On Sunday we drove 10 hours from Arizona back to Utah and on the drive my wife and I read a book that asked us to do an exercise where we wrote the five characteristics we want our kids to develop. This is the list we came up with. I’d love to see the list you would have.
A couple of months ago I was working with a company who was using Carol Dweck’s book Mindset as a group study. Then last week a friend asked me if I had ever read the book Mindset? And yesterday while recording a podcast interview my guest talked about the importance of a growth mindset and so I figured the universe was trying to tell me to pull out this book that I read years ago and revisit it. Mindset is a great book that I highly recommend and in it Dr. Dweck explains that there are five facets to
What is the most important ingredient to achieve any goal? As we begin a new year all of us have goals, whether that is to build a business, to lose weight, to be, do or have anything in our life; I believe that the most important ingredient to achieve any goal is COMMITMENT. On my office wall I have a mantra that I believe to be true: “When you are interested you do what is convenient. When you are committed you do whatever it takes.” A high level of commitment is really what is required to achieve major goals in your
A couple of days ago I had a conversation with a speaker who said “I’m really good on stage, but I’m not getting booked for speeches as much as I would like to, do you have any suggestions?” My answer is one that he probably didn’t want to hear, but it’s the truth. I said “Your problem is one of two things. Either 1 – you’re not as good as you think you are on the stage or 2 – you’re not marketing yourself the way you need to or as effectively as you need to.” That
We all get negative feedback at times. That can come by way of a performance review, a critic, a well-meaning friend, rejection or through other tough experiences. We will all face mistakes, failures, and naysayers at some point – so the question isn’t how do we avoid negative feedback, but rather what do we do with it. What drove me to write this post was the survey feedback I received from a particular conference a couple of years ago. I was the closing keynote speaker on leadership to a state association of CPAs. I felt the conference went well
This week my twelve year old daughter put together a neighborhood mini library. She got the approval of the Home Owners Association. Found the right spot for the library. Solicited book donations and had a launch party. It was awesome watching all the neighborhood kids grabbing books and sitting and reading together. I am a big fan of reading. I know that as an author that sounds trite, but reading has allowed me to continue to grow and learn. There are some cliché sayings thrown around like: Leaders are Readers and Earners are Learners. But these clichés
Sidney Howard said, “One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you have to give up to get it.” Anything great requires sacrifice. The recognition of the need for sacrifice and the willingness to act on it is a quality of the successful. I recently met a new friend that was looking to make a big change in his career. To get hime where he wanted to go, he felt he needed coaching and so he decided to sell his beloved mountain bike to invest in this coaching, a big sacrifice for him. He knew that making a
Last week I spoke at a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. It was a great event but one of the highlights for me was to get to be with three of my favorite people. David Jobe, Paul Hineman, and Jim Crystal. These three have become some of my best friends and strongest advocates but I think they represent to me what Influence really looks like. Each are involved in different capacities in the food industry. They have build successful careers, stellar reputations and meaningful relationships. As I’ve gotten to know each of them, their generosity has amazed me. They are
When I was 8 years old, my brother (age 10) and I started a paper route. We had to get up everyday of the year, without exceptions, at 5 am and deliver around 100 newspapers. Rain, snow, and exhaustion didn’t matter- the papers had to be delivered. So we did it everyday for four years. Having this responsibility at a young age taught me how to work hard, be consistent and follow through even when I didn’t feel like it. My mom recently sent me this letter she found from one of our customers and it reminded me
The four-time undefeated MMA champion now MMA trainer, Frank Shamrock, has developed a system for training would-be fighters. I’m not a huge MMA fan – but I think there is a lot of merit to his system. The system is called “+, -, =”. Shamrock’s theory is that in order to be the best, you need to work with someone better than you, someone equal to you and someone whom you can teach. Shamrock believes this builds the best fighters. We certainly don’t have to be an MMA fighter to benefit from this system. The same can be applied to
