Relevant Leadership Blog

If You Don’t Express It, You Can’t Expect It

Last week I was helping my friend Sydne Jacques prepare her speech that she is giving this week. One of the lines in her speech that stuck out to me was, “If you don’t express it, you can’t expect it” I love the way Sydne explained it. She said: “Often in our lives both at home and at work expectations change and we don’t talk about it. We need to learn to talk about expectations because I’m convinced 98% of the time that you are sad, mad or frustrated it’s because you expected somebody to do something but they either

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At The End of The Day – What Matters Most?

In my personal reading I came across some information about some beliefs of Ancient Egyptians. I found it all very interesting, but I was struck by their belief about what happens when you die. The Ancient Egyptians had a belief that when you died you were met at the gates of heaven and asked two questions. Your answers determined whether you were let into heaven or not. The two questions are these: 1. Did you experience pure joy in your life? 2. Did your life bring joy to others? At the end of the day, the answers to those two

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Here’s An Answer You Probably Don’t Want To Hear

  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

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Choose Your Words Wisely

Have you ever thought about the connotations of the words you use? Words have an innate power. Words sell and words repel. Words lead and words impede. Words heal and words kill. When I lived in Portugal and learned to speak Portuguese, the leader or our mission made a rule that we couldn’t use the word “Dificil” which means difficult. Instead he had us use the word “desefiador” which means challenging. At the time I didn’t think much about it but now I realize the genius in it. When things are difficult you feel defeated, but a challenge is something

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Our World Needs More Optimists

Those who believe in positive results think the world looks bright.  They see the good in things and not just the bad. They carry a smile on their face instead of a frown. Author John Maxwell said, “A pessimist is a person who regardless of the present is disappointed in the future.” An optimist then is a person who regardless of the present is excited about the future. The world is full of pessimists. We are conditioned to be negative and cynical. I find it interesting that very few people would admit to being negative. They use the excuse that

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The Two Most Important Days of Your Life

  I’m excited to share my new book – The Two Most Important Days of Your Life. The book – The Two Most Important Days of Your Life is a fable based on a true story. Years ago, my friend Wes Blatter received an unexpected phone call that quickly put life into perspective. On the other end of the line was a devastated and emotional mother. She greeted Wes, and said, “I don’t know if you remember me or my family but ten years ago you were my son Danny’s Scout Master.” She paused momentarily and then said, “The reason

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The Best in the World

  Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were a kid? Was it an astronaut, a baseball player, a fireman, chef, writer, actor, lawyer or a doctor? Regardless of what profession you chose, there is a common element to childhood dreams: Every child dreams of being “The Best in the World.” Think about it – you didn’t dream about being a casual, better than average basketball player. You dreamed about being in the NBA and winning a world championship. You didn’t dream about being a writer whose book never got published. You dreamed of writing the best-selling

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Change Someone’s Day

This weekend I am speaking in Napa, CA – wine country. I came across this cool story of an anonymous woman who is giving bottles of wine to couples every weekend.  –  https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/millionaire-secretly-giving-bottles-wine-unsuspecting-diners-san/story?id=28869732   “I am madly in love with this community. I’m so thankful to live here,” she told ABC News. “I just wanted to do something that married my love of this wine country with the community and make people smile and do something fun.” This random act of kindness is a cool way that she is making a surprising and positive difference in the lives of others. It

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Live Each Day as Your First Last Day

I still have two more posts on my series of Presentation Tips From Shark Tank but I just returned from an amazing trip to The Philippines and wanted to share a great insight I learned there. I spoke to several thousand entrepreneurs and one of the other speakers at the conference was a man named Joey Reyes. He has been a sought after speaker and trainer in The Philippines for 15+ years. One of the pieces of advice that Joey shared that I thought was powerful was the advice to Live Each Day as Your First Last Day. Let me

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At The End of The Day – What Matters Most

This week in my personal reading I came across some information about some beliefs of Ancient Egyptians. I found it all very interesting but I was struck by their belief about what happens when you die. The Ancient Egyptians had a belief that when you died you were met at the gates of heaven and asked two questions. Your answers determined whether you were let into heaven or not. The two questions are these: 1. -Did you experience pure joy in your life? 2. -Did your life bring joy to others? At the end of the day, the answer to

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