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Drinking From the Fire Hose

by Steve Holt March 31, 2014
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When I was a kid we would sometimes see the fire department come by and test the fire hydrants in our neighborhood.  They would turn on the hydrant for a little while to make sure that the water flowed like it was supposed to, and of course the neighborhood kids got the chance to play […]

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The Art of the Conversation

by Steve Holt February 11, 2014
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I am thoroughly convinced that most people don’t know how to converse with others.  And that’s a shame because I am also convinced that the most successful people in the world are the ones who understand the art of the conversation. I don’t suppose I can place blame too much.  Advances in technology that make […]

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New Beginnings

by Steve Holt December 6, 2013
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Sometimes in life you come to the point where you need to start over.  Sometimes that means taking a step backwards and sometimes it means taking a step forwards.  At 45 years old, in the middle of my effective working life expectancy, I am taking a step forward and making a turn in my career […]

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My Dog Eats Underwear

by Steve Holt October 23, 2013
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My dog eats lots of stuff. Everything in fact. If it is left within his reach, he will eat it. Outside he will eat the branches and pine cones from the trees. He eats the doggy pillows we give him to lay on. Anything that drops on the kitchen floor is gone too, if he […]

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Behind the Velvet Rope

by Steve Holt October 13, 2013
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You’ve seen those scenes in the movies where the characters are trying to get into the club, and the menacing looking bouncer is standing behind the velvet rope blocking their way, right?  Life is more interesting behind the velvet rope.  All the cool people are behind the velvet rope.  Everybody wants behind the velvet rope. […]

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Everyone Is In Sales

by Steve Holt October 4, 2013
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“At least I am not in sales. I could never succeed in sales.”  I heard this the other day from a friend of mine who was talking about the types of jobs that he was convinced he could never have.  I told him that he was already in sales and just didn’t know it.  He […]

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Your Brand Is Dying: Here’s How To Save It

by Steve Holt September 25, 2013
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I remember not too long ago when Facebook rolled out new ‘like’ pages that looked like and acted like personal profile pages. I remember the cries of ‘What is Facebook doing?? This is disastrous. Facebook is trying to kill businesses in Facebook.’ What we know now is that Facebook was trying to set businesses up […]

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10 Things That Lousy Leaders Do – Part 2 of 2

by Steve Holt September 18, 2013
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Last week I shared part 1 with you about 5 things that lousy leaders do.  This week I’ll share with you the remaining 5 things that I think are the hallmarks of bad leadership.  This ain’t pretty. 6.  Feeling threatened by smart employees - I don’t care how smart you are, how talented you are, or […]

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10 Things That Lousy Leaders Do – Part 1 of 2

by Steve Holt September 11, 2013
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We’ve all been there.  You work for a person who doesn’t understand what leadership is.  Worse yet, you work for a person who doesn’t understand what leadership is but thinks they do.  Leadership is hard, no 2 ways about it.  Some people are born leaders but I believe that most people need to hone their […]

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5 Tips On How To Be A Better Speaker

by Steve Holt September 3, 2013
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Over the past year I have helped some friends of mine get started in the speaking business. Speaking in front of others can be a terrifying experience for most people, but for others it can be a thrilling experience. In fact, for me, it’s one of the things that I love doing the most. So […]

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She’s Gone

by Steve Holt August 21, 2013
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Ever since she was a little girl she wanted to go. Then one day last year she said she was ready. It was time to go. Two days after turning 17 years old, our daughter Carlie boarded a plane bound for Italy, to be a Rotary Youth Exchange Student for a year, living in a […]

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Make More Money by Having Fun

by Steve Holt August 10, 2013
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She said “I tried what you said about having fun.  So I started to post fun questions and silly pictures, and it worked.  Suddenly people started talking to me and paying attention to what I was saying.  I am engaging with my customers like I never have before!” It’s comments like this from my customers […]

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5 Ways To Promote Others

by Steve Holt July 21, 2013
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One of the things I am fond of telling my audiences during my keynotes is that when it comes to social media you need to follow the ’10-to-1′ rule.  That means for every 10 times that you talk about someone else, you get to talk about yourself once.  But that doesn’t just work in the […]

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Google Hangouts Part 1: How To Use Google Hangouts

by Steve Holt July 6, 2013
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I have been using Google Hangouts for more and more things lately, and encouraging my customers to do the same.  So I want to share with you a 2-part series of posts about Google Hangouts.  In this post I’ll share with you how to use Google Hangouts.  And in part 2 that I will post […]

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Twitter: The Greatest Business Development Tool Ever Created

by Steve Holt June 22, 2013
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I kept hearing about it and quite frankly, was a little annoyed by all the hype.  You know what I mean, like when you hear that same song over and over again on the radio? Eventually you get fed up with it and start to just make fun of it. That’s what happened with me […]

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The 7 Deadly Sins of Air Travel

by Steve Holt June 7, 2013
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I have done a fair bit of traveling lately and I have at least a half dozen more trips to come before the year is out. So being the informative and ‘sharing’ kind of guy that I am, I thought I would take a few moments to share with you the bone-headed things that I […]

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Big Footprint, Small Footprint

by Steve Holt May 20, 2013
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For the past 5 years we have recycled at my house.  I bought some of those big plastic tubs at Walmart and we began to collect the standard stuff… cardboard, glass, cans, plastic, and paper.  Honestly, I didn’t do this out of an overwhelming concern for the environment.  I mean, I don’t like wasting anything […]

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The Rear View Mirror Is Smaller… For A Reason

by Steve Holt April 8, 2013
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When my wife and I bought our first minivan about 5 years ago we discovered an interesting feature. I won’t talk about how hurt our feelings were that we had to buy a minivan in the first place… that’s another post for another day. But I will tell you that it was a welcome feature […]

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It’s Time To Give Back

by Steve Holt March 23, 2013
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I have been humbled.  There have been numerous times in the past several weeks that I have been taken down a notch when presented with the good works that others are doing.  My father calls it ‘gettin too big for your britches’.  I call it laziness and arrogance.  Just when I think I am doing […]

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How Not To Screw Up At Work

by Steve Holt March 12, 2013
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Looking back over the jobs that I have had ever since I started working, I can see some valuable lessons learned. I learned some things from some very wise people, and I learned alot of things the hard way, because I was hard-headed. So I was asked the other day by some college students what […]

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