As I sit down to write my blog, I often have a pretty clear direction of where I want it to go. I know what key points I want to hit and I know how I want to leave the audience feeling. But as I begin to write, that clear direction dissipates, my mind travels… Read More
Tag: Professional development
Create Achievable Goals to Win in the Long Run
As we begin to reflect on this last year and prepare for a new year, it’s a good time to also evaluate our personal and business goals. Whether we need to eat healthier, exercise more, kick up our career or consider a business that provides work flexibility, December is the ideal time to begin planning… Read More
Giving Thanks Isn’t Only for November
The air is cool and the leaves have finally changed here in Ohio. This means we are in the heart of fall, embracing the sweater weather along with jackets and boots… and all things pumpkin flavored. For a lot of us Mid-West folks, we view this time as just another season. Soon enough it will… Read More
Helping Hand
There’s an age-old saying which I’m certain everyone has heard before at least once in their life: “There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team.”’ It’s a message meant to convey the simple truth that no one person can carry a group by themselves. The purpose is to dissuade any notion of selfishness and instead promote interactive… Read More
Back in the days of building my own distributorship, I worked hard to secure an appointment with a large prospect in town. It took almost two years of diligent calling and following up, but I finally got an initial appointment. I was very excited about the opportunity. I did a great deal of work to… Read More
Response: The 15 Minute Technique
Last month, I was flattered to see that my coworker Sarah had mentioned me in her blog post addressing the “15 Minute Technique,” wherein a person devotes several small blocks of just 15 minutes a day to focus on big-picture projects and initiatives. This had originally come up as part of a conversation over lunch… Read More
Less is More – Minimalism in Practice
In my last blog post I discussed my new found interest with this idea of minimalism. It all sparked from the documentary, “Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things” and I’ve been trying to re-condition myself to live a life where having “less” is more comfortable than having “more.” Since my last blog post about… Read More
I started Proforma in 1978, just one year after graduating from college, in my Cleveland apartment with a $200 investment in a phone answering machine, stationery and a used file cabinet. We grew nicely in those early years. By 1984, we had grown to about $4 million in the Cleveland area. I decided it was… Read More
Robot In A Suit – The Value of Friendly Professionalism
“It’s not what you say, but how you say it” – a message I’ve addressed several times in the past in a handful of different ways. The way that a message is communicated, the very method of delivery itself, carries equal (oftentimes even greater) value than the words themselves. And, let’s be honest: while the… Read More
Schedule in Progress with the 15-Minute Technique
I am what you would call a side-project junky. I work a day job and then I come home to work on a passion project. However, finding time after a day job to dedicate time to work can be difficult when I also manage an ever-changing schedule. I shared my problem with my coworker, Perry… Read More
In my last blog article, I recalled a story from the early days of Proforma, and how a client’s request for 12 spiral rings led to earning a million-dollar customer with 50 percent gross profit. Here’s a story of another million dollar win. Back in those early years building Proforma, my practice was to get up… Read More
The Art of Saying ‘No’
“The customer is always right.” Many read into this popular phrase as an understanding to always say yes to their customers’ requests but they couldn’t be any more wrong. You do not need to do everything they say to make them happy in the end. It’s important to say no to your customers so that… Read More