Ready for a sob story? Here goes: as a business broker, I have the unenviable task of breaking bad news to my small business owner clients, namely that the company they’ve worked so hard on (and in) isn’t worth as much as they had hoped. Boo hoo for me, right? I agree that it’s gotta be a hell of a…
Book Review – Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado
And now it gets stark. Linda Tirado, author of the explosive, f-bomb laden Hand to Mouth, takes the prize for the most in-your-face book of recent memory. You see, Tirado is poor and she pulls no punches painting the harsh picture of what exactly that means in a place called Bootstrap America. She’s the accidental author, one who was…
Book Review – Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek is closing in on 20 million views of his TED talk entitled “How great leaders inspire action,” the second-highest viewed speech on the not-for-profit’s website. If you’ve seen it, you likely agree that it’s highly effective and indeed it works quite well as summary of his outstanding first book, Start With Why. In the past five years,…
Book Review – The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
When was the last time you updated your sales approach? Personally, it’s been years since I altered the way I run a first meeting with a prospect. Thankfully, The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson (from the member organization known as CEB) was recommended recently by a few different friends and it’s loaded with meaningful ideas for anyone who…
Musings – Reading from a Fire Hose
My measure for how interesting a client’s product or service offering is comes from my wife’s reaction to hearing about it. If after listening to my description Megan asks incredulously, “That’s a thing?” I know we’re talking about something truly niche and unusual. Think back to Mary Tyler Moore’s eponymous 1970’s television show when her character dated a guy who…