Owning Your Expertise
This month, I was reminded how important it is to own my expertise in generating leads. For the past three months, we have been running a...
Too Close to See It
Five or six years ago, I really started down this road of authenticity and understanding what are my unique gifts. One of the exercises I...
A Complete Lack of “Cool”
Growing up, I had a strong desire to be “cool” as do most kids. In school, I am not even sure I could define it, but it was clear who had...
Of course I can help...
When a prospect agreed to start working with me a couple of years ago, I was pretty excited. They were really nice people and would be my...
Word as Honor
In middle school, I was friends with a boy whose parents were divorced and he lived with just his mom, who worked evenings. He invited me...
What My Dog Taught Me About Failure
Our younger dog, Sasha, is a 70-lb. German Shepherd. We got her when she was 3 months old, and she has always wanted to please. She is...
Did I Really Know Him?
When I was in college, my maternal grandfather passed away. While he was not great with kids, I did spend quite a bit of time with him....
When the End is Just the Beginning
In 2004, I was decided to close down my web design business. It had been a failure, and at the time, it really felt like the end. The end...
Out of My Mind
Most evenings, my family spends time reading together. We started the practice nearly 10 years ago, and it is an important collective...
What was the point?
My boys are involved in quite a few activities, and I am the principal driver since my schedule is more flexible than my wife’s. That...
Practically Brand-Spanking New
Growing up, everyone in my neighborhood had regular jobs. My parents were teachers. The neighbors were a steel worker, a postal carrier,...
The Shame of Pursuing Excellence
In second grade, I can remember the race to get through all of the SRAs. These were reading comprehension texts about all kinds of...
Jumping In with No Clear Plan
To put it mildly, my wife is obsessed with education. While it is not surprising given that she chose to get her Ph.D., it still was a...
That is Going to Leave a Mark
Growing up, we had a lot of animals in our house. At one point, we had one cat, two dogs, two gerbils, and five birds. The most mellow...
Accepting the Inevitable
By the time I was in 4th grade, I was a head taller than most of my classmates. So, it was inevitable that I would be asked to play...
Missing My Projections
It was May of 2003, and I was projecting a $9500 month for my web design business -- a good month at the time. As the end of the month...
Which Family Values are Really Yours?
Growing up in the Coleman household, we were expected to pitch in. When we got up from dinner, everyone helped clean up until everything...
What are the Risks of Playing It Safe?
In seventh grade, we had a semi-formal winter dance at New Brighton Middle School. And while you could theoretically go without a date,...