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What Have You Dismissed Prematurely?
Have you ever heard about ambergris? I only recently discovered it… this odd, ocean-drifting substance that begins its life deep inside a sperm whale’s digestive system. Not exactly the origin story you’d expect for something perfumers covet. It forms as the whale protects itself from what it can’t digest, then eventually releases it back into…
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Free must always be perceived as valuable to your customers
I say “yes” to tons of free stuff, because I consider it research in my area of expertise. I want to look at what other service professionals are doing. What types of content are they using to generate leads? What’s their call to action at the end of the lead generation piece? Is the piece…
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Not everyone sees what you see
You have been blessed with a particular way of interpreting the world. You may be able with confidence and speed to break down choices, drawing on past experiences. You might be an exceptional storyteller or possess the ability to mix whatever resources you have on hand with a helping of imagination and a dose of…
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If you found a cure for a deadly disease, would you hide it in your basement?
On January 18, 2013, my friend Michael Katz, Blue Penguin founder and Chief Penguin, who specializes in coaching small professional service firms and solos in word-of-mouth marketing shared a post called: Give The Gift of You – which you can read in its entirety here. At the time, I was struggling with thinking that potential…
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Trust your unique expertise – you have everything you need
Feeling that we need more – more education, more information, more time, more money, more training, more experience – is a lie we tell ourselves to stay stuck because, believe it or not, this is a comfortable spot. It’s what we know. What we don’t know is what’s scary to us so we never venture…
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The psychology of suffering…
“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in contemplating what it really means to be awake, adding: “Only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life.” That’s what legendary philosopher and founding father of modern psychology William James (January…
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Sprinkles Are For Winners
I love this advertisement. Every time I see it I always laugh BUT it also serves as a gentle reminder that I should not just settle for good if I could do better! The vast majority of us today rarely achieve better than mediocrity. We would all love to be wildly successful yet 80% of…
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Playing Chopsticks…When You Should be Playing Mozart…
We all know the maxim: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” We tend to describe ourselves very “hammer-like”…very vanilla…not too much to us…I’m just an x or y…not much talent needed to do what I do…I work at so so so…I work in…
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A Castle of Memories
build me a castle of memories just to have somewhere to go… What a beautiful line. (Someone with an online handle sardonicynic posted this on the site archiveofourown.org – a site offering a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanfiction – fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, film, etc.)…
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Feel Like a Failure? Great Schooling, Big Ambition yet still can’t make Life Work?
One of my readers sent me an email which got me thinking about the frustrations of many individuals who have done EVERYTHING RIGHT yet still feel as if their life isn’t working. Yes, they got the degree or degrees in some cases. Yes they got the job with the great salary. Yes they are comfortable…
Clarity BEFORE Execution. Structure BEFORE Speed
High-stakes decisions deserve disciplined thinking
You don’t need to move faster.
You need to reduce unnecessary risk.
When your decision affects income, reputation, or stability,
pause with structure before you act.
Giselle Hudson | Pre-Decision Advisory for Leaders Under Pressure 