Being the best is a very scary proposition. I talk about being the best a lot because it’s always been my quest—no matter what discipline I’m entering. But it’s more than that. I think being the best is our natural disposition. Let me explain. I’ve never met a person who said, “I’d like to be […]

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For you young people out there, who are leaders, but no one’s handed you the baton yet, the only way to lead is to do it with how you see the world. And the only way to know how you see the world is for you to tell your perspective of it—you have to tell […]

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The length of your personal story should be equivalent to the length of your speech. Let me explain. Most of the speeches I do are 90 minutes. So if you have a 90-minute speech, you can have a 16- or 17-minute story. But let that story breathe a bit. You have 90 minutes. You don’t […]

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As a speaker, you’re used to speaking in front of people, right? There’s an automatic connection you make to human beings. But what happens when you’re doing a webinar or talking to a camera like I’m doing today and there’s no one to talk to? You’ve got to connect through the lens, or if you’re […]

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When you tell a story you’ve already resolved, there’s no emotion. Actually, that’s not true. You may have resolved your story. You may have some relationship from the past that you’ve resolved through story. That’s still a good story. Why? Before I answer that, let me tell you I’ve had to resolve all the stories […]

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A lot of people get confused by story and messaging. If you notice, I don’t use the word ‘messaging’. I know you hear it a lot, especially in politics. I think messages are for billboards and fortune cookies. I don’t use them. I use personal stuff. I come from a personal place. I look at […]

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One of the themes I come back to a lot on this blog is leadership. I’ve always believed that to truly lead, you’ve got to feel the pulse of the culture you’re in and go the opposite direction. So last year I came across this study that found most Western societies, including ours, are in […]

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Something happened to me recently that turned out to be a huge learning moment. If you follow me on the blog or on social, you know my son Axel has a dream of becoming an NFL quarterback so I surround him with the very best coaches to help him fulfill that dream. He has the […]

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We’re going to start to uncover some gold right now. When you work with me, you learn quickly that you don’t have to think because I’m not a much of a thinker. Everything is from the gut. Everything is instinctual. I just think we need less strategy in this world and more instincts. I’ll say […]

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When my speaking career began, I would jet off to some city, get up on stage, deliver my speech, and leave. That was it. I was just taking one speaking fee after another, and leaving 100 people or 500 people or whatever the number was, feeling disappointed because they had no way of taking another […]

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