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“Kindred spirits will find each other.” And when they do, they will recognize one another through an insider signal. A decoded moment. Some tiny detail that triggers a whole world, acts as shorthand for a shared culture, captures where the people have landed and encapsulates their edges. To me, this moment is sacred. Probably because it doesn’t happen that often. So when it does, it’s all hearts on deck. When I smell out…

“Your identity is your vector.” Thoreau famously said the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. But let’s not forget the other problem of leading a life of crowded misidentification. Charging through the world at such a volume and velocity that we never take the time to slow down and get in touch with the deeper currents of ourselves. That’s what brings our species down. People not knowing who they are. It…

“The shortest distance to the heart is through the body.” If there’s something you want to feel, if there’s an emotional experience you want to work through, you can actually back into it by changing your sheer physicality. I’m reminded of the first time I tried yoga. I was terrified. Especially when we came to camel pose, the deepest backbend of the series. That’s the posture that fully exposes your throat,…

“Keep all your passions in play.” I made a name for myself writing books. Ask most of the people who know me, and that’s what they know me for. But music was always my first love. My original healer. My earliest container for mystery and meaning. Since the age of twelve, writing songs was how I metabolized my life. It was the closest thing to god I ever had….

“There is creation inside them, but they won’t set it free.” My guitar strings never used to break. I would play for hours at a time, night after night, month after month, coating the bronze with layers of dirt and blood and dust and sweat, and still, the strings rarely ever snapped. And then last year, I started playing standing up. Mainly because I saw the musical Once, I wanted…

“Creating an experience that consumers would go out of their way to experience again.” I like people who see people. In their presence, it’s like every part of your self is mirrored. Honestly and beautifully. They hold a clear picture of everything you are, honor and support whatever you’re becoming and engage the whole person. Wow. It’s too bad we can’t bottle, sell and teach that art form. The…

“Let the flood come and clean up the debris as it smacks you in the head.” Sandy left us untouched. Our neighborhood had zero damage. In fact, we almost felt guilty nothing happened to us. To the point where we furiously donated canned goods, cleaned up the park and offered whatever help we could. Poor city. What a tragedy. Looking back, though, something did happen. Right before the storm, we…

“Passion is not something you own, it’s something you pass forward.” As retail goes, so goes the world. The everyday interactions we have with cashiers, waitresses, taxi drivers, front desk attendants, customer service reps and sales associates are perfect microcosms of our society, both good and bad. One day we walk into a store whose employees never let us forget how it feels to be good people. They act as if it’s…

Today, my mentor’s new book comes out. It’s called Jeffrey Gitomer’s 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling. And if you buy it on Amazon today, you’ll get a ton of free stuff from Jeffrey and forty other top business leaders, motivators, authors, and educators––including me!  Over the past twenty years, Jeffrey has established himself as a global authority on sales and customer loyalty, and one of the most widely read…

“So many questions behind your eyes.” My nametag is my filter. It’s what’s I use to make sense of the people I meet. Yesterday I met a prospective client at their office. After we all exchanged intros and shook hands, the woman to my left asked about my nametag. I told her I always wore it. She smiled and asked, “Really? What’s behind that?” As usual, I offered up the ten second…