The Sublime, the Tacky and the Stupid
I spent last Christmas in Vegas.  Well, actually I was in Death Valley for the holiday itself, but the majority of my Yuletide was spent in Las Vegas.  I love Las Vegas – what a glittery, tacky, marvelous explosion of excess in the middle of the desert!  It’s so over the top, it’s fabulous.
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Are You Happy?
The eternal search for happiness – we want it, but we seem wired more for dissatisfaction.  We get something we think will make us happy and soon we’re looking for the next thing.  Somehow human achievement and happiness don’t seem to fit together.  If I’m always working to be more, to grow, how can I just be happy?
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E-Mail – We’re Drowning in It
In 2005 nearly half a million e-mails landed in in-boxes each SECOND.  Dealing with e-mail has added one to two hours of work to the average worker’s day.  I get feedback from middle managers who don’t have time for their people because upper management is constantly bombarding them with e-mail requests.  Sound familiar? 
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Why Your New Year's Resolutions Won't Stick
Some people won’t even make New Year’s resolutions anymore. Not because they don’t want to improve their lives, but because they’ve tried and failed so many times, they’ve given up. It’s not the resolution maker who’s the failure, it’s the methodology we’ve been using to try and bring about radical change in our lives.
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What Buying A Car Taught Me About Sales
Last month, my little red Celica gave up the ghost. I loved that car, but after 178,000 miles in four years, it was time to get a new vehicle. Since it had been such a great car, I decided to simply get a new one. I walked into the Toyota dealership ready to buy. It was then that my nightmare began.
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Stop Making the Same Mistakes

We’ve all done it - made the same mistake more than once. Maybe it’s the mistake of falling for the same type of person (who’s bad for you) over and over or maybe it’s failing to lose weight over and over or failing to close sale after sale. Here’s a process to help you stop the cycle: Step One - Accept responsibility. Admit that the one common factor in all these repeated mistakes is you.
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Killing the Buddha
It had to happen sooner or later – I had to cross over the halfway point of my life.  I turned 40 this year.  And I’ll be honest – I was dreading it.  It seems so OLD!  My life HALF over – GASP! But now that I’m here – it’s really strange – I’m perfectly calm and happy.  Something amazing has happened – I let go of all those other people’s dreams and started embracing mine.
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Why Customer Service is so Bad
We all frequent a lot of businesses; most have so-so customer service at best.  (But not if you hear their advertising! Customer service is always outstanding!)  We’ve become used to clerks who seem put out if they actually have to help us, and we even find ourselves feeling bad if we have to ask for their help!  Customer service has become customer guilt trip.    Sure, we all know there are tough customers – but the majority are nice folks who just want the products or services each company is supposed to provide. 
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Being Your Best When You’re Feeling Your Worst
A great question I’ve been asked recently by several of my seminar attendees is “How do you do it?  How can you produce that incredible energy on demand?  Don’t you ever have a bad day?
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Stop Being a Victim
The foundation for living a great life rests on one vital principle: You are responsible.  Yep, that’s right – you are responsible.  Unhappy in your job?  You took the job, you choose to remain in the job, and you are choosing to be miserable about it.  Overweight?  No one force fed you all that food.  In debt?  Guess who spent more money then they could afford?  In a bad relationship?  You keep showing up.
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Networking for Dummies
All of us would like to add new people to our lives – either to expand our circle of friends or to increase our customer base.  But most people don’t know how to go about this very well. 
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Have You Lost the Fire?
Did you start the New Year on fire, brimming with enthusiasm for all the lofty goals you were going to accomplish, only to already be back in the doldrums?
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Have you been asleep at the steering wheel?
It's easy for successful businesses to coast -to keep doing what they've always been doing. But the world is changing at a breakneck pace and you can't continue to be successful if you stay the same.

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What Did You Learn in 2003?
This has been my favorite conversation starter lately. Think about it for a minute - what life lesson did you learn last year?

I learned to stop trying to make people into more than they are. This has been a tough lesson for me. I realized many of my relationships were with people who were never going to be happy or were never going to get closer to me or were never going to be anything other than exactly what they were. Click here to read the complete article

Being the Change
Ghandi said "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." And he was absolutely right. But how many of us really believe him? Click here to read the complete article

Do Motivational Speeches Work?
It's often hard to tell if a speech or training session really had an impact for a company. In these economic times, return on investment is extremely important. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Sprint asked me to come back to talk to their people again. The Fayetteville call center had their highest sales month immediately after I came in and spoke to their teams. YAHOO! Click here to read the complete article

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Many of you know I have to do a major "out of my comfort zone" thing every year. And I challenge all of you to do the same (at least promise me you won't go to the SAME beach again this year! There's a whole world out there - go see something new!) Click here to read the complete article

Lessons from Life (and Death)
Life is good at teaching us lessons - keeping us on our toes when things get too easy. Click here to read the complete article

Random Acts
Almost everyone is familiar with the idea of committing a Random Act of Kindness - an action you take for someone unasked and for which you expect nothing in return. It's often done anonymously. Click here to read the complete article

Searching For Ourselves
" To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." - E.E. Cummings  
I believe no truer words were ever spoken.
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The Complications of Motivation
What do we usually try to motivate others with? Well, with what motivates us, of course! If you love the acquisition of wealth, you think everyone else does too. If you are a chocoholic, you can't imagine NOT being motivated by a king size Snickers bar. In fact, you might regard those who are not motivated by chocolate as members of an alien species or at least clinically insane. Click here to read the complete article

Why We Need Hard Times
They were the best of times, they were the worst of times...here we are - Americans in the summer of 2002 - a little more patriotic than we were last summer, maybe a little more aware of the brevity of life, but many of us are struggling with tough economic times. Budget crises, company closings - things are a little scary right now. And being scared can be a good thing - being scared can wake us up!
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Keeping Rejection in Its Place
Ouch – we all hate it when we’re rejected. Fear of rejection stops salespeople from asking for the sale. It stops us from reaching out to new friends and associates. It stops families from coming together. It even stops us from pursuing our dreams. Click here to read the complete article

Another Year Wiser? (Or Just Older?)
Another year of your precious, precious life just went by. Three hundred and sixty five days you will never have again. Before you get too far into another year, take a minute and reflect. What did you learn this year?
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Coping With September 11
The Manhattan skyline filled with smoke and debris as the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed is an image few of us will soon forget.

Feelings of shock, fear, anger and helplessness filled all of us. Americans were walking around with a dazed, hollow expression – unable to comprehend the enormity of what had happened. As human beings, we look for answers. Why did some live while others died? Why didn’t we see this coming? Why us? Often when terrible things happen to good and innocent people there simply are no answers.
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Getting Results From Your Sales People
We all know the economy is a bit weak right now. And if you want to lower morale, just turn on the news – layoffs everywhere, stocks plunging, companies closing. Yikes! People are scared. And where there’s fear, there can be no enthusiasm.

It’s during times like these that leaders are made. Almost anyone can produce results when the economy’s booming, but it takes a true leader to generate numbers when things are tough. Are you ready to lead?
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Jump Start Your Life Part II (or Confessions of a Motivational Speaker)
Many of you have asked me about my get-out-of-my-comfort-zone trip to St. Kitts. I did go and it was fabulous, although there were some scary moments.

Traveling solo can be lonely (especially when you go to such a beautiful and romantic place), but the rewards are tremendous. Since I was alone, I spoke to everyone – making lots of contacts and new friends. I ate meals by myself which gave me a great chance to talk to the chef, the wait staff, the restaurant manager, and many of my fellow diners. I discovered that everyone has a fascinating story if you only take the time to listen. I met people from all over the world and had some crazy adventures!  Click here to read the complete article

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
America is the land of the free and the home of the brave – or so we like to say. But just how free and how brave are you?In his play Secret of Freedom, Archibald McNish writes, “The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom – courage.” It requires great bravery to be free. Look at the founders of this country – they could have paid their taxes, kept quiet, and enjoyed the security of British rule. But they wanted to be truly free, to make their own decisions about how their country would be run and how their money would be spent. The attainment of that freedom required tremendous courage – a group of colonists took on one of the world’s greatest superpowers. Click here to read the complete article

Is Anybody Listening?
I have a confession to make. I am a terrible listener. And you know what? I’ll bet you are, too. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we try hard. We think we’re being understanding, maybe even helpful. But we’re blowing it!A terrific book I read recently is The Lost Art of Listening, by Michael P. Nichols, Ph.D. He gives some excellent examples of common mistakes we make in listening. Click here to read the complete article

Jump Start Your Life (or Confessions of a Motivational Speaker)
If you’re anything like me, I get bored easily. I slide into routine because it’s easy and then I get comfortable. When I get too comfortable, I get bored. When I get bored, I get the blues. I feel like life is passing me by. I focus on what I don’t have rather than celebrating all I do have. I (GASP) can even have a big, fat pity party for myself.
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Leaders Fire Up the Troops
Employees start their jobs on fire. Nobody takes a job they hate - every single person working for you today was excited in the beginning. (If you are hiring people who aren't excited in the interview - STOP! A positive attitude and lots of fire should be at the top of your list of required attributes.) Assuming you're hiring positive people, what's happening to them?
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What are You Afraid Of?
Fear keeps our lives small. You only grow by conquering your fear. If you had only a year to live, would you change anything? Would you keep working at the same job? Spend time with the same people? Are there places you’ve always dreamed of seeing you would visit? Click here to read the complete article

Networking Like You Mean It
Want to build your network? Here are some quick tips:
Show up!  Attend at least two networking events a month. Make sure the people there are those you need to meet, otherwise you’re wasting time...
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The Dreaded New Year's Resolution
Less than half of all Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Few people (less than 5%) have written goals for their lives. We all seem to agree on the importance of planning and goal setting, but actually doing it for ourselves is a completely different matter. Click here to read the complete article

Judging A Book By Its Cover
Did you know that in a mere 30 seconds people seeing you for the first time are making assumptions about things like your educational level, your trustworthiness, your potential for success, your social standing, and even your sense of humor?
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Quest for Fire
When Denise Ryan tells people she’s a motivational speaker, one of the first thing they will say is “Oh yeah? Well, motivate me.”The truth is motivational speakers don’t motivate you – you motivate yourself. Motivation comes from within.  
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