The Commitment Conspiracy

I didn’t exactly have your typical junior high and high school experience. I got my first job playing organ in a church when I was 13. While most people took it easy on the weekends, my weekends became “days at the office.” Monday nights were piano lessons with a professor at a nearby college. The…

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Why You Should Quit

I think quitting is underrated. As I look back over my business and life, there are a lot of things that I probably should have quit far sooner than I did: I should have quit technology consulting the minute I realized that selling time for money had some real drawbacks. I should have closed some…

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The Truth About Selling Yourself

I spend a lot of time helping independent professionals, who work with clients, make their businesses better. For some, self-image is a huge issue. For others, figuring out how to effectively articulate their value is the biggest challenge. Still others have no strategy in place to generate qualified leads who might become clients. The most…

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Stop Talking and Take This Instead

I find people fascinating. Not long ago, I was waiting at a stoplight and I saw a guy walking down the road who looked like he should have been on stage with the Grateful Dead. I look at people like that and I have this natural interest to know the story behind those people. On…

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Escaping Ordinary to Achieve Freedom

When I was in elementary school, I always pictured the principal’s office to be this dangerous, dark and scary place where people went in but never came out. I was really scared of the principal. I don’t even remember if I ever actually visited his office. And that only allowed the picture in my mind…

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The Most Important Choice

I still remember the feeling in my stomach when I saw the grade I had gotten. The details are a little bit fuzzy now, but I’m pretty sure it was in the B- range. There I was, sitting in 7th or 8th grade, feeling my world crash down around me. All of a sudden, I…

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How to Get the Weight Off Your Shoulders

I’ve spent a lot of my life living out other people’s dreams. I didn’t do it on purpose. Instead, it’s a habit I developed at an early age that got embedded very, very deeply. Growing up, I was from the outside looking in, pretty much a perfect child. I got straight A’s, I never got…

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The #1 Cornerstone of Success

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life looking for something “better.” When I was a musician, I was “looking” for something better in the business world. When I was in the business world, I was “looking” for something better in the marketing world. In each subject area, I’d work really hard at the…

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How to Get Clients the Right Way

In a recent subscriber survey I conducted at ClientsSuck.net, 56.8% of the service providers surveyed cited “how to get clients” as the #1 challenge they face in their business. 34.7% of them said that the lack of “how to do it” marketing skill was the primary obstacle holding them back from success. Today, I’m going…

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The Power of Habits

Just a minute before I sat down to write this, I downed (probably in record time) a tall glass of green juice. We’re talking spinach, parsley, cucumber and a hint of apple. I spent most of my life doing anything and everything in my power to avoid foods that were green. So it’s pretty funny…

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Are You Using Up Your Life in Service of Your Business?

As a professional service provider, I’m guessing that you enjoy pretty good profit margins in your business. I know that, for me, past some small overhead in the form of technology infrastructure, and some marketing expenses, my service business is virtually all profit. So pretty much everything I make, I keep. In a situation like…

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