The Internet shows growth.

I wrote this 5 years ago. It's amazing how we can grow so much in such a short period of time.

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In my current position I work with a sales team on improving closing percentages and lowering cancellations during the 10 day rescission period. The sales team consists of men and women age 19 to 45, with the majority of them being 20-25. They have a marketing department that directly markets individuals, and invites those who are ‘qualified’, to a sales presentation. In sales, qualifications vary service to service and product to product. Generally, a ‘qualified’ prospect must be between the ages of 28 and 70, be working or gainfully retired and have a significant other that they bring with them to the presentation. This particular sales team is fielding 80-120 qualified tours every week. All the sales team has to do is show up for work and the potential sale is waiting to be closed. Would you believe a lot of them complain about their job? I just laugh and think of how many car salespeople would beg for this job given today’s economic state.

When I started this position the team was closing 1 in 8 qualified prospects. Those are dismal numbers in this industry. I took to the sales floor to see what was going wrong. Over the next week I observed, researched and learned everything I could. I couldn’t help but notice the age difference between the prospects and most of the sales team. During my second week, I worked the sales floor, closing 4 out of 11. Now that may seem like an improvement, but it was still barely the industry standard of 1 in 3. I still had a lot of work to do and hadn’t even begun thinking about how to close the age gap.

I was moving to a new condo and was packing. I came across some family photos from my High School and University days. There was one of me during a debating tournament shaking hands with the director of the tournament. I was surrounded by deans, principals, city officials and other people of apparent high morale standard. In my private time, I was your typical 18 year old; drinking on weekends, smoking the odd joint and chasing girls. Somehow I had won these people over. Normally I avoided these types of people like the plague. However, in this picture I looked so innocent, so trustworthy and if a picture really says a thousand words, this one would give a speech on my strong morale fiber and constant altruistic deeds.

The next week I wore a sweater vest every single day. I looked like a preparatory school boy, the honest and trustworthy boy from the picture. I closed 9 out of 11 that week. I equate this to humanity’s subconscious desire to seek out truth and purity. My next contract is in the financial education field. I can only hope that In Vest They Trust.

Lessons from lesser leaders.

We've all been on some sort of a team.  Sports teams, project teams, sales teams, customer service teams; W5H clubs, committees, event planners etc.

All of the teams you have been a part of had someone who was the leader.  Appointed or not, there most definitely was an individual who steered the ship so to speak, in an effort to produce the team's desired and/or mandated common goal.
Leaders, like ice cream, have many flavours.  Unlike ice cream, some leader flavours are so terrible, no one could possibly enjoy it.

I worked as a consultant for a travel business for 20 months, probably the hardest 20 months of my professional life.  Why?  I had to spend every single day watching the leaders of this company make the same mistakes over and over.  Beyond that, I then had to sit in weekly meetings where they complained that nothing was changing.   A common theme in my writing is the simple definition regarding insanity.  These leaders were the epitome of that definition.  Despite my impeccable record of turning companies around, running successful businesses and getting teams to succeed - my suggestions for success were ignored.   Since last year, I really wondered what these gentlemen were paying me for and what my value was to them.  Something didn't sit right.

After countless months of late paychecks, consumer complaints and employee morale issues I decided it was time to leave.  Then, within days of this epiphany I had a stroke. 
Today is almost 4 months later and I no longer work for the company.  I'm working on other awesome projects, smile more and I'm much healthier and happier.

The lesson I learned from these lesser leaders and hope you learn here;

When a company or a person continuously asks for your help with problems but then ignores your solutions.  Something isn't right.  When you are receiving what people call, 'all the information' and after reviewing the information sense those same people might have ulterior motives, they probably do.  When something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. 

I'm always looking for new projects, please feel free to email me.

If Money Doesn't Move - Nothing Happened.

Too often new, bright eyed entrepreneurs are overly excited by a potential gain or a 'great meeting' they have had with a 'major player'.  To make matters worse, a couple of good meetings and many people stop planning meetings, they start to 'follow up' and wait for the process to happen.  What happens when nothing happens?  Nothing happens.


The number one thing green young entrepreneurs need to embrace and understand is the age old saying, 'money talks and bullshit walks'.  Nothing has happened if money has not changed hands.  You need remember this everyday and consider it in every decision.  Intentions are great, dreams have their place, money is the only truth in business.

You think you’ve got problems!?

Of course you do.  We allhave our own.  Some problems might stareat you with ugliness and contempt.  Thetruth is, this is the perfect time to create something beautiful.

Years ago, somebody was lucky enough to be born when anyonebefore them used their brain to write down the clever tidbit, ‘Every problem isan opportunity.’   As true as this is, itsounds like garbage due to its overuse.

I write on many different topics here and sometimes I have close friends or colleagueswho say things like, ‘I think it’s great that you write about things even youneed to improve on’.  Ha!  I have never really thought about it that way,but it is indeed true.  Well, today’spost will be something anyone who has ever met me knows to be my forte; Findingsolutions for problems.  Below are the thingsI have come to do naturally in the event of a problem. 

1. A foolproof way to make your problems seeminsignificant and remove the panic from your emotions?  OPEN YOUR EYES.  Get off of your computer and walk around yourcity.  Good spots include: Your downtowncore, your downtown bus depot or your dodgy neighborhoods.  You’ll notice people who are quite obviouslystruggling.  If they are alive andsurviving, so can you.   Removing panicfrom the situation is a great first step for turning problems into solutions.  Remember, this is not the end of the world.
2.  Now that you’re calm, consider how the problem occurred.  There is nothing you can do now, to changewhat just happened.  There is no way youcan alter the past.  Instead of dwellingon what you could have done, immediately vow to not allow the sequence ofevents that occurred to happen again. Have tough calls to make in order for that to happen?  Make them! No one ever got to the top by being a wimp.
3. Assign a dollar value to the problem.  Most business related problems have a dollaramount attached to them.  If you could pusha button and get money, how much would you need to solve this one?  Is your problem a $100 problem?  $1,000 problem?  $10,000 problem?  There are two ways to look at the problemonce you have completed this exercise.  Ifit’s a smaller number, brush it off, fix it over the next few days and live tofight again.   If the number is on thelarger end of the spectrum, go back to step one and put your life into perspective.  There are people in our world who have muchgreater challenges.  Be honest with thosearound you and push forward.  The onlytime you are at risk of failing because of an unexpected problem is when you donothing, freeze up or start dealing from defense.  Always push forward, remember you are betteroff than most and find creative ways to solve what’s happening.  Feel better? If you don’t, you didn’t do it right. 

When confronted with a problem, breathe, minimizethe problem in your head and fix it. Should you have the luxury of a mentor to talk to you could also; Stop,collaborate and listen.