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Being a 26 year old professional speaker sucks. Actually, not really. I love my job. You couldn’t pay me NOT to do it. But picture this: you’re about to walk on stage to address hundreds – sometimes thousands – of seasoned business professionals who are twice your age, have three times your knowledge and four times your experience. Every one of them watches you with skeptical eyes and crossed…

A is for ATTITUDE B is for BREAK PATTERNS C is for CONSISTENCY D is for DISCIPLINE E is for EVOLUTION F is for FRIENDLINESS G is for GOOD WITH NAMES H is for HAPPINESS I is for IDEAS J is for JOY 1. You HAVE to write all of your ideas down on paper. Get a notebook, a journal, a jotter, a dry erase, whatever. Write it on…

You can’t deny it: word of mouth works. And the most fascinating about WOM are the little stories, encounters and contexts in which it is spread. Me, I monitor my company’s word of mouth in a WOM journal. (I suggest you do the same with your company.) Anyway, the WOM Gods have been good to me this year, so here are 11 recent encounters that have boosted sales, increased…

Last week I spoke to the Greater St. Louis Dental Society. My session was filled with primarily hygienists, receptionists and chair-side assistants. We explored something I call The OING Model. OING represents four types of encounters between employees and patients, each of which is an opportunity to inject (no pun intended) a little more of your personality into each encounter. About 160 people filled out index cards with potential…

Before today’s post gets under way, I just wanted to give a quick shout to all of the haters who posted their uplifting comments (anonymously, of course) on Friday’s post. I’ve been sick lately, so that really cheered me up! Thanks guys! Anyhoo… The first job I had out of college was a bartender. It wasn’t exactly my number one career choice, but I needed money (fast!) to pay…

My first job out of college was at a discount furniture warehouse. I hated it. Every day was a perfect combination of boredom, back pain and complaints from frustrated customers. The store was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Most of my coworkers with were twice my age and my boss was a grumpy old jerk. Fortunately, the pay sucked and there were no benefits. Nevertheless,…

I gave a speech to the DC chapter of ISES last night at a club called Love. Coolest place I’ve ever seen in my life. The bartender, Preston, told me that on Friday of this week, Ludacris will be performing on the same stage I took last night. Wow! I can see it now: halfway through his show, Ludacris will say, “Yo, I just wanna thank Club Love for…

I was recently interviewed by a very cool new website, Youth Wealth Weekly. Founder Josiah Mackenzie offers young entrepreneurs free newsletters filled with fascinating stories, helpful tips, private interviews, inspirational quotes, book reviews, and more. You can read my interview here, or just scroll down. I pasted the text for ya: How did you make the transition from a “dude who wears a name tag” to a successful speaking…

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the MadeBig.com Conference. As you can see, “big” isn’t just the name of the company, it’s a way of life for these guys! The event was huge. 2000 people from around the US met in Salt Lake City at the Grand America, pretty much the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at in my life. I even had a bag…

A is for ATTITUDE B is for BREAK PATTERNS C is for CONSISTENCY D is for DISCIPLINE E is for EVOLUTION F is for FRIENDLINESS G is for GOOD WITH NAMES H is for HAPPINESS I is for IDEAS (coming next week) J is for JOY For the past few months I’ve been writing essays on how wearing a nametag 24-7 for the past 2,139 days to make people…