Blog & Vlog

Are You Standing on Acres of Diamonds?

Are You Standing on Acres of Diamonds?

What are you overlooking in your backyard? I think you maybe trust me some and value my opinion a little or you would not be reading my blog posts. If that is true, then pay attention, because this first post of 2018 could be a life changer or major life enhancer for...

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How to Be Welcome Anywhere

How to Be Welcome Anywhere

  “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people to be interested in you.” Dale Carnegie wrote that in Part Two, Chapter 1 of How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936. In a...

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A Secret to Success – Perspective

A Secret to Success – Perspective

  “If there is one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view, and see things from his angle as well as your own.” This is what Dale Carnegie wrote in Chapter 3 of How to Win Friends and Influence People written in 1936. He...

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Approbation and Praise

Approbation and Praise

  Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” That is Dale Carnegie’s advice in chapter 2 of his book How to Win Friends and Influence People written in 1936. Don’t you love how people worded things decades ago? I don’t remember the word...

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Good News: People are Meeting and Talking

Good News: People are Meeting and Talking

  I am in cafés and coffee shops a lot. I think I am noticing a change of behavior by many other people there. For a few years it seemed that many, or most, people were staring at their phones or tablets and not talking with the people next to them. Now I am...

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You Are On Stage, And Somebody is Watching

You Are On Stage, And Somebody is Watching

  I was sitting by the window in a restaurant on Main Street in Louisville. There was an open space between two cars in front of the restaurant. A woman stopped next to it in an Escalade. She was going to parallel park. I was so happy. Watching people park is...

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Have You Heard Crickets After Sending an Email?

Have You Heard Crickets After Sending an Email?

  Have you sent an email to someone you know, and they didn’t respond? As the saying goes, you hit Send, and crickets. You checked the email address to be sure it’s correct. You looked in the Sent Folder to be sure it took flight.  Days passed, and still no...

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How to Trim the Lard and Write with Brevity

How to Trim the Lard and Write with Brevity

  Conciseness is not my superpower. Sometimes I use four sentences instead of one. I also have a talent for saying the same thing twice, just with slightly different words.  I’ll just repeat the same thing. There, I did it again. Maybe you occasionally fluff up...

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It’s a Phone, Not a Boom Box

It’s a Phone, Not a Boom Box

  Let’s reminisce about Boom Boxes! Did you have one? Do you remember how a person would carry it on his shoulder, blasting sound into his own ears and into all those ears around him within a city block? Or some would set them up and broadcast music loud enough...

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Boomers Phone Manners Rant

Boomers Phone Manners Rant

  Here’s the problem. You’re in a restaurant or the waiting room at your doctor’s office, or concentrating on your workout at the gym, or waiting to board a plane. And then it happens. Someone near you begins talking on their phone as if they're sitting alone at...

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How to Not Be an Empty Suit

How to Not Be an Empty Suit

I was talking with the president of a company about his sales team. He said that he doesn’t send empty suits out to talk with his customers. First, he only hires engineers to be his sales representatives. And then they devote a year to the business before they are...

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Have You Filled Your Pinata?

Have You Filled Your Pinata?

Listen Here Good Times Recently I attended a double nickel birthday party. It was a boomer blast. The birthday girl’s husband went all out to make 55 a festive and memorable event. We enjoyed a chimenea fire, storytelling, live music by some of the guests, delicious...

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A List Beats Kicking Yourself in the Rear

A List Beats Kicking Yourself in the Rear

Have you wanted to kick yourself  because you forgot to pack something? When I began my career in the 70’s, my boss taught me the value of a list. His example was simple. He told about packing for a trip and forgetting his “good” shoes.  He discovered it the next...

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How to Create a Lasting Memory for Your Guest

How to Create a Lasting Memory for Your Guest

In the eighties, I had seven people working for me selling construction equipment to dealers. I would travel with each one in their territory. I learned more from them than they did from me. I have one particular memory of that time. Paul represented us in Western New...

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Evaluate Your Presentation … For $7.00

Evaluate Your Presentation … For $7.00

Being evaluated is part of a Toastmasters International club meeting. Each speaker is assigned an evaluator who completes a form in a manual and delivers a 3 ½ minute talk about the speaker’s effort. The evaluators are offering an opinion, based upon their knowledge...

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Say My Name

Say My Name

“Remember that a man’s name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”  - Dale Carnegie Have you had the good feeling of running into someone, and they address you by your name, even though you’ve not seen them in quite awhile or you only met...

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Stand Up – Speak Up – Shut Up

Stand Up – Speak Up – Shut Up

Please…stop talking. Have you been in an audience listening to a speaker who doesn’t know he is finished? You are done listening, but the speaker is not done talking. Another timing situation is that the speaker and his or her content are still engaging. You might...

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