When most people think (or talk) about listening, they go directly to the actual act of listening in conversations between individuals — and they’re right we all need to be better relational listeners. In fact, I’d argue it’s the most underdeveloped skill we possess, and I could write multiple columns and do several podcast episodes about it — and still not convince people they needed to work on enhancing their listening skills.

But today, I’d like to direct your attention to a different form of listening. Today’s column is all about social listening. Over the past several months, I’ve heard this term used in a variety of places in different contexts, but I didn’t fully understanding the meaning — so, I started a quest to learn more about “social listening,” what it is, and how I can use it in my business and everyday life.

So, let’s dive into the most intriguing things I’ve learned about...

How Block Timing Can Help You Get More Done

It's no surprise that time management is a hot topic right now. Most of us feel like we don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done, and it seems like there will never be enough hours to complete our daily to-do’s again. 

But all this worry surrounding how little time there is available each day leads some people to spend more time on their tasks than they need — and for most people, this perpetual anxiety and overthinking means they do an average job, at best.

How can you manage your time better? One strategy to tackle time management systematically is with block timing! Block timing lets you give yourself chunks of focused work-time, so you can get through each task efficiently, without sacrificing the quality of your work or getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work left undone.

What is block timing, and how can it help me get more done in a day?

A question I am frequently asked by my clients is,...

Relationship Selling: Developing New Business and Engaging Prospects

Most industries, including ours, are relationship based — but if you're a relationship-driven salesperson, you understand the challenges that exist in building new relationships, especially over the past 15+ months. You also know how important relationships are for your success.  

However, the new hybrid work model that is being widely adapted around the world creates a new set of challenges. The question for today's column is this: 

"How do we build new relationships when our prospects are embracing hybrid work?"

Before we dive into the answer to our question, let's make sure we understand relationship selling. According to an article published by LinkedIn, relationship selling refers to the sales technique that focuses on the interaction between the buyer and the salesperson, rather than the price or details of the product.

But what really is relationship based selling? In essence, the...

Why having a Mentor is Essential to your Career

Mentoring is a relationship between someone who has knowledge, skill, and experience in a particular area (the mentor) — and someone who wants to learn and grow in that particular area (the mentee). 

The word "mentor" comes from the Greek word for "advisor." A mentor can be anyone: a family member, personal friend, or colleague… you might not even know that person yet! 

The benefits of having a mentor are tremendous and ongoing, because they provide advice, connections, and support when you need it the most. Mentors help with career planning, teach you how to network effectively or negotiate work conditions, and provide timely emotional support when business (and life, in general) gets difficult. 

What is a mentor and why should you have one

A mentor provides guidance, support, and inspiration to help you reach your personal and professional goals. Without the consistent help of experienced, influential...

The Biggest Hiring Mistake
Why changing the way you hire is an important growth strategy for your organization 

We’re in the middle of an economic downturn! We all know this, and we’ve all been impacted in one way or another by the current state of our economy. Companies are laying off employees and downsizing, and I’m over here writing a column about The Biggest Hiring Mistake you’re making right now. A bit off base? 

Perhaps at first glance, but we are not going to be in this cycle forever and as a business owner, leader, or hiring manager — it’s more important now than ever before that you hire the right talent at the right time for your company’s growing and ever-changing needs. 

I’ve spent countless hours over the past several months working with and coaching a lot of people that have been displaced due to the current economic environment. Some of them were employed with the same company for years, decades even, to...

Understanding and Preventing Burnout
Where to start when it comes to stopping burnout in your life

Each and every one of us are going through something right now. We're all experiencing everything that life is throwing at us a little bit differently. 

Some of us are dealing with kids going back to school, in person or virtually, or maybe a combination of both.  There are those of us that are trying to figure out return-to-work strategies, if we’re even going back to the office at all. Some families are trying to deal with both adults working from home at the same time and deciding what the long-term work life balance looks like.

Some of us are trying to determine how to grow our businesses and thrive in crazy economic times, and I could go on and on, but you get the point — life has dealt us an unexpected hand of craziness and challenges right now. Our current circumstances create stress and anxiety for all of us, and all of these things and other, unspoken...

Habits To Propel You To The Success You Want 

As a high performance coach, I talk about habits with my clients during each and every coaching session. We discuss the importance of habits, how to build them, and which ones are important for them personally. Embracing positive change and developing the right habits to move your life and career forward is a founding principal of high performance.

According to best-selling author and founder of the High Performance Institute, Brendon Burchard:

“The right habits have the ability to help you achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being no matter your age, career, strengths or personality.”

Developing good habits takes time and effort. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia indicates that within psychology, the term “habit” itself refers to a process whereby context or circumstances prompt action automatically, through activation of mental context-action association learned through prior performance. In fact,...

The Most Powerful Sales Tool You Need to Start Using Today!

Sales have changed — forever! Read that again. 

Sales have changed permanently and forever. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at a few facts.

Cold calling is ineffective, if not dead completely. In fact, the success rate of true cold calls is less than 2%, and the success rate of cold emails is less than 3% — so simply put, only 2-3 people out of 100 will actually respond to these methods. And that does not guarantee they’ll actually engage beyond that, much less convert to a sale.

You’re also no longer allowed to simply walk into a building with a stack of catalogs and business cards, going door-to-door passing them out to get the contact info of a buyer. From now on, you’ll have to have an appointment to even get in the building. Always. And to add to all of that — there’s a very high probability that the decision-maker will not be in the office, but working...

In-Person Events Are Back, Now What? 

It’s been a long time coming, but in-person events are finally back! For some people, it’s been over 15 months since they’ve been able to go to an event, meet up with friends, connect with new people, and network.  Although it’s been great to meet people virtually and stretch some new social muscles I didn’t know I had from a distance, there is just something special seeing people face-to-face. As an extrovert and somewhat serial networker, I have sincerely missed these activities, and I’m super excited they are back!

The return of these events means the return of networking, and while not everyone is a fan of networking, it’s a critical activity to grow your business, find a new job, and develop meaningful relationships in business. In fact, according to a recent article published by Apollo Technical, “80% of professionals find networking essential to their career success, and almost...

Is the Lunch-N-Learn Dead?

One of the most coveted meetings to get with an A&D Firm has always been a Lunch-N-Learn. To get on the calendar with the major firms, you have to schedule these events way in advance — sometimes starting in January, to ensure you get your spot. These important meetings historically gave you the opportunity to meet with key specifiers for almost an hour and share your latest and greatest products with them.

To prepare for these meetings when I was in sales, we’d spend hours getting ready, preparing our presentation, making sure we had the product samples necessary, enough brochures or fabric samples. We’d spend hundreds of dollars on the right food and drink and coordinating the delivery or pick up. We’d make sure the event was as perfect as it could be — this was the moment for us to shine. This was the face-to-face opportunity we’d been waiting on, sometimes for months, and we always wanted to make sure it was a...