customers we’ve ever encountered. These stories range from the cheapskate multi-millionaire, you know, the guy who owns half the town, yet blew out because he had to pay the Doc Fee, to the customer who brought his 3rd cousin-twice removed…