When Jesse Itzler was building his private jet company he had a jumbo jet sized problem. Only wealthy people will spend $250,000.00 to purchase a share of a private jet, and Jesse didn’t know any wealthy people. So he thought, “Where do rich people like to hang out?” It was then he discovered the Ted […]
I’m sitting in the fanciest restaurant in my small town and spreading chilled chicken liver pâté and fig jam onto a toasted French baguette. The businessman I’m meeting for the first time is pouring me a second glass of wine from the second $100 bottle. I ignore his bellowing voice that is making the other […]
A client I’ve worked with for the past year sends me a text message, “James, I want to catch up on something. Please give me a call.” My heart drops down into my stomach. I’ve know this conversation would be coming for a long time. Is it finally time? I immediately call him back hoping […]
Are you tired of losing your best employees to your competitors? Is your turnover rising and you can’t figure out what to do? Do your departments fight amongst themselves and have an us versus them mentality? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions then you need to form an employee experience […]
While working at Best Buy I spent most of my time coaching, developing, and mentoring the top performing sales people and hardly any time with my bottom performing team members. Why? I played favorites, and I am proud of it. Do you play favorites? Many leaders spend the majority of their development and coaching time […]
I didn’t graduate college. I enrolled twice at two different schools, but never finished the first semester either time. College just wasn’t for me. Why? I was learning so much more at my job in retail than I was in the classroom. Today I will argue why I think recruiters should be focusing on hiring […]
Take a look in the mirror If you want to become a strong leader you must slow down enough to pause and look in the mirror. It’s a good idea for you to schedule time on your calendar at least once per month for this. For those of you that are hard charging achiever types […]
It took you years, possibly decades to get to the top of your field. And now that you’ve reached the peak you look to your left and to your right and discover… It can be quite lonely at the top. It’s difficult to figure out who you can trust because it seems like whenever you […]
13 years ago and only weeks after receiving an extraordinary annual performance review and hosting CEO Mike Jeffries and his entourage in my store to receive the Best In Region award, I was pulled into an office with my district manager and an anonymous HR manager I’d never met on speaker phone. I was told […]
“I don’t think any other retail company in the world could do what I’m going to propose to you. It’s simple. It won’t cost us anything. And I believe it would just work magic, absolute magic on our customers, and our sales would escalate, and I think we’d just shoot past our Kmart friends in […]