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I give props to anyone who canvasses. That’s a tough racket! And I’d say it’s as difficult – if not more so – than door to door sales. Not to mention it takes some understanding of approachability to do it. Or so I thought… Today I was filling up the tank (for no less than $2.77 a gallon, mind you), when I saw a guy standing by the door…

Just got back from The Motor City. Cool town. Never been to Detroit before. Home of the RedWings (grrr…they stole Brett Hull from the Blues) and birthplace of Motown. I stayed at the Inn on Ferry Street (pictured). Very historic. Each property was a real-life mansion! And much like the entire city of Detroit, the architecture was amazing. I checked out yesterday morning before speaking to the students and…

Man I miss college. So much fun, so little responsibility. And sitting here in Detroit as I prepare for my speech at the Senior Brunch today, I think back to all the great speakers I heard when I was a student. Freshman year it was the CEO of Wrigley. As the owner of the Chicago Cubs, it was fascinating to hear him speak during the McGuire/Sosa homerun battle. I’ll…

Great news! I finally uploaded 140+ pics of speeches, travels and friends on Flickr. And now I see what all the rage is about. Flickr is super easy to use, it’s fun and it’s free. And in terms of the big picture…(ok, bad pun)…Flickr is a perfect tool to help businesspeople become more approachable… 1) It enables entrepreneurs to share pics with their customers. In my case, audience members…

Last week I spoke to a group of sales managers from UniGroup, Inc. Part of our session dealt with physical availability, namely the common management cliche, “open door policy.” I’ve read about this a thousand times. I’ve even had managers who assured me that there was, in fact, an open door policy. So here’s my question: why is it always up to the employee to take the first step?…

Baseball is a way of life in St. Louis. We love our Redbirds! And for the past few years, Cardinal fans have eagerly anticipated the completion of The New Busch Stadium. Thanks to my friend and fellow author/speaker Andy Masters, I had the chance to watch the game from the bleachers. The place was amazing, the Cards looked great on the field and the nachos were delicious. I even…

It’s been almost one month since I started HELLO, my name is MySpace. As you probably read from my initial post, I was a bit skeptical. Wasn’t sure if it would be a valuable business tool or a theif of my time. However, now that I’ve been actively MySpace-ing for 30 days, I thought I’d share several interesting observations, statistics and experiences about the 8th most popular website in…

SUFFIELD, Ohio (AP) – Goodyear says it needs some help filling in the world’s largest nametag. The company is launching a nationwide contest to name its newest blimp. A website will be ready to receive entries starting TODAY at noon. Ten finalists will be announced next month. And the name of the winner — to be picked in June — will be posted on a giant 18-foot-by-12-foot sign on…

During a recent speech at a Prudential conference in Minneapolis, we spent some time talking about the value (and practice) of smiling. And I was thinking to myself, Am I beating a dead horse? Is the topic of smiling completely overdone? No way. This particular picture (thanks Ryan, those black & whites look great!), captured a moment when I introduced myself to someone in the audience. I shook his…

FastPitch is a online networking company that helps you develop a clear, concise summary about your business which can be easily understood by thousands of professionals eager to do business with you. Often called the ‘Business Resume,” the Fast Pitch! Profile summarizes important aspects of your business allowing you to “cut to the chase” and tell people exactly what you have to offer.(Thanks for the link Phil.) It’s pretty…