Meet Sarah, a young entrepreneur who started a new business selling custom-made jewelry online. She had a great product and an impressive website, but she struggled to get any sales in the first few weeks of launching. Instead of giving up, Sarah decided to follow up with potential customers who had visited her website but had not made a purchase. She sent them personalized emails offering discounts and special deals on her products. She also asked for feedback on why they did not buy and how she could improve her offerings. Through this follow-up strategy, Sarah was able to convert many of th ..read more

George Santayana said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” Likewise, those who don’t learn from history can’t benefit from its greatest lessons. Leadership theory has always been an attempt to understand what make a leader effective and distill and share those lessons with others. Leadership theory has evolved and continues to evolve over time. The earliest leadership theories focused on traits and characteristics of leaders, such as intelligence, physical strength, and charisma. Later theories emphasized the behavior of leaders, including the contrast of task-oriented an ..read more

You need to know about Open AI and chatGBT if you don’t already. Roger Montti from Search Engine Journal says chatGBT  it may be the most important tool since modern search engines. What are they and what do they do? OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the for-profit OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company is focused on developing and promoting friendly AI in a way that benefits everyone. One of their most notable product is GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) a language model trained on a massive amount of data and ..read more

Mahatma Gandhi led India’s non-violent independence movement against British rule in the early 20th century. Gandhi was known for his unwavering focus on his ultimate goal of achieving independence for India, and he was able to inspire millions of people to join him in his cause. Despite facing tremendous challenges and obstacles, Gandhi never wavered in his commitment to non-violent resistance. He remained focused on his goal of independence and was able to rally others to join him in his cause. His focus was so strong that it ultimately helped to bring about one of the most significant poli ..read more

Thanks to the popular clothing line, you’ve probably seen this shirt admonishing anyone who sees it to be a good person. (What exactly it means to be a good person takes much more than a sentence to explain or understand, but It is a nice sentiment.) I’m not sure how many bad people are converted when they see the shirt but it is at least a good reminder. There are many ways to be a good person, but how might that apply in the world of business and work? “He is a good person” or “She is a good person.” When I say that about someone I’m doing business with, that is high praise so I’ll explain w ..read more

My first day of elementary school was memorable, but not for the reasons you might think. I didn’t attend Kindergarten. It wasn’t an option in the rural part of Ohio where we lived. The bus picked me up and I had all the anxiety a six year old might have going to school for the first time. My consolation was my best friend and next door neighbor Jimmy who was riding the bus with me. When we arrived at Colebrook Elementary, his older brother Jeff (a third grader) was kind enough to escort us to our classroom. I took a seat and waited while the teacher passed out books and then instructed us to ..read more

A local non profit runs drop off centers for donations. I’ve used two different locations for many years. Today I dropped off a garbage bag of clothes and a box of household items. In the past, the attendant had specific bins he or she wanted different items placed. Today there were three identical cardboard containers, each relatively full. The attendant was a man lethargically taping a box. He didn’t look up or acknowledge me. I placed the bag and the box on the ground in front of the the bins not knowing which to choose and politely asked for a receipt. He was difficult to understand but ..read more

Nobody likes to lose. When someone loses and reacts badly, we call them a sore loser. Yet others use loss to fuel future victory. How do they do that and become smart losers? To be a loser requires that someone else was a loser. When you are that loser, here are some ideas to make you a smart loser:       1. Don’t get mad at the winner. I used to react that way and it never helped. Now I got mad at myself for not doing enough preparation and work to win.       2. Forget about making excuses. Look for an explanation so you understand what happened.  Explanatio ..read more

Ashley is a young woman with an impressive past of overcoming difficulties and circumstances. She’s been speaking on behalf of a well know youth organization and wants to transition to becoming a speaker in her own right. She asked me how to make that shift. There are a number of factors in becoming a successful speaker. Whether you speak as part of your job, part or full-time professionally or simply as a platform to share your ideas, it is essential to identify your most important messages. I asked Ashley to reflect on the ten most important lessons she’s learned so far that would help her f ..read more

Here’s an important reminder. Feel free to share this graphic with your team.   The post Leadership Lessons appeared first on Mark Sanborn Keynote Leadership Speaker ..read more