We checked in to our room at a sunny resort in Dominican Republic, thanked our bellman with words and cash, and I kicked off my shoes.  Filled with excitement for the coming week with plans of relaxation, spending time with our friends, and exploring the area, we began to unpack. 

Since I used my computer during travel, it was low on battery, so I pulled it out of the bag and bent down to plug it into the outlet under the desk.  After standing, I attached the cord to the power outlet on the laptop and received a little zap.  “Got my finger in between the two metal pieces,” is what I thought.

I proceeded to move the laptop to the corner of the desk so it would be out of the way, and when I touched the metal laptop case, I received my second shock.  A vibration shot up my arm.  This time, I let out a small shriek as I jumped back.

That got my husband’s attention.  He asked me what I was doing, so I explained the zaps I was...

Begin With Making Them Feel Good

While in a parking lot, walking from my car to the grocery store, I was approached by an elderly woman.  She was standing at her open trunk with her grocery cart parked right behind her car.

“You look strong.”  She said to me.  “Could you help me put this watermelon in my car?”

I was happy to oblige.  After getting her groceries nestled in her trunk, I bid her farewell and headed into the store.  I couldn’t help but think of her approach as I shopped.

Start with a compliment

Before I ran into her, I can’t remember a time when someone’s very first words to me included a compliment.  Even before I knew what was happening, I felt good, was smiling, and was happy to help before she even asked.  What a brilliant approach, I thought.  Make someone feel good right away.

How will you make people in your life feel good today?  This week?  This month?  There are...

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Make everything as FUN as possible.

For customers, the more they enjoy their time with you, the more likely they are to be in a purchasing mood. Use jokes, even if they are corny. Give them high fives, especially when they get an answer right or do or say something cool. Get to know them! Take an interest in their lives and really listen to them. Express enthusiasm for your product and your work. Enthusiasm is infectious and people love to be excited and see people who are excited.

Always be learning.

Even the very top performing people are continually looking for ways to improve their results. You’ll never get to a place where you can’t improve. At the end of every appointment, ask yourself, “What could I have done better?” or “What did I learn from that one?”. Ask others those same questions.

Cross train with other reps; you’ll always learn at least one helpful thing. Go to meetings and events,...

To have a successful marketing campaign, it helps to plan it out as it coincides with your goals, events, and promotions for the correlating time period.  Click the link below to download a document in which you can list out those parts of your calendar and decide what marketing pieces you'd like to add to your plan. 

Get Document Here

Two big factors determine how much a business will grow. Don’t get me wrong, there are a hundred other factors to growing business and revenues, but these two lead the way in any business and any industry.

The two factors are:

• The leader’s personal growth and knowledge level

• The employees’ personal growth and knowledge levels

Your mind may already be coming up with arguments.

What about market share? Effective marketing? Supply and demand?

Margin? Surely some things are more important than personal growth?

Let’s look at an example.

Do you remember Blockbuster video? In 2004, they were the giants in their industry. They had 9000 stores, 60,000 employees, and millions of customers. Then the industry started to change, bringing Netflix and Redbox into the market. The founder of Netflix met with the CEO of Blockbuster and offered an affiliation that would serve both companies, but Blockbuster took their ball and went home.

 
Even though the CEO of...