In today’s always on, interconnected world, it’s pretty easy for us to ask for (and get) feedback from our customers. Ask (or sometimes you don’t even have to ask) and ye shall receive. But what do we do with that feedback? What’s the point of all that information? Lots of times, the customers that take the time to leave us …

We’ve all heard the claim that people in modern society have got the attention span of a goldfish. While that claim’s been debunked, attention is still one of our most valuable resources, and it tends to be in very short supply. We don’t have a lot of time for it, and everyone and everything wants a piece of it. The …

Vires acquirit eundo. (We gather strength as we go.) Virgil, from Aeneid All too often we let things get to us. I can’t do it. It’s too hard. I’m just not cut out for this. I’m gonna do something else. I give up. We succumb to the pressure and move on to something easier. We reason that everybody else does …

Every business has their own set of FAQs, frequently asked questions; even ours. The most important questions, for us anyway, is do we know the answers. If our job is to help our customers (and that’s really the job of every businessperson), we need to know the answers before they even ask the questions. Hell, we should know all the …

From a young age we’ve been taught that humans have five senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, and smell. The reality is that we all use many more “senses” to figure out what’s going on in our world, especially when we’re interacting with other people. We all give off and receive subtle cues when we’re communicating, and astute listeners can pick …

I’m reading an amazing (and quite easy to digest) book right now called “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday. It’s for anyone who’s feeling stuck. It reminds us that we should focus on the things that we can control, and let everything else pass us by. A few quick lines …

People typically spend their time and energy on what’s right in front of them, what’s in their face, what’s on the radar. Most of us don’t think (too much) about someone when we’re not interacting with them. As a survival instinct, having our mind work in this way has served our species quite well throughout the ages. If our ancestors …

Too many business owners are of the opinion that they should be giving the customer exactly what they’re paying for, no more, no less. They’re strongly opposed to giving any more than they’re contractually obligated to provide. You want it, you got it. But is this the best way to build a business? Stop and think about our own experiences. …

We’ve all got to deal with emergencies. When we’re running a business, they come up on a regular basis, and we get stressed out when they happen, in our face, demanding attention, stealing our time, using up valuable brain power. The question is, how important are they, really? Will this “emergency” really have any impact on our business in a …

There comes a time when we’ve got to move on from some of our current clients. This usually happens when we realize that we’re diverging from them on one (or more) of these points: Skills: Our client needs something from us that we’re not really good at doing. Temperament: Our client doesn’t treat us with the respect that we deserve. …